Ushuaia - End of the Pan-Am (End of my trip?? - Bit of a summary!)

So after just under 8 months of travelling overland from San Diego I made it to Ushuaia ("The worlds most southern city" / El Fin Del Mundo). Back when I was 15 in school myself and my friend Damien talked about this trip around the world that we would do once we finished Uni. It was kind of a joke at the time but we became pretty serious to do it. It involved travelling overland all the way across Europe, Russia and Asia to Australia then North to South America and then Cape town to home. It was always my dream to do most of this and I have now made it to 53 different countries 134 times along the way. Africa is something I am not so interested in doing just yet and will leave until I am older. Although Damien managed to do the bulk of this journey!

This particular trip along the Pan-am has been an incredible trip and I've met lots of amazing people. Originally kind of doing it myself or travelling "alone" I think I've only been on my own for the whole trip for less than 12 hours. Different people, friends, family and friends from other travels have joined me along the way not to mention lots of new friends I have met along the way and ended up travelling with for a number of months. In particular we had a group of about 8 of us travelling for about two months in Central America. Then after the boat from Panama to Colombia we had a really cool large group for about 6 weeks and then since Quito back mid Oct we've had a group that varies from 4 to 12 people all heading south so that's lasted about 4 months now. No matter where we go in South America its easy to bump into people we know as there are a lot of people doing the exact same thing and maybe branching off for a few days here and there. Not as unique that someone might think. I really respect those people who are driving this route on motorbikes or cycling it. I took the easy way out by busing it!

A lot of people keep asking me where I get the money to travel. Or how to do it. Well I feel like absolutely anyone can do it and you don't need much money at all. The truth is I work a few months as a waiter or bartender, usually minimum wage jobs and save as much as I can. A few months doing this is usually enough to travel well for a year. This means eating really good food, staying in nice hostels, drinking where we want to and doing most activities. I was very surprised at how expensive lot of stuff here is like food, drink, transport, activities, accommodation. It can be way more expensive than when I've travelled even in places like New Zealand, Germany, Spain and Portugal. Parts of South America are probably some of the more expensive places I've travelled to but despite this its been possible to do the whole trip on just about 30 euros a day or just under $40 USD. In the countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru which are a lot cheaper its tourist activities that always add up to a lot.

I don't know how much time I spent on buses and public transport to get here but it was highly enjoyable. In Central America it was generally chicken buses, old American school buses where locals bring on all sorts of stuff. Always ended up in a really interesting ride and interesting conversations. Most of South America and Mexico its been high class Semi-Cama buses which a lot of the time are on par with 1st class airplanes. The whole way from San Diego to Ushuaia including taxis to and from bus stations actually only cost 1521 EUR ($1923 USD) which is not that much at all. And actually Mexico, Chile and Argentina were the most expensive parts of this costing 874 euros between them which is crazy. Buses here were ridiculous.

A lot of people seem to think South America is dangerous but luckily we've had absolutely no problems so far....touch wood! Coming through all the countries the ones that stereotypically people think are the most dangerous were actually the friendliest and safest. Nowhere I've ever been has been as friendly as Colombia and that is by far my favourite place on this trip. Pretty much everyone we know got robbed in Ecuador or had a story about robberies there. We were lucky enough not to thank god. My biggest danger was my own stupidity and breaking my wrist!! Colombia was my favourite place for people, lifestyle, parties, hostels etc etc. Peru and Patagonia have been my favourite for scenery. Peru was absolutely incredible and also has great food and is very reasonably priced. Chile was also a favourite for people, food, scenery and lifestyle. And then there was Central America which I guess Nicaragua and Panama were my best.

Ushuaia is a pretty nice city. I somehow pictured it a lot duller and boring but we've had pretty much good weather every day. It usually doesn't get above 12 degrees but because its summer its bright until 1030 at night and bright again at 430 in the morning. A few weeks ago anything less than 30 degrees felt cool. Funny how quickly things change cause yesterday was 15 degrees and that felt very warm!! Its a small little town in Tierra del Fuego surrounded my snow capped mountains, a large port in the middle of the blue Beagle Channel. Surprisingly you'd think it would be really far south but its along the same latitude south as Belfast is north! On the other hand its so far from anywhere and everywhere. Its more than 10000 km from pretty much all the major cities anywhere in the world except for Brazil and Argentina!!

So anyway were sitting down here in Ushuaia now having a relaxing week after a few weeks trekking. Five of us are here all trying to decide what to do with our lives now!! We are all kind of heading different directions and coming up with different ideas of what to do next. Most of the week we have done nothing except sit around and its been great. Lots of ideas have come to mind but will just see how it plays out. The Antarctica was an option. I have never taken a loan out in my life but was considering it for this. Plus the Euro to Dollar exchange rate got so good over the last few days that it made it a few hundred euros cheaper. So a 11 day cruise including all the warm clothes would have cost 2300 euros as opposed to the $6000 to $8000 you might pay if you book in advance online. Had been considering it cause I could probably pay this money back in a yr or so but on the other hand I'm just not feeling it right now. I hope I wont regret it in the future.

Carnival in Brazil is also another option as something I've always wanted to do but its also crazy expensive. Brazil is meant to be the most expensive country in South America and if I already find most places more expensive than Europe I can't imagine what this is like. I hear some of the cheapest hostels are over $70 per night during Carnival with a 7 night min stay so this I can't really afford either. I am flying to Buenos Aires on Saturday so might look into working there for a few months and working on my Spanish. One of my biggest regrets of this trip is not knowing Spanish better and would hate to leave without learning it. But otherwise a lot of things have come to mind like work in New York, Norway, or stay in Argentina for ski season or keep travelling another month or so until the money runs out and then just find a flight home and hope something pops up there!! If anyone has any suggestions or job offers anywhere please tell me. Was also looking into going back to Uni sometime next yr. I would have thought that after 5 yrs after finished Uni I might have come up with some idea with what to do with my life but still don't have a clue!! Hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining because I'm not!! Just looking for advice or ideas from other people doing different stuff around the place! If anyone has info on things like working Bar jobs in BA or NY or cruise ships or ski resorts or even teaching English without a qualification let me know! We all keep coming up with different plans here all the time and changing our minds daily!! One of the girls actually booked the Antarctica. Others are trying to work out different routes from BA to Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and even a trip up the Amazon to Colombia which I'd also love to do!! But who knows, I guess I'll head to BA and see where it takes me!!

Photos of Ushuaia

Map of route to here

Patagonia - Lots of glaciers, mountains, hiking, middle of nowhere type of stuff

After our few weeks in Chile we arrived back to Argentina and Bariloche and met up with the rest of our group. I had been looking forward to Bariloche for a few years now since I lived in NZ. I heard it was a very similar area to Queenstown in NZ which I had spent 8 months and loved. It is in the lake district, a small little tourist town, very scenic and also a ski resort.

It was nice but we just didn't get time to enjoy it properly. In all the times I've travelling I don't think I've ever seen stuff so busy. Maybe I just don't travel in high season so often but planning and booking in advance is not a thing any of us like to do. It's a pain in the ass cause you never know how long you want to stay in a place. A few people thought this was ridiculous when I said this but its just too much work to plan all sorts of stuff when on the road this long. It's nice to just wake up in the morning and decide if we want to go or not, hop on a bus and then go to whatever hostel has been recommended to us. Argentina in summer is a very different case. Everything needs to be planned out and everything gets booked up way too quickly. In Bariloche I spent over 5 hours two days in a row trying to organise stuff. Trying to figure out how many days we need in each place, then when we find a hostel we liked just to find out it was booked up. Then also we wanted to do a tour around the lake district but car rentals were booked up. Buses out of Bariloche were then booked up but also accommodation was booked up in Bariloche. So we just kept meeting dead ends. We liked it and had a good few nights out there and ate so much steak and choripan and eventually we found a 30 hour bus out of there down Ruta 40 (A mostly unpaved dusty highway in the middle of nowhere) to El Chalten in Patagonia.

We had heard the same story about things down here been booked up as well. People sleeping on floors of hostel lobbies and in cars. Also people who got stuck because the ATM's were empty of money so they couldn't pay to leave. Even if they could the buses were booked up and they couldn't even pay their hostel bill. This seemed to happen to a few people so we made sure we'd plenty of money coming down here. Ruta 40 was some trip. Into the middle of nowhere. Mostly desert and shrub style scenery but freezing cold. At one stop we dared Nick to run down this mountain strip off and swim across this freezing cold river. Been from Perth and he'd only travelled in hot countries this was probably the coldest he'd ever been but it was funny and he came out 300 pesos richer because of it!!

El Chalten is a small little tourist town developed in the 1980's for people to go hiking. We managed to get ourselves accommodation even though 6 of us crammed into an overpriced room with three beds on the first night. Being down south the weather had changed immensely and was freezing cold. The second day there we decided to do a hike to Fitzroy. I had been told by my doctors to stick to towns and cities and not to do any hiking at all. My arm was still in a sling and even though the bone was fixed it was still weak. I had been planning on not doing the hikes because of this but in fairness I figured I could just as easy fall in a town as on a mountain. Bariloche has lots of steps and hills and stuff. And on hikes down here most of them are just paths leading you up mountains. Nothing like in Ireland where you really have to find your own route and practically climb at some stages. So with one arm I went for the hike up to Fitzroy. Again been down south its great cause it doesn't get dark till 1030 in some places so we can start stuff pretty late if we like. We had a big group. The pictures will tell all from this hike but let me just say it was incredible but tough going. No longer used to hiking and altitude and been taking it easy for the last few weeks because of the hand. I'd say if I'd have done this hike after Peru I would have flown up it!! The following day was another long day of planning stuff and trying to figure out what we were doing. I then left with two Dutch girls to El Calafate for another hospital check up while the others stayed for another hike.

All these hospital check ups I'm learning a lot more Spanish medical terms. But still so much gets lost in translation and it took me 3 hours to sort out this short visit to take some stitches out. Apparently I was waiting aimlessly at the start which one person had told me to do when I should have gone to see some doctor first to get referred to a tramatologist. Such a pain in the ass. So most people come to El Calafate to visit the Glacier Perito Moreno. Its amazing but such a rip off. They charge 100 pesos which is about $25 for an hours bus ride. Then another 100 pesos just to get into the glacier park. And all facilities and stuff close at 630, they kick you out at 730 and then the bus doesn't leave until 830. So we were there hanging around in the freezing cold and rain waiting for the bus. A lot of us just waited in the bathroom reading a book trying to warm up. This was probably the coldest I'd been in months. And also it was the first little bit of rain I'd seen since around Mid October I'd say. We've been so lucky with weather and even in Patagonia we've been lucky with it just getting the odd shower here and there!! Anyway the glacier is impressive. Its huge. And its size and scale is so hard to see in photos. There were huge chunks of ice crashing off and splashing into the water below. From where we were they looked small but the sound of it was louder than any thunder I've heard and it was also delayed by a few seconds just showing how far we actually were from the glacier even though we felt so close. It is 30km long, 5km wide and average height above the water is 74 metres. So picture this when looking at the photos!!

I don't know was it the cold or something I ate but I ended up getting so sick that afternoon and didn't recover for four days. Couldn't keep any food down and was so weak. We got a bus back to Chile a few days later to Puerto Natales and we were trying to organise stuff for a five day hike. I was so not fit for going but luckily we all decided we needed an extra days rest and this gave me the change to recover properly. Again another hike I wasn't sure I should be doing with only the use of one arm but decided to chance it anyway. Unlike in Peru where we had porters and donkeys to carry our stuff we had to carry everything ourselves. Tents, big sleeping bags fit for -6 degrees, stove, 5 days of food and all sorts of water proof clothing. It was Torres Del Paine we were hiking, the W circuit its called and weather can be very very unpredictable snowing, raining sun etc.

The first day was a short enough hike and weather was sunny but winds up to 55kmph going around steep mountain edges with 15kg on our back. We got to camp and then hiked up to see the Torres. The second day was a killer. A long days hike with our bags in wind and rain and sun. Having to change our clothes every few minutes. I was wondering why people submit themselves to this. The others all seemed to enjoy the second day but I hated it. The main reason I don't live in Ireland is the rain and this reminded me of just hiking around Kerry or somewhere. Couldn't see the attraction at all. But then the third and fourth day came and I totally changed my mind. We were able to leave our bags at camp both days and it was like been back in summer. The hikes were incredible. Stunning mountains, lakes, snow, glaciers etc. We can drink the water from anywhere as its so clean and fresh and here we were filling our water bottles out of freezing cold rivers. Day four was my favourite and there were points where we stopped for a few hours just to enjoy the view which was incredible. It was also scorching hot so we could lie out in tshirts at some stages. We had ended up walking somewhere between 70 and 80 km in the four days. It was a relief to get back to town on the 5th day though and make some proper meals and have a proper sleep. Plus my hand was getting so much better now that I was able to cook again for the first time in a month so made some massive burgers like 250 Grams each with veg and a few other things. Was great to get some proper food in us and relax in the warmth.

This was our third and last time in Chile for a while. We had spend just about one month in Chile in total and it was unreal. Had not heard too many stories about Chile in the past apart from how expensive it is but it was definitely up there with some of my favourites in South America. From here we got a bus to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego and the end of the Pan-Am!!

Bariloche Photos

Patagonia Argentina Photos - Fitzroy and Glaciers

Patagonia Chile Photos - Torres Del Paine