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Hello, everyone!
So last time when i finished writing i was unsure of where i would end up next, well the answer was i went to Puerto Natales crossing back over the border to Chile. This meant busing back down south further than i had flown up from El Calafate and is probably the first time i have made a mistake about the way i was traveling but over the course of what has now been 5 months i guess one mistake isn't too bad, anyway the flight was ok and over really quickly again and actually because everyone was already at the airport the flight left 45 minutes before its supposed time which was good for me, the airport was timy and rather boring and my transfer had got me there 2 hours before the flight so i was glad to be leaving early. I then got the first of 2 buses into rio gallelgos still in argentina and from there a second bus into Puerto Natales, the first bus was nice enough but the second was so cold and from that point on i was freezing for about 4 days, for some reason i found that they chose not to put heaters in the bedrooms in Chile crazy people! So getting to Puerto Natales just before sunset i decided to go for a cheap hostel i was only gonna be there for a maximum of 2 nights and though this was a good idea, at first it was great, i got there and it was run by this tiny old woman who only spoke spanish and we tried having a conversation as she offered me coffe and some bread with jam, and i sat in her kitchen next to the oven trying to get warm, then i thoguht i would have a shower, a while what with all the travelling since i had one and i hoped the hot water would warm me up, the woman explained how to get the hot water and i understood everything she was saying, but there wasnt any instead its the coldest water i have ever experience how water was actually flowing through the pipes and they weren't frozen i will never know, i put my head under and the freezing water gave me an instant headache, the bathroom wasnt heated and all the shower that i hoped would warm me up served in doing was making me even more cold, thats the last shower i had for 3 days. Anyway that evening i sorted out a trip to torres del paine, a big national park in the bottom of Chile and famous for its trekking although it was the wrong time of year to trek i still wanted to visit the panoramic points so went in a bus the following day.
The trip was good but i imagine the trek would have been so much more rewarding and by the end of the day i actually was a little dissapointed by the trip what had been promised to be both in english and spainsh was only in spanish whoch was almost impossible for me to understand it was full of technical words and spoken and a lightening spped but the views of the park were amazing, the 2 granite mountainous spires that the park is famous for were particularly impressive. That night was a really cold night snowing from very early in the evening then the temperature dropped even further and i went to bed with 6 blankets all my clothes on and was still cold, i was greatful to be leaving the next day, i couldnt take that cold any longer.
The next day i took the really short journey down to Punta Arenas only 4 hours this was a nice little city but the wind along its man street made the teperature here seem far worse than it actually was. The following morning i spent looking at the sights mainly a few grand houses around the main square and a large cemetery, it was an interesting place but only really required half a day, so i arranged my trip onto Usuhaia back in agentina for the next day, the southernmost city in the world and that afternoon watched the football Chile were playing in a big square in the city centre, there were about 5000 Chilean fans there and the atmosphere was great, all the streets surrounding the square were closed and although Chile lost the game they still went through to the next round so they were all in a good mood, when they scored they set off a firework in the middle of the square which i thought was a little concerning though.
Getting to Usuhaia was easy enough it envolved a ferry over a small channel but it wasnt a problem and then i spent the sunday watching the football both England and Argentina. I then spent the next few days around Usuhaia but it probably in retrospect is the wrong time of year to go there the paths are really icy and slipperay and a lot of the things i tought i would be able to do i couldnt really, so this was unfortunate i did manage to go to the Prison that is there tho and this was really good, it had a lot of stories about all the ex-inmates that were there how the prison was created and how people tried and failed to escape from it, Usuhaia is like this little island right seperated by a timy channel of ice cold water and they put some of the most dangerous criminals there, one part was a museum and then the other part was left exactly as it was in the times when the prison was used it was really interesting to see the carvings in the walls and how cold life would have been.
Anyway i am now in Puerto Madryn my final stop before Buenos Aires and then home, and i really like this place its by the coast and a lot warmer although nowhere near hot enough to spend time on the beach yet. And its famous for its whales. The first afternnon i got here i walked along the coastal wall, its a really nice walk and i went to the Ecocenter it has info on all the Whales and other sealife you can see here and was good to get an idea of what to expect.
The next day i rented a bicycle and cycled what supposdly is 16 km to the best beach to see the whales having cycled for close to half an hour i saw a sigh that said i was still 13km away the ride is more like 20km there and another 20km back but this was ok as it was all relatively flat and the second half of the ride was actually along the coast so very nice. The whales are amazing the ones i saw were southern right whales and i got to the beach for high tide and the whales were only about 10 or 15 mteres away it was so good i spent about an hour watching the whales go up and down the beach and then just as i was going to leave and cycle back the whales started playing together splasing one another woth there fins, it was really good, much better than i actually expected it to be, the last couple of days i have just walked around the city and watched those bloody Germans knock the Argenines out as well, the city was like a ghost town after that with the only people sat on a few benches looking utterly dissapointed much as imagine England appeared the previous weekend.
So tomorrow i am going to a small welsh village and then on thuesday i am going to watch some seals and sea lions and then on wednesday i think i will be making my way to Buenos Aires for the final stop.
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