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| Argentina: Buenos Aires Yesterday (23 Jan) we arrived in Buenos Aires. Despite all the news we didn't notice much of the pesocrisis yet. Our first impression of Buenos Aires is a nice european like city with a relaxed atmosphere. Perfect circumstances for a beer on a terrace, big steaks and an expressive dance: LETS TANGO! Hasta la vista... OK, so we didn't do the Tango...we fell asleep, blame it on the jetlag. We did however have the chance to witness the demonstration against the government on the 25th of January, because the hotel was pretty close. We didn't see any riots though. Nice place to see was the 'Caminito' in La Boca area. Houses painted in all colors (in the middle of a shabby neighbourhood) and artists selling their work. Caminito is famous from the Tango song (Caminito, que un tiempo ha borrado...) The grave of Evita Perron was hard to find before the tourist groups arrived, but it failed to impress us anyway. Most time we spent in 'San Telmo'. Perfect place to eat and drink outside until late in the evening. The next morning we had an early start (5 AM) to catch the flight to Santiago and Punta Arenas. It was not our lucky day, we found out when checking in: the flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas was cancelled and we were invited to spend the rest of the day on the airport to wait for the 7PM flight... We finally got there at midnight and fell straight asleep in 'Hospedaje Manuel (�Qu�?)' Punta Arenas (Chile) There is not much to explore in Punta Arenas, but we did it all, whilst recuperating from the desastrous flight and the jetlag (still). In the evening we took a tour to Sena Otway, where the pinguins come ashore after their daily swim for food. A very windy place, that gave us a preview (prefeeling) of what is to come in Tierra del Fuego. The next day was spent mostly on arranging the next destinations, buying warm clothes and exchanging English for Spanish with the owner of the Hostel Manuel. Estamos aprendiendo Espa�ol! Tomorrow we are heading for Tierra del Fuego to the city Ushuaia. Back to Argentina! Fireland (Argentina) It took about 12 hours in a bus, but here we are in the most Southern city in the world: Ushuaia. It has about 50,000 inhabitants and a general feeling of a ski resort. The mountains rise up from the sea (Beagle Channel) and still have white tips, even though it is midsummer here. Absolutely beautiful surroundings. We spent 2 days walking in the mountains (Circuit Martial) following an partly non-existing track (or at least we could not find it) in fantastic wheather, which is apparently quite unusual here. Anita turned out to be a natural hitchhiker, on her first attempt the first car stopped! And brought us home. We spent the night in a bar with 80�s music, making us feel homesick (may also be caused by the very generous portions of whisky/Tia Maria they served). The next day we took a flight to El Calefate further up north, near the park 'Los Glaciares' of the famous Perito Moreno glacier and immedeately arranged a bus to El Chalt�n (the entrance of the walks to Fitzroy mountain) for the next day . A slight detail was overlooked, we forgot to get some money from the banks and El Chalt�n turned out to be completely bankless. We had about 7 pesos... good preparation! Fortunately we did have some US dollars for emergencies and we could exchange them for a very unfortunate rate... Shopping for a 6 day walk in El Chalt�n was also an experience, with the extremely small 'Supermercados', more like minimercados. After visiting all 3 of them we had enough for the trip, including a packet of 'Polenta' (does anybody know how to cook this? We tried several option, but to no edible result). The walking in Fitzroy was fantastic, the mountains are rugged pink granite peaks, changing colour during the day. We had great weather the first couple of days, with little wind and sunny. Camping with views of the mountains, bathing in the river (very very quick, since it is glacial melting water..). On the fourth night however the weather turned 'patagonian'. See next page |
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| Schedule: 23-01-02 Sydney - Buenos Aires 26-01-02 Punta Arenas 20-02-02 Puerto Montt 30-04-02 Lima 01-05-02 Amsterdam?? |
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| Scenery in Tierra del Fuego climbing the pass of the Montes Martial circuit |
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| The Beagle Channel in the morning |
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| Spectacular cloud formation in Patagonia |
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| Fitzroy Mountain in Los Glaciares |