Hola. A day bus tour, not trekking, of the amazing Andes,  Land of Fire. A couple of hours across the Patagonian steppes,  the driest place, past long blue lakes Lago Portino and Lago Grey – Grey Lake. The peaks are amazing , beautiful, jagged and still many with snow in huge crevices and valleys. Weather in Patagonia changes dramatically, the hostel said the weather was to be 6o with 40km winds, but it wasn’t extremely cold tho we got to Paine waterfall and it said 80km winds! Walked on Grey Beach,  black pebbles. Many Welsh and English settled here as there are green mountains like Snowdonia, but then fierce black peaks tower above. We went to Milodon Cave where in 1893 a German discovered the skin of a creature believed to be a relative of the ancient sloth and in 1899 the British Daily Express newspaper started an expedition to find it. Perhaps that’s why British newspapers still trawl for low creatures.  Home in my swish hotel (and the rain has set in ) but the town of Puerto Natales is not much so far, tho I’m here til Sunday. Haven’t yet decided if I can manage an actual trek in those mountains- too hard for 8 hours! But I’ll find something. Pics next.

An internal flight down from Buenos Aires to El Calafate. What a cute town – a mix of wild west driving in through the dusty brown expansive Patagonian Steppes, to arrive at an Austrian ski-town style, gabledroofs for snow but its summer and daylight till after 10. 70’s signs for disco and fondue! Chockers with tourists – puffer jackets rule. I had my first empanadas and tried to pay with Chilean pesos but we’re still in Argentina. Sunday day trip to Perito Moreno Glacier: Wow! Huge  fissures and crevasses with deep ice blue colour , all day the boom of falling ice. Beautiful snow -covered peaks in the background with the sun shining on the. Perfect weather, cold wind and sunny. There are walkways all over protecting the environment,  very organized  we also went on a short boat trip out to it. Pics next post.

Hola, amigos and familiar. Yesterday I took a 3 hour walking tour of a part of Buenos Aires. We started at Teatre Colon, the Opera House, built in the era of the Belle Epoque, when Buenos Aires was wealthy. We saw the 1st synagogue in BA which has the largest population of Jews and the only kosher McDonalds outside Israel.  The man on horseback is Jose de San Martin, the Liberator of Argentina and Peru who fought against Spanish Empire and fought the War of the Oranges (sweet revenge). Indepence was achieved 16 July 1816, many streets named 16 Julio. 25% of population were African slaves brought to build the country then they sent them to fight the indigenous wars and were killed, or they sold slaves and the country invited  the French, German and English to emigrate. They modeled buildings on French architecture, gothic roofs and wide avenues.

Tango was danced first only between men, then prostitutes and men  and was only accepted in high society when the French approved it.  We ended at the Recoleta Cemetery, a famous Cemetery founded by the Recollect Fathers, the Franciscans , as the wealthy sought to escape yellow fever in 1871 and wanted to be buried in style. Recoleta is a stylish area of embassies and palaces. Today Saturday I’ve made it to El Calafate, start of Patagonia.  Wow! Dry flat land on one side and blue glacial lakes and mountains on other. Will take a tour tomorrow.

Last night after arrival I walked to Plaza Italia (yesterday’s photo of the man on horse) where I saw 5 men and 1 woman in a circle knitting while a man with a camera and boom mike filmed them. I saw the Jardins Botanique with Garden Frances.i went to the Cathedral and sat in a Mass where the priest sang beautifully but also seemed to be preaching the evils of photographing and videoing.  In the middle of this 6 fully uniformed guards marched in format across the church to a sideline aisle to unlock the gate of a statue.

I had a first meal of pizza and red in my barrios (district) Palermo. Bed and red – that’s all you need! Adios.

Hi all. Trying out free wi-fi to blog from Auckland. Fine flight so far as I got premium economy as travel agent got a good deal. Actual cutlery and glass.  I watched Crazy Rich Asians. Next flight leaves 8Pm Wed arrives 3pm Wednesday Buenos Aires. I won’t be texting my every move and will need to get connected on local sim there. Ooh , screaming baby just went by. Ciao (or I’ve got to work out goodbye in spanish).

Arrived 4pm Wednesday after departing 10am Wednesday 9th. I’m staying in an old hostel on corner of mix of residential and bar/ cafe / cool new hotels. Weather is cloudy and humid. Setting out to orient myself and have breakfast. Travel takes a while to feel real.

Here’s a map of my plans – Buenos Aires to Patagonia- El Calafate, Perito Merino, Puerto Natales to Santiago then overland to B/A.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton