Hello again from the end of the world!
Im just waiting for my photos to upload onto flickr... it takes AGES... so in the meantime, I thought Id post about the last few days.
So on Thursday I went to Tigre, this is a big delta area to the North of Buenos Aires and people who live around there get around mainly by boat, with the school boat picking up the children for school, a supermarket delivery boat as its so out of the way and so on. So We had a 2 hour boat ride to get up there and drive around the waterways, then we got on a train and had a look round another area which was quite pretty with a cathedral and a little square. It was ok, nice to see, but the tour was organised, and I did feel very shepherded around which was annoying.
On Friday I took myself off to Uruguay for the day which I really liked. It was a really gorgeous day so that definitely helped. Colonia, where I went, is a small place with an old town bit with cobbled streets, and again some nice squares and a lighthouse. Theres loads of coastline to walk around and lots of nice places to sit and look out at the view. Lots of boats moored and a couple of piers to walk down and sit on, very pleasant. I did a bit of wandering first, the town really isnt that big so only take an hour or two at the most, so the rest of the time I was relaxing by the shore in the sunshine - mmmmm! I had to get there on a ferry called the Buquebus which took about an hour to cross the water. I got a bit paranoid when I got off the ferry when no-one checked my passport or stamped it, I was a bit nervous for the day wondering if I might get arrested on the way back into argentina, until I realised they put all the stamps in at the start of the journey so nothing needed to be checked the other side - phew!
On the Saturday I flew to Ushuaia (right down the end of South America). I got there in plenty of time to catch my flight only to find out the flight time had been changed and I had missed the flight! but, after quite a bit of stress and nailbiting, I managed to get onto the later flight that day which I was so relieved about! But then when we got off the flight, no-ones luggage had been loaded onto the plane and was all back in Buenos Aires! We were told it was going to come on a later flight that day and we should have it at about 8pm, it finally arrived at about 11.30 thankfully, I was starting to sweat because all of my warm clothes were in my bag and I would have been a bit chilly without them! There was another girl on the same flight who is staying at my hostel too so we went out for a walk together on the Saturday afternoon to do a reckie on clothing shops in Ushuaia. There are loads actually so that was good. We went and found a viewpoint on a pier and looked at the mountains, and found a couple of tours to do for the Sunday.
So on Sunday, we went to see the penguins! It was about a 90 minute drive to get to the little town (I say town, I think 5 people lived there...), then a 15 minute boat ride to the penguin island. We got to get off teh boat and walk around and see where the penguins nested and lived and see them all on the beach. There were obviuosly paths we had to stick to and had to walk slowly, but you could get really close to them and see them in their nests (the chicks are due to hatch in about 3 weeks). It was freezing cold, a bit rainy and very windy, but it was worth it!! We saw 2 types of penguin, although I cant remeber their names... But one of them was just like the penguins you get on the penguin biscuit wrappers!
In the afternoon we went on another boat trip out into the Beagle Channel. It was really windy and choppy but really cool. Saw a nice lighthouse and some sealions and lots of cormorants. Me and Margretta, who is staying at the hostel, met 2 other people on the boats and we all went out for some really nice Lamb in the evening. Lamb is a local speciality apparantly, and so is giant crab of some description, Ill have to try that at some point too... but the Lamb was really delicious!!
Monday, I tried to go up a glacier, there are 2 or 3 routes you can supposedly follow out of the town to get to interesting places but I failed to find my way there and ended up blundering into the woods and getting barked at by lots of dogs. I might try again tomorrow... or I might try one of the other two routes and hopefully have better luck!! I was hoping I could book a boat ride for a day or so out to an island or something (I really wanted to go to Cape Horne but its soooo expensive and they dont do return trips from Ushuaia, you have to go onto another city which is no good for me if I have to be here on Friday for my tour.
Today me and my buddies margretta and Lucy have climbed up to the glacier, it was lovely. Really nice weather, blue skies etc. We got a taxi about 10 minutes out of town to the ski resort where the walk started from and then in took us about 2.5 hours to climb it and then a bit longer to get back to Ushuaia. We treated ourselves to a drink in a nice cafe and something sugary. They had these meringue penguins that were ace so we all had one. I pulled the head off mine and was pleased to be able to use my one Spanish phrase 'mi pinguina es muerta' :-) everyone thought it was a useless phrase to know but i've needed it now!! Were going back to the nice lamb restaurant tonight as it's margrettas last night before she leaves so that should be nice.
But my hostel here is brilliant, its really nice and has a really nice and chilled atmosphere. The lounge sort of area has great big squishy sofas and huge windows showing the view out onto the Beagle channel and the mountains in Chile the other side of the river - lovely!! And the general atmosphere and people here us much nicer, I feel very at home. I think in BA there were many more people wanting to drink all the time and not really see the city, I found several really nice people there of course, but here, pretty much everyone is like that, it's great
I am trying to upload pictures, but its taking ages, Ill do it when I can!!
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