Eva and Les

This is SO much better with pictures, but this computer does not recognize my USB hub to read the photos. Bloody computers! We got a bus (what a novelty - NOT) for the 90 min, 80km to Perito Moreno glacier. It is huge. About 5.5km wide, some 30km long and walls about 30-60m high. When we entered the National Park, the landscape changed dramatically. The sparse low vegetation gave way to greenery and trees. This is a result of micro-climate change rather than land clearing, we were told. The glacier is very impressive from the first sight, and more so when we got on a boat for a 30min crossing of the river and getting fairly close to the face of the glacier with its high, white walls of ice all criss-crossed with blue lines where water was making its own way to the green lake in which the ice-face sat. It was cold and windy but very impressive. Eva had all her layers on, I had 4 and had one to go if needed. After landing we were taken by guides to the ice, fitted ...

I'm on a VERY slow connection in El Calafate, so still no piccies - sorry! We left Bariloche and the plane was on time (amazing!). The people to meet us were 20 mins late (bus trouble), but it all worked out. The hotel room was almost a sauna (nearly 30 degrees with central in-floor heating) and noisy outside. We were SO pumped about getting to Torres del Paine the next day. I'll skip the 5am start,12 hour multi-buses ride (it wasn't a death bus though Ben) and the mega stuffing about at the border to get the the magnificent Torres del Paine NP. We saw it from a distance, with its towering, snow capped mountains and many different coloured lakes. The first, Lago Amarga was a bright lime-green, and we saw 3 pink flamingos fly low over the water in formation. Many guacanos (llama-like creatures) about as well as foxes. If we were pumped before we were bursting now! The bus drove through just about all roads in...

Waiting at the airport in Bariloche at the moment for our flight to El Calafate, so I thought I´d update the past week. We got to Villa La Angostura and we were SO tired - I took that as a reflection of getting the most out of the day! We had no idea where to stay or how to find out at 7pm. We had noticed a smaller village called Puerto Manzano on the way in that had heaps of lovely wooden structured hotels, very nice architecture too, but we continued the 10km or so to the long main street of Villa La Angostura and parked. It is a very attractive place with all side streets being unpaved, and the long main street having lots of shops, cafes etc and lines with beautiful green trees with lovely red berries- very nicely presented, friendly people and quite a village atmosphere with the many wooden carvings of people and even a giant ice-cream. We were SO lucky, that I noticed an excursion place on the 1st floor of a building, and not only was it open but they also worked with hotels for...

Wow! What a 2-days this has been. Pictures will need to be posted later because this internet connection does not recognize my USB key! We knew it was going to be a challenge, to walk the 18km in an estimated 5 hours with a climb of 1100m - and it was. We drove the half hour from the peaceful Hotel Tronador to Pampa Linda where we registered for the walk with the National Park, parked the car in the shade and set off with our 7kg or so packs. The track for the first 4 km or so is on a stony dirt 4 wd track through fairly open forest, so we were glad when we arrived at the Puente Rio Castano Overa log crossing. This fast flowing grey-green river is from one of the glaciers of Mt Tronador , and later we´d have a spectacular view from above it, with its ice falls and waterfalls. But for now we were happy to go into the thicker forest and less dusty track. We deviated for a bit to go down another river (because it was there)...

Hotel Tronador has been our home for 4 days now. It is about 70km from Bariloche that you get to down a timed one-way road. It sits on a emerald green lake with mountains in the background, and the 3400m Mt Tronador at the end of the valley. It is called Tronador because of the thunderous sound of ice breaking away from the glacier and floating in the lake - not OUR lake, which is a little warmer. We have spent each day walking for about 5 hours on the mountain paths to lookouts (usually very steep), over rivers and swing bridges, to other lakes, to glaciers, waterfalls and just generally in the forest. When we were at Mirador del Valle we saw two condors just above us. The forest is interesting, as it has some flowers, but lots of native bamboo that gives it a tunnel effect in places. The days have been warm (25 degrees) and very sunny. In the afternoons the sun is VERY hot and we swim in the cool lake. Everyone is very friendly, most people speak english , but som...

Well, finally got to a reliable internet connection in Bariloche, so I thought I'd better update while I can! We arrived OK, but it was over 30 hours due to a 6 hour delay in Santiago - setting the trend of things to come. On advice we packed all the electronic gear in our carry-on (Thanks Jeanette and Pat) and everythig arrived OK. We had to wait 3/4 of an hour to get our bags though, not sure why, but we were relieved when they arrived. The flight to Puerto Varas, about 900km south of Santiago was fantastic. The weather was mostly clear and we saw lots of the Andes and many lakes. Some mountains had snow, but not as many as would further north, as they are higher there. Got a taxi OK at Puerto Montt to go to Puerto Varas, and my Spanish was continuing to be useful (thanks Nancy), and I am enjoying tryong to use it. Everyone is SO friendly and helpful. We arrived late and very tired, but had dinner an a fish restaurant above a fish market (El Mercado) and w...

Well, its not long now, 2 weeks before we go! We've been researching, getting fit and have bought all the things that we think we need. We've been up Mt Tennant (thanks Jeanette and Pat) and tomorrow we head to Charlotte's Pass to walk to Blue Lake and Mt Kozzie. We figure that 2,200m may not be very high, but it's the best we can do in Australia! We've talked with lots of people who have been (thanks Kurt, Marta, Alex, Jenny, Sid, Jenny, Jeanette, Pat, Chris, Kadty, Emily and more). Our bookings have been capably made by Renee at Jetaway Travel. I've done some booking n Spanish, so we'll see how they work out! So, in a nutshell, our plans are: 17th Feb - Fly to Santiago, then straight on the Puerto Montt 18th Feb - Go on a two day boat/bus trip through lakes to Bariloche 20th Feb - Hire a car - Spend 4 days at a remote hotel near Mt Tronador Spend 7 more days driving about in the Lakes District (and sleeping in the car because Les would have forg...

We reluctantly checked out of our hotel - it was such a fun and friendly place, and we went out to pickup our car and it all happenned smoothly. We got a Ford Taurus, which I do NOT like at all. It had a column auto shift and it beeped at us annoyingly for whatever we did not do (like putting on seat belts, having the key in the ignition but motor not running, not eating chocolate for 5 mins - OK I made that last one up). We did get used to it after a while. Nifty navigator Eva (I call her Genius in Positioning Selves or GPS for short) got us through San Francisco easily and we crossed the Grey Ghost in partial fog again, but we would have another chance on the way back as Napa is North of SF and after Napa we will come back down south and go along the west coast from SF to LA (OK?). We headed along busy highways for about an hour and found the Napa Visitors Centre OK, and Sylvia there booked us into a nice hotel in the middle of the "Napa strip" of wineries at Rutherford...

Does time speed up towards the end of a holiday? Sure seems like it and there is so much we want to do! Good way to be I guess. The trip from Montreal was quite long with a delay at Chicago and the 3 hour time difference (backwards) made the day very long. When we arrived at San Francisco we decided to get a cab in to the hotel as it was easiest, even though the alternative of BART (train) was far cheaper. Turns out it was a good move as the taxi driver was so friendly telling us of his move to SF in the "love years", being the 60's, and of his family as well as very many tips about SF, where to go etc. What a great introduction to this very friendly city! Our hotel (Compton Place) is a block from Union Square which is a great central part of SF and easy to get other transport and walk from - as long as you know which way to go to avoid the hills! We decided to make the most of our time and ventured out for a walk. It was a little chilly, probably 16 degrees with a ...

Well, Chicago the musical was excellent, with a very unusual set design of a large tiered platform for the orchestra taking up most of the stage, which meant the dancers were really at the front of the stage so we could see extremely well. We had coffee and New York Cheesecake opposite the theatre and the man who played the lawyer in Chicago had his dinner at the next table. It was fun. We got a car to the airport the next morning and arrived in plenty of time, and our flight was delayed by an hour or so (did I say already that I don't like airports ...grrrr..). Miri and Robi were waiting for us at Montreal airport, and it was so good to finally meet. The relationship is that Miri's father was the older brother of my grandmother, making my mother and Miri first cousins - but whatever the relationship is called, the four of us have had such a wonderful time together, it has been fantastic. Robi drove us to their home on the 5th floor of a very lovely apartment block and to...

Wow! Up to now I thought we had been really pushing ourselves each day, but New York has SO much to do that we had a fantastic week, and collapsed late at the end of each day, to start the next one early! We arrived very late, with the time difference it was something like 4am and there was a very long line at immigration (and we were at the end). It was all straight forward though and our taxi driver made good time, but was pissed off when I gave him $50 for a $49 ride (it was all I had). No tips? he asked. The Sofitel on 45 West 44th is a fantastic hotel. So nice, quiet, comfortable with wonderful furnishings but not overdone in any way. Our room was large and we greedily sought out the solace of the bed. Surprisingly, we woke at 7am (we had gotten to bed at 2am local time) and we were raring to go! I thought I'd sent Laci and Marilyn an email from Munich (later found it had bounced) and so I thought they would contact me, and we set out. We managed to change some money (no...

Well, we did get to the Arabia museum/shop in Helsinki and it was fun using their trams. We couldn't work out how to pay on the trip out, so had a free ride! The Arabia factory was huge and incorporated a Design University of some sort on its 5th floor. The bottom floor was a shop that sold much more than Arabia things and there were other shops as well selling fabrics, pots etc. It was OK to look around in, but basically just shopping! The museum on the 9th floor was very well laid out with examples of Arabia design of their plates etc as well as artworks of their designers. It really highlighted the relationship of art and functional design. I saw an example of the sunflower Arabia plate we have but we didn't stay too long as it was SO hot. We concluded that Helsinki is not hot for very long and so they don't have air con anywhere! We went back into town and did some more last minute shopping and looking at design places and got the bus to the airport. The airport. Wh...

A rare photo of Les - about to get some exercise lifting up a cup of coffee.

Eva outside the Cathedral in Helsinki

I'm slowly getting the hang of blogs and have now added some photos, so check out the posts below for some piccies. I seem to be only able to add one picture per post (is there another way Ben??). Anyhow, back to the saga! We did a last minute 2 hour shop for Eva and a 2 hour walk to discover parks for Les in Stockholm and then we headed out on the train to the airport. We arrived in time, but had to queue for nearly an hour to get checked in! And then the flight was delayed half an hour which was just as well as we (or our luggage) may not have made it. The flight was about 2 hours and the time difference was 1 hour, so we are back to daylight till midnight now, which is great. We found the hotel, (Seurahuone) after getting a bus from Helsinki airport that took about three quarters of an hour to get in. The frightening part is that the traffic going the other way was heavy and we will have to get through that going back! We decided to go for a few hour walk which we did ...