Photo Gallery

Yay I found some english people! Here are some photos, enjoy!



The Perito Moreno Glaciar! amazing huh?



Our tent! note Sally hiding behind the tree



I like this picture because it reminded us of the Lion King!



Spot the killer whale!



One of my favourite travelling pics!

Glaciers, camping and Killer Whales........

Well before I get started I apologise in advance as I can´t post any photos at the moment. My camera battery died and I´m on the hunt for an adaptor to borrow or buy, so hopefully I´ll be able to show you the amazing things I´ve seen really soon! You´ll just have to make do with reading about them.

Right well Sally and I have been covering a lot of distance these past two weeks. We´ve had a 30 hour+ bus journey down south in Argentina to El Calafate, which is home to the famous Perito Moreno Glacier. I´ve been looking forward to this for months and it didn´t disappoint. I would have posted a photo here (they´re incredible) but instead I´ll just say it looks like a massive pale bluey white meringue floating on a lake!! Sally went a bit crazy and used practically a whole roll of film, so there will be an abundance of pictures when she gets home!

We got a bit fed up with the touristyness of El Calafate (and the bad hostel with broken beds, bed bugs, mice and nails sticking out of the wooden bunks) so decided to stay a few nights in El Chalten - a small village in the middle of a national park. It was really beautiful, there were mountains and lakes all around. To make a change from the hostel we hired a tent and camped for two nights, which was lots of fun!! It also meant that in between our hike, numerous hot chocolates and good meals out we became adept at making use of all the facilities in public places - I was determined to avoid the latrine at all costs and Sally often carried her toothbrush around with her!

After all that excitement we got another long bus ride a few days ago to Puerto Madryn, which is warmer, busier and has the first beach we´ve seen since arriving in South America. Yesterday I saw (you won´t believe it)........

A KILLER WHALE! (I think it would have had more impact with the photo)

and lots of penguins, sea lions, sea elephants and an armadillo as we rented a car with some other travellers and drove to Peninsula Valdes which has amazing sea animal colonies. We were really lucky to see the Orca in the ocean, although apparently they often come right onto the beach to feed on unsuspecting sea lions!!

Yep so it´s been a busy time, and I´ve just realised that we´ve been gone a month already. Time´s whipping by. Next stop is back to Buenos Aires as we´re going to catch a ferry over to Uruguay. It´s also Semana Santa (easter week) which is a big deal over here we´ve heard, so hopefully we´ll see lots of processions and parades.
More updates soon! Hope my feeble descriptions gave you some sort of idea of what we´ve seen. X

Chilly in Chile

A week ago Sally and I crossed the frontier into Pucon, and are now in Valdivia, Chile! We have noticed many differences mostly in the size of people (Chileans are tiny - I am one of the tallest females here!) and that Chilean people are friendlier and definitely easier to understand.

Before I get into my Chile stories however, I have got to mention that in our last day in Argentina we went rafting (yes believe it I went white water rafting!!) Have not got any pictures yet, but let me just say I was terrified until the raft tipped and we all fell in and I realised two things - 1. there was no way I could drown in a life jacket and 2. I can wear my contact lenses in water and nothing happens!! (sophie its amazing actually being able to see in a river!)
Sally on the other hand got less fond of it as we went along as she was sort of trapped underneath the raft when it flipped. But apart from being mildly traumatised shes fine.

Right so onto Chile. Well heres a picture of the town (Pucon) that we stayed in.



Note the faint volcano in the background (that snowy mountain is actually one of the most active volcanoes in South America.)

Ok. And now understand that yesterday Sally and I climbed that volcano armed with ice picks, helmets and clamp ons that stick into the ice!



That is us at the top! It was honestly the most exhausting thing I have ever done in my life and I really didnt think that I was going to make it. It was incredibly steep and took about 4 hours to climb. Also we seemed to be in a very fit group and so were always the slowest ones - it was just me and Sally lagging behind with one of the guides!! Am proud of myself though!

Oh and here (by popular demand) is a photo of me with the worst hair I have ever had in my life - just after we had been rafting. (You will have to turn your heads as I dont know how to rotate the pic on these foreigh computers and zoom in but believe me I look rough.) So hope that makes you all smile.



Thanks for all the comments, its so nice hearing from you!!

Some photos!

Sorry for the wait here are my first snaps!

Here we are driving the Cama bus!


The many rows of graves in Recoleta cemetery:


The many cats wandering the cemetery :(



Me trying to sleep on the Cama bus (note the almost horizontal position of my chair!)


The view of Bariloche from what turned out to be our 5 hour hike!


And Amy a la Motorcycle Diaries (without the bike)


Enjoy! Oh and mum I am using the camera - but what setting do I put it on for action shots??

Tropical thunderstorms to Cama coaches....

Well here is my first official entry! I´m sorry everyone but pictures will have to wait until next time because I left the lead in my room!

Anyways Sally and I arrived in Bariloche this morning on a 20 hour bus ride, after being in Buenos Aires since Sunday evening. It´s really nice to be in a new place, especially as this Argentinian town is like a mini-Switzerland - it´s got amazing chocolate,big lakes and mountains!! Not sure how long we´ll be here for but definitely 5 days, we´re going to do some trekking and Sally wants to do an adventurous activity! I´m yet to be persuaded into horse riding, cycling or kayaking!! Rafting is my favourite option at the moment.

Buenos Aires was cool - but I guess very much like any big city. We went to Recoleta where we saw Evita´s (aka Madonna in the ´Don´t Cry for me Argentina´ film) grave, which is a really touristy thing to do but we found slightly weird. The graveyard was bizarre with all these elaborate graves of wealthy families and it felt quite morbid taking pictures! (Saying that I took some, so will post up soon.)

We also saw a tango show in the basement of a restaurant, which was amazing. I´m really tempted to learn tango as there was lots of intricate leg twizzling, which I loved!

My favourite story about BA happened yesterday though, just before Sally and I were about to leave the hostel to catch our bus here. We thought it would be a good idea to pop to the supermarket two blocks away to buy some food for the journey before we checked out. So we get the food and then as we walked towards the entrance we noticed a tropical thunderstorm had suddenly started!! All of the local people were huddled under shelters and inside shops, but we decided we´d better just run for it because we were in a hurry. (well actually I thought we should) Hmmm this turned out to be a crazy idea because as soon as we stepped out we were completely soaked though!! The rain was pelting down in thick heavy drops (nothing like English drizzle) and as we were running people were whistling and cheering. It was humiliating. And then as we were wading through the collection of water by a kerb my flip flop got carried away!!! Luckily we could laugh about it!

That turned out to be just the beginning of the adventure as the local transport system was in chaos (the tube we´d carefully planned to get to the bus station was no longer running), so we tried a cab - they were all full as everyone in BA got there first, and eventually we looked for a bus to take us there. The last option was so confusing, as we were just wandering around asking people at bus stops!! But the people were all so helpful and at one point the man we asked didn´t know and so he yelled out to everyone waiting!!! All of the people at the bus stop were trying to direct and help us. By some miracle Sally eventually spotted the right bus and we jumped on!!!
Don´t think it was plain sailing from there though - when we got to the bus station after waiting an hour we discovered that we´d been given the wrong information and we´d missed our bus! But once again a really nice man who worked for the bus company took pity on us and sorted us out a new bus ride, where we were upgraded for no extra charge!!!! Then began the most luxurious coach journey I´ve ever had in my life - Cama bus is definitely the way to travel! English coaches do not compare. We had a chair that became a bed, two meals, a DVD player right infront of us and the whole downstairs to ourselves!! The coach drivers also liked us and so let us sit in the drivers seat (as you´ll see next time!)

Well thats enough to keep you going for a little while - I´m fine, still adjusting to living out of a backpack, having Monica-in-Barbados-style frizzy hair (with no straighteners!) and having to concentrate so hard to understand people - Argentinians have v different pronounciation! I love you all and really like reading your comments!