Rebecca & Stephen's Trip: November 2006

Perito Moreno Glacier

The glacier was one of the highlights of the trip so far. There has been a lot of those so you can just imagine how spectacular the glacier is!

The glacier is 4 km in width and 14km in depth! On average it is 60 metres high above water level and 180 metres below. It is one of the only glaciers in Patagonia, which is not retreating. It moves nearly 2 metres a day but this is impossible to see as it loses mass at the same time. We stood and watched as huge blocks of ice fell from the glacier. The sound was incredible. We then took a boat trip to get closer. Why is the glacier blue? Read the following as I am sure you will notice it is not my words!

"White light travels on a long wavelength, blue on a short wavelength. Air bubbles in ice or snow absorb white light, thus appearing white, but the weight of this glacier, however, squeezes all the air out of lower levels, so white light cannot enter, only short wavelength blue. The more compact the ice, the bluer it gets; the cloudier the day the bluer too"

The boat on the right of the picture indicates the scale of the glacier

Huge chunks of ice fall from the glacier regularly.

Reunited!

We managed to meet up with those from the truck in El Calafate. It was great to see everybody again, particularly the group you see below. It was good to share a bottle of wine-any excuse!

Rebecca,Camilla,Stephen,Marius,Rachel,Siri and Lee-reunited!

Tierra del Fuego National Park

The National Park is about 30 mins from Ushuaia. With our friends Claire and Paul, we took the Costera Trail which followed the shoreline of the Beagle Channel before heading inland. Along the way on the shore in Zaratiegui Cove is a small post office run by an eccentric Argentinian man who took great delight in reminding us of England's loss in the rugby to his country just recently! After posting some cards, he pulled out some cups which we presumed were for a hot drink (still very cold here) but followed with a bottle of red wine...you certainly don't get that with the Royal Mail!

Gable Island, Beagle Channel

We took a canoe trip for two hours along the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia to Gable Island. The island lies in the Beagle Channel and is home to a penguin colony, which we managed to get really close to and was fascinating. After lunch at a refugio (basic shelter) we continued on foot exploring the island further for a few hours where we saw many beaver dams (a real problem as the beaver is not native and is now destroying a large number of trees) constructed as a natural defence against predators (of which it has none, but is not aware) We also had a good view of Puerto WIlliams on the Chilean side of the channel which is actually the most southern settlement in the world (but much, much smaller than Ushuaia)

Martial Glacier

The Martial Glacier sits above Ushuaia. We took a chairlift to the base of it and then walked for a while. It was hard to define where it was as it was covered in snow and you could not see the base. The glacier is, according to experts, expected to disappear in the next fifty years, due to global warming. It is very humbling to stand on a glacier, which you know may be gone, if we continue to damage our Earth.

An Ecuardorian guy and his family, who had never seen snow before. He was cycling down the glacier! They were a nice family, as they gave me and Stephen a lift back to Ushuaia, which saved a long walk!

The End of the World - Ushuaia, Argentina

Fin del Mundo! The southern most city in the world, Ushuaia lies at 54 degrees south next to the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Since leaving Quito two and a half months ago we have travelled through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina and this is as far south as we will go (as far south as we will ever go, in fact - unless that lottery ticket comes through and we'll be straight aboard a ship for Antarctica!) The town is a strange mix of people including travellers like us, burly fishermen and mad scientists. There is still a lot of snow on the mountains that surround the city and the wind is icy cold.

Punta Arenas, Chile (very chilly!)

After 4 great days in Buenos Aires (where we are heading back to for Christmas) we flew a mammouth 3 legged journey down to Punta Arenas via Santiago and Puerto Montt in Chile. Punta Arenas is really cold! We had snow flurries for the whole time we were there, quite a shock to the system after sweaty Buenos Aires. The seafood was great, really fresh and tasty.
The picture below is of us on the beach next to the Magellan Strait, which is quite a busy shipping area.

La Boca

We visited La Boca; a working-class district of BA. It was built by Italian immigrants and it is famous for its brightly coloured buildings on the street, Caminito (the name of a popular tango song)It is also the neighbourhood where Maradona grew up and where his favourite football team resides; Boca Juniors.

The colourful buildings on Caminito.

Stephen shows the ´hand of God´¨- a moment of forgiveness...?

Another couple dances tango but it is not the perfect couple yet...

Te amo Buenos Aires

We are now in Buenos Aires. It is an amazing city, which never sleeps. We will be back again at christmas. Stephen is working on finding a beautiful tango couple to take photos of, as he has struggled. They do exist...perhaps I will be one of them as I have already had my first tango lesson!

Cafe Tortoni. The oldest in BA, where intellectuals and policitians met in the past.

We stumbled across a movie being filmed. An action movie perhaps? We hovered around for a bit but we weren´t offered a part!

Antique pocket watches for sale on the market in San Telmo, a district of BA and the birthplace of Tango. Our favourite place in BA so far...

Evita´s (Eva Peron) grave. She inspired many argentinians in the 1940´s, mainly due to her charitable work.

The balcony of the presidential palace, known as Casa Rosada, from where Evita spoke to the argentinian people.

The fantastic markets of San Telmo on a Sunday.

A couple dance the tango in the streets of San Telmo.

We came across this tango singer. We think he may have been famous in his time as he has loads of pictures of himself in magazines-A real character.

Leaving the Truck in Santiago, Chile.

We have now left the big yellow truck . We had a fantastic time with everybody and hopefully we will meet with the truck in Calafate. Big thank you to Mel and Andy for a wonderful trip and all the friends we made for making the trip such fun. Take care and happy travels to you all. We have no suitable photos of our last party for the blog!!!

Crossing the Andes into Chile.

As we approached Chile, we drove through the Andes. Verwy humbling to be so close to the longest mountain range in the world. It has accompaigned us throughout our journey from Ecuador and now we were really close to them. We stopped to take pictures of the highest peak in the Americas.

Stephen stands before Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas.

Valle de La Luna ( Valley of the moons)

In a desert valley in Argentina, lies the Valley of the Moons. 180 million years ago water lay here, but over the years and change in temperature, the lakes dried up and desert and the strange rock formations you can see below, were slowly formed. Dinosaur bones have been found from the triassic period ( approx 180 million years ago) We did a tour of the valley at night, as it was a full moon. We were lucky to see the landscape lit up by the moon,reflecting the weird landscape before us.

Wine tasting in Cafayate, Argentina

From our camp in Cafayate, we rented bikes to explore some of the many vineyards in the area. Luckily the roads were pretty empty as some of our riding was rather wobbly towards the end! The wine was lovely and quite reasonable.