Ravens Travels

Gaiman is 17km from Trelew and reachable by local bus for 2.25 pesos each. According to the guide books as you walk through the town you will here welsh still being spoken...what we found was a cute picturesque town with small storeybook houses with rose gardens and tea rooms set around a plaza overlooked by hills. T he best thing about the village is at the edge of it, Parque El Desafio. The books and papers call the creator and 86-year-old artist Joaquin Alonso the ´dali of recycling´.

In 1998 he even gained a place in the Guinness book of records. The park houses over 80,000 soda cans and bottles, which have been recreated for the imagination of children. Originally he created the park as a free way to entertain his grandchildren. Within the area you can see a recreation of castles, dinosaurs, the taj mahal, flower gardens and plazas to commemorate those lost in the Falkland war. Around the park are little plaques with sayings and quotes that inspire and cause you to giggle and smile. Similar to the wizard of oz you follow a path of yellow around the park in this case they are tulip bulbs (plastic bottles originally).... This park is a must see for eccentric artistic imagination.

On the Saturday afternoon (over a week ago) we went to Punta Tomba. It is possible to get a private taxi there for a cost of 220 pesos one way or an excursion coach return ticket for 90 pesos (plus reserva access fee of 20 pesos). Punta Tombo is about 110 km from Trewlew.
Over half a million Magellanic Penguins and many other birds can be found there. Most people go at 8/9am as its cooler in the morning and more penguins are gathered together on the beach. We went at 2pm, the penguins were waddling through the bushes and easy to see, well we were standing right beside them, there was also less people at this time, which was good. It was surreal to be walking so close to them but also keeping a little distance as t hey can bite!! As it is the end of the summer here the baby penguins are in the process of losing there grey feathers and are growing the more recognisable black and white ones. Our trip was spent with Antonelle and her Uncle from, Torino, Italia. Very good people to be on a trip with, they also spoke Spanish, which was very handy for translations.

Okay food update in Trewlew it has to be in ´La casa de juan´, we were really spoiling ourselves here with this place as with all the night traveling we didn’t always have time for food so its a good place every odd day...This particular restaurant hah high ceilings with a spacious, airy bright dining area. From our seat we could see into the kitchen via large windows. Between the kitchen and us was a large open ground fire /bbq were the meat was being cooked. The menu had an extensive wine list that seemed to go on a bit but we eventually chose a malbec as this is our current chosen type...also managed to catch the last king of Scotland that night in the cinema, great acting not sure about the rest....

The next day we get the bus to Comodoro Rivadavia. As the bus was in the afternoon we still had time check out the museum- museo paleontologico egidco feruglio. Its a natural history museum that focuses on dinosaurs + fossils. It was a good museum with some funny cartoons for explanations as well as the usual detailed ones. You can tell which type I preferred (even if they were meant for the children.... one was detailing the various animals crossing the borders into various countries before the splits etc, very cute one.)....

The bus to Comodoro Rivadavia of course was delayed and took about six hours. Arriving around 11 at night we went straight to the closest budget place - hospedaje belgrano, the older couple that ran the place are really sweet with two dogs and a cat. The guy even thought me the phrase ´ver la´to see/ view, so now I can ask to see the room first, handy one to know... The room was quite old fashioned with a bed, old-fashioned dresser, sink (shared bathroom at end of corridor) and a table and chairs but very cozy, clean and warm. The town itself smelled of petrol, it seemed to seep from every corner. Its a town that made its money on oil so its not shocking to smell it everywhere, nothing else to say about the town really as it was a flying visit. At the bus station we bumped into Antonella and her uncle again, have a feeling we’ll see them again many times. Not a bad thing as they’re nice people...

The bus from there to Rio Gallegos was three hours late!!! Are you as shocked as us.... not at this stage... they’re nearly all late.... we went coche cama again as a 12 hour journey required a little comfort (yes I know it will be hard in Bolivia, so now when we want to go in comfort we’re taking the chance) ...On the bus we met Matthias a guy from California who has just spent the last four months in Brazil and the last day and a half on buses.... As we arrived at 2 in the morning it was lucky that we did meet him, we hadn't made any reservations and he had phoned ahead to a hostel to say he was arriving late. Luckily he invited us to tag along and after waking the poor owner up we got a bed for the night in one of the dorms (25 pesos per person), the next morning we tried to get the next bus out to keep traveling but we were there too late so we had to stay another night in town, we tried several hotels in town for a private room but they don't like backpackers and kept telling us they were full, we know they're not because people went in after us without res´s.... so we went back to the hostel and a couple had just moved out of the double room, so we could have it for 70 pesos (private bathroom, TV, etc..)..A very nice family runs the place and handily it’s the closest place to the bus station (if you are unfortunately stuck in this place) - Casa de familia elcira Contreas.

The next day the 9am bus actually arrived on time!!!! Knew that would shock you as much as it did us! So we were on our way to Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia... just to let you know it has been getting a bit colder each time we got further south... its jumper and scarf time... The bus journey was 12 hours long and went through some really nice scenery.... all I can say is that its a beautiful country... The first night we stayed in an apt for ease, double room, 85 pesos, we were supposed to be sharing it with a six-bed dorm but it was empty so it was all ours, hehehehe. it was a nice apt, very clean and so new you could still smell the paint, its owned/ managed by the posada hostel ( up the steps near the supermarket on av san martin...)... so on our first night we decided since we hadn’t really gone out yet we would head to the Irish bar ´dublin´were 5 rounds for two people is 50 peso..... Bit expensive but not too bad for an Irish bar (they tend to be the most expensive anyway), its a really nice bar with some quirky posters. I could tell I hadn't drunk in a while though because I could really feel it the next morning. The next we checked into our new lodgings - the campsite!! Yes we finally used the tent etc.... the site is 3km from the city center (this is an uphill walk and its not too bad, well until you get to the final hill, then that kills you.)...Anyway camping isn't too bad, we have blow up mattresses and pillows (yes I know that’s cheating), the tent itself has withstood rain and wind without letting us down so we’re happy.... only bad things is that it is freezing at night, if you stay over 3 nights you pay 10 peso per person, we stayed 5 so that was our cheapest stay so far!! Only problem is that it is freezing at night!!!!! In the evening times everyone gathers in the kitchen to swap stories, cook food, make jewelry, listen to someone sing and play the guitar, chill or just warm up by the fire.... the people are so friendly and very open.... while we there though we did do one bad thing, everyone was cooking vegan and veggie meals and in our hunger state we started tearing into our roast chicken with Arjan enjoying it so much he was ripping it with his hands, whoops I turned around to see us being stared at and that the music had stopped.... still they didn't seem to take too much offense and it was obvious lectures wouldn’t work.... in general everyone gets together and takes turns cooking the meals, it cuts down on costs, only prob is that they don't generally eat till after midnight so we skipped it a lot....

Okay so in Tierra del Fuego, we’ve visited two museums, one is a small one about the Yaman tribe, it’s was very informative and quite moving. The people who came to help the tribes with good intention actually helped to wipe them out, by clothing the tribe who originally wore nothing they helped spread disease and infection causing the once large tribe to by wiped out, in about 30 years they depleted down from being one of the largest tribes to being virtually wiped out, which eventually happened. Out of our main tribes in the area of many thousands of people only one such tribe is still in existence and there are only a handful left.... maybe it would have been better if they had been left to their own ways.

The other museum was a larger history museum of the area it is set in the old prison, the first part is about the ships that sunk in the area but what interested me the most was the second part which explains about the prisoners, they had children as well as adults here, the cases in the cells (very cold and creepy) went in to detail about why some people had been sentenced and what happened to them, one of the creepy ones was from 1912 about small man with the big ears who killed children, mostly babies in Buenos airs..... He was a horribly creepy looking man...

From town we got the bus to the national park (25 pesos per person), at the entrance you pay 20 pesos to enter as not local to trek, over various days we did quite a lot of the park, its a beautiful park with amazing wildlife, fingers crossed these photos turn out!!!

We also trekked to local glacier martial (apologises for spelling but from an empty reception area I’m now surrounded by queuing people), a nice relaxing ski lift and then a hill walk start the hike, the walk is hard and sweaty despite the fact that parts of it are through snow!! The views of the town are amazing though...

Well better go the queue is expanding into the rooms, aghhh, tomorrow morning at 5.20 approx we head to punto arenas and then to punto natales to trek in chile to the W... explain all later, oh the hostel we´re in now is just off the center of town and prety funky, nice crowd etc. our room is called the green room but i´m calling it the irish one, walls are green and white and the bed spread if orange... leadings up to paddys day and all!!!