Rosario - Uruguay beaches and Brazil for Paddys day

Back to Argentina again and we headed to Rosario for a week to meet up with some girls we'd met in Bariloche. Rosario was my favourite Argentinian city. Not sure if it's because it was the only place we met locals or what but I really enjoyed it. Very much a student town. Lots of young people and probably the friendliest place we were in as well. Plus we ended up cooking unreal dinners. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but we've been doing lots of group meals over the last few months and we have all learnt lots off each other on cooking. Only thing is the meals keep getting bigger and bigger so I'm guessing without realising it were getting fatter and fatter!! It's gotten to the stage that some of the meals consist of nearly 1/2 a kilo of meat or steak per person, huge thing of mashed potatoes, huge salad and shit loads of garlic bread! Some of these only costing 2 or 3 euros worth. But we love it and its always a disappointment when we find a hostel that doesn't have a good kitchen. Other meals have included homemade pesto pasta, really good BBQ's or Asado's, homemade burgers stuffed with herbs and cheese, or pizzas with all our own toppings, stir fries with prawns or chicken and a good veggy mix, curries, cobb salads, fajitas, roast chicken stuffed with tomato basil and mozzerella and wrapped in bacon and a number of oven baked fish dishes. The food list on this trip is endless and quite creative and depending on the country. I don't think we've spent more than $4 per person for a meal with sides and starters that would probably feed 6 to 8 in a restaurant as opposed to four!

Meeting up with loads of friendly locals in Rosario

One of our huge meals that we cooked. Doesnt look too big here but shit loads of garlic bread, salad and nearly 400 grams of steak each and chorizo.

We couldn't afford Brazil for carnival where some hostels were costing up to $100 per night with a minimum stay of like 7 nights so we decided to go to Uruguay which was also meant to be good. A huge disappointment. Pretty much nothing happening at all. Went for the Monday and Tues before Ash Wed which is meant to be the end of it and it was just like a ghost town.

Montevideo

Montevideo was an all right city. Nothing special but Uruguay in general was so rich looking, developed and clean. Amazing houses, brand new cars, lots of cool apartments. Also even more European than Argentina. One guy I was chatting to on a bus his surname was O'Neill. I guess a lot of Irish came to this part of the world before. Apparantly Argentina is 5th largest Irish population outside of Ireland but not sure if thats true or not. I couldn't get over the price of some things in Uruguay especially in Punta Del este. We used to find Argentina expensive but looking back it was actually good value in a way. In Punta Del Este for example a beach town it was $11 for a McDonalds meal, $15 for a load of laundry and $5 for some bananas and a bottle of water. Even a small bottle of beer was $6 in a small bar. Punta del este was a very different world for us. Lots of crazy rich Argentinian tourists mainly. Like your package holiday place in Spain but trying to be a lot more classy. Meant to be good nightlife but nothing we could afford. Beaches weren't even that special.

So it was great when we got to Punta Del Diablo. It finally felt like backpacking again. Too much time spent in cities and "highclass" places in the last few months. This was one of those chilled out little beach towns that people come to for a few days and just stay. Nobody cares to be dressing up and being posh, or about fancy nightclubs, restaurants or bars which is the case in a lot of southern South America. Just relaxed and chilled out. The roads winding through the town just made of sand, surfers in the water but not overly crowded, cheap steak and seafood and great friendly hostels. Not like the money making business's we've been seeing a lot of lately but just a genuine hostel there for the sake of been a hostel and not to rip off tourists. One night we got this amazing cut of steak which Adrian cooked (best steak we've had is Adrian's) and this was one of the more expensive steaks in the shop and it worked out to be like 4 dollars for a kilo. Maybe they charged us the wrong price or something! This "town" was only 45 Min's from Brazil so after a few days it was time to hit Brazil which I didn't think I'd get to originally on my trip.

Punta del Diablo

From moment one in Brazil I liked it. We got the bus from Uruguay into the town of Chuy. A random little town because part of it was Uruguayan and the other part was Brazilian with nothing to distinguish the difference as you cross the road except it was Portuguese on one side. My first stop in Brazil was Porto Alegre.

We arrived in at rush hour and one thing I noticed is how happy and smiley everyone is. If you walk around a lot of western cities in the early morning and I've noticed it in places like London and America people are on their way to work and usually expressionless. Maybe listening to music on the subway or reading the paper but not all smiley and chatty. The exception of this I noticed in NZ before. Coming into Auckland everyone from the immigration guy, to the guy sweeping the floor and then the bus driver were all happy and smiling. Well it was the same here in Porto Alegre. People looked happy to be going to work! Prob sound stupid but just an observation I made.

That day and night was Paddy's day. A friend of mine that I'd travelled with three yrs ago in Asia had sent me a message. Hadn't talked to him much in three yrs but we'd spent about two months travelling and because of facebook he saw I was around and he happened to be in Porto Alegre on a last minute business trip. So we met up. Was as if nothing had changed and had a great night out.

Meeting up with old travel buddies

Went to an Irish bar. Actually it was the third Irish bar we tried as the first two were actually full. Still had to queue for about an hour. So used to going out lately at like 2am from months in Argentina and not even starting drinking until like midnight. But here people were standing in line at 7 O'clock. Maybe it was just because it was Paddy's day. Everyone was wearing green except for me and Nu cause we didn't have any. All sorts of Irish t-shirts going around and Guinness hats. Had a great time inside and by the end of the night we knew half the people in the bar. Everyone was interested in meeting the only two foreigners in the place. And I never drink Guinness but one guy insisted on keeping buying me Gunniess. Was a strange system in that you don't pay to get into the bar but you pay to leave it and all your drinks are put on your ticket. Brazil is crazy crazy expensive. There exchange rate has gotten so good in the last few yrs is the main reason why. So for example some of the beers here were 16 Reais or $10 or so. We only had four beers(besides the Guinness that people were buying us) and it averaged at $9 USD per beer. Crazy. And its not just drink but buses, accommodation and all as well. The food in supermarkets seems all right value however. Anyway we preceded to get very drunk. One thing that was annoying me was not been able to speak Portuguese. Its been years since I've been in a country where I can't speak the language. I'd say China about three and a half yrs ago was the last time. Everywhere else speaks English or Spanish. But anyway, Spanish is very similar to Portuguese so I kept trying that. But funnily enough most of the young people in this town said they understood English way better which we were well surprised with. So this one big guy that looks like the main guy out of Xmen decided to sing the Irish national anthem for me. Three times throughout the night. All in Irish. Ashamed to say it but I don't actually know it myself but the bits I did know he nailed. Not sure where and how he learnt that!

Click here for photo album

Meeting loads of friendly locals

Punta del Diablo

Punta del Diablo

The guy who could sing the Irish national Anthem

Buenos Aires, Waterfalls, Carnival and how to hop across borders illegally

I'm not going to write a load of negative stuff about Buenos Aires because its not that I disliked it in anyway. But I'll just say it wasn't for me. I just expected a lot more from it. And I know its wrong to have high expectations or any expectations of a place or even to compare places but I can't help it, its just something I do. I kept comparing it to Barcelona, London and New York which its not like these in my opinion but I thought it was going to be. Plus I didn't have the money to enjoy it properly. Statistically its probably cheaper than any of the other cities above but as a backpacker you can find accommodation, food and drink cheaper in the other cities. Obviously you can find cheap stuff here as well but a lot of it was beyond what I could afford at this stage and I guess I just didn't know where to go for other stuff. Its got high class restaurants, people, nightclubs and a booming 24/7 night life. Usually something I'd enjoy. But I like to start early and maybe stay out all night like we did in Barcelona. However here nothing really gets going until 2. So we drank in the hostel before this but sometimes it would be 3 or 4am and then we wouldn't even make it out cause we'd be too tired at that stage and drinking slowly. I don't know was I too lazy or just been travelling too long or what but I prefer the more casual night life scene lately. Not a top end night club that you need to dress up to go to, then queue for hours outside unless you have a special pass or password. Besides all this it has a number of different neighborhoods. Lots of types of nightlife, restaurants, and parks all over the place.

Also even though this is nothing to do with BA in particular but the first hostel we stayed at Milhouse was a bunch of shit. It's one of the top rated ones in BA but this is mainly for partying. The staff weren't the friendliest. It was just a money making place. They had a bar which they tried to get us into upon check in when all we wanted to do was drop our bags in the room and could have checked in at reception. Then every morning they would come into the room and wake us shouting our names thinking we had to check out even though we didn't. The kitchen was small cramped unstocked and dirty. I guess a lot of this had to do with first time travellers who didn't know how to wash dishes. Then one day when I wanted to eat lunch all the staff were crowded around in the kitchen for ages eating when they easily could have sat in the bar. Once they finished they tried to move everyone out of the bar so they could clean the bar (where you sit) and kitchen so we couldn't even make food. Even a small thing like the TV room. They close this between 11pm and 3am just so they can encourage people to drink but I guess at 3am it gives people the opportunity to go have sex on the couches.

With a lot of thinking and pondering and changing my mind every hour about what to do I finally booked a bus to Paraguay not sure if it was the best decision or not but had to do something!!

After a 16 hour bus that turned into 20 hours we arrived in Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. Most other countries need Visas to come here and plus because its out of the way most backpackers don't even come. So I came up with Mallory, the Canadian girl I've been travelling with for a few months. Adrian stayed a bit longer in BA and Amanda was going to meet us here when she got back from the Antarctica. A lot of times in Argentina I feel like I might as well be at home or at least back in Europe. The culture there is such the same. Coming in here I felt like I was really back in South America or even actually in Central America. Statistically its the second poorest country in South America after Bolivia. Its hot and humid which we havn't had in months. There are no hostels here. There are hostels everywhere in South America but this just shows you how little tourists come here. It is literally on the border with Argentina and Brazil and we can see them from our hotel balcony but even still the people are different looking. Argentina is very European looking where as here we are like the only two white people walking around. At times I feel like I'm back in Thailand because of the heat, the motorbikes buzzing around outside, some BBQs on the street, the electronics and the look of the people. Other times it feels like Central America. There is also a big Asian culture here as well. Lots of Chinese and Korean food and even some Japanese. Its huge into Electronics. And I mean huge. South American in general is more expensive than anywhere in USA, Europe actually anywhere I've seen for Electronics. But I guess Paraguay has tax free or something so they have everything and anything here. Including all the fake stuff like phones that take two sim cards and stuff like that. And picture all the packaging that comes with electronics. Boxes and white foam and all that. They just throw that all over the streets!! So I guess a lot of Brazilians and Argentinians come across the border to buy stuff.

I'm finding it hard to get back into Spanish as well. 8 months in now and I've gone through so many stages or getting good and getting bad at it. I feel like now I'm back at stage one. Barely even able to ask for a hotel room or a bus. Everybody we met in Argentina had english so we barely used it and have forgotten everything. And even the bits I know the people reply to quickly I don't have a clue what they are saying!! But today I managed to somehow find this local bus out to Itaipu dam which is a big dam between Paraguay and Brazil.

So the following day I decided I'd head over to Brazil to check out the Brazil side of Iguazu falls. Mallory was sick in bed and going nowhere and Amanda was meant to have arrived on the Argentinian side of the falls. I decided I'd stay an extra night on the Paraguay side as Mal wasn't able to leave the country. The joy about been Irish or European in this sitation and not USA, Canadian Australian or NZ was that I can pass as many times as I want between the countries where as the others have to pay a fortune for visas which you have to get from a consulate or embassy and sometimes only allow one entry. So even though I could walk ten mins down the road to Brazil and possibly another short walk across to Amanda in Argentina the two girls couldn't meet up. Walking across the border was one of those border type towns you see when a really rich expensive country borders a really poor one. It felt in a way like the Tijuana/San Diego border. The paraguayan side was full of huge shops of electronics. People coming across with empty suitcases and big trolleys to fill up with stuff. All sorts of fake brand clothes, cigarettes etc. There is a bridge dividing the two countries across a river which takes less than 5 minutes to cross and even on both sides of the bridge you can see the different in peoples faces and the language people were using on both sides. There was huge lines of traffic and then pedestrians who had bought all sorts of stuff. Luckily for me all I had with me was a water bottle and got to skip all the lines. It was 35 degrees and crazy humid. Little did I know that in this town they took every currency but I didn't have any Reals and just started walking. They were also an hour ahead which I didn't know. I thought there would be a bus right there to take me to the waterfall but I had to go to centre of town first which by the time I walked there I was too late. So had a glimpse of Brazil, nearly walked into Argentina to see Amanda but decided to leave it till the following day when I could do it properly and came back to Paraguay again. Bit of a waste of a day but on the other hand very interesting. Another page wasted in the passport with all the stamps.

The two days after this I had to do the same all over again. But this time to avoid stamps in the passport and stopping and starting at every border I managed to find a way to cross through Brazil unofficially. I got on a bus with locals which drives right through the border. I then changed to another local bus in Brazil to go to Argentina but stupidly got off at the exit of Brazil rather than the entrance to Argentina so had a long sweaty walk through no mans land for a while. But literally managed to walk right through the exit border, passport in hand without them every checking me or caring. The following day coming back myself and Amanda did the same. She's Canadian so needs a visa for Brazil as well so even if she had stopped at the border they wouldn't have stamped her on but we managed to get through ok and even accidently skipped the Paraguay border and had to walk backwards to get stamped in. They are so easy going here its crazy.

So Iguazu was cool enough. Our first impression was bad at the devils throat. Could barely see a thing. But then did lots of walks around and saw other sides of the falls which was pretty cool but decided we'd seen enough and didn't need to see the Brazil side which is just meant to be a panoramic! After this we all headed onto Asuncion the capital of Paraguay.

Paraguay was a lot more normal in Asuncion but because it started raining we didn't do much at all. And we havnt seen proper rain in months. Met a cool English girl here who decided to come along with us to carnival in Encarnacion. I'll let the pictures tell most of it but basically lots of spray foam, like shit loads of it and lots of bare ass and parades.

Photos of all of this

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

Start of Jan - Breaking my wrist and heading South through Chile

So January has been very much a month of highs and lows for a number of reasons. Its quite difficult travelling in high season and very annoying, plus the fact I broke my wrist has been kinda awkward as well, but here's the story from New Yrs on now that I can type again!!

So we had our apartment in Valparaiso for New Years. We were on the 14th floor so we stayed there drinking to watch the fireworks which are meant to be among the best in South America. Honestly fireworks have never impressed me and although the others liked it, it didn't do much for me. After this we spent over an hour walking into town and spent pretty much the whole night at street parties on hill tops with thousands of people which I barely remember. Have snippets of memory of glass shattered all over the streets, people dressed up in all sorts of costumes and looking out over the city from a hilltop with music blaring. Got home about 8 in the morning, had about four hours sleep before the others woke me up to go to a concert. I was in no state to be going but decided to anyway.

Was a bit of a mission to get there working out different buses etc and it was scorching hot. All I wanted to do was to go to bed. But eventually we found it. It was unlike any other concert I'd been to. Pools, water slides, people sunbathing walking around in just shorts and bikinis. Stupidly I'd worn jeans. But still managed to have a great day. One of the best days I'd had in this area. And the whole area was so nice. Way nicer than Valparaiso. But 15 minutes before the end of the concert I managed to fall, nothing to do with been drunk and broke my wrist. Didn't even feel the pain at the time but sat there laughing. Even though it was totally out of place with the bone nearly protruding from the skin I thought without the pain it couldn't be broken. But there was a few doctors around who convinced me to go to the hospital. Daniel a Texan guy we'd been hanging out with came with me cause he had the best Spanish and off we went into an ambulance getting a free ride and skipping all the after concert traffic. The ambulance driver even let Dan smoke in the back!! I was mad to just get the hospital thing over with and head back out to finish my night. But unfortunately my X-Rays showed that I had a very bad fracture and needed surgery. My doctor was so friendly as well. This was a public hospital and he recommended I come to him in a private hospital on the Mon.

So I was back in our apartment late Saturday night trying to sort out all sorts of shit with the use of only one arm. Feeling too stressed and sick to eat. A full cast on. At least the pain wasn't too bad. But I was going around in circles. The hospital needed the insurance company to confirm to pay for it. The insurance company needed an estimate on the operation to confirm it which the hospital couldn't give. Once that was sorted I needed to call the doctor to make an appointment which I couldn't get through to him. Insurance company was brilliant though and the following day I went into the hospital, got them speaking Spanish on the phone to the receptionist and it was all sorted. My Spanish was nowhere near good enough to sort all this stuff out but I heard the receptionist say something like 6 million pesos which was $13000 USD for the whole thing. Not sure what it came to in the end but I know the metal plate alone I got was worth $2000. After that the insurance company were unreal. Emailed me good luck, called me afterwards a few times to see how I was feeling and for follow up checks and all. This was when I was lying in bed with nobody to talk to. They also had Spanish speakers on call whenever I needed them as well.

The hospital was like a 5* hotel. Had my own private room. Cable TV with over 100 channels including movies. Really fast WiFi and an amazing view of the beach and the whole town of Renaca below. They were also feeding me like 4 meals a day. Pretty decent food as well. The bed had a remote to move it in any direction. I was offered showers by the nurses. Never seen anything like it not even in movies. The view was one of the best parts.

Unlike the rest of Chile where everybody seemed to speak English including old 70 yr olds on the street that we asked for directions everyone in all the hospitals we went to didn't seem to have any English. Here was me learning all these new technical words in Spanish. Thank god for Wifi and Google Translate. Helped me out a bit. My doctor had a bit of English though which was good and he was so friendly. The operation went really well and I have a big metal plate in my wrist now. Afterwards I was very down. My hand was fucked. I was told I had to have the cast on for a month and take it easy for two months. My fingers and whole arm were numb for 24 hours after the operation and it looked like I wouldn't be able to do a thing. The doctor told me I definitely can't go hiking or carry bags. But even simple things like brushing my teeth or cutting up food took weeks to do. I figured there was no way I could go on and started looking up flights home. Without been able to cook or carry a bag it would be impossible to go on. Even if I could carry my bags and cook it would be impossible down south where it was a lot of hiking. But thank god the others came in that night and cheered me up. Told me they'd cook for me, carry my bags etc and they were so helpful.

I'm writing this now four weeks after the operation. Was very awkward in the beginning trying to do things with my right hand when I'm left handed. Took two weeks before I could even hold a toothbrush and then day after day I noticed been able to do more and more with the one hand. Last night I cooked for the first time and was allowed to get the hand wet for the first time. Because of that day and the help the girls and Adrian gave me I was able to go on travelling. I had been recommended not to go hiking but still managed to do that one handed as well.

One funny story from the hospital was the nurses were asking me about the scar on my nose. Had to tell them that was from another drunken accident in Thailand in which I fell over. They found this quite funny. I know some people who fall over all the time when they are drinking. You know who you are!!!!! But this never happens me usually. But after I got this email from a friend its made me remember about four times its happened and I've always injured myself somehow!! This is what it said:

Glad to see you have progressed from falling on your face. Putting your arm out to break your fall is good progress even, if it an instinct most people perfect shortly after birth!!. Next step is to try not fall at all! Now is you chance to learn how to be ambidextrous....seize it!!!!! You'll have to come home and let us sign your cast?

I checked out of the hospital on the 5th and then we headed onto Santiago. I was in a lot of pain the first few days. Any movement the wrong way would aggravate it and it was fairly swollen as well. Santiago was an amazing city. I couldn't get over how clean and modern it was. There was an amazing metro system that would put any other to shame. That was so clean. There were all sorts of barrios or neighbourhoods around. Lots of restaurants and bars and all sorts of amazing foods from every part of the world. The first night we went to a really cool tapas/sushi place and got so much to eat. Ten little tapas dishes to share and then sushi each. Was perfect for me because it meant I could eat with chopsticks and not have to cut up my food!! The first night we arrived in was a Wednesday and no matter what time of day or night the streets were packed with people eating outdoors and enjoying the city. Seems like a perfect place to live as well. Great climate. So close to the mountains for snowboarding and so close to the beaches for surfing. Even in the summer the mountains were towering over heading capped with snow. We ended up walking around for two hours the first night looking for accommodation which was so annoying. There were so many really nice hostels but so many of them were booked up. This had never happened me before. I usually just go to a place and there is availability. So we really just hung out there and relaxed for a few days enjoying the summer. Cooked some good meals and then moved onto Valdivia down south.

Valdivia is a town of German influence and its really easy to see in the food, the buildings, the beer and the faces of the people. Felt very like been in Germany. A lot of people speak German as well. Really liked the place apart from the hostel we got. We'd decided to book in advance for once which was something we never do and then the hostel turned out to be awful. Very old and musty, not very friendly and kinda felt like it was in an old haunted house that was about to collapse. I had to go to hospital here for a check up as my doctor had some friends he recommended. So we left the hostel early, did this then went walking around and for some beers so we wouldn't have to go back to our place till late. Valdivia is very much a student city on a river. Really nice university which we walked around but unfortunately all the students were gone. At this stage since the operation I was just with the two Canadian girls as Adrian and the Australians had gone south a few days ahead of us. But we planned on leaving after one day in Valdivia to meet them in Bariloche but unfortunately everything was booked up. Again never seen anything like it. Usually we just go to a bus station and get on a bus but in this case we had to spend an extra day before moving on!! So had a nice day relaxing in the sun in a much nicer and friendlier hostel than the first night before moving back to Argentina again.

Xmas and New Yrs Photos

New Years Day Photos

Santiago and Valdivia Photos