World Adventures- Africa, the UK and South America

23.03.10

Crossed the border from Chile into Argentina, had to take all our gear off the truck to be x-rayed. Very tight border control, all fresh dairy and veggie had to be thrown out. Spent about 2hours at the border.

Drove to El Calafate arriving about 4 in the afternoon. Got our gear off the truck and into the dorm. I was in the 9 bed dorm on the top floor. It was a very nice hostel with heated floors, and I was glad to snag a bottom bunk. Dan asked if I was keen to check out the town, so we walked down the road to information, got a map, and then walked the length of the main street. Nice tourist town, lots of chocolate shops and outdoors shops, chocolate not as good as in Ushuaia tho. Went to the supermarket and bought veggies to make a stir-fry for dinner at the hostel.

24.03.10

Booked onto the Perito Moreno Glacier day trip, was picked up from the hostel at 8am and drove the back streets to get there. Stopped along the way to watch some condors and eagles flying and hunting. Stopped at a small farm on the way and some people got to feed a baby lama milk from a bottle, beautiful spot with the opportunity to buy coffee but I don’t think anyone did.  Got into the national park and jumped onto a boat to get up close to the glacier. Spotted some chunks of the glacier breaking off and falling into the lake, also got some amazing photos of the ice and the various colours within it. Walked the length of the board walk, which is still under construction in parts to extend it, and took heaps of photos of the Glacier. Its hard to actually judge the size from the photos, it was huge, however I did manage to get at least one picture with the double decker boat in the pick dwarfed by the glacier in front of it.

Got back from the glacier late in the afternoon and ended up going out for dinner in town, and taking advantage of the WiFi in the restaurant.

25.03.10

Drive morning to El Chalten, arrived about 1pm. Slack day, relaxed at the hostel. Walked around town, went to the waffle shop across the road and got lunch and a very RICH hot chocolate.

It was the birthday of one of the boys on the truck and many members of the group got drunk. Eilish and Chelse spent the entire night hassling me about Dan, going on about how much he likes me, repeating many coments that he had made to them. People had been asking me for over a month if I was interested in him, and my answer was always the same, no, no I am not, no more than as a friend. I think it’s the fact that there are so many couples on the trip- they all seem to take delight in the idea of me and dan getting together, regardless of how many times I said that im not interested. This particular evening it got to the point that Chelse was sitting between Dan and myself asking me to hook up with him because he ‘really really likes you’.  It was completely embarassing, it felt like being back in year 8 at high school, it also meant that I was forced to have a conversation with Dan to the effect that I am not interested in him in that manner, that im happy to hang out with him as a mate- but nothing further is ever going to come from it. The whole episode ruined my evening, and I went to bed instead of going out with the group.

26.03.10

I booked onto a half day ice trekking trip and was picked up at 8am. We took a boat out onto the glacier, spent 10mins walking over the rocks, and then reached a point where we could attach our crampons and walk along the ice. The main guide had very good english, and spent a lot of time explaining about the size and decline of the glacier, as well as other relevant environmental factors. We had about 1.5hrs on the ice walking about in total, and it was a lot of fun, but disappointing that they limited our movements to the edge of the glacier while other groups went for an actual ‘hike’, as suggested at the time of booking. If I had to describe what we actually did, it would be more of an ice wander. Despite the disappointment in lack of activity on the ice, it was amazing to get up close and personal with the glacier, see all the blues in the ice, the 20m drops between broken fragments of glacier, and actually use a set of crampons. We had lunch on the rocks just before the boat came back to collect us, and then were returned to the hostel.

When I got back to the hostel I decided to do the Fitz Roy hike, which was meant to be a 3 hr round trip to the first view point. There was no one to hike with, again, so I set off alone, letting the people chilling at the hostel know that I had gone for a hike. It was a beautiful walk, in fact I would say it’s the most beautiful hike that I have ever done, I throughly enjoyed every single second of it !!  It was somewhat steep, no more than the 1000 steps, and it exposed a beautiful valley with a river running through it for the first half, and the amazing mountain range known as fitz roy in the second half. The sun was out for most of the hike, and there was lots of shade from the trees along the way, I would say it was the highlight of my day, especially given how annoyed I was the previous evening, this walk completely elevated my mood.

That evening was a BBQ at the hostel, it was not cheap, but was talked up by our tour leader so we all booked for it. It was probably one of the worst BBQ’s that I have been too, there just was not enough food for everyone, and the people sitting next to me made comments about the fact that I had taken two pieces of lamb (one nice piece and one that had so much fat I didnt get any meat out of it). It was another downer of an evening as the negative comments I kept feeling were directed directly at me from one of the girls, a girl that frankly I don’t think that much of- almost impossible to hold a conversation with, and only interested in the company of her fiancee. I have never seen someone so self involved in public with their other half.

27.03.10

Dive day all day, approx 12 hours, camped in a quarry on the side of the road.