Days 47 and 48

Saturday 18^th December 2010 AND Sunday 19^th December

Woo hoo! We’re flying to Australia today. We got up with high hopes, checked out and headed back to BA’s international airport.

At check in we decided to play the honeymoon card again – it hadn’t really worked so far but it was worth a try! The lady at check in was lovely but informed us that the flight was full and there was nothing she could do for us. The couple next to us were being informed that they couldn’t even have seats together! The lady then slid the boarding passes across the desk and in a low voice confirmed that we were sat together in ‘better’ seats and told us to have a nice flight.

Thinking nothing more of this we set off in search of sustenance in the form of McDonalds. We did the usual airport shenanigans of baggage checks, customs (another stamp in the passport) and duty free before heading to the gate. Once at the gate we were cheerfully informed that the sunscreen and Clarins we’d just purchased we couldn’t take on the flight as they were greater than 100ml in size! But then as we had receipts and were demanding a full refund it suddenly seemed to be OK! Don’t mess with angry Suz in airports – this is the girl who has been known to don the entire contents of her case when they accused her of being over the baggage allowance when returning from Goa!

So when we finally boarded the mahoosive jet (with an upstairs and everything) I was barrelling down through 1^st, business class etc towards cattle class AKA economy. Suddenly Franky stopped saying, ‘ Er, Suz…. This is us’ and pointed to row number 37 in…. PREMIUM ECONOMY! Two plush armchair sized seats by the window with legroom galore,  proper cotton pillow-cased pillows and humongous blankets that were fleece on one side and cotton on the other. We checked our boarding passes and then checked them again… and gleefully leapt into the seats. We sat, feeling a bit like imposters, wondering how this good luck had befallen us! Franky wouldn’t even take his shoes off until we were taxiing to the runway in case it was all a mistake and we were asked to move. It wasn’t – these seats were ours for the next 14 and a half hours – yay!

We had the best flight ever. Great food and lots of it – beef fillet don’t you know!? Followed by chocolate icecream – mmmmmm! And some lovely Aussie pink sparkling Rose wine. Quantas rules!

I even managed about 4 hours uninterrupted sleep. Franky was in his element as I let him have the window seat since he can’t usually fit in those. The views were amazing as we flew over the Antarctic and could see the frozen sea breaking up into huge ice sheets. What was weird was although we were flying for 15 hours it never went dark and we crossed the international date line so on paper it look like it took 38 hours to get there!

We landed in Sydney…. in the pouring rain, a little later than scheduled at 6.30pm on Sunday 19^th December. We cleared customs, grabbed our bags and found Jacquie (from Peru leg of the trip) and her fiancé, Chris, waiting for us in arrivals with a ‘Welcome to Australia’ balloon and big smiles. It was awesome. Before we knew it we had been packed into the back of Chris’ car and whisked off to our hotel. The Altamont is a lovely little boutique hotel in Darlinghurst. There was champagne in the fridge for the honeymooners and a Christmas card from my folks on the bed – awww!

We had a rapid shower and change and then jumped back into Chris’ car to be taken across the harbour bridge to a fantastic restaurant on the North shore called Aqua. The views were stupendous – despite the pelting rain. We could see the harbour bridge and Opera house illuminated against the night sky. The food was befitting of the location. I had huge succulent prawns, followed by one of the best cooked steaks I have ever tasted – it just melted in the mouth, then pannacotta with summer fruits. We had no less than 3 bottles of wine – one red, one white and one dessert wine – and they were all yummy! Thanks so much to you guys for our first night out in Sydney it was cool!

On leaving the restaurant the rain had stopped long enough for us to grab a couple of pics of the great surroundings….

We were given a lightning tour of the sights on the way home (harbour and opera house) and learned that we are positioned perfectly between King’s cross – home to the prostitutes and Darlinghust ie: the gay village – glad we’ve got all bases covered! It was midnight when we arrived back at the hotel and we were happy to crash out after a mint first night in Sydney.

Day 46

Friday 17^th December 2010

Uurrrrgggghhhhhhh!!  Waking up after four bottles of wine is bad bad bad.

We woke up twenty minutes before we needed to check out to find almost all of our belongings on the floor of the room.

We decided that ignoring this looming horror and lay in the bed making “I need a drink and lots of medication” type noises.

When 10:00 (check out time) arrived we then faced a mad dash to pack everything away and check out, we needn’t have worried, the girl behind reception just took our keys and smiled.

Our flight was at 15:30 so we needed to be at the airport for 13:30, luckily this was all in hand as we had a transfer booked and paid for prior to drinking El Calafate dry of its red wine stocks. We meandered into town over the cute little “Beetlejuice” type bridge and found a café with the essential Wi-Fi sticker on the window. Suz ordered another omelette and asked me to check if the flight was on time. It wasn’t!

Not only was the flight not on time, it had been cancelled, Aerolineas are a shit airline, avoid at all costs! This is the second time they’ve cancelled our flight, both times have cost us a fair chunk of our own cash to rectify their mistakes. Grrrrrr!

The new flight they had put on without telling us was a flight via Ushuaia, otherwise known as the end of the earth – literally. We now faced a 1hr 20 mins flight to Ushuaia, an hour on the tarmac down there and then a 3hr flight to Buenos Aires, worse than that the flight was due to depart at 12:30, it was now 11:10 and we were sat in a café having breakfast…….. PANIC!!

Suz had noticed an Aerolineas shop on the main street so we shoved the remaining omelette in our hungry mouths and ran to the shop. I dashed inside in a mad panic to find a very relaxed assistant, I explained our plight and the lady told me that the flight had been cancelled and we ought to be at the airport. Really?? Thanks for that! I asked her to order us a taxi which she did, at a snail’s pace.

The cab whisked us back to the hostel to collect our bags and then on to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 11:40 I threw the taxi driver 100 pesos and thanked him for driving like a manic, we dashed into departures and everyone seemed very calm. We checked in and ended up sat around waiting to board. All that panic for nothing…

So we flew to Ushuaia, sat on the runway and then flew to BA. We then discovered we were landing at the international airport which was a fair ride, and hence hefty cab fair out of town as opposed to the central domestic terminal we should have landed at on our original flight. Grrrrr!

We arrived in BA at 18:00 and got another taxi back to the Art Factory, the taxi drivers in BA are thieves. We had been robbed off a couple of them already taking us “the scenic route” but this guy took the piss. We had arranged to pay 138 pesos (about £23) but he wanted us to pay 148 pesos (a couple of quid more) he told us as we left the airport and we ended up having a row all the way into town, I was hungover and had flew all over South America and was now facing being bent over by another BA highway robber. I politely requested that he shut his robbing little mouth and ignored him until the hostel where I gave him 150 pesos and waited for my change, obviously sensing that I wasn’t best pleased he gave me 12 pesos change, which was wise as Suz hadn’t gotten involved at this point! Lucky taxi driver.

We checked in and went upstairs for a beer where we found some other backpackers talking about how they couldn’t figure Buenos Aires out at all. We bonded over the weirdness of the nightlife and decided we would try and find the party tonight.

Me and Suz got changed and on the advice of the reception staff headed to Palermo where the party happens on Fridays. We found the Plaza Serrano and stopped in at a bar for tea (I say tea it was midnight). We ate up and looked around us to find everyone else eating and apparently waiting for the night to take off. We found another bar that was packed but again nothing really happening, people where eating and sat around again, we tried to muster up some enthusiasm but just couldn’t find any. By this time it was 01:30 and we were looking at another failed night out. We decided that maybe BA just isn’t our scene and hailed a cab back to the hostel.

Try as we might we just couldn’t figure BA out at all. Maybe we were looking for the wrong thing, our maybe we set our sights too high, either way BA’s night life wasn’t for us. We arrived back at the hostel and went to bed, knowing that Sydney’s night life was only a flight away…..

Day 45

Thursday 16^th December 2010

A free day in El Calafate! We woke late (ish!) and headed into the centre of town to a café / bar called Libro bar from some brunch. This was a cute book lined bar over looking the main street.

We grabbed a prime spot in two comfy armchairs and settled in for the day – literally!!! After an omelette (me – unbelievably!), a chicken sandwich (Franky) and some good coffee we decided that a bottle of wine would help the creative juices flow as we got down to some blog writing.

The wine was good, the music and ambience were great and we were up to date with the blog… so to celebrate we ordered another bottle. Hic!

By the time we’d polished that one off it was 6.30pm. We had already pre booked a table at a recommended restaurant for 9pm which put us in a difficult situation. If we went back to the hostel now we would more than likely need a Frank nap and thus wake up hung over in time for our dinner date…. Or we could just stay put. It wasn’t really a competition…. The third bottle was ordered.

After some perfectly acceptable behaviour….

We stumbled back to the hostel for a quick change and our transfer to the restaurant arrived. We had been told that Don Pichon was a in a great spot for watching the sunset, overlooking the lake and mountains. On arrival I was not happy to discover that the blinds had been pulled down over the complete wall of windows as the sun was streaming in from it’s low position in the sky and blinding the diners. We selected a table by the window and I instantly pulled the blinds up to see the vista – well that’s why we had come!!! And it was stunning!

We garbled the night away in a drunken haze (our 4^th bottle of red being ordered with tea!). I can even remember what we ate! I had lamb sorrentinos with tomato sauce – they are like pasta pouches filled with roast lamb – a testament to the numerous Italian immigrants who colonised Argentina in the early years. Franky had the steak (obviously!).

After dinner we were taken back to our hostel by the complimentary transfer completely unaware of the impression that Franky had made on some of the other diners.

The following day we were in a café getting breakfast when a Yank said to him, ‘ I was in the same restroom as you last night’ (when is that ever an appropriate opening to a conversation!?). He clarified this by confirming, ‘at Don Pichon, the restaurant’. Franky was caught so off guard all he could do was confirm that indeed we had frequented said restaurant and he had utilised the facilities during the visit. To this day we’re not sure what, if anything, had happened that made that visit to the restroom so memorable!

Day 44

Wednesday 15^th December 2010

Another early start but this is the last one for while, coming up we’ve got a free day tomorrow ( = lie in), a flight to Buenos Aires at a very reasonable 15:30 on Friday, a flight to Sydney at very sociable 13:05 on Saturday followed by eight days in Sydney with no plans, so we weren’t too perturbed by today’s early start (06:00).

I’d managed about four hours kip once “Fatboy Slim” had finished DJing so I didn’t really have much of an appetite, but I managed to stuff some toast down me as I was aware that first stop for food would be 11:00, not good for me, all that time without a meal.

Our transport arrived half an hour late, so my obvious first thought was …..

YOU BASTARDS, I COULD HAVE HAD ANOTHER 30 MINUTES SLEEP!!

I politely greeted our guide and settled in aboard the truck. The travelling time today comes in at a massive 10 hours round trip to Chile, plus all the travelling in-between sites at the national park once we arrive. I turned to my left to discuss today’s activities with Suz but she was already asleep, something she would manage a further 6 times today!

I got stuck into my new book (Lee Child’s “Gone Tomorrow”) and watched our driver clock up the kilometres – mostly it seemed in the wrong gear!

We arrived at the Chilean border at about 09:30 and from there it was another hour and a half to two hours to the National Park of Torres del Paine.

It was formed in 1959 and has been voted as one of the top 10 national parks in the world by the National Geographic Society.

The Paine Massif is a small mountain (not a local gang) system that formed some 12 million years ago, completely independently from the Andes, when magma penetrated through a crack in Magellan’s basin. With the passing of time sedimentary rock was pushed upwards. Part of the mountains are granite that has been carved out of the glaciers melting over millions of years and eroded by the harsh Patagonian weather so you get some quite odd shapes.

We stopped at the first viewing point to discover that the winds from the first day were back, and back with a massive axe to grind (maybe the wind had been kept awake by “Pete Tong” last night too). We could barely stand up it was so strong and the guide, bless him, was doing his best to describe what we were seeing, but the words were being stolen from his mouth by the wind and flown off across the lake!

 

The park itself is named after the 3 Torres (towers). They are so called because the granite is a bluish grey colour (Paine). They make up the iconic picture postcard shots of the park. This first stop should have given us our first sight of them. However, we weren’t destined to take these picture postcard shots as the clouds wouldn’t budge from the mountains – déjà vu of Machu Picchu at the sungate all over again! We could however, see the snow capped mountains in front of them including ‘the horns’.

We barely saw the towers all day – at one point the cloud lifted slightly to see the lowest one and half of the second but that was a good a glimpse as we got. However, the lakes were incredible, all sorts of shades of blue, from quite a milky turquoise to an almost navy blue, the turquoise one was due to the glaciers near by constantly rubbing against the quite soft rock and creating a power which turns the water milky turquoise, the further down stream you follow it, the more the sediment settles and therefore the clearer and darker blue it becomes.

These lakes are pretty unique and they are closed systems meaning they have an inlet but no outflow which should make them salty, but there not. Hmmmm? They have these weird unicellular type organisms that use the carbon dioxide in the water and release oxygen making calcium carbonate type masses in the process. Apparently this is how the whole world evolved millions and millions of years ago and there are only a couple of places in the world where they still exist.

The first stop was the Sarmiento de Gamboa Lake and the scenery was stunning. There were Condor flying over head (remember them from the blog back in Peru?) which was amazing to see in the wild, they very, very rarely flap there wings so they just sore overhead searching for grub, awesome! They are scavengers and only eat dead flesh – apparently they can’t hunt because they have feet like a chicken although much bigger and lack the ‘thumb’ claw – well that’s how our guide explained it!!!!

We also came across a pack?, heard?, bunch??? a load of guancos, which are part of the camel family. There are 4 members of the camel family in South America and now we’ve seen the guancos we’ve got the full house (others are llama, alpaca, vicuna). We got out of the truck (the guide told us it was too windy for explanations and stayed inside) and the guancos ran off, then they appeared to have a discussion, turned around and started walking back towards us, which was a bit scary.

Anyway two of them must have disagreed on what action to take and started having a fight, this seemed to take the onus off us tourists and we continued to take some snaps.

We had been forewarned that guancos will spit at you if they feel threatened (as they are part of the camel family after all). So if you don’t want to get covered in ruminated grass mulch don’t piss them off. Before they spit they will put their ears flat back against their heads…. So when this guy showed up we decided it was probably better to jump back aboard the truck!

We stopped for lunch next to a waterfall and the guide said if you want to sit outside and eat your lunch you are welcome to.

In 100mph winds? Er, no thanks mate, I think I’ll stay in the truck where the risk of a tree trunk hitting me in the face is significantly decreased.

Unbelievably some people (I think they were German or Russian) got out and had a picnic in hurricane conditions! Some people eh? And then the woman’s glasses got blown off her head (shock) and we all had to get out of the truck and search for them in a big line like you see the police do when there looking for stuff in fields. Yeah thanks for that you insufferable fool, why didn’t you just eat inside like everyone else, now I’ve got to remove a branch from my eye socket!

We actually found her glasses in case you’re bothered, I wasn’t.

After lunch we entered the national park where we were scheduled to go on a trek to Sierra Masle.

We began the trek and the guide told us that it would be 40 minutes instead of two hours due to the conditions. But, if we weren’t enjoying it after 20 minutes we could go back to the bus. 20 seconds in I was already not enjoying myself. I had to pull my hood so tight to stop it blowing that all I could see was my feet, when I did look up rain hit my face like stones and for every two steps forward I did one to the side.

20 minutes in the guide asked if anyone wanted to go back, me and Suz clarified the directions and took off, almost literally.

We saw the waterfall on the way back and almost blew away on several occasions and then we waited on the truck, everyone else went for a walk….. what on earth are these people on????

We dropped some people off at a hotel inside the park (yep they were staying the night, good luck with that) and headed back to the boarder. Suz has managed 200 pages of her book today and 6 naps, that’s how long we spent on the sodding truck.

We got dropped at the hostel at just after 21:00 and headed out for a quick tea in town then we headed back to the hostel for bed and some more Inbetweeners.

Day 43

Tuesday 14^th December 2010

Up for 07:30 today as we were getting collected at 08:00. We had breakfast in the hostel which was pretty good actually, cereal, toast and jam, fresh orange and coffee.

We boarded our transport for the day and headed west towards the Perito Moreno Glacier which is about 80km from the hostel. We arrived at the first look out point just after 09:00 and got our first view of the glacier. It’s set at the back of Lago Argentino and is absolutely stunning.

The most amazing thing about this glacier though is how accessible it is, its literally at the end of a road. If you wanted to go and see most others you would have a fairly big trek on you hands!

The view from a distance is spectacular as it sprawls up the mountain behind the lake, apparently it takes the ice at the back of the glacier 300 – 400 years to get to the front wall and eventually drop into the lake. It’s a stable glacier which means that it flows down the valley and calves off at the front edge at the same rate that it is forming as the snow falls in the mountains at the top. Like a river the middle of the glacier flows more quickly than the edges and it calves about 2m a day here. The edges only move about 13cm a day.

After this we were taken to the harbour for our boat trip (don’t you know). We boarded (embarked?) and set off across the lake.

The wind hadn’t settled any from the day before so we were delighted to be invited out onto the deck. The wind and spray cut through our clothes like a knife as we watched the glacier approach. The front walls are 60 meters high and it carries on for another 100 meters below the surface, although it doesn’t float, its actually sat on the rocks at the bottom. The boat took us up close to the moraine (front edge) which was hugely impressive with massive crevasses in the ice, some are 30-40m deep.

It’s very impressive indeed, listening to the ice crack off and fall into the lake, but it was bloody freezing! You could see some people on the glacier ready to go trekking, we quite fancied doing this but we were told that it would cost us about $150 (US) each so we thought better of it. We found out whilst on the trip that on the other trip you do everything that we were doing today plus the trekking, so we could have cancelled this trip, booked the one with trekking and made up the difference which would have been a lot more viable. Grrrr, Suz was not a happy girl.

We made our way over to the national park and were told about the routes and various lookout points.

We decided to do things in reverse so we went to the (empty) restaurant first and had cheese and ham pie. With the hope that we would then miss the crowds at each lookout point for the rest of the day and it worked!

We were stood at one of these lookout points when Suz turned to me and said

 “it’s big innit?”

“what?” I replied.

“Nature” she said

“yes darling, nature is big”.

We wandered around the various lookout points for a couple of hours and were lucky enough to see quite a few big bits of ice break off the glacier into the lake. The noise is deafening, like a fire work show and you have to be constantly watching as the ice falls before the sound reaches you, so if you hear the noise forget it, you’ve missed the ice falling.

Back aboard the coach we headed back into town and asked to be dropped of at the supermarket. We have to be up early again tomorrow (06:00) so we decided to eat in tonight and get to bed early. We bought the ingredients for Bacon, Pasta, Peas (my favourite dish from back home) some strawberries and ice cream, and yes a bottle of red wine. What? Were on holiday!

We went home for a siesta (well Suz did), Skyped my folks for the last time before we hit Sydney and then cooked up a storm at the hostel (slight exaggeration).

We took the remnants of the bottle of wine with us back to the room and watched a film on the laptop ( I Love You Phillip Morris starring Jim Carrey and Ewan Mcgregor), which wasn’t bad. Suz just about managed to keep her eyes open until the credits and then she was out like a light.

Somebody in the hostel had been annoyed enough by last night’s argument to retaliate tonight, with some hard house music! So I sat and read my book until they gave up. Yey!