Mar 2007

Here we are the the end of the world!! Literally, we are in Ushuaia which at the very bottom tip of Argentina. It is the the southermost town or city in the world and the base for most of the cruiseships that go to Antarctica.

Ushuaia is not really on the mainland but on an archipaelago called Tierra Del Fuego (translation meaning Island of Fire). This place was inhabited with peoples similar to the aboriginies of Australia. But the European gold diggers and Sea Lion hunters soon put paid to them with murder and disease. Gold panning was the business here. It is now tourism.

The weather is slightly more ¨fresh¨is here compared to the summer heat we´ve been used to so far - about 10 degrees during the day as the Antarctic breeze and snow capped Andes keep things pretty chilly. Jason thinks I am mad, but I am loving getting out the fleece and goretex and shopping for a beanie and gloves!!

Ushuaia is a fairly touristy town with lots of local excursions on offer. We ventured out on boat cruise on Monday to visit the penguin and sea lion colonies. The penguins were gorgeous, just like in the movie, Happy Feet! The sea lions are quite blobby, smell fishy and make some disgusting noises. Yesterday we did a hike in Tierra del Fuego national park, which was great. Wasn´t a particularly hard walk, quite flat really as it followed a lake along the bottom of the Andes. The scenery was just spectacular though. The end point of the hike is the border of Argentina and Chile, although I have to admit we were a bit disappointed when all that marked the border was a plastic orange witches hat type thing. Not sure what we were expecting (a ¨Welcome to Chile¨sign maybe??, or armed border officers.... he he...) but a number of other hikers also expressed their let down at the official border so it wasn´t just us!

Remember that TV show, Northern Exposure? That´s pretty much what Ushuaia looks like, very cute with chalet style houses, although without the moose walking down the street of course. Penguin are definitely the selling theme of the town, every shop sells penguin statues, jumpers with pictures of penguins on them, giant fluffy toy penguins dressed in hiking gear....and there is even a guy who dresses up as a penguin and walks down the main street.

Chat to you later.....Alli & Jason

After our trip to quaint little Colonia we arrived back in Buenos Aires to be greeted by similar weather to that we have just left.

The weather in B.A. was horrendous. Prolifically P-ing it down. We got a cab to a different hostel and stayed more central on Avenida Corrientes, the opera and cinema district of the city - only minutes away from the shopping and the sights.

The next morning we were ambling around relaxing and killing time for our Sunday flight (this was Friday am/pm) reading in parks and going down to Puerto Madero as the weather had vastly improved the following day.

Alli was walking along and heard her name. She turned around to see Marnie´s sister and her hubby who live in Sydney. It turned out they are on a similar expedition as we are. We met them later for dinner and drinks and wished them Bon Voyage.

On Sunday we got on our plane (eventually after being given the wrong ticket initially by the check in clerk) and got half way down the aisle. The usual Jason lack of patience at idiots kicked in as no one appeared to be sitting down. After several minutes and an extreme desire to push my way through the evident problem came to light. Double, treble and quadruple booking of seats. We had people in our seats who were in the wrong seats. It turned out there were at least 4 people with the same boarding pass and seat ticket allocation. It turned into a free for all seat grab.

After this was sorted the plane took off. Amazingly we only got to ushuaia an hour late but missed the sunset on the plane over the southern andes.

we got to our hotel and went for a beer and a walk. Alli loved the cold outside and liked to say she was too cold but enjoying it on several occasions. An Aussie who loves the cold!!!!!.

That´s all for now. Our next installment will be in a couple of days about Ushuaia - the southern most settlement in the world.

Laters

Jay + Alli

We left Montevideo by bus to Colonia Del Sacremento. A little over 3 hours and we arrived at our accommodation. A cheap enough place costing around US $13 each with our own ensuite bathroom and a decently comfortable homestay with a lovely host.

We spent a couple of hours thinking this was not overly "Sensational" as Lonely Planet said, until we hit the historical quarter or district. A square kilometer of beautiful colonial buildings, cobbled streets, churches, old wheels, horse and carts etc. This could have been the nicer areas of Spain, France or Italy but on the coast as it is a port and beach town. The sunsets were simply sensational.

We were there 3 days and had a blast exploring the local areas and watching my beloved Liverpool lose to Barcelona but go through with the locals. A man from Malaga was there supporting us as he hated Barcelona. He was a Malaga and Real fan.

Our last morning was spent in our room after breakfast watching a devasting storm until our cab arrived to take us to the ferry for our international boat trip across the water to Buenos Aires on a catamaran. The trip only took an hour and customs was done in one hit in Uruguay. Unbelievably the passage was smooth given the weather.

A simply sensational country that should not be overlooked....... We had not planned to go to Uruguay but we are so glad we covered the area for a week. Just goes to show, not all the best things you see are necessarily planned or thought about before you do them.

Another overnight bus delivered us to Montevideo, although this time we went first class and arrived in a bit of style!

Uruguay has been our favourite country to date, and Montevideo is a beautiful city. Quite small after the big city bright lights of Buenos Aires and Rio, and with a lovely, laid back feel. The city itself is attractive, very european feel to the architecture and parks dotted about the city. It is definitely more modern than Brazil, and the fact the temperature has dropped about 10-15 degrees has made walking around exploring so much more comfortable.

A street off the main square is where the nightlife centres - restaurants and bars with live bands every night so far. That being said, Montevideans don´t seem to go out for dinner or drinks until midnight or so, so things are a bit quieter pre-midnight when the bands generally get going. One night we saw a cool little cover band doing songs we both knew, last night [Saturday 3rd] we saw a local band who did more traditional south american music - sounded a bit like the Gypsie Kings!!

Today is our last day in Montevideo and sadly, it has been pouring rain all day so far, so we might not get to see much more of the sights, but tomorrow we´re heading a couple of hours west to Colonia del Sacremento which is a sea-side town for a few days. Hope the rain clears up before we hit the sights and beaches there!

Alli + Jason

We made our trip on the 27/02 to Porto Allegre with the initial intention of staying overnight before we moved on to Montevideo.

From Curitiba we left around 9pm and arrived 10am on an overnight bus again. Once we arrived, we both came to the immediate conclusion perhaps it would be best to get the next bus to Montevideo that left that evening. With a day to kill we dropped our luggage off and ventured into Porto. It was stinking hot and within 1 hour we were so glad we booked our onward journey.

We spent the day looking around at some reasonable architecture and people watching. I obviously overwatched an old lady who basically was absolutely, certifiably insane. She was yelling at me across a park avenue and literally doing the christ cross on her chest. This carried on for about 15 minutes. I don´t know if it was curiosity on my point or morbid enjoyment as I refused to take my eyes off her during the onslaught of which we could not understand a word of the portugese babble.

She made the mistake of laughing at some Uni student when something dropped out of a tree or a swooping bird scared her. She let out a cackle and laughed. The Uni student took great exception and was equally as crazy with this old witch - a very funny 10 minutes followed. After a few more crossings - a gentleman sat next to me got up and walked off saying crazy old woman.

We left her to it and whittled the day away waiting for our bus.....

Jay and Alli