Our hostel in Ushuaia was run by a warm couple who built cabins in there garden and also rented out their grown up children's rooms. She also worked as a speech therapist and he had left Buenos Aires during hard times and worked for 7 years with scientists studying coastal wildlife such as penguins and sea lions. Children had driven the need for better pay and so forced him into starting a computer shop as his next line of work. Now the hostel takes up all his time and rarely allows them to get away themseleves, although she showed us photos of a recent, lovely horse riding trek into the mountainous region of north west argentina. It was nice to have good WiFi in the house until the last evening when it suddenly vanished. Suspicions fell upon sabotage since local elections were soon to take place and political parties were involved in smear campaigns. Recently one party had posted a scandal video on the web about the other which reacted by sabotaging communication connections across the country so that no one would be able to view it.

We left Ushuaia on a very early 6am regional bus which would take us to Punta Arenas including a short car ferry trip across the Straits of Magellen. The lady of our hostel had left out a chocolate biscuit and good luck note on the table as we staggered out with our rucksacks to the taxi in the darkness and drisle. On the ferry we ventured out onto the deck and climbed the steep iron runged ladder to the deck to be buffetted by a wind so strong that I almost lost my glasses.

In Punta Arenas we were welcomed by the German owner of a nice hostel who had started travelling around the world and got as far as South America where he met his Chilean wife and decided to stay. Unfortunately we were told that we had missed the penguins here by a couple of weeks, as they were now all out to sea and would not return for 6 months. As there is not much to do there we decided to head up to Puerte Natales the launch town for the Torres del Paine national park, but then it happened. After a lovely dinner we were walking back to the hostel along the dimmly lit and typically broken up pavements, when I stepped on the edge of a hole, my foot went sideways and I slipped, coming down with all my 80 kilos onto the side of my foot. The pain was intense, and even worse when I got up later in the night to the extent that I almost fainted.

The next day Luis, who works as chef during the high seasons camping expeditions to the national park, put down his building tools and took us to the hospital A&E. The doctor was convinced that my enormously swollen ankle was fractured, but a subsequent x-ray showed otherwise. Never-the-less I was given a velcro knee length boot to where until it healed. The hospital was modern, very clean, effecient and the staff very friendly. They brought in a chap from the British Consulate to translate for the doctor who bid us a cheery good luck, and we were on our way again.

My new boot and Luis.

Our journey continued next morning by bus to Puerte Natales crossing the border back into Chile for a brief stop over on the way to El Calafate. Here we were engaged in conversation with a local politician who was interested to hear how we like his country. We learnt a few facts from him including that the average salary in Chile is around US$500 and that 90% of their copper is exported to China who are still buying in a big way, so they are not worried about recession at the moment.

An early bus ride back to Argentina rewarded us with this dramatic patagonian sunrise along the way.

In El Calafate we disembarked surrounded by touts from the town hostels canvassing for guests. It would not be the first time we would see this on our travels and is not only due to the low season now, but also due to a reduction in tourism in general. We found our Hostel Marco Polo which we had booked through Hostelworld.com. The booking sites are proving to be very useful for securing accommodation in advance and are full of travellers reviews. Prices range from US$11 to 25 per person per night. The hostel was very modern with free pasta dinner and pool table and bar. We chatted the nights away with other travellers from the US, OZ, Belgium and NZ.

First Travel Haircut

I decided to take the plunge and get shawn at the local barber shop. A very tall receptionist girl with a shortish 80s style quiff and hair extensions, and very pronounced cheek bones, informed me in her deep dulcet tones that it would cost 50 pesos ( US$15) and I explained that I wanted short back and sides but a little longer on top. The older lady started cutting away and the time started to tick away. My attention flicked from the receptionist occasionally arising from texting on her mobile phone to strut up and down the shop whilst examining her own hair in the mirror and my own diminishing mop. Eventually it was over and I left the shop with my mean new short all over patagonian crew cut.

Crew Cut at Nacional Park de Alerces

(First stop along Route 40 is the Perito Moreno Glacier)

NEXT WE HIRE A CAR TO TRAVEL THE INFAMOUS ROUTE 40 UP NORTH.........

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