Today, Julee, delivered on her promise and gave me a great wooly hat that she had made. It's forest green and kinda chunky in it's stich (I'm sure the stich has a proper name, but I don't know what that it is, so let's call it "The American Chunk Stich")
This makes Julee my favourite American of the week.
If you are American and you would like to become, my favourite American of the week, then please make or buy a gift and send/give it to me. Let's not beat around the (dubbya-)bush here, the more expensive it is, the better chance you got!
God bless America.

Saturday: Julee's birthday, one or two drinky-poo's are well in order.
Sunday: Recovery
Monday: I will continue learning nothing, when I hopefully start another weeks Spanish lessons.

Hostel One - Bit of a shit pit decide to move. Book the three of us (Lindsay, Julee and me) into hostel 2
Hostel Two - Julee arrives and they tell her there is no space, even when she has booking. She moves on to hostel 3
Hostel Three - Lindsay and I will stay at hostel 2 tonight as we couldn't face another move, but will join Julee tomorrow.
What a palava!

Lindsay: Staying at the same home-stay in Bariloche whilst learning Spanish. With a slightly southern accent Lindsay refers to groups of more than two people as "Ya'll". Lindsay has started stalking me now, leaving Bariloche at the same time and just 'happened' to book the same hostel. Yesterday, when we arrived, I took the top bunk, but Lindsay very kindly gave up her bottom bunk when I contracted the Bubonic Plague. It was a good job as just 20 minutes later I had to do the bathroom run.
Also yesterday, before I became a victim of the black death, Lindsay and I went our seperate ways in the afternoon. I went to the internet shop, the supermarket and watched telly. Lindsay, however, went for a walk in the park with a porn star. Now that's impressive!
Julee: Julie used to stay in the same home-stay in Bariloche, but on her return found Mente's house to be full. She started another two weeks lessons at the school and will come to Mendoza tomorrow when her course finishes. Julee has a rather unhealthy obsession with wooly hats, even buying bent needles to make a range of tea-cosys herself. What is exciting is that she is going to make me a hat which will be really useful when I head back into the Andes this winter (summer for you Northern Hemispherers) Julee celebrates her birthday on arrival in Mendoza (this Saturday) and Lindsay and I will help celebrate in style

This time it has NOTHING to do with drink! Last night I was revisited by my dinner. I didn't really want to see it again, but it came back to say hello.
Today I feel really groggy. As we (American Lindsay and I) arrived yesterday in Mendoza, and I have something not dissimilar to the black death, we have not seen much of the city. But with Julee (another bloody American) arriving tomorrow, and it being Julee's birthday, I think we may see the inside of one or two of Mendonza's watering holes. (That is, if I am over the Bubonic Plague)

The night was spent in Refugio Italiano, a very small hut that sleeps as many people that can squeeze on to the floor space in it's one roomed penthouse suit. At one end of the room, two rows of mass-bunks had been made (basically a long table with matresses along the floor underneeth (the bottom bunks) and a row, side-by-side and no space, along the top. I had a top bunk middle section bunk and had Julie to my left, and some random bloke who kept kicking me, to the right. The rest of the floor space is covered in matresses like a crazy puzzle and if you happened to be in the corner you had to try and get to your bed stepping on as few people as possible.
It was warm and comfortable, but not very restful. So much noise, people going to bed and getting up at all sorts of hours, snores, sneezes, farts and coughs pretty much made it impossible to get a good nights sleep.
The next moring we had brilliant sunshine and blue skies yet again. We went for a walk to the top of the peak that forms a horseshoe shapped backdrop to the refugio and lake. From the ridge incredible views of montains, valleys and lakes spread out in all directions, The camera went into overdrive again! It was a hot walk though as we didn't set out until 11:30, so we were walking in the mid-day sun. We spent about an hour at the ridge and then walked back down to the refugio. After a very nice lunch we set off, on the walk back home, a four hour walk back down the mountain. It was a great walk, and I have noticed that I am getting a little fitter, I no longer think I am going to die after walking for an hour on a gentle slope, I am able to speak as quickly as 6 hours after walking for more than an hour and my feet no longer fuse with my socks after walking further than the bus stop. Which is good news as the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is FOUR DAYS LONG!

Laguna Negra is a small mountain lake 1650m above sea level. Upon which is the small refugio italiano. (over night hut). The trail starts after a 40 minute bus ride from Bariloche. The group consisted of... Ricardo (the guy who runs the Spanish school) Lyndsay (an American girl who is staying in the same family house as me), Julie (another American, who used to stay in the same house, but has returned to do more lessons at another house), Nelly (a German girl staying at our house), two of Ricardo's friends and lickle ole me.
The trail is amazing, starting off with soft ground and pine forests, that open up to more ancent woodlands that follow a bolder strewn river. Then the path wraps itself around the base of one peak and heads to the base of a wall of rock. Here you have a choice, the hard, but fast path, or the slow easier path. I opted for the hard but fast path. Although you never really had to pull yourself up with your arms, you needed both hands free to hold and ballance along some pretty damn small paths along the edge of some pretty damn high cliffs! Now, Ricardo, Nelly and Julie had taken the easy-long path, so imagine our surprise as we hoisted ourselfs up over the last ridge, to see him and the girls, beer in hand, waving and smiling at us. The hard but quick path aint so bloody quick after all, it fact, it should be names just the 'Hard' path. But the views were magnificent.

I know I've mentioned it before, but everything happens so bloody late in Argentina.
Last night we met the rest of the school for dinner at 9pm. The restaurant was busy, so we were told to come back 30 minutes later. We went for a coffee, returned and had to wait another 20 minutes before we were seated (none of this bothered anyone, I add it for drama) The meal was stunning. I ordered steak, which comes in 'one portion' and 'half portion' sizes. As I was feeling a tad fammished, I opted for the one portion size. Imagine my surprize, however, when I was served with half a cow. It was MASSIVE and when I say massive I mean MASSIVE. It came in three bits, and each bit was as big as a normal steak in a normal restaurant. I kinda did feel a little sorry for the couple of veggies at our table, they had a salad with chips (ummmm tasty!).
I didn't make it to the club that night, after the restaurant, we went to Pilgrims, to have a few and the rest went on to the club, I left them at this point because we were doing the weekend treak and I knew I couldn't do both. I got home early at 3:30am

I am very sick so I missed school today. I think I picked up a bug somewhere. I don't think it has anything to do with the bottle of red wine and tequila I consumed last night for St Patricks Day.

I have booked a bus to Mendoza for next week. The lady who was not a day under 800 years old, didn't speak any English (and quite rightly so) so we kind of stuggled with my spanish, until another shop assistant came in and saved the day with his English.
After my 31 Arseholes (see below) I was afraid I was being quite rude without knowing it. The key about learning a new langage is practice and confidence, I have not practiced that much and I have no confidence in my new tounge. Ah well, it will click!

Happy St Paddies Day to you all.
Not much is happening her at the moment. I still continue to be dazed and confused by my Spanish lessons. One thing I have to learn in a hurry is the spanish word for year.
Años.
Not too difficult you may think, but it the pronunciation of the word that will get me in to trouble.
Años should be pronouced An - yos
I pronounce it An - nos which means ANUS!
So when asked your age, you say "I have 31 years" but, I keep saying "I have 31 arseholes"

Everything in Argentina (and Latin America in general) happens so late. Dinner isn't until 9:30pm and on Friday night you don't think about going to the pub until at least 11pm. The night clubs don't open their doors until 2pm and walking home in the morning light is expected!
I went to one of the Bariloche clubs on Friday and it was excellent. Whiskey and coke (because that's all I know to ask for) is served in a half pint glass at least half full of whiskey! Latino music pumps out at a floor pounding level and everyone just moves like they had liquid joints. It was a great night.

I must admit I am struggling with the Spanish lessons. It's hard for me as I am a 'maths' person. I am learning alot about English though! I think I may stay another week, maybe two, to see if I can at least get a basic grip of Spanish.

*** 201 New Photos in total: Antarctica Index ***
5 New Photos: The Drake Passage
22 New Photos: Penguin Island
23 New Photos: Iceburg Ally Sunrise
39 New Photos: Ice Walk - Including mugshots of some of the passangers
14 New Photos: Devils Island
9 New Photos: Brown Bluff - First Continent Landing
12 New Photos: Hannah Point
17 New Photos: Bailey Head - Penguin Rookery on Deception Island
20 New Photos: Deception Island - Whalers Station and Antarctic Dip
40 New Photos: Paradise Bay

Most hostels offer laundry service, and as the Antarctic boat service was very expensive, I had used almost EVERYTHING when I arrived back on dry land. So I gave my washing in to be laundered.
I arrived home that evening to find, to my horror, a kitchen full of backpackers cooking their tea, with my laundry drying from bits of string randomly stroon around the room. One girl at the wood-burner oven had my pants dangling just above her noodles. Not a pleasant thought. I had to wait until the room emptied before I could collect my washing as I was too embarressed to let anyone know I owned the clothes.

I have arrived in Bariloche and settled very well in to my new home for the next two or three weeks. I am staying with a family in the heart of the town. It's a really nice house (quite posh really) and I have my own room which is roomy and homely. It's just mama and youngest son at home, but there are two other students staying in the house.
It's quite hard not knowing any spanish at the moment as Mama knows no English and the son only knows a little. But that's the whole point. I need to hear and learn Spanish.
I have been to 'school' for two days now. As with anything, it's a struggle to begin with. Hopefully I will start to pick something up soon.
I've not seen much of Bariloche so far. The beautiful weather continues, with blue skies and sunshine every day so far and a nice crisp 12 to 15°c. I'm sure this will change by the weekend. We have already had two 'school trips' organised. The first is Thursday afternoon where we will be taking the local bus to a mountain lookout over the city. The cath is we have to learn all the Spanish needed to buy tickets and lunch before then. Start with the simple stuff.

Back over the border today in to El Calefate and Argentina. The bus ride was quite long and hot. I arrived at 2pm and was pounced upon by the hostel workers trying to sell me trips for the next few days. I explained that I was leaving early tomorrow and they offered one leaving at 3pm. I was very tired, but I also heard that the Glacier was well worth seeing. So back on to a bus for a two hour ride into Los Glaciares National Park.
It was well worth going, even after seeing all the Glaciers in Antarctica. What made this different was where you could view it from. Imagine a long thin lake with a kink in it, making it look like a boomerang. On the outside of this kink a glacier spews into the lake head on.
Now apparently Glaciar Perito Moreno is quite famous because every now and then (8 times in the last 100 years) the glacier completly cuts the lake in half and blocks the flow of water. Pressure builds up in one side as the other side drains. Then 'The Big Crack' happens and it all gives way, cause a 30 metre high tidalwave on the low side. Apparently scientists said it wouldn´t happen again, but they were wrong. We stood on the side of the mountain that forms the inner kink of the boomerang, and below us, stretching into the distance was this massive wall and river of ice. It groaned, cracked and thundered as huge 40 metre slabs of ice calved in to either side of the lake. We stood for nearly two hours watching it. It was very impressive. No one knows when the 'The Big Crack' will happen. The North end of the lake is already 10 metres below the level of the south. If my experience of the calving is anything to go by, 'The Big Crack' will happen as I' changing my bloddy camera lens!

Torres Del Paine was fantastic. I was a little worried that after Antarctica, South America would be a little lame, BUT NO! It's just absolutely stunning. I did a tour on day one and got dropped off at the start of the one day walk in the evening. The plan was to over night in the refugio (cabin) and then do the one day walk on day two, getting the evening bus back to Puerto Natales. It didn't quite happen like that... The hostel was full so my booking was for the next hostel, TWO HOURS WALK away UP (and I'll say that again UP) a mountain. At it was already 6:30pm I had visions of me walking over the edge of a cliff in the dark and only being found as the Condors leave my skeletal remains the next morning.
It didn't help that they gave me information on the Puma, which included what to do if you come across a Puma ...
1) Do not run
2) Shit your self
3) Back away slowly, never turn your back
4) Wave your arms in the air and scream wild things so you don't look like pray.
5) Puff out your arms to make you look bigger

Two things spring to mind
a) I only made point 2 up, the rest were really on the leaflet
b) It didn't say what to do if any of these things didn't work.

So with every rock a Puma, and the sun already behind the mountain, I set out at a hell-of-a-pace to try and make it to the second cabin.

It was all up hill, after about ten minutes I was talking to myself, loosing 4 pints a water a second and resting every 30 seconds or so. I promised myself that if I made it I would get fit.
I really did see condors gliding in the upwinds of the mountain.

There were no flat bits, it just went up and up and up.

If Frodo could do it, so could I...

Near the top I met a couple coming down. They looked slightly concerned at the site of a half melted mumbling idiot, unable to speak, coughing and trying to gasp on an inhaler. "Just five more minutes up and then it's down hill to the cabin, about 15 mins" they said. This was music to my ears, though it was hard to make out any sound over the pumping of my own heart, trying to circulate the little oxygen getting through my overworked lungs. I nodded, thanked them as best I could and waved them on.

I made it one hour and twenty minutes, which impressed quite a few of the walkers already there. I had about an hour of light to spare, and the cabin had a kitchen where they served dinner, so I didn't even have to eat the stale sandwiches which I had made for tea.

The rest of the walk the next day was made at a much steadier pace. It was well worth the drama (although I may have dramatised a little more than was necessary when retelling the story). Torres Del Paine was stunning and I have plenty of snaps to prove it.

Because I was two hours ahead of the pack, I managed to get up to the top and have it all to myself for about twenty minutes before the steady stream of tourests piled in. After a week of rain and fog I woke to blue skies and sunshine and had clear views of the peaks. Yet again, I've been extreamly lucky with the weather.

Happy 30th Birthday to Natalie my sister
and congratulations to Hayley another one of my sisters who had a baby, Connor Jay a 9lb2oz chubster who according to Hayley doesn't like the water.

Love and hugs to you both.

I arrived in Puerto Natales last night to a beautiful sunset and woke this morning to pouring rain. I start two days of tours tomorrow in the Torres Del Paine National Park, so today I have spent most the afternoon in the internet cafe, trying to respond to the emails and starting to catch up on the Antarctica part of the journey. As this will take a wee while, I have seperated the Antarctica Diary from the rest of this weblog, the shortcut is on the menu.

Photo's will follow shortly.

American Kristin, who I met at Alba's Hostel before my Antarctic trip and who was on the Professor Molchanov's sister ship to Antarctica at the same time as us, was sat next to me on the 15 hour bus trip from Ushuaia to Puerto Natales (she changed busses 3 hours shy and went to Punta Arenas). Talking to her about Antarctica and comparing trips made the journey go much faster. Thanks Kristin!
The scenery was stunning to start with, misty covered mountains and lakes and fine weather, but this flattened out to vast grassy plains and heavy pregnant skies. It didn't change for about five hours but the moody skies and thunderous light made the view fantastic.
We had to all get off the bus at the Argentinian border to have our passports stamped, this took about an hour and a half. Then back on the bus and about a ten minute journey to the Chillian border control where we had to repete the process.
A japanise girl strangely ran full speed into a field at the border crossing. As far as I could make out, she wanted to take a picture of a lone tree on a desolate plain. She took her photo and started to run back but was met by border guards in a 4WD. She returned to the bus puffed out and red in the face. True, the picture would have been very good, but you don't run away full pelt in to a field at an international border crossing!
We also all had to get off the bus for a ferry crossing. It broke up the journey a bit, but it would have been about four hours quicker without the distractions!

That's it, I've done all seven continents on Earth.

Suggestions for the next goal... 100 countries maybe?

WOW...

I have returned from Antarctica and I don't have the words to describe how beautiful or wonderful the trip was.
The next place I am, for any amount of time will be when I start my Spanish Course on March 8th, so I will catch up with the web page then.
In the mean time, I have returned to 39 emails (excluding the spam) so I will be replying to all as soon as possible. Thank you all for the birthday messages and big thank you for the birthday card from Pete-n-Neet (twas the only card that arrived and I leave first thing tomorrow, so I hope there are none caught in the post).
Great trip, great people, great staff, the greatest place on Earth.