Waking up without a hangover has been a religeon for us after our buenos aires effort. However, according to dad and david, what i thought was a restless sleep for me (waking up three times) was according to them a continuous barrage of snoring. I found out after getting a shoe thrown at me, that they had not had the same experience last night. Apparently the iphone was useful for curing boredom for both from one thirty in the morning till sunrise.... Jetlag strikes again.
Breakfast it seems in the exotic continent that is south america is a mission to simultaniously overload the population with sugar whilst trying to annoy them with a distinct and quite obvious lack of bacon. Croisants glazed with icing, frosty flakes, more glazed pastries and some orange juice were all that was needed to kick start our cholestoral towards a healthy day. Before long we were bundled onto a nearby catamaran and headed out into the beagle chanel joining both the atlantic and pacific ocean currents making for one hell of a ride. The initial photos show a gorgeous backdrop of clear mountains in the harbour, then true to its form, ten minutes later we were leaning 50 degrees into wind to stay upright and playing russian roulette with hypothermia.
The tour of the chanel took us out to the lighthouse and surrounding rocks filled with sea lions and arctic fishing birds. Whilst we were contomplating what idiotic creatures would brave such horrid conditions i couldnt help but think they were thinking the exact thing. Dropped off on an island in the middle of the chanel we were encouraged to explore the area, resulting in us huddling together next to a riveting deppression on a hill and being told that 96,000 years ago the inhabitants dug in to brave the weather, however during the amazing feat of evoloution when their brain increased to the size of an erratic pigeon they gained some common sense and got the hell out of there to warmer regions. Again, we were not so lucky.
Back in the interesting town of Ushuaia, and with a travellers urge for a hamburger we found a small midget serving humungous burgers on the main drag. Crazed with hunger we devoured the delicious foreign delicassy with such wanton urge that dad thought the furiously spicy chilli sauce looked somewhat like barbeques sauce. The face following could only be imagined in a Road Runner & Coyotte loony tunes cartoon. Much elation was had by all except dad, who stubbornly continued to eat the tasty yet now willfully painful hamburger served up by a giggling midget. Only in patagonia...
Finally introduced to our faithful steeds and able to get used to them, we were able to do a trial run on the bikes in what could only be described as 'the last place on earth you would want to be'. The temperature was dropping rapidly to 4 degrees with a windchill factor close to the chill recieved when watching john farnem perform. Rain sought relentlessly to enter any seem, hole or but crack protuding to the frigid force. Winding our way through the 7000 foot high peaks of granite and snaking inbetween lush forrests and curious park rangers we arrived at what is known in South America as 'Fin del Mundo' - 'The End of the World'. Whilst chipping our icy boddies off the 650's we had massive grins plastered all over our increasingly numb faces. This is what we were here to do, see places that few had seen or would see. We were off the beaten track and loving it.
Thawed out and drying our drenched gear we figured a clebratory dinner was in order. Ushuaia is well known not only for its hamburger serving midgets, nor for its epolepsy inducing traffic lights but for its large supply of the world delecacy known as the king crab. Never wanting to be left out of a cliche we decided we must have the huge carnivourous crab. Looking as though it would eat a small puppy then smile politely and ask for more, this thing was utterly huge. I had never seen crab legs that could almost wrap completely around a human head (We only got three quarters of the way!). I have to say, in 'man land' not only was the king crab delicious and unlike any other crab i had tasted, it also completely filled me up as the serving was almost as rediculous as the size of steaks down here.
So full of crab, thawing toes and grinning ear to ear we head to bed for the night, awaiting the true start to our journey tommorrow morning. If its this uncomfortable, this tasty, this exciting, this impressive or this hillarious. Then i just cant wait...
Also check out Steve's blog @ http://shortwayup.omega-prime.co.uk
and,
Mauricio and Dani's blog @ http://ushuaia2cusco.blogspot.com/
what...no photos - how disappointing!
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