Puerto Natales - Janaury 8th

Today we moved north to Puerto Natales.  This is a little village on the romantically named Seno Ultima Esperanza (it’s not as romantic in English, Last Hope Sound; it is more like desperately named).  All it is really famous for is as a stopping off point to the Torres del Paine national park, which is the highlight of the southern part of Chile.

The journey here was a fairly straight forward 3 hour journey on very good roads.  The roads in this part of Chile are much better than the roads on Tierra del Fuego.  The view was also a bit more varied this time, and I got to see a lot of Nandu (Rhea) out the window.  Dorota saw none of this, as she slept from about 5 minutes into the journey until we arrived.  I did doze off but not for long.

We had decided to revert back to our old tactic of getting accommodation at the bus station, partially because wikitravel said it could be done, partially because the bus at Punta Arenas was like that, but mostly because this is cheaper, and this part of the world is not a cheap place to travel in.  The tactic worked because we got a decent hostel, if slightly away from the centre (10 minute’s walk) run by a mad woman who seems to always be on the move trying to drum up business.

The rest of the day was spent booking our trip to Torres del Paine (more about that tomorrow) and looking around the town.  As said there isn’t really much here.  The highlight for me was taking a picture of the giant milodon (an extinct type of sloth).  Dorota sat this ‘highlight’ out by taking a coffee in a local coffee shop.  Other than that and the supermarket where we stocked up on supplies for the trekking trip tomorrow, there is very little to write about Puerto Natales, although we did have a very good meal in a restaurant recommended by the landlady (the second time we have asked landladies for a good restaurant here in Chile and got a good result). 

Punta Arenas - January 7th

Before we ate the previous night we investigated renting bikes for today.  Dorota got the idea from the bus journey into town where it seemed like the whole town was out cycling.  It turned out to be fairly easy, with a bike shop only a few blocks away being reasonably cheap.  So after buying a picnic lunch in the local supermarket, we got our bikes and headed off for the local forest park.

The park turned out to be situated on a hill above the town, near the ski slopes.  Though we had become better cyclists in Vietnam, we were still not good enough for this climb, especially as it was on gravel roads.  After about 45 minutes going up we decided to skip the forest and head back down for a more gentle cycle along the coast.  We decided to go south, and we were rewarded with a nice paved road along a scenic stretch of coast dotted with little fishing villages. We cycled for a while until we came to a stretch of beach we could access and sit down at for our picnic, which were our usual cheese and ham sandwiches with some peppers, and an apple.

After lunch we cycled back toward town and north, to see what that side of the coast looked like, stopping to take a few photos in the centre.  It didn’t look like much, after a while it began to get quite industrialised, so we stopped and headed back to town.  As we had the bikes we went to an edge of town shopping centre to see how it looked compared to the centre of town.  This was much more modern and had all the usual stores.  Being on bikes we couldn’t really buy anything.  So all we could do is continue cycling around the town taking photos of the sights.

After giving back the bikes we rested for a while at our hostel, and then we went out for dinner with a Polish girl that we had met the previous day on the bus across the border.  We went to a Chilean diner, where I had a national dish, a Barros Luco (which is basically a steak and cheese sandwich) and Dorota had another national dish, the Lomito Pobre (which is basically a steak with an egg on it).  Not very adventurous dishes, but very nice, especially with pints of local lager.

Punta Arenas - January 6th

Today the alarm went off at 04:10 as we had to be up for our 05:00 bus to Punta Arenas in Chile.  Despite the early hour it is still bright when we get up, as it was when we went to bed at 10:30 last night.  In fact we have never seen Ushuaia in the dark because of the long days at this time of year.  The initial leg of our journey is to the other big town on the island, Rio Grande.  This 3 hour leg is characterised by the fact that the bus is freezing.  Really cold.  Despite the fact that we are wrapped up warm in preparation for such a possibility, our feet are really suffering.  But there isn’t that much we can do about it.

When we get to Rio Grande the bus station is chaotic.  It turns out you have to fill in all your border paperwork here.  Why they didn’t give it to us to fill in on the bus is a mystery.  But there are queues everywhere, most of which contain people who don’t even know why they are queuing.  A few instructional posters would have been nice.  Adding to the confusion is that there are so many people travelling they have put on a second bus, and therefore old seat numbers no longer apply.

Once we get underway the rest of the journey is pretty ordinary, the scenery out the window is the same all the time.  It is sort of like travelling through the world’s largest links golf course.  The Argentinean border is a quick stop, but the Chilean one is painfully slow.  There are a couple of buses ahead of us, and it takes over an hour to do them.  When they get to us three of our fellow travellers haven’t read the rules about importing fruit into Chile, and get caught, so our bus gets delayed another hour for them to fill out extra paperwork.  It’s very frustrating.  I can’t understand how people can ignore the posters on the wall.

For the rest of the journey again the landscape is the same, save for the 15 minutes when we cross the Straits of Magellan on a little ferry.  It’s a welcome break.  We finally reach Punta Arenas at 20:00, and after quickly checking into our hostel, we head for some food.  And here we find an amazingly good French influenced restaurant.  We finish eating at about 22:30, and head to bed, although it is still bright outside.  This probably explains why there were still people only arriving into the restaurant at that time.  The lateness at which people eat here is something we still have to get used to.

Ushuaia - January 5th

Ushuaia is surrounded by amazing scenery, so today we head out to the nearby Tierra Del Fuego national park to walk amongst this natural spectacle.  However the enjoyment of the beauty of this area is slightly affected by the weather conditions.  When we woke up it was raining, but a judicious use of an extra hour in bed meant that it had stopped by the time we got to the bus stop.  The bus itself was a bit expensive (like most things in Ushuaia) as it was only a 30 minute trip to the park (for 14 pounds return).  After paying the same to get into the park we get dropped at one end of one of the trails in the park.  Unfortunately by now it is raining again, but that’s the weather at the end of the world, totally changeable.

Which is just as well, because it was sunny not too long later.  We choose to walk a coastal trail along the Beagle Channel, and by some fluke every time we emerged onto the coast we had sun, and every time we were in the forest it was raining.  The walk itself was amazing, great scenery, and unlike other similar walks we have done we also got a lot of wildlife.  Amongst others were woodpeckers, foxes, rabbits and ducks (although none of them said what’s up doc or were black with an orange beak and feet).  We almost got a glimpse of a beaver, and saw all the destruction this invasive species has wrought on the forest.

After 3 1/2 hours we finished our 8km hike at the park headquarters.  We brought a picnic but it turned out there was a very nice café there.  We had a hot bite during one of the rain storms, and then when it cleared up we decided to forgo the 15:00 bus back for the 17:00 bus.  This gave us another 2 hours to walk to the end of national route 3, the road to Buenos Aries.  This walk of course featured even more amazing scenery and this time some black swans.  We made it for our bus, which is just as well as it was raining again.

In the evening we went to a nice local restaurant to have some Fuegean specialties.  We didn’t have too much as we had to go to bed early for our bus tomorrow is at 05:00.

Ushuaia - January 4th

We booked a trip to see some penguins for today.  When we got up we had a shock, it was really sunny (at 6 in the morning, we have long days here), so our warm gear we were wearing is a bit redundant.  So is our iPhone as we find out that the local shops are all out of MicroSims for them.  Nobody is cutting up a regular one here.

Our trip to the penguins involves an hour and a half trip to a remote local ranch, which happens to be the oldest on the island of Tierra Del Fuego.  The scenery on the way was pretty amazing, and the tour guides actually had a number of photo stops built into the trip.  This is unusual where normally they want to get you to the objective and back as quickly as possible.  The transfer from the ranch to the island involves a very fast trip across the Beagle Channel in a Zodiac speedboat.  As we approach we see all the big ships taking photos of the penguins from offshore, but we were the envy of them all as we were able to land and get off.

Taking pictures of the penguins themselves was a lot of fun.  We were supposed to keep 3 metres away from them, but this proved impossible, they were everywhere.  We were within arm’s length of them on a number of occasions.  We spent an hour on the island, before we went the 5 minutes back to the ranch.  At the ranch we had a little time to look around, and see some sea-mammal skeletons in a little museum.  Then we got a bonus, normally our trip is one of two a day so there are some time constraints, but this time it was actually an extra third trip, and we had some extra time, so we went to a restaurant specialising in lamb barbeques where we had all we can eat Patagonian lamb.  It was delicious, if a little expensive.

In the evening after we recovered from the excitement of the trip we went to the Irish pub in town.  Here we had a few of the local brews, including their own green beer (not recommended) but there was a nice atmosphere.  The usual Irish stuff lined the wall, but the best (and strangest) thing was the R2D2 sitting by the door.

Ushuaia - January 3rd

If you don’t adjust your watch breakfast on our flight is at the reasonable time of 07:30, if you have already adjusted to Argentinian time then it is at the ungodly hour of 03:30.  Still as we are landing at 04:30 there is no choice.  We land fairly on time, and all things considered we are through immigration and baggage claim fairly quickly.  The airport in Ba is nice and modern, although we do have to exit to transfer by foot to the terminal for our domestic flight.  But although it is early in the morning it is bright and warm, so it’s not too bad.  In fact after check-in we have a drink sitting outside before we go through security.

The domestic terminal is quite busy, nearly all with flights going down to Patagonia.  Our flight is stopping in El Calafate before hitting Ushuaia.  This makes it a five hour flight, although the turnaround at El Calafate is actually very quick, under 30 minutes.  It is a tiny airport, but somehow all its flights for the day, ours and two other 737s, all land within 15 minutes, so it seems busier than it is.  With a window seat I also get quite a good view of some of the landscape, although as we approach Tierra Del Fuego we do get increasing cloud cover.

Ushuaia airport is a nice little airport, built in a wooden “Swiss Chalet” style rather than being the usual concrete and glass type you see.  However it is small, our little 737 fills the baggage reclaim, so I’d hate to see how the 747 pictured landing here would have fared.  We get a taxi into town and check into our hostel, which seems nice, although a bit pricey for what we have got.  But as we soon find out the town is quite pricey for a lot of things.

The rest of the day is spent checking out the town, and organising some tours and bus tickets.  And we even get a bit of shopping in, with Dorota starting as she means to go on.  Shopping is quite cheap, as the entire town is a duty free zone, but services, especially those for us travellers, are fairly expensive.  We ended up having such a big meal for lunch that we go to a local take away for some empanadas to eat in our room for dinner.

Madrid to Buenos Aries Flight - January 2nd

Today sees the reuniting of the team as we head off on our second leg of our trip.  My day begins very early as I’m on an early flight to Madrid, and Dublin Airport is packed with people returning after Christmas.  But the flight takes off on time and is fairly pleasant.  However I land in Madrid about 4 hours before Dorota because I didn’t really pay attention to the times.  And I soon discover two things; there are not many facilities on the land side of the airport, and the restaurant that is there is a bit expensive.  So I parked myself in front of arrivals and read until she arrived.

Once Dorota arrived and we had a bite to eat we actually didn’t have that much time, the check in for our flight had already opened.  So we checked in and went on the airside of the airport.  The facilities here are better but still expensive.  But we look around and then we decide to take our chances that we will be well fed on the plane, and so we skip eating any of the expensive foods.

The place is a nice large 747, and we seem to have landed in a premium economy class up the front of the plane because we have ample leg room.  And because the third seat in our group isn’t taken we have a lot of space, Dorota can even lie down in the evening.  So after a decent meal we try to catch some sleep so that we are wide awake for our 04.30 landing and transfer in the morning.