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.
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