Paaaaaatttttttaaaaaaaagggggggoooonniiiaaaa!!!

Hola Chicas,
Well we left B.A a week ago and headed South to Patagonia. This is truly an amazing part of the world. We flew 4 hours south of B.A to El Calafate. Here we stayed in a cheap little hostel, well someones house really. El Calafate is a little like a European ski village and is the base for visiting the Perito Moreno glacier. This was one of the most incredible things we have ever seen. The Glacier has two faces one that is 2km long and the other 1.8km long. In parts the glacier wall is 60 meters high above water and 110 metres below water. We went on a boat to get a closer look, you can hear the ice creaking and it makes an amazing sound when the ice falls into the water. It is one of the few glaciers that is not receding. We spent a day wandering around the town, the lake that flows to the glacier borders the town and is home to some pink flamingoes. It is impossible to go anywhere without been followed by at least 5 stray dogs, one of which we named Patch who seemed quite loyal!

After El Calafate we went on a bus ride for 5 hours further south to Puerto Natales (this is now in Chile) , this place felt a little bit more authentic compared to El Calafate. Again we stayed in someones home for a night and then went to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, we stayed in the park for two nights and did several really long walks. The ¨Refugios¨in the park were more plush than the hostels we had been staying in. We met some great people that we hiked and ate dinner with. Small tip, when in the presence of Brazilians and French men do not introduce yourself as Nigel. This invariably leads to Nigel Mansell and then a very lengthy debate about whether Alain Prost was better than Ayrton Senna, this got quite heated at times but was very entertaining for the neutral!!!

Today we arrived 3 hours further south and are now at the most southern part of our travels. We are still in Chile, in Punta Arenas. Arriving on Sunday during siesta time means that not a lot is going on! We have had a walk around and checked out the park, had lunch on a bench with the obligatory stray dog and have been catching up on deleting the crap from our email in boxes. We are hoping to do some kind of tour tomorrow, although the penguins have all gone for the winter, we are not sure where, the Brazilians were trying to convince us they have gone to Brazil but we are not sure!!! We found a thermometer in the town that ranged from +5C to -4C, it is a little above freezing at the moment, it is a good job we have plenty of warm clothes!!

Anyway folks we hope you are all keeping well and looking forward to seeing at least some of you in a few weeks time!
LOL
K&N
xxxx