Saturday 29 February

Today was a travelling day - Ushuaia to Córdoba (4 hrs), one hour stop and then a second flight from Córdoba to Mendoza. There is a wine festival going on in Mendoza so after we picked up our bags at the airport and came through there were four wineries welcoming passengers with free glasses of wine 🥂

After that we went to the hotel and checked in - we have all been given suites, guess we will just have to get used to it (we are here for two nights). 

We went out to dinner at eight and had a lovely meal, Ian and I had the rack of lamb. There was a visit to the wine cellar to choose a wine but of course we both had beer 🍺. It was almost 11 pm when we got back to the hotel - some of the locals were just going out.

Friday 28 February

We had a great day today, cruising the Beagle Channel, named after the ship Darwin sailed through here in 1832. The weather was perfect, no rain, clouds but a lot of sunshine. The wind wasn’t too bad while we were outside on the boat - we’ve been a lucky group once again.

We saw quite a lot of birds, most interesting were the colonies of penguins at Island Martillo - two types, Magellanic and Papau. We also saw seals/sea lions lazing on rocks in the sun. It was a 4.5 hour cruise. After grabbing a quick lunch we went to the old prison of Ushuaia museum, located on the naval base. It was constructed by the prisoners between 1902 and 1920. 

Out for a last dinner with the whole group, half of them leave in the morning and nine of us continue on for six more days.

Thursday 27 February

We took our last flight south this morning- to Ushuaia on the island of Tierra del Fuego. This is the most southern city in South America, according to the Argentinian’s, though Chile disputes it. It lies on the north shore of the Beagle Channel, and just east of the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, where we spent the afternoon. We mailed postcards and took a walk in the forest. We visited Lapatoia Bay, the southern end of the Pan American highway, which goes up to Alaska.

The weather here is extremely changeable (often every five minutes). We had cold (10C), rain showers, wind, and sunshine - and that was just during our lunch break. Our guide told us that was their typical summer weather. We are here for two nights.

Wednesday 26 February

Today we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier - it was a very exciting day! It is the most famous glacier, mainly because of its accessibility. It has boardwalks so you have prime locations for viewing at different levels. Up and down lots of steps, hope my legs aren’t aching tomorrow. There was some cloud cover in the morning and a bit of a shower but the afternoon was blue skies. Our guide walked us around in the morning explaining lots about the process. We saw lots of small chunks of ice falling off and also a large calving (which was exciting). The noise comes first, like a crack, then you wait and see if it will fall where you can see it or not. When it fell there were large chunks of ice that hit the water and then turned upside down, the ice was often very blue. We went to The Glaciarium on the way back into town, a glaciological centre with lots of technical information- it’s not just a pile of ice 😄

Tuesday 25 February

We are three nights in the current hotel, so no packing this morning - bonus!

Our excursion today was to Puerto Bandera at the western end of Lago Argentino, where we boarded a catamaran that took us across the milky turquoise water to Upsala Glacier which is one of the major glaciers in Glacier National Park (7200 sq. km.) Lots of good scenery out on the water, iceberg’s etc. We also visited Spegazzini glacier. It was a bit chilly out on the decks when taking photos but nice and warm inside. The local guide told us we were very lucky (again) as the weather was unseasonably warm.

Monday 24 February

Today was mostly driving to our next stop El Calafate, which took us back into Argentina. We drove about an hour, stopped for coffee, and went into the exiting Chile border station. After that it was about a ten minute drive to the entering Argentina building. Both were handled quite quickly, the driver goes in first and then his passengers afterwards. We continued on for about two hours and had another comfort break. We had great packed lunches from the hotel, so we didn’t starve. About another hour and we got to El Calafate which has about 20,000 population. We had a walk, lots of shops to browse and we had a beer with another couple before going back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at an Argentinian restaurant which cooked lamb Gaucho style - the whole lamb, barbecued, slowly near coals. It was delicious. And to the ice cream parlour for dessert. Everyone was stuffed again. Diet when we get home 😄

Sunday 23 February

Today we spent the day in Torres (Towers) Del Paine National Park. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, founded in 1959, 450,000 acres. It consists of the Eastern part of the Andes and the Patagonian steppes, mostly granite, and quite a lot of glacial lakes. We first stopped at Cueva (cave) de Milodon, where archeological remains of people and a previously unknown large animal (milodon) where found.

We drove through the park on a gravel road and stopped at scenic lookouts. At one stop we all went for a walk (about 1.5 hours) before a late lunch. Some parts of the park had been devastated by fire several years ago. The weather was sunny with lots of dramatic clouds, due to its location with the coast and the mountains to our west, it was quite blustery. After lunch we were due for another walk but it was too windy and our guide decided to call it off as we were to go over a suspension pedestrian bridge and she didn’t think it would be safe as the wind had gotten quite intense. We checked into our hotel, which was located just outside the park. Quite ritzy and we were upgraded so we got free drinks until we left - beers, wine with dinner, free mini-bar - nobody complained 🙂.  The views from the hotel, of the park were amazing. After dinner three young climbers put on a slide show and discussion about their trek up one of the three towers in the park. 

Saturday 22 February

We had a short drive to the airport for our flight to Punta Arenas. It was another two-hour flight. Very scenic for those sat near a window. We had a bit of a tour around town, visited a museum inside an old house and also visited the local cemetery- doesn’t sound like a tourist stop but they build big monuments and we’ve never seen them like this anywhere else. This one wasn’t as old as the Buenos Aires one but it was better kept. Our new driver is a pleasant guy, he is helping all the women off the bus each time we stop 🙂 We keep him (and the bus) until we go back into Argentina.

We all had lunch in a local bar/restaurant today before we had our three hour drive to get us to the Torres Del Paine park area. We’ve seen lots of sheep, some cattle, flamingos, emu (?). The scenery changed today, as we drove along. Nice dinner (rack of lamb & Tiramisu). Great weather again except this evening, which was quite blustery.

Friday 21 February

Today we did the Andean Lakes Crossing into Chile. This is the most scenic way to travel from Argentina to Chile. We travelled through lakes and mountain passes from Bariloche to Puerto Varas, which involved four buses and three boats. We were very remote and the scenery was spectacular, apparently we were also lucky as the last two days have been warmer than normal with clear blue skies. The journey was well orchestrated and the luggage was put into crates and we didn’t see it again until we entered Chile and each suitcase was pointed out, lifted up for us and we had to open them for searching. They are very particular that no fruits, vegetables come into the country- they are protecting their agricultural industry. We arrived late at the hotel, not sure why the traffic was crawling! Went out for dinner at 9:30’ish then straight to bed. Early departure tomorrow 6:45 a killer!