End Of The Earth

After two weeks of seeing the sights of Buenos Aires and surrounds it was time to venture South, to the very tip of the Andes' - Patagonia. After landing in El Calafate international airport, which is nothing more than a control tower and a runway in a field, we headed for the small town of El Chalten for some challenging trekking. The 24km hike was well worth it for the beautiful views of Fitz Roy.

Fitz Roy behind a glacier fed lake

Our next day's walk was on a glacier, ice trekking. The pictures don't do it justice, but this was really amazing! Then to top it off we ended the trek with a cup of baileys served on five hundred year old glacier ice.

Ice trekking on a glacier

Our next stop in Patagonia was back to El Calafate for another glacier - Perito Moreno, this time it was to watch huge slabs of ice carving into the lake.... It might not sound exciting, but when the block of ice is the size of a 20 story building, it's pretty awesome.

Whilst we were here this section which looks similar to some one giving the bird, use your imagination and you'll see it, fell into the water.

Next it was time for a workout again, so we headed to the "hills" for three days of camping and trekking. The "hills" we're actually 3000m peaks in the Torres del Paine national park. Unfortunately we weren't as lucky with the weather as we were at Fitz Roy, so we barely got to see the peaks through the low cloud cover. The treks were still beautiful and we would definitely recommend this national park to anyone who appreciates nature.

Trekking in Torres del Paine national Park

With all the hard work over it was time to head to the "Fin del Mundo" (End of the World), Ushuaia to collect a stamp very few people get in their passport. We went there via Punta Arenas which, unluckily, had a once in 20 year flood for our stay.

The aftermath of the flooding in Punta Arenas... Not much sight seeing on this day!

Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world, it is only 1000km from Antarctica. There were plenty of tourists here about to head on expeditions to the southern continent. This was a cold place, it is summer here but that didn't stop it snowing. We spent our time checking out wildlife, 4 wheel driving and getting drunk on St Patricks day in an Irish pub at the End of the World, with people from all over the world!

A curious penguin pecking our legs