Argentina Part 2: Ushaia and Puerto Madryn

18 MONTHS ON THE FUCKING ROAD BABY. NOT BAD GOING.



The bus to Ushaia was really long. Really long and we had to wait 3 hours at the border to cross. In the Chilean bus we had been there for 20 minutes. I think they have the advantage at that border crossing as I was completing yet another one of my circular routes. We played a lot of Hackey Sack, at which I am very shit I have to say. Its so different from actual football that I have no idea how it really functions. There was a dude from New Orleans who was fired up for the superbowl. It must suck for him being down here, as he would miss their only superbowl. His father had 8 tickets on the halfway line in Miami as well. There was an Italian tourist as well. Quite mad. Only he was not Italian. Apparently he is from Buenos Aires. Wow a lot of 'Portenos' really sound like they are Italian tourists on holiday. They really do just speak a halfway house of a language. The scenery in the north of Tierro del Fuego is boring and flat, the same as in Patagonia north. Quite qhy anyone wants to travel through that repetitive nothingness is beyond me. Maybe I am too visual. We took a ferry trip that everyone was excited by. It was ok. It was no ballet dancing across a river using the currents in Guyana (I still think that was absolute genius). I ended up chatting to an English girl who loves Colombia as well. Eventually we arrived in Ushaia and I had just enough time to check my e-mail and find my hostel before the places closed. It was a cheap hostel and not a bad place. I got in and just went to sleep as I wanted to do some serious hiking the next day.



I got up at 6.30 am and decided to hike to Tierro del Fuego. Oh yeah the scenery is much more spectacular in the south of the island. Its 12km from the town so not sure why people take buses. Its also not 12km as I walked it in 2 hours and I don't walk 6km an hour. I walked past the Train at the End of the World. Not really sure what the point of that train is as its almost in the park anyway. Shit. I lost 100 pesos. What a retard. Only I can walk to save money and then lose 2-3 times the bus fare by dropping it. Oh well. If God favours me I will find it when i walk back and then I will have good food as its then not really my money. I made it to the park and decided to take the coastal walk. They reckon its 4 hours. It took one and a half. Jesus, what kind of zombies do they have walking these trails. Probably the same people that glide down Buenos Aires streets at the speed of a snail on ketamine. Its a nice walk, though not very challenging. I can see why people say they avoid it because its not hiking. So far, so easy. I paid too much money for empanadas and then set off to climb the hill walk. What the fuck is this? This is way harder than anything in Torres del Paine. A 1km ascent over the space of 4km so an average gradient of 22.5 degrees, but often much worse. Its a bitch of a climb. They reckon it takes 4 hours to ascend. I was up and down in 3.5 hours but it was rough. Took a lot out of me and I hike for fun. Its forest at first, then a boggy mudand that went into my shoes as my feet disappeared two foot into the mud. Then its watery marshland thats difficult to balance on. After this its a rocky near vertical hike, similar to Cotopaxi but at a much lower altitude. Following this its on to the snow and finally you get to the top. What a mothefucker. That hurt. The views are stunning though, but hell thats the toughest hike I did since Cotopaxi. This ones not for weaklings as the sign says at the beginning. Afterwards I came back down and staggered around the other routes. I went to see the beavers but they weren't there. I walked through the lake viewpoint and then to the end of the road. Southernmost road point ends there. End of the Panamericana. What a damp squib of an ending. Oh well. I would say the only walks worth doing are the hill and the coast, but almost all tourists do the others. Maybe that's why they think its easy. I have to mention the big blue buses of death. They were tour buses that followed me all day long. Everywhere I went. It was like duel. They were crammed full of almost dead old people. It was like an elephant's graveyard pilgrimage as they drove all the old people down to the end of the world to die. Hawaii dude had said Peninsula Valdes smelt of death, which I love, but that could be applied here. Why would you take one of these tours. Everyone moving in a line to the same places. Its kind of like being shuffled in generic lines. Almost like being at work so why go on holiday unless you have more freedom. Oh well. Bastards would not slwo down at the wooden bridges either so I walked right in the middle to stop them crossing. Then it started to rain. Bugger it. 20km walk home. Maybe I would find my money. Hiking along the trail I did. Class. 11 hours after I lost it. That must be Gods thankyou after he let me have my nose broken. I got back and crashed because a 60km hiking day is a little rough. Nice park though. Flopped down dead was how I wrote it.



In the morning I met an Irish girl, an Israeli and a couple of Yanks. We took a long breakfast. They said the glacier was not that great and it was raining so we just hung around in the town. We went to the museum at the end of the world. Its not that great. Was fun to read about the guy who had to have plastic surgery on his ears because they thought that was the reason he was evil. His ears were big and stupid looking like mine, so maybe I should be more evil as well. Not much happens in Ushaia. I saw a dog sleeping with another dog fucking it. Even the animals can't find motivation to put much into it. The Israeli had a fun story about a drunk guy who fell asleep on a lamp post. They gaffer taped him to the lampost. He woke up and tried to walk. He couldn't move so he went back to sleep. Sounds like something that would have happened with my friends when we were younger. The Irish girl had a cool childhood. She had lived in Papua New Guinea and afterwards went to Australia when she was a kid. She met santa in Australia at 5 years old and said 'That's not santa, he's black'. She also spent time in a lot of the former Soviet Stans. We split a pizza for lunch and then hung around with a crazy 40 year old Englishman before we went to the pub for the superbowl. AND THE SAINTS WON. WOOHOO. 31-17. The winning score came from an interception by the guy that everyone thought was the weakest link on the team so good for him. What a party they would have had in the Big Easy that night.



The next morning I overslept my alarm. Or maybe I woke up and turned it off. Either way I was fucked if the hostel guy had not woken me up to let me know I was about to miss it. I just about scrambled down to get it. It was a very uneventful trip. There were 3 Yanks with me and one of them said I can get work in Antarctica. Guy from Oregon was going for only $1,000 as a friend's rate and the others on the boat were going to be paying $16,000. Damn it. I just fucked up. Wrote to a job offer in Bogota and attached my cv for jobs in Buenos Aires. My attention to detail has always been too sloppy. Hopefully I can salvage it. Just being honest with them as that genuinely tends to be the best policy. I got back to Rio Gallegos and thankfully I did not get stuck there this time. I took a night bus to Puerto Madryn. Annoying pop remixes on the bus.



I woke up and Gladiator was playing. Cool. Our bus broke down in the Welsh town of Trelew for an hour or so to fix the toilet. Then we eventually arrived in Puerto Madryn. No map. Dammit. Lonely Planet has some uses. They have free internet in some of the petrol stations. Excellent. Dude there was very friendly. I found my hostel and then went out to meet Brenda for drinks. Really nice girl. We chatted until quite late and then I went back to get some sleep.



The next day I got up and had a breakfast totally with Argentines. One girl offered to help me find work but have not heard from her yet. Not sure if the Argentines say that rather like the English and less like the Colombians. I had actually left the hostel and met her by accident in an ice cream place so that would be a very coincidental job offer if I was to get one. I was getting a lot of advice and help from people in BA but so far it has not translated into work. I am a little stressed which is unusual for me, but I want to know whether I will be in Buenos Aires, Bogota or London in 3 weeks and at the moment it could be any one of three and I have no idea. And I have no cash. You can only draw half the value of your credit card in cash so I have almost maxed that, though I have a lot of money that I can't touch except by paying by card. Have to move hostels tomorrow. I walked 14km to a sea lion colony which was fun to see in the wold for the first time. Was drinking tap water as I forgot to bring anything with me. On the way back I was stopped by the police. My shoes and trousers don't really give off the vibe that I am anything other than a tramp so it was not surprising. Still it was the first time I had been interviewed in the street. Spurs and Liverpool lost, whilc Villa won. Shitty as Man City had won the day before. I then booked a tour and went out and had coffee with Brenda until 2.30am. Was knackered the next day when I got up to take the tour early and I knew that I was not going to sleep really well on the bus either.

I had two Swedes and a German for company. It was my last day of the trip. We would not see any orcas, which sucks but I will come back at another time of year to see them. I figured I would come back while I am working in BA. We saw sea lions and penguins. We pretty much had control over our itinerary which was cool and unusual on tours. We could go where we wanted and stay for as long as we wanted more or less. They even allowed us to opt out of the boat trip that would have been a waste of money. The tour guide was telling us about bloody elephant seal fights he had seen. Apparently we saw some but they did not look big. Apparently the big ones are there in october. It appears there is something cool going on all year round in Peninsula Valdes as the animals alternate being the major spectacle. I found a cheap hostel in BA. Peninsula Valdes is class and I was a little worried at first because a lot of people had bad experiences, but mine was pretty good. Anyway I got back and took a bus to Buenos Aires overnight. Here I am now and here I have massive problems.

Can't use my credit card for cash accept for 350 pounds. Not much to live off. Need a hostel that accepts credit cards as that's all I have. Need a job, but not hearing from anyone. Applying for stuff in Bogota but nothing is certain. I hate lack of certainty. It stresses me. In 3 weeks I will be in the UK, Colombia or here. I just don't know where. Fuck this shit. Next time maybe I will have an answer.

Argentina Part 1: El Calafate and Rio Gallegos

Ok this part of the blog is being written under duress. Stress, stress and no idea where the hell I will end up. All problems I need to fix.
Oh well. Shit happens and lets see where I end up. Basically I have a Russian roulette of options and not sure which bullet to shoot myself with (Though I realise technically there is only one bullet in Russian roulette so you don't actually have options or choices). Oh well, analogies are not my strong point at the moment. Woohaa. Back to the blog.

Ok I hit the border and was immediately greeted by a big sign saying that the 'Malvinas son Argentios'. Excellent welcome. Hmm basically the Falklands Islands conflict is massive down here, whereas at home its a small footnote in history. I have tried to explain that the Maradona handball is a bigger deal for us than the war, but it does not help. Basically it makes sense that the islands are part of Argentina as they are just off their coast. Only they weren't when we took them in 1833 as Patagonia was not even a part of Argentina then. Also no Argentines have lived on the islands. Everyone is British. Only they are not. We downgraded their citizenship before the war as we don't really care about the islands. We already have Wales. There is no other need for a country full of sheep. I think if Argentina had asked us for them we would have given them to them. I mean 98% of English people could not find them on a map and they really are irrelevant to us. Apparently Chile helped us with the war. Not sure why we needed the help but hey they have long memories down here. The fact that they have few wars and we have had at least 6 since 1982 changes things. It seems a pointless conflict really, but then apparently they may find oil and then they would become strategically important and maybe people in England will care, but if not I imagine it will remain a contentiously pointless point of contention. That about sums it up for me. Apparently its worse for the Argentines though that we don't consider it important as its insulting.

Anyway I met some Brazilians and we chatted for a while and then I got to El Calafate and found my hostel. 45 pesos, but they have some for 20. Shit. Anyway it had a nice breakfast. I had come to El Calafate because the bsues to Ushaia were full and expensive. Did not make any difference really as I would get stuck in a shithole anyway. El Calafate is like Pucon. Total tourist town but nice. Very expensive, but cheaper than Chile. It was not going to be cheap to visit the glacier so I booked a bus for the next day. I was not sure if 7 hours was going to be enough there. They were playing 'morphine' in one bar. Awesome. The band only famous for the end song in 'Wild Things' playing in the middle of Argentina. Funky. Went to the bird pond place. They wanted 10 pesos. Too much to walk around a lake, so I bought some bread and pomelo (pink grapefruit) juice. Awesome. Not had grapefruit juice for ages and I love it. Then I got chatting with a girl from Colorado. Love those Yanks from the mountains. We chatted in Spanish for quite a while and then I went to sleep.

In the morning I headed for the glacier. Ended up meeting the Brazilians again on the bus and we hung out together for the day. Only one of the Brazilians was not Brazilian. She was Belgian. Oh well. The boat trip was too expensive and does not go much closer, so probably is not worth it. The glacier is very impressive. Massive and such a vast array of blues and whites. Utterly superb to stand next to. The Brazilians reckon its the best thing they have seen. It advances 2m a day and is constantly cracking and collapsing. You hear booming cracks coming from the ice, like a monster ready to devour the viewing platform and huge chunks of ice tumble off. The boat almost got flattened by a huge block falling from the glacier. Superb and well worth visiting. Though 7 hours is perhaps 3-4 hours too long as the walkway is only short if you don't choose to take the boat. One Argentina woman was surprised I was English and was friendly and spoke Spanish. I tried to point out that most British tourists are middle or upper class and those people are more arrogant and unfriendly in every country. You don't get too many working class British tourists, but generally we are a little less 'rod up the arse English'. On the way back I was seated next to an Argentine woman who used to work in Mozambique as a missionary. I don't understand why people say Argentines aren't friendly. They are always chatting. Apparently its just the 'Portenos'. I suppose I will see soon enough. I called my mum eventually after she had not answered the day before and cost me loads of pesos in El Calafate's evil internet cafes. Then I turfed in.

In the morning I was chatting with the girl from Colorado all morning again. Really nice girl. Shame I had to move on. I had my bus to Rio Gallegos where they had told me it would be cheaper to find a bus to Ushaia. It wasn't. I got into Rio Gallegos and there were to be no buses for the next 2 days. Shit. What is there to do here? I don't have a guidebook? I don't think you need one. There is nothing to do. There. I can save your eyes some reading. Its a shithole. Think Tepic but worse. The cheapest place was 50 pesos. Bare in mind in El Calafate its 20. So I moved to pay more to stay in a place with less. Not my best move. I had to stay in a crap, expensive hostel for 2 nights. I went out the first night and nearly died in the streets from boredeom. It looks like a shit mid western US town. Ah yeah I bought a phone with a radio. Class. Except if I go back to Colombia it will be one of the most pointless purchases in my life I just realised. Oh well. Still they have good radio stations here. Makes up for the shit town with awful weather. It blows like a storm. Almost like Torres del Paine except in the streets.

In the morning I met a dude from Oregon. Nice guy. He wanted me to support the Portland Trailblazers at basketball because everytime I adopt a US team they win their title for the first time in ages. Superbowl on the sunday to prove this. No idea what that team are like, but maybe I will adopt them. I don't really like basketball much. There were a couple of Canadians, a Hawaiian and an Aussie who had just cycled across Africa for the last 4 years. Cool. I asked if it was dangerous and he said only a bit. Though he had been shot in Cameroon. Three guys jumped him. One had a homemade shotgun. He kicked him and jumped the guy with the knife. The guy recovered and shot him point blank with buckshot through all his intestines. He carried on fighting and was stabbed and eventually a bus picked him up and he spent 3 weeks in hospital. He needs to write a book. His stories were great. Makes me certain that Africa is the roughest continent to travel across though. Some English woman who apparently looks like the queen told us there were some good marshes to visit. Did not seem to be the case. I caught up with my writing and I still have not bought any shoes. In fact I still have not bought any shoes now. The next day I would leave this shithole and I was off to Ushaia.

Chile Part 7: Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales y Torres del Paine

They fed us on the bus. Nice. Only twice. The other times we got dropped off at random expensive restaurants. Hmm the lake district on the border near Bariloche is supurb. What a beautiful bus route. Will have to go back to Bariloche. Either in the summer next year when I finish in Buenos Aires or for the winter to learn skiiing if I get the opportunity. I will definitely make it there. Without the money for the navimag and the time for the Carretera Austral or El Chalten, I will definitely come back to do that trip with those three and maybe Antarctica depending on when I come back and with how much money. We had craptastic Muzak on loop for a long time. Then they went into films. We got stamps to leave Chile, but none to enter Argentina. So for one day I was technically in no country. We did stop and had some meat empanadas in Argentina. Superb. Angel had told me that the food would be much better in Argentina than Chile. I was in Argentina, but I would technically not be in Argentina until nearly a week later. The famous route 40 is so fucking boring south of the national parks that I can-t understand why anyone wants to travel down that flat dusttrack. We got night in the museum 2, RV, transporter 3 and then I fell asleep but I believe it was taxi. I wrote that Patagonia was going to be expensive, that you could see how windy it was, there was a crazy kid and this was too long a bus trip. Scenery spectacular.

I think by day two on the bus I was beginning to suffer from cabin fever of some type. Such a long bus journey I wrote. Then we got a Jim Carey medley. Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, Me Myself and Irene and then I think Truman Show but maybe not as it got cut off for some Mr Bean. Reminded me of home so I was laughing more than maybe I should have done and the woman next to me clearly thought I was insane. Or maybe that was another bus. No idea. My brain got scrambled from the boredom. There was no space in Punta Arenas where I wanted to stay. Crappy. There was an Aussie dude in the place run by a mental old woman. I went out in the rain to find a cinema and was very disappointed to see I had seen everything. I got soaked, ate some pizza from the suprisingly good Telepizza chain and then went back to sleep.

Damn this internet can be slow sometimes. Not much in Punta Arenas, but its better than Puerto Natales. I went with the Aussie guy to the cemetry (which was ok), the regional museum (which was total shit) and the naval museum (which was mostel crap apart from the cool video showing an old voyage around Cape Horn from the early 20th century with commentary. That is more than worth the entrance alone). I spent too much on a pizza lunch and then took an afternoon bus to Puerto Natales. Eventually after 15 attempts I found a hostel run by an Argentine guy. Well he found me as I missed it. I set up my park transport for the next day and bought a load of food, for what I thought would be 4-5 days in the park. It did not look too tough on the map but you never know. Lets see.

30 dollars for transport and 30 dollars for the entrance. Woohoo. Patagonia had jacked up its prices just as I arrived. Just as I arrived with virtually no money and struggling to get through the last parts of the trip. I had made the decision that I would see all of Patagonia and then shoot for Buenos Aires via Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes. As I write this I am about one week away from Buenos Aires. i should make it there with around 2k dollars to find work and live off while I wait for pay. Its going to be tight. May need a Plan B. Luckily Argentines at Perito Moreno were reassuring me I should get something. Still need to make my cv. Maybe tomorrow morning before the bus to Ushaia. I arrived in the park and hiked the road from Lake Almagro to the first hotel. 7.5km and I blitzed that. Left myself tired though. Ice, Ice Baby. This channel is too much. I figured there was no way I was going to take the full backpack up and down all the hills. I would just walk the base of the W with my rucksack and hit every point, there and back, without my bag. Should make it faster. Ok they reckon you need 4 hours to get up to the viewing point. Of course you do. Its a steep climb, but I nailed it there and back in 5 hours. The wind was looking like a problem for my tent. I blitzed the climb. Its a pretty valley running up. It really is a beautiful park. At the top there is a really steep climb and thats always been my weakness. Slowed me down. The viewpoint of the towers is stunning. Well worth the climb. On the way back I made friends with a Mexican girl and we chatted and hiked down together. Both of us prefer hiking solo to not slow down, so we could set a decent pace walking together. Just before this hill climb one plastic sweet rapper flew out of my hands. This should indicate the wind. I am quick. Very quick. Yet to catch this paper I had to sprint 150 metres to nail it down. I dont like littering, but I was going to keep my grip from then on. Wind was running around 50km/h. Very fast. I had gone looking for somewhere to have a piss and noticed a tent down in an old looking zone. It was the old camp site. There was a German guy there who had been cycling across Patagonia and being battered by the rain and wind. This area is in a dip and so has a wind shield. Also you dont have to pay so it was good for the two of us. I ended up shitting wild and the old benches made a good toilet. This old campsite is on the left, opposite side of the road to the main site.

The second day I got up and loaded up my bag to go to Los Cuernos. The Mexican had persuaded me it was too far to go the night before, but I think I could have made it. Its a four hour walk, but I hit it in 3.25 hours with full backpack. Its not a difficult walk. Moves over the hills, past a lake and then loops through some cliff hugging trails that are a bit rougher. I had left at 8.30am so I met noone for 2-3 hours. Lonely Planet says everyone goes east to west so naturally now everyone goes west to east to avoid people. So they all work it together and I ignore Lonely Planet and get the trail to myself. Stupid Lonely Planet. If they say anywhere is deserted you can guarantee it will be full of everyone going there. Some travellers have yet to figure out that everyone uses Lonely Planey when travelling, so you can only get space by ignoring the book. From there I hiked to Campin Italiano. Motherfucker of a trail. Easy on the rocks and lakeshore and then an absolute bitch of a climb. Nice views, but fuck me that trail was evil. Would be easy coming the other way. It took me less than 5 hours in total to there. Got overtaken the only time on this trail by a guy moving like the Tayronas in Colombia, but he had no backpack to be fair. I dropped the tent and took on the Valle Frances. There is no real trail for the first 20 minutes and you are scrambling over rocks, seeking a path. An orange symbol 50 m to your left, then 50m to your right. Damn it. Stay still. Then you cross a stream and the trail becomes clear. This is the most beautiful part of the park I saw and its a steep trail. I was up and down in less than 4 hours. The mirador halfway has a stunning view of the mountain to the left. The snow does not look real and the multicolours are completely contrasting to Englands white snow. All the blues and greys and shades of colours. Stunning. Then if you bang on up to the second viewpoint you are in the middle of all the famous mountains. Every way you look is beautiful. This is probably the highlight of the park and if you can only get to one place, that is the place you want to see. When I got back I ate my last tin of peaches to lighten the load and then packed up the bag and headed 7.5km down a trail, past a lake and over lots of wooden pathways that felt like walking on jettys. This radio station loves Michael Jackson. I pitched my tent and it was battering the wind. I had hammered 40km in 11 hours. 25km with backpack and 15km without. Not sure why this W takes everyone so much time. I met the German again, who had cycled round and taken the catamaran across the lake to this point. He was surprised I made it that fast and we chatted for a bit. The night was shit. Rainy, windy and I had to pin the tent down in the night. Food and drink is ridiculously expensive in the park.

The nights sleep was so shit that I just got up with sunrise (which is very beautiful in the park) and decided to hammer it to Lake Grey and back for the catamaran. If I made it there and back before midday I would have made the W in less than 2 days. It took me 5 hours there and back and I made it with an hour to spell in the end. Damn the wind was strong. I feared for my tent and really should have collapsed it myself if I was thinking smart. The wind shredded straight through one carrier bag and was leaving me blind at points. Never been in wind like this. It was also bitter cold. I had socks on my hands. The mirador at the halfway point was beautiful and it was mainly uphill to here and some serious downhill to the refugio. Made me realise it would be a bitch coming back and it was. After the mirador it would be easy. Did not see anyone for the first 3 hours and on the way back I caught and passed people I had met on the way there. Everytime you catch someone it gives you a boost. Like a chase. You feel like you can then hunt down the next person. Must be something like that in formula one. The glacier is pretty. Ok its no Perito Moreno and if you had to skip one part of the W I would skip this one. Got a rainbow over the glacier on the way back. The lake is full of icebergs and they are very pretty. The first one I had seen in the morning I had thought was a boat. I thought the zodiac was out early and then I realised they were icebergs. This park has such great sights in every place. I had done th W in 47 hours (total walking time around 21 hours). You do not need 4 or 5 days for this. What are you going to do. Walk 4 to 5 hours a day. Ridiculous. 3 days would be comfortable for any walkers. I managed to maintain 4km/h even with my rucksack and regardless of terrain and thats maybe a little quick, but still its not hard. The winds had massacred my tent. It had splinetered one of the legs and someone had pinned down the stricken animal with some rocks. Oh yeah I got face to face with a deer on the way back. That was cool as we both just eyed each other up. A fun face/off. Reminded me of the Apalachian mountains at the very beginning of this trip. I took the catamaran back at midday and then a bus. Another 22 dollars for the boat. I think there were a couple of Israelis who were scamming and trying their luck to get away with not paying. Well done to them if they were, but they still held us up. There were no spaces to Ushaia for a few days, so I decided instead to rest up and take a bus to El Calafate in the morning. More stamp space in my passport. Its one year old and it only has 5 or 6 completely clear pages. It would help if the retards did not keep stamping in spaces to limit how many can be put in the passport. I wince everytime some idiot cant stamp straight. All of central america had no problem with this simple concept. Oh well in the morning it would be off to Argentina at last. The owner of the hostel had lent me his jacket for the trip to Torres del Paine. Thank God he did as it was bitter cold. Nice of him. I came back to the hostel and chatted with him. Bought the last ice cream Mega Framboise I was going to get (love them, ate one a day) and gave the tent a burial in a bin. Tomorrow it was off to Argentina. I will cover that sometime soon. I reckon there will be two Argentine parts and then it will be Buenos Aires. The scary shit is now whether or not I can get a job or not. 19 months without working. Judas would be proud. 18 months on the road tomorrow. Come on the Saints. Who dat say dey gonna beat them Saints. I really like Chile. Probably my second or favourite country so far, but very expensive.

Chile Part 6: Isla Chiloe and Puerto Montt

Sweet Dreams. Excellent. We took a direct bus to Ancud on the north of Chiloe. It included a ferry crossing, which had awfully expensive and awfully awful food. It is a different sort of place. Very isolated and for want of a better word, quaint. I will have to shoot myself for using one of my most detested words in the English language, but everything has its place. We went to the fort, which is more a ruin and tweedle dum, and tweedle dee offered us a tour. A tour of what exactly. Bricks. We found a Brazilian who ran a protestant church and we were considering going there on the sunday, but never made it. We pitched the tent outside. We ate some local food that was hit and miss and then Marcela being a little drunk inspired us to some drunken running on the walls of the city. We met a couple of local girls, chatted a bit and then met some Germans back at the hostel before turfing in. There was some constant music all night. We had assumed it was a party, but in reality it was a fat drunken fool, asleep, catatonic and blaring music from his van, asleep with a half cocked glass of wine on the dashboard. In the hostel was a shotgun just lying on the side. Welcoming.

We ditched our bags at the hostel and set off for National Park Chiloe. We met the Germans again and its a cheaper route to go to Castro and then take a bus to the park, than going all the way to the next town. Save you around 800 pesos. At least it removed the doubt from my mind that we had chosen the right route. The park operator had maps for the wrong park. Well organised. We had left Pucon without paying for the last night in the tent, which I just remembered. Saved us 14 dollars. We had pitched our tent illegally next to the lake, so we had to move it later and the German guy helped. We went for a walk in the forests which was pretty cool. Like a Hobbit forest. Then we headed to the beach and met this Scottish guy the Germans had met everywhere. The beach was nice ish. Reed fields and dunes to get there, then the beach and ice cold water. Really ice cold. Fuck it. I am not going in that, but the others played around a fair bit. Then we came back to the camp site and I kept killing these stupid big flies. Eventually I killed enough of them to buy us some free time. Arsenal went out of the cup and Spurs had drawn 2-2 with Leeds. The cups big guns were all being spiked. We must be second or third favourite of those left in. We could not make fire. We sucked. We tried and failed horribly. In the end Marcela went and found us some Chileans to show us city boys how it works. That functioned much better. Then eventually we went to sleep and the tent door was left open so we got soaked. Was not a great wake up and we had another minor conflict.

We took the bus out of the park to Castro. Saw the church briefly and took a bus to Ancud to pick up our stuff. Marcela wanted to see the penguins, but I knew that I would have opportunities further south. I still keep postponing it. Probably in Puerto Madryn. I had a problem with the cash machines as I had forgotten a lot of them only work with mastercard and not with visa. We decided not to bother staying and push onto Puerto Montt and sort out transport for Barriloche that night. Back over on the ferry. Ok the buses only go to Bariloche in the day. Shit. We were stuck here. There was only one seat for the next day. I suggested I just go south to Punta Arenas and she take the city. I bought mine and while we were chatting someone else bought the last one to Bariloche. Typical luck. Ok we would stay here for 2 nights. It was NFC championship day though. She bought a ticket for Bariloche, but had no stamp in her passport and had thrown away the immigration paper. Shitty. Ok we would have to find the Brazilian consulate th next day. We got to the hostel and then ate hot dogs from a petrol station. Good value for money, though not quality food. Jets - Colts was on tv and the Colts won 30-17. Ok it would be the Colts if we made it. Bugger. It was not on tv. I had to go down and watch it online so Marcela went to sleep. We were up and winning, then it ended up 28-28. Vikings were within field goal range. Penalty. Twelve men on the field. Retards. Favre. Interception. Fuck you. Overtime. We advanced with luck. All the way. Field goal. Superbowl here we come. 31-28. Who dat indeed baby. We were off to the superbowl and the great luck American sides have when I adopt them continues. All my teams excel except for Spurs (the most important one). This sunday is superbowl sunday. Will be watching it in Ushaia and hoping my Saints can bring home the bowl.

In the morning we went hunting for the Argentina consulate as they did not have a Brazilian one in the city. They told us we had to go up the hill to some barrio to find the special police. They would sort it out. We had another mini clash after she had had to wait for 2 hours and I walked down the hill. We met up again and then saw some of the city. Not loads to see. They have a Mexican arts centre in the French cultural centre. We went there and looked around and then left to find a restaurant. Marcela had liked one of the Chilean photographers working there. I wanted to walk along the coast, but all of a sudden she exploded on me and I think this one was as much her fault as the one in Valdivia had clearly been mine. Anyway I did not fancy sitting round to get hammered, so I walked off back to the hostel. Its a shame. We have moments where we get on very well, but its like dry tinder. It only takes a little spark to set it off again. Strong personalities will do that too each other. She made it back to the hostel after me and was not feeling good. It cooled down again and we went for more excellent hot dogs and then to see the film in the French centre. It was typically French and slow, but reasonably interesting and most importantly free. Afterwards we walked to the pier and emt a group of three lesbians, a mentally handicapped guy and 6 young Chilean rappers. Odd bunch. We hung out and joked around with them for an hour or so. I was a little concerned after my nose was bust, but they reminded me a little of my group of friends when we were younger. Killing time doing not much and just hanging. Then we headed back and got some sleep. In the morning I helped Marcela carry her bag down to the bus station and saw her off to Bariloche. Then I came back and chilled a bit before taking a monster 32 hour trip by bus down to Punta Arenas.

Chile Part 5: Pucon and Valdivia

We arrived late at night and hiked to the camp site area. I pitched up the tent and Marcela went out to make some friends. I was too knackered and just dropped down to sleep. She ended up finding a Kiwi stone carver to chat to with his friends. Kid of cool. Eorann has taklen up stone carving as a profession. Can't say I had come across it much before she told me about it. It was good of her to find some creative outlet though. I think like myself she is too much of an artistically, free thinking person to be doing corporate banking.

The Jets beat the Chargers. Not sure how that happened. So we had Saints - Vikings and Jets -Colts for the superbowl. Ok so it should be the Colts v one of the others. Come on you Saints. I went and found some internet and then Marcela joined me. We ended up having an expensive breakfast at this Yankee owned restaurant for 3 days in a row. Perhaps we spent too much money there, but the food was good. Almost authentic Mexican food. The town is very beautiful. You have a snow capped volcano in the background, you have the giant lake, which is surrounded by reeds and a black rock beach in the north. You could tell it would be pretty, when the bus station we had arrived at was a wood carved building. All of the town is very pretty. Looks like a Swiss ski resort or a more polished Aspen. Everything was very expensive for us though. I was not willing to pay loads to raft or climb volcanoes that weren't as good as ones I had done before. I think for Marcela it was different as she had not been rafting or climbed a volcano, so it felt more of a disappointment for her. She was pretty cold at this point so she picked up a top to keep warm. I went for a walk along the beach. Pretty cute locals and I found a shit hot dj playing on the beach. They had a club in the city, but we never ended up going there. I still think I have not been clubbing since Valparaiso. Over a month. Way too long. Oh well, I will be in Buenos Aires in a week and may go clubbing in Ushaia over the week. We took a bus to Currarehue, which is a Mapuche village. I believe Pinochet moved them all there during his reign. We met a really old woman with no legs and she invited us into her apartment to chat with her. Was interesting to gauge the quality of life and the fact that the Chilean government just leaves them to fend for themselves. Then we went to the local museum and had a fun time with the guy who runs the tours. The Mapuches seem to have got battered by the Chileans and Argentineans. While they were one of the few native groups to resist the Spanish invaders, they had a rather less favourable nineteenth century against the industrial powers. He said that a lot of tourists just breeze through the building, but if you spare the time and chat you can learn a lot more. Oh yeah. Pinera won the election. We took mate with him and chatted for around 2 hours. We got to play some long pipe instrument, but Marcela's sucking sucked. We had equal trouble with the instrument you place between your teeth and twang. It sounds like the stuff that Ennio Morricone gets for his westerns. Was a fun experience. We got taught some strange Mapuche dances, which seems to be hoping around in circles on one foot to different paces of music. Instruments are sacred in the community. One family takes responsibility for each instrument and you would train your sons and grandsons in the usage of that instrument, so it bonds the community and keeps traditions alive. They tend to stay out of politics and don't involve themselves much electorally, which seems to be the mistake of a lot of indigenous communities. We then walked 1km out of town to try to some traditional Mapuche food. Was very good and vegetarian on the whole. Was a crazy dog as well. We ended up having to run for the last bus back, but the restaurant is right on the main road. We went back to the tent and stayed in for the night.

The next day we got up and I had quesadillas for breakfast. The Mexican type and not that shithole Venezuelan cake. We set off to Parque Huerquehue. Marcela left her new jumper with the park guard and ended up leaving it behind. We met a couple of old Kiwis on the bus and got chatting. Some local woman said she liked me because I talked a lot and Chilean men don't talk as much as me. Noone talks as much as me. Well except maybe Geli lol. Or possibly Marcela. Yeah fuck yeah. Danger Zone. This Radio Bangkok is awesome. I love my phone. First music since those little bastards stole my mp3 player. We joined up with a Dutch girl (who lacked charisma of any type) and an English guy (posh yet poor and educated at Oxford. The English will know the type). None of them were spirited walkers. Indeed Marcela burned them for someone who claims they don't hike much. She powered it to the lakes at the top, which were very pretty for all 5 minutes we got to see them. Very impressive effort. On the way down, we met the old Kiwi and a couple of Israelis. They hung out together, so I took the opportunity to do some sprint training downhill and blitzed the section. I am in very good shape since I stopped drinking. Need to rebuild the upper body and I could probably take up rugby again. Still very much in two minds over that. I waited for them at the bottom and got chatting with the Israelis. The girl was very interesting. Worked for Israeli intelligence, is a dive instructor and wants to train as a medic. She suggested I should go and work in Tel Aviv. Might well do that when I get over to the middle east. Israel would be an interesting place to live. We could not go to the Asado on the way back. So I gave Gloria a ring and we chatted for an hour. Was the first time we had chatted properly since she left Colombia and was cool and strange at the same time. We still have a nice chemistry and get on well. Back at the camp site, Marcela met some Chileans and wanting to hang out with locals (and also interesting in the dude with the moustache) she wanted to hang out with them. I was late to meet the Israelis, so being English was stressed a bit by that. Its remarkable the small crap that stresses people from my country, when serious stuff barely affects us. My eyes were almost not purple by this point. I think they healed in Valdivia. She went out with the Chileans and did not have a great night. I went to the Israeli hostel and it was shit at first. Everyone was chatting in Hebrew so I understood nothing. Eventually some people welcomed me to the conversation and I went out with them. We went to a few clubs, but never entered any and still did not dance. Fucking hell. Still had a really good conversation with Ya'ana for a few hours and she is a very interesting person. Hopefully we can catch up another time. We did not manage it in Patagonia, due to my acceleration, but maybe in BA. I walked back around 5am and ended up chatting with the guards and playing with the dogs before going back to sleep.

Marcela and I had our first really big argument on this morning. We both took each others comments far too personally and it escalated from there. Anyone who knows me, knows my potential to escalate stuff. She made an interesting quote. That when people click they bring out the best of each other and when they clash they bring out the worst in each other. Very true and we were definitely bringing the worst traits out to play. Suffice to say it was a ringing clash. I left the tent and went off to chill by the stream for 20 minutes. I still love water for shutting it down. Also she had had one of her shoes stolen by the local dog. I found it in the warden's hut. We ended up leaving for Valdivia late as we had to wait for the guy to bring Marcela's jumper back. He forgot. Idiot. So we took the bus to Valdivia. Its a very cute town. On first impression I really liked it, on second impression I think it would be the best town to live in Chile. At least for a short time. We stayed in a cheap, but cool hotel by the station. Shame it had no real hot water as we could not light the boiler. I never have been a mechanical man. The jazz/blues bar only played at weekends so we missed that . We gave up on doing anything and I watched some family guy before we went to sleep.

We slept a long time and then went down to the river to take a boat cruise. We had another huge fight. This one was mainly my fault, so I could tell I was being rubbed up the wrong way as I have not instigated fights like that for a while. I think little things were niggling us. Anyway Marcela ended up storming off the boat after I was criticising her negotiating for the boat. I stayed on and took the boat tour, which was not really worth the money. A longer one might have been. They have sea lions that swim and play in the river in the middle of the town. Thats quite rare and very cool to see. When I got back, Marcela said she would spend the day with the boat crew and I was quite releaved as I fancied some time to see the town myself and have some peace after the last 2 fights. I went off the the park in town and got chatting with a professor. He told me I should check out the universitys botanical gardens. Damn it. Keyboard does not have an apostrophe. The park has a cool lake and is pretty to wander around in. It also has a good and interesting sculpture garden. It really is a postcard city. Very beautiful. I think I could live there. The botanical garden is a very romantic and pretty location. You can see that from how many couples they have wandering the grounds. I walked around other parts of the city. The art gallery is pretty shit, apart from one long underground tunnel with an exhibition of sound at the end. Quite eerie but not worth the entrance fee. I was feeling a little sick from something I had eaten and I got tickets to see Sherlock Holmes. I met Marcela again and she was going clubbing with the boat guys. The relationship was pretty broken down at this point and I suggested online that we should maybe consider splitting ways before we killed each other. She came and met me and we took coffee to chat it. It seemed resolved, so I went to the cinema to watch the film. Was quite good and fun. Came back and now she suggested we separate. Nothing is ever simple. We debated on it until the early hours of the morning and decided we could carry on as long as we avoid the big clashes, which we mainly did. We ended up getting up late and had to get a bus to push on from Valdivia.