Chile.

Never seen mountains like this, they appear to be all around us.

It is Boxing day as I start to write this. We are sitting in the middle of nowhere, a pleasant night though the wind is threatening to rise again, but, for the first time we have wonderful vista of the proper Andes 

Ushuaia

We spent Christmas in the town of Ushuaia. The furthest southern town in the world and it is popularly known as the ‘End of the World’ I was quite hesitant about heading here for Christmas as it did seem that every traveller back packer and cyclist was doing much the same. I really wondered if it would be such fun.

I should not have worried. There were a few friends who had agreed to meet us and we met with a good few more. Jennifer(new friend) organised everyone who was interested to collect subscriptions and to go shopping etc 

Ping made a vintage performance of organising everyone in the preparation of food, the campsite we chose let us use the kitchen, the hall and everything and a real feast was planned.

There was a bit of friction on Christmas morning as a group of French Travellers arrived, clearly expecting to do their own thing and there was very little common language. They picked all the pots and pans that Ping had set aside for our preparations. There was a bit of to,ing and fro,ing long stares etc. Anyway mess with Ping at your peril. Let us just say they won’t be doing that again!

im,n,er

Actually it all worked out very nicely in the end. About 50 people from all over and speaking in tongues all settled down for an excellent Christmas dinner. 

Ursula from Switzerland produced a guitar and we had a lot of singing. I even sang a song for them in French in an attempt to settle the nerves of our Gallic chums. Surprisingly it seemed to please them a great deal. So all is well and no swords were drawn. Though I thought I saw one of them knitting a rather menacing tapestry.

It was all lovely and nicest of all was the owners of the camp, who themselves were both funny and delightful, told me that this was the best group they had ever had. Praise indeed!

Thats the Christmas bit  More of our travels to follow soon

Ping and Noel