Ushuaia

Ushuaia is the city at the most southern end of Argentina and the loading port for the Antarctica trips. The call themselves the fin del mundo (the end of the world). There are plenty of things to do here. Jo and I went 4WD driving for a day. It was loads of fun as the drivers made sure they picked the hardest tracks and even let the car speed down a hill and into the lake. He was going óh no, no brakes, but we were not fooled! The scenery is fantastic, with snow capped mountains surrounding the city and the port of course. The lakes were also beautiful and it is the are where they ski and dog sled in winter. I imagine winter here is very cold. We had a very nice Argentinian BBQ.

Geoff and Conny joined us and we went to see Terria del Fuego which is the National Park here. Again more lakes and speccy scenery. We walked some in the park and sploshed through some mud and peat bog and had a very nice picnic by the lake.

Today is finally ship day. I was very excited last night when we saw the ship in harbour, it is starting to make it more real. I is a big ugly Russian ship that looks very boxy, but is allegedly stable. I am not looking forward to the sea sickness though.

So, I will report after I have seen some penguins, whales, seals and icebergs and played on the Antartic continent.

Speaking Spanish

I have the trusty phrase book of course, but I have discovered that speaking Spanish is rather easy, all you have to do is an on "o" on the end of every word. See if you can make out what these words are:

Oceano Atlantico
Aeropeurto
Discovero
Recommendo
Servicio

See it is easy!

Argentina tripping

Note to self...next time I fly Aerolingos Argentinas, take a snack. We left Sydney at lunch time to fly to Auckland. Any discerning person would call 12.20pm lunch time, but not this airline, it was afternoon tea time, so we only got a snack, by the time I got to Auckland I had to join the throngs of other Aussies lined up at Burger King to get some food! Luckily we got a meal on the next 11 hour sector. So after what seemed like many hours we arrived in Buenos Aires.

In my usual manner of distrusting taxi drivers, I was reluctant to get in the one where the man had bailed us up in the terminal, but he was in fact a real taxi driver and was really nice. In his broken English he gave us a little explanation as we arrived in the area near our hotel.

The hotel is in a main area where there is an obelisk on a big roundabout in the middle of the road, which made finding our way back rather easy. When we were lost I just asked someone where is the obelisk?

The main road is the biggest road I have ever seen. Each direction had 7...yes 7, lanes of traffic (all of them full at peak hour) and then on the side there was another 2 lanes for buses and exiting traffic. That is like an 18 lane road! We even managed to cross it without getting run over, though I suspect that they were not taught to drive by the Vietnamese!

We didn´t get to spend long in BA before heading south...to the fin del mundo (that is Spanish for the end of the world!) to a place called Ushuaia.

This pic is me at Everest

Just in case you were wondering ..this is me when I went to Everest. This is at the base camp on the Chinese side (aka Tibet!)

As you can see we had an awesome view that day. When we woke up the next morning it was snowing and Everest was nowhere to be seen!

Off again

It will come as no surprise that the grass certainly has not grown under my feet since my 'retirement' from GAP Adventures.

This time I am travelling for my own pleasure and will not be dragging around 15 not so willing participants, and I can be the one to ask the dumb questions for a change. A feat I have managed with great alacrity so far...Jo...where are we going? How are we getting there? How much money do I need?

I better switch my brain on soon, or there will be trouble.

So where are we off to? Antarctica of course! We leave Sydney 14th Nov, fly to Argentina, board our ship for an 18 night 'cruise' to the southern most extremities of the world, see penguins, whales, walruses and ice!

Then we are back to tour around Chile, Argentina and poke our noses into Rio De Janerio.

So don't expect my updates to get any more regular, but they should be alot more exciting!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Oh we will be back in Australia on 13 Jan 09!