Patagonia

Got back from Patagonia on Friday. It was a fantastic couple of weeks, spent mostly eating (or so it feels), though there was some hiking too. The group was really good fun, except for one rather wierd guy who went crazy at the end. Again I was the youngest one by some years. There were: Ann, 58, a lovely Austrailian nurse with heaps of energy travelling the world after the death of her husband; Olivia, 33, a fantastic Irish girl who made me laugh almost as much as the previous Irish trio; Kate, 27, a really nice Harvard medical student who'd been working in hospitals in South America; her brother Dan, 30, a cute lawyer who'd enjoyed near-celebrity status as a contestant in the US reality show "For Love or Money" (hehe); Rudy and Cecile, 45 and 37, a Swiss couple who had sold their restaurant in Interlaken to travel round the world; Nina, my roomie, 29, an engineer from Austria; and finally Sean, 33, a health-freak working in computers for Meryl Lynch in New York.

Much of the south Patagonian landscape is desolate, with little vegetation, so scrubby nothingness stretches out for miles, into distant snowy mountains and interrupted by the odd lake or river. It reminded me of Iceland. In both places, long grey winters characterised by lots of snow and little daylight make the people long for colour to brighten up their lives, so they paint their sturdy houses in bold clashing colours. Bright pink and yellow was a popular combination. The towns also have a very alpine feel, no doubt owing to the European roots of most Argentinians, who sought to bring something of the mountain resorts of France, Austria and Italy to their new settlements. They are very modern though, and clearly oriented to empty the pockets of the countless tourists who pass through on the Patagonia trail. The small town centres are filled with shops selling souvenirs and cold weather hiking gear, tourist agencies advertising tours to the glaciers, cosy coffee and yummy chocolate shops, and plenty of bars and restaurants offering giant steaks and local beer.

Our first stop, El Calafate, was a collection of garishly coloured buildings stood together on the banks of a lake in the middle of nowhere. We had a day or two there to explore the gift shops, drink hot chocolate, watch a bizarre rugby tournament and fend off the countless stray dogs who seem to populate the streets of every Argentinian town. Next was the Perito Moreno glacier. It is incredible. At 250 square kilometres in area and 30km in length, it is the most famous of 48 glaciers in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. We had a boat trip to the terminus of the glacier, which advances into Lago Argentina, but towers 60m above the water at its end. Most remarkable is the colour of the ice: a bright turquoise blue, resulting from compression to such an extent that all of the oxygen is squeezed out. Mr Roberts would be proud that I remembered that from my geography lessons. It was freezing on the boat, but I didn't let numb fingers stop me from taking a silly amount of photos. (Must get round to posting them on the web sometime.)

Our second stop was El Chaltén, a tiny town in a valley next to a popular hiking area at the base of the Fitz Roy, the highest mountain in Patagonia at 3375m. The mountains and valleys weren't quite as impressive as those of the Cordillera Blanca in Peru, but were no less beautiful. Coming right at the end of the hiking season, just as autumn was fading into winter, not only did we have the trails to ourselves but we saw the park at it's prettiest. The snow had begun to fall, but the trees had not yet lost their leaves, so the fiery reds, oranges and yellows of the Patagonian vegetation blazed across the valleys, contrasted perfectly by the sparkling white of the fresh scattered snow, the dark greys of the rocky mountain peaks, and the striking blues of the small lakes. We walked through decidous forests and by babbling streams and picnicked on the pebbled shores of a lake with views of blue-tinged glaciers carving more shapes into the mountains above. We stayed in a cute little hostel run by a friendly Argentinian called Marcelo, but we managed to break their toilets and the woman who did our laundry managed to destroy our synthetics. Or rather, Ann broke their toilets and they destroyed her laundry. It provided lots of giggles anyway. We spent the evenings (just as we spent every spare moment) eating, as well as sampling the yummy local brew. Except Sean, who was tee-total and walked out of a couple of restaurants with no apology because he claimed to have detected a whiff of cigarette smoke.

From El Chaltén we crossed the border by bus into Chile and stopped in sleepy Puerto Natales, half of whose residents seemed to have already left for the winter. Our hotel was very interesting, with every room decorated in pastel pink, from the bedclothes, wallpaper and curtains to the frills on the toilet. From Puerto Natales we spent three days hiking in the Torres del Paine national park, full again of glaciers, mountains, forests, rivers and waterfalls, with a great guide called Mariano. We saw hundreds of giraffe-like guanacos, the Patagonian relative of the llama, and, best of all, several condors soaring majestically above us. After so much talk of them, and seeing only one in Peru, I'd considered them to be some kind of rare mythical creature, but we saw plenty down here. Mariano pointed out a condor nest in a niche in a rocky valleyside, noticeable because of the white smear of condor crap just below it. Waking up in the campsite to views of the mountains illuminated in pink and yellow by the early morning sun was pretty special. And camping was much more comfortable than I'd expected - definitely didn't need the extra sleeping bag I'd packed just in case. Sean complained of the cold sleeping on his own though. I don't think camping is really his thing. Whilst the rest of us were happy enough to rough it for a few days, he insisted on taking 2 showers per day. The night we returned to Puerto Natales the owners of the frilly pink hotel cooked us a lovely meal and we celebrated our tour leader Ursula's 30th birthday with cake and candles. We had the place entirely to ourselves, and the family got out their guitar and sung typical songs and danced for us all. (Except Sean, who went to bed straight after dinner.)

Punta Arenas, on the shores of the Estrecho de Magallanes, or the Magellan Straits. We were supposed to have an excursion to see penguins from Punta Arenas, but unfortunately all the penguins had migrated already, to go and lay eggs and start marching in Antartica or something. Very disappointing. I was soo excited about seeing penguins. So instead we wandered down to the "beach", fended off more stray dogs, wandered round some more gift shops, and ate lots. Whilst it's true that steaks are the main feature of the cuisine down here (and everyone in the group agreed that they were the best steaks they'd tasted), it really isn't too difficult to get veggie options. I had some yummy pizza, pasta and salads. In the evening, Rudy and Cecile supervised a group cooking session, which was very successful. Sean refused to eat what we'd prepared because the pasta was white and not wholemeal, despite the fact that he ate loads of white bread for his lunches.

We had a long bus ride down to Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world, on the shores of the Beagle Channel on the island of Tierra del Fuego. It was made just about bearable with music, my book and (of course) snacking, and we got some entertainment from a couple of hungover Americans boasting loudly about their sexual conquests. Olivia grossed the entire bus out when she opened a bag of day-old cabbage. Ushuaia is an interesting city, with that familiar mixture of alpine shop fronts and garishly painted buildings. Behind the city are white snowy mountains that most of the time are engulfed in low grey clouds, and in front is the harbour, full of tour boats and cargo ships. We took a trip on a boat to the islands of Tierra del Fuego and saw colonies of sea lions and cormorants. I'm glad I took a sea-sickness pill, it was pretty rough. One of the museums is very interesting. It's called the maritime museum, but as well as displaying the history and artefacts of famous maritime explorers and Antartic expeditions it has exhibits about native life and culture, the history of Ushuaia, the oil industry, penguins, the prison of Ushuaia and its convicts, and pictures of prisons from all over the world, in a very random order. The museum is based in the former prison of Ushuaia, which served as a penal colony for the worst offenders in Argentina. Notoriously, the prison required only a thin fence for security since escapees were forced to return by the isolation and harsh climate of its location. Dan, Kate, Nina and I went hiking in the national park, and discovered a delicious vegetarian take-out place where we got lunch for each of the three days we stayed there. I was very happy! Next door, too, was a chocolate shop called the Edelweiss, with really amazing chocolate. In honour of Olivia we all (except Sean) went to an Irish pub one night, which seemed the place to be. The boastful Americans from the bus were there, as well as the other tourists from our boat trip, and the familiar mix of Americans and Israelis. Dan had to avoid the attentions of a local man with dodgy hair, and when the others left Olivia and I were approached by the remaining men as if they hadn't seen women in weeks.

We were due to take a flight back to Buenos Aires at 2.30pm on Friday, but it was delayed. SEan was due to take a flight back to New York at 9.45pm that night. He got very stressed that he might miss his flight and took it out on Ursula in the common room of the hotel in the presence of the rest of us and the hotel staff. He yelled that it was her responsibility to make sure that he got his flight home, and that GAP had promised him he would be ok. Nina and I left when it all started getting nasty, but apparently it got worse. He tried to involve the rest of the group, and when they refused to agree that Ursula was in the wrong he turned on them too, including Rudy and Cecile who he'd been following around like a puppy for the entire trip, and who'd been too polite to tell him to leave them alone. He insulted Ann so much that she slapped him, and the hotel were on the verge of calling the police. He refused to talk to any of us after that. He did miss his flight, and had to stay in our hotel in Buenos Aires and catch a flight the next day. Fortunately we didn't encounter him again, but we had a good gossip about how weird he was. He hadn't spoken to his parents in 10 years and had no desire to get in touch with them, which I think is always a bad sign. Dan reckoned he was homophobic, and it seems that he slept in a chair in the common room in El Chaltén to avoid having to sleep in the same dorm as Dan, despite Dan making it clear early on that he was straight. He told Rudy he feels uncomfortable around women, but was always boasting to the rest of us about the women he'd had, and once said that unless he leaves a bar with a woman the night has been a waste of time for him. He was an interesting guy to talk to but I think he's got OCD and probably a lot more problems besides!

Friday night was great fun. We went to a tango show, which made me sure I want to learn salsa when I head to Bolivia, and then for a drink, before Olivia and I went out to a club. Olivia found us some Irish guys to chat with, and somehow we passed the time until about 6.30am. We got back to the hotel just in time for breakfast before bed. I woke up with 2 fire extinguishers on the dressing table and very wet clothes from splashing around in the swimming-pool-type water feature in the club. Did not have the energy to go out last night, so had a very nice night's sleep. I'm in a hostel at the moment, the "party hostel". When I checked in at 2ish, my roomates were sleeping. When I went to bed at about 10.30pm, they were getting up and ready to go out. When I was waking up at 9ish, they came back and went to bed. I reckon you'd be jetlagged after a few nights of Buenos Aires nightlife. I'm off to a football game this afternoon, yay!