When Jay came back, we nipped round to a cafe for a spot of breakfast and to see a bit of the Olympics on the telly. Had some coffee and croissants and then, seeing as it was a bit colder today, thought about buying a new hat to go with my new jumper-thing.

I put my hand into my coat pocket where my wallet should be. Only it wasnt there. Uh-oh.

I scooted back to the hostel and rifled through my stuff. I thought of the rush with which I had packed - maybe it was still in Trelew? I went to the locutorio and phoned "home" in Trelew, but Howys couldnt see it anywhere. A quick stroll to both the restaurant and the pub from last night, but both were closed. Hmm.

So, Im in a foreign country, dont have a lot of cash on me, and I cant find my credit cards. Play safe and cancel them or hope that they turn up and that no-on has financed their ski holiday on them in the meantime?

I played safe. Counted out how much I had for the rest of the time in Ushuaia (I could cash my travellers cheques in Trelew) and phoned home to cancel them.

With that out of the way, no what? Well, a trip down the Beagle Channel for $50 wasnt going to happen, although Jay offered to lend me the tenner for it (funny how the money doesnt seem so much until its running out), but I luckily had enough for the accommodation and to do most of the stuff in Ushuaia.

First stop was the former Prison, where the Argentine government used to send their convicts until 1947. A grim building on the edge of town, half of it is in use as an Argentine naval base. No photos! lol

The museum was a comparatively expensive $15, but it was possibly the best museum that Ive ever been to - a bizarre mixture of maritime and naval history of the region and of Argentina in general alongside stories and characters of the prison during its period of operation.

There were also histories of prisons worldwide, of the discovering of Antarctica, local painting exhibitions and local history museums, of the local flaura and fauna and even, most bizarrely, of the development of the petroleum industry. That last bit might have been sponsored by a multinational company.

Jay got bored a little before I did, so he went off for lunch in town, while I carried on my wander round the museum, and we arranged to meet up at the hostel a little later to go up the Glacier.

True to form, I turned up late, and not finding him there, presumed that he had already left, so I sat myself down on the bunk and got out the local tourist info for reading.

Twenty minutes later, he turns up with Katie in tow.

"Look who I found! Still wanna go up the glacier."

Ok, I say, sticking my shoes on and getting my coat. I am going up a glacier.

We go out, get a taxi, and within five minutes the landscape has altered totally. No more town, only snow, snow and more snow.

It isnt snowing, but it is getting a little chilly. No problems. We check that the chairlift is still going and that we have a while at the top. Then we pay our money and are impressed that its half price. The ticket man smiles.

We get on the chairlift and try and take photos of our surroundings. Katie wants to swivel round and take a shot of the sea behind us (I mean, how cool is having ocean and mountain within eyeshot of each other), but I convince her that we can take one on the way down.

The three of us get to the top and then take the forest route to the glacier. Its getting colder. Something to do with being top of the mountain.

We start to walk, me in my trainers, Katie in her woolly hat and hiking boots and after a couple of minutes, the three of us stop to take pictures of the scenery. Katie takes a shot of me with the sea behind. Cool. Then I notice the grey clouds.

"Better take your photos quick," I joke.

Five minutes later, the cloud has nestled around the top of the mountain. It is beginning to snow. It is beginning to snow quite heavily. We can no longer see the top of the mountain, or more than five metres away from us. Time to go home, I think. Wish Id brought some gloves with me. Or a hat. Or even something to keep the snow out of my eyes.

I have never seen weather change so quickly. From sunshine and a glorious day to a blizzard. We got back on the chairlift, were then told that we couldnt see the glacier because it was cold and there was too much snow (which is why it was halfprice!) and then clung on for dear life on the chairlift as the wind and snow buffeted us around. We didnt see the bottom until seconds before our feet touched land. Absolutely incredible. Even if my frozen feet werent in agreement.

We warmed ourselves up, huddled around the tv and heaters in the basecamp while waiting for a taxi to take us back home, with us all electing to have a few hours siesta before the evening.

While back in the hostel, I got chatting to a guy called Fernando who was sharing the room with us and when we all met up again for food and drinks later in the evening, he joined us for a bottle of cheap wine and conversation.

We didnt leave for dinner until gone 11, with Jay wanting to visit a steak place. Although I found something perfectly edible for myself, they didnt have what he wanted, so we walked out after sitting there for ten minutes (paying for the bread that wed already scoffed) and then sat ourselves down in the next place down the road.

It had been snowing heavily in town all afternoon and the city was now sheet white, with only where the cars were driving free of snow. Fantastic!

Its the end of the world...and its snowing!

I had a veggie lasagne and we sat there and chatted until the waiters started tutting in our ears about paying and leaving, and then after all the exertion of hiking on the mountain (not my normal Monday!) we went off to bed. Well, Jay, Katie and I went to bed while Fernando picked up his camera and went off out into the snow to take some photos from the other side of the bay at night.