hannah

Merry Christmas everyone!
Looking forward to warmer weather as we head north for Christmas. Our time in Ushuia was lovely, however rainy and cloudy the whole time which meant we really didnt see much...oh well, been to the most southerly city in the world! Highlight was having a bloke in our hostel hunt, gather and cook a huge rainbow trout for us, I like to say straight from antarctica (however it was more like a local lake). He catches and cooks these fish (perfectly) but doesnt eat them, so we struck a deal where we swapped him a whopping great steak which over here costs about 2 dollars, fair deal!
Anyway, hope all your christmas meals are as joyous as this one was.
take care and best wishes for the new year
Much Love Hannah
XOXO

Once again, a bit slack. However I think its fair enough to blame the mountains of Patagonia for this! Having a lovely time down south, gambling with the weather to see fantastic mountain peaks and glaciars...
After Santaigo, leaving my trusty travel companion Rhiannon, Megan and I headed on down to Punta Arenas in Chile, a quiet town with coloured roofs. We enjoyed a meal of salmon and fine wine in true backpacker style, the prices here allowing for the odd splurge. We soon headed off to Puerto Natales to prepare for our first hike actually carrying our own packs, and no 3 course meals prepared for us. Scary. We stayed in a hostel owned by this man who called himself 'The maestro'. Very helpful regarding the walk, but late night drinks in the kitchen with a fellow aussie guest proved that he wanted a bit of a kiss from Megan in return whilst looking at the stars...request denied and all went back to normal. However he did give us a very good bottle of wine, I think as a little apology!
We headed off on the walk, Megan and I and another chick from Sheffield. We all felt quite tough, although this was proved otherwise when I fell on my face and was not able to hold myself up becuase of the weight of my pack, quite embarassing! The Torres del Paine park was quite spectacular, with huge pillars of granite soaring above up into the sky. Unfortunately the weather wasnt on our side for most of the walk, all of us having to wear waterproof pants and jackets, which was lucky when I slipped on some rocks and sat in a big pool of water, no wet bum! My co-ordination has now become somewhat of a talking point! Anyway, we ate and camped like queens, prepared for all situations, even helping out a lone american traveller whod forgotten to bring a fork or spoon, a sleeping mat, no snacks, and we later found out, no means with which to get money out in South America... wierdo! We finished the walk and headed back to town to get washed and laundered. Then off to El Clafate from where we visited the Moreno Glaciar. Soooo amazing, massive wall of ice which broke off with big creaks and crashes into the water. Anyway, lots of photos to show as I got a bit carried away, as I have pretty much this whole trip. We travelled up to El Chalten for a few days where we got to do ice hiking on another glaciar with crampons and all, as well as ice climbing. Was ace fun, the guide telling me I was quite a professional. Should have knows he was argentinian and had said this to all the pretty girls!! Nevermind, I thought I was pretty adventurous and cool. We enjoyed amazing views of Mt FitzRoy after two days of it being in cloud, one of the most spectacular mountains I think Ive ever seen. Great to see the sunrise on it this morning as we drove out of town back to El Calafate.
We head to Ushuia on Wednesday 'the end of the world' as they call it. The south has been so spectacular, but looking forward to heading up to the warmer weather for Chrissy and New Year.
Hope all are well, cant wait to talk to the fam on Christmas day
Take care
Love Hannah

Ok, so Ive got a bit of catching up to do. Hope youve been keeping track of me thanks to Rhiannons lively updates...yes, ok I farted!
Anyway...since bolivia. We headed south down to a dusty town called Uyuni, the features of which are not much really, but there was a cool train graveyard about a km out of town in the desert. Made for another pretty impressive sunset. We joined a tour to head down through the Uyuni salt flats and desert down into Chile. The 3 day tour was great, sitting in a 4WD a nice change to overnight stinky dead llama buses. The salt flats were unbelievable, white glare going on for miles, the little island with mega cactuses being the only interruption in the landscape. We saw pink flamingoes and they look like fake garden statues even in real life. The changes in landscape were amazing, sand to salt to mountains to boiling geysers. Loved it. We got to swim in hot pools at 4900metres which was pretty special. Felt wierd though wearing a bikini and a beanie. The tour took us down into Northern Chile to San Pedro De Atacama, another lazy dusty town, but this one somewhat more popular with the tourists. Unfortunately for us this included many brits, as we endured the Rugby world cup at 5 in the morning. Our loss of this match is now a constant topic of conversation as soon as we mention we're aussies. Nevermind...
As my new permanent companion Megan took on the 24 hour bus ride to santiago, Rhi and I enjoyed our short flight to the capital. Santiago is your regular kind of city, lovely, big, modern, has everything. It felt pretty wierd being here after the northern countries as it is pretty much like home, with prices to match. We actually blend in to a certain extent which is nice for a bit. After a couple of days, we headed up and over the Andes by bus to Mendoza, a beautiful city, with unbelievably beautiful people to match. Here we didnt blend in at all, often having entire footpath cafes staring at us as we walked pass. I tried to convince the other girls that this was only because we are all stunningly beautiful and so different to all the skinny latino lovers walking around us.... they werent convinced! Anyway, great nightlife in Mendoza, any night of the week there's people out and about. Nothing much going on during the day though, so one adapts accordingly and we were soon eating dinner at midnight... was ok though cos it was so warm. We had a lovely day with dad's fine contacts, touring vineyards and having tasting lessons. Bit of a touch of class for us backpackers. Our other friends were quite envious!
So after a welcome 4 day stop (and shop!) in Mendoza, we headed back to Santaigo. Megan and I will head south to the tip of south America tomorrow, leaving Rhiannon to await her flight to LA. I packed my bag today feeling the same as I did when I packed the night before I left melbourne. It feels like a new phase, leaving the chica Ive been with for the last 2 and a half months, every day, every night. Its been fantastic to share all this with Rhiannon though. So many amazing new experiences. I dont know what Im going to do not having her blogs to refer to so I can remember what the hell Ive done! ... should be right.
Anyway, that was a bit of a marathon recount for you, but, as usual, Ive got onto the computers needing to go to the loo.
So love to all
Ill try and write a bit more often!
Hannah