In the Centre Ring
Rhapsody for Flugelhorn and Symphonic Band
Poet and Peasant Overture
Back To The Future
Incantation and Dance
Theme from Schindler's List
Stephenson's Rocket
Aegean Festival Overture
The Rakes of Mallow

Mendoza was pretty cool. Lots of tree lined streets with lots of places to eat with, water channels in the streets, glacier melt, need due to the desert thing. Hot temperatures, but lots of icecream places helped things.

We got back yesterday afternoon from Galapagos islands. They were great - really interesting wildlife, and good scenery. Snorkling was heaps of fun. Although being less than a metre away from several sharks and another time being a metre or two from a sting ray or two was slightly disconcerting. Swiming with the sea turles and sea lions was great.

I´m now, slowly, trying to copy pictures of my camera memory card, and onto another (phone card), as a backup. Many many photos slows things down a bit.! Plus, this machine is old, very old...

... while I wait ...

So, the Galapagos was excellent. Basically, each day there would be one or two walks on one or two of the islands, and one or two snorkelling sessions. I really enjoyed this - it basically combined several things that I enjoy - walking out in the bush, swimming in the ocean, learning about new stuff, seeing new stuff. The snorkelling was excellent, although, I should have (a) brought contact lenses (though wasn´t too bad because everything was close), and (b) brought an underwater camera. Oh well. I´ll be trying to do some snorkelling when I´m back in Australia. Life on the boat was pretty good (although the boat itself was getting a little bit old). Was sick once (due to the sea) halfway through, which was annoying. Getting there was a bit dubious, the flight was supposed to be from Quito to Galapagos direct (what we were told), but ended up going via Guiyaquil - an awesome place, lol. Unfortunately, the plane that we were to leave on was delayed. The airline´s status information on the information board was lacking. It was listed at 10.30am and on time, despite, when talking to the person behind the counter that it would be 12. After 10.30, the status changed to ´talk to customer rep´. At about 12? the flight got removed from the screen. Left at about 1pm, with one minimal notification. Just how I wanted to spend Christmas morning, lol. The afternoon swimming was good though.

Comparing Galapagos and Antarctica, you´d have to say that Galapagos is for the wildlife, Antarctica is for the scenery.

Quito seems to be an interesting city. Ecuador is probably more developed than Bolivia, but less than Peru or Argentina, maybe? The hotel that I stayed at had great views - on the top of a hill. But was directly under the flight path. The airport is not very far away either... there´s a signalling light at the top of the hotel. The city is built in a big valley, so the planes have to come up that, I suppose.

Tonight I´ll be flying to Guiyaquil, and then to Santiago. I need to figure out where I actually leave Ecuador (either Quito or Guayaquil). The airline routes in South America are more like the bus system back home - people get on and off the planes. You may or may not get kicked off the plane at an intermediatory airport. You may or may not know about the intermediate airport when you get your ticket....

Quito is also a bit high up. I think at 2400m ??. Enough to start getting short of breath. There´s a trolley bus system that has several lines running up and down the main valley.

Oh, while I remember, in Buenos Aires, in the equivalent to Queen Street mall, there was, at one point, a MacDonalds on one side, and then on the other, a Havanas (Cuban cigar) on the other. When I went past it a week and a half? ago, the cigar place had a lot more people in it.

Anyhow, after getting in late, I took a cab to the hotel, and spent the evening wandering around. BA seems to be pretty busy, lots of people out and about. I had an icecream for desert - yummo, the Argentinians know their stuff about all things beef.

Anyhow, tomorrow is another travel day, leaving early morning for a 10am flight, and probably finishing just before dinner, with a 2 hour time zone change as well... oh well, that's what it takes to get from one end of the continent to the other...

Antarctica was an awesome experience: fanastic scenery, environment, wildlife. Some of the highlights were: sitting in a zodiac listening to the glaciers move (very harmonious), camping out overnight one of the nights, the penguins, seals, and whales (well, two of them were orcas, technically dolphins, I think?); the icebergs, etc, etc.

Took way too many photos, but that probably was to be expected.

Tonight is back, sleeping on the ship, but then tomorrow morning I'm off to the airport to head up to Ecuador (via Buenos Aires).

Great stuff.

Anyhow, the hotel I´m in is on the hill behind the centre of town, ie - a short taxi ride away. I´m a bit crook and want to be better by the time I get on the boat, so having an easy couple of days is needed.

Going back a bit, the walk in Torred del Paine national park was excellent. We were extremely fortunate weather for almost the entire time. The only time that the weather was particularily bad was one afternoon, which had been a short walking day (ie: morning only, we were in camp by the time the worst of the rain hit). There seemed to be a good mix of people in the group, fairly small though, just three people and a guide.

Off to find some lunch. Lots of crab and seafood in the menus that I´ve walked past...

Today is basically a rest / jobs / organisation day, before the Torres del Paine walk which starts tomorrow (well transport to the national park is tomorrow, walking is on Thursday).

Anyhow, so, it's a good thing that Qantas is operating ok (!), but, a catering strike at the Buenos Aires end caused the flight from Sydney to be delayed. There was some other delay getting paperwork through that caused another bit of delay; we left the terminal about 45 minutes after the scheduled time.

The flight to Buenos Aires was uneventful, which is a good thing. Surprisingly, there was an empty seat next to me, which gave me a bit more room to stretch out. I was able to get a few hours sleep, good. They had The Lion King on the in-flight entertainment system - hakuna matata.

After clearing customs, I was slightly concerned when the first ATM didn't give me any money. Second one did. Caught a bus to the domestic airport, which went via the city centre - good to see where I will be getting off on a few weeks time. On the bus (and at the domestic terminal), talked to a guy called Ray from the US. He's been travelling for a while! At the domestic terminal I had, in the food court, my first meal in Argentina. It wasn´t particurily impressive taste wise, and probably wasn´t the wisest (in terms of avoiding nasties - but I´m fine).

The flight to El Calafate was uneventful - good considering the plane that was used was on the more mature side. I suspect my two other flights in Patagonia will be on similar vintage planes. I was told that there is a 15kg limit for checked baggage on flights into Patagonia region (23kg for international flights). At Brisbane, my bag was 15.3kg. This wasn´t an issue for the flight here.

At El Calafate airport, I nearly missed the shuttle bus that I had bought a ticket for because I was absent mindedly standing at the wrong spot, oops. After checking into the hostel, I went for a walk into the centre of town, to buy some water and have dinner.

Some initial impressions:
* El Calafate seems to be poor town on the outskirts (dirt roads, etc), but with a fair bit of development on the centre streets to cater for foreign tourists who have come to Patagonia.
* Theres a random casino on the main street that looks way out of place.
* There are stray dogs on the street - this weirds me out a bit.
* The sun is well into the sky until 7 or 8 pm or so. It's twilight until 10 or 11 pm or so.
* There are a fair few tourists around, although, probably more Spanish and German speakers than English
* My first real meal was yummy. A pumpkin soup (of the day), and a chicken dish, with a Quilmes (apparently the Argentinian standard) beer. I started eating at 9pm, which is late for me, but nothing out of the ordinary. The total cost was 100 Argentinia pesos, about $23 AUD. This was for a nice but not fancy restaurant on a tourist strip. Probably would have been closer to $50 in Australia. I´ll be trying a more local restaurant tonight.
* The hotel is built for cold weather (double doors on entry, wind breaks around the buildings, etc)
* Lip balm is going to be important (very glad to have been given this...)
* It´s windy. The wind is cold. I probably should have taken my beanie in my bag before I left for the evening. Ditto sun glasses.