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Our
flight to Ushuaia was spectacular. The pilot obviously got lucky the
previous night, because he flew us in a circle over the Torres Del Paine
National Park and we got awesome views of the Glaciers. Speaking to other
people in Ushuaia who took the same flight on different days, this is not
something that they normally do, as they never had the same on their
flights!
Landing
in Ushuaia also gave us some incredible panoramic views of snow-capped
mountains, in fact the whole town is surrounded by them.
There
isn't a whole lot to do in Ushuaia, except:
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Drink
the most wonderful hot chocolate you've ever tasted.
-
Eat
locally made chocolates that come in 50+ flavours, lemon being our
favourite.
-
Drink
locally brewed Beagle beer, which is a bit like Belgian White Beer!
-
Visit
the most southerly lighthouse in the world.
-
Visit
the most southerly prison in the world (no it's not still used!)
-
Spend
your birthday in the most southerly town in the world!
-
Run
around like little kids when it starts snowing, screaming "It's
snowing!” Doh!
-
Spend
two hours in Ushuaia Post Office trying to post a Photo CD back home!
-
Know
that you are only six hundred miles away from the Antarctic!
-
Have
lifelong bragging rights that you have actually been to Ushuaia!
From
Ushuaia we got a flight up to El Calafate, home of the Perito Moreno
Glacier. This incredible, giant, white glacier is 5 kilometres wide, 35
kilometres long, and 225 metres high, of which 165 metres of that is below
the water! The noise it makes as it cracks is deafening and when a chunk
falls off into the water it is an all round amazing sensory experience!
The
actual trip to The Los Glaciares National Park was in itself a great
journey, we saw loads of Condors, Flamingos, Argentinian Ostriches and
various different birds, including some huge birds of prey.
In
Ushuaia and again in El Calafate, we met up with a guy called Ben, who has
just left the forces after eleven years and decided to go travelling. So
we all went out for a drink, or five, and eventually something to eat!
The place we stumbled into was a Parrilla, which means grill, where they
basically roast the meats over an open fire and everything else was a help
yourself buffet! It was all great, the meats especially, but particularly
when we had some of the dark coloured sausages and they turned out to be
what can only be described as Black Pudding sausages! In Argentina they
are called Blood Sausages and are a lot more moist, with less fat in, than
the black pudding we get at home here! We were in heaven!
By the
way, guess what the most popular beer in Argentina is? Heineken! Can you
believe it! They don't seem to like their own beer, so much to the point
that one pub we went in didn't stock any! They only had Guinness,
Boddingtons, Stella and Heineken! However, apart from this one pub we did
drink Quilmes, which is very nice Argentinian beer, apparently a bit like
Heineken, but way cheaper!
Our
next stop, via Buenos Aires for a night, was Iguassu Falls. We
immediately transferred to the Brazilian side of the falls as from there
you can get to Paraguay, as well as take various river and helicopter
trips around the Iguassu Falls region, which are not available on the
Argentinian side.
We were
blown away by the vastness of these incredible falls. We managed to get
completely soaked, as they have built platforms across the base of one of
the falls where you can really see, feel and hear the power of nature.
The helicopter ride really gives you a sense of how vast this
non-Amazonian rainforest is and just how large an area the falls are
spread over.
Firstly, we transferred to Brazil by taxi and didn't get either exit
stamps from Argentina, or entry stamps into Brazil, in fact we didn't even
get out of the taxi, or show our passports to anyone! Then on a boat trip
on the river that separates Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay we went ashore
in Paraguay to visit the Museo Puerto Bertoni without anyone again having
a clue we were there!
The
river trip to Puerto Bertoni was great fun, we sat in the centre point of
the river floating on the international boundary of Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay all at the same time. Seeing life on the riverbanks as we
chugged past was great. Fisherman, people doing their washing, people
washing and young lads making money ferrying people across the river in
their canoes.
Moises
Bertoni, incidentally, was a Swiss scientist who lived in South America
during the beginning of the last century, oh and he had thirteen kids!
Also, he is responsible for many scientific recordings and calculations
that are still used to this day in South America and globally.
From
the Argentinian side of the falls you see them from a completely different
perspective. They have built a platform at the top of one of the falls
which really lets you again see, hear and feel, I mean really feel, the
force of the water. They also have far more trails that, as well as
revealing some interesting wildlife, enable you to get both close up and
panoramic views of the falls from lots of different locations. The
Iguassu Falls really have to be seen from both sides of the border to
fully appreciate them and personally we would recommend that you start
with the Brazilian side and then go to the Argentinian side.
In Puerto Iguazu, the town
next to the Iguassu Falls, we found our perfect store. It only sold local
meat, cheese, olives, beer and wine! The best bit though was that you
could sample all of them before you bought them, as they had a bar at the
back of the store. |