Christmas in Ushuaia

Hip Santa with his orange beard

Merry Christmas and Happy New year, wishing you a wonderful 2013. In Argentina Christmas Eve is the big day. So Ruth and I headed out to 8pm mass which was neat. It was packed and the sign of peace in Latin America is not a hand shake but a kiss on the cheek for everyone.  Our hostel had a traditional Christmas dinner of empanadas and beef, how sweet. It was just like the old days of Manning Ave Christmas’ where everyone is packed around the table sitting on benches with no elbow room. Nice memories. At midnight there was a champagne toast and hip Santa with his orange beard arrived and gave us all a Christmas card with Christmas wishes in three languages and a chocolate attached.

Christmas Day in Ushuaia

Christmas day we planned on a meal of spaghetti, the simplest and best traveling meal to make in a hostel kitchen where space is of the premium. We met an Aussie girl who had Christmas crackers and wanted to share them with us, so we enjoyed the cheesy jokes and paper hats. Another enjoyable day. Now I am just finishing up some last minute stuff and heading back to Antarctica, this time on a different boat and to The Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica. Talk about living in the moment, booked it and less than 24 hours later I will board the ship. Happy New Year from Antarctica, wishing you all the best.  

These photos are of the last day on the boat where we had to rescue our sister ship that broke down in the Drake Passage. We knew Dave was on the boat so we were taking photos of the people on deck and we saw him. They sent a zodiac to our boat and took our engineer with them to fix their boat. He was successful and they arrived a day later than planned in Ushuaia. There is a cool photo of the zodiac being lifted up onto the boat. The other photos are of Christmas in Ushuaia. 

Click on this link for photos from the boat rescue and Christmas Day in Ushuaia

Some day I will figure out how to upload the cool videos of penguins walking, swimming, a penguin chick hatching, cutting through the ice and the Humpback whales breaching, but it will be at least another month before that happens as I will not have internet for the next 20 days. Happy New Year!

PS you know how I had such troubles with ATM's and credit cards not being used in Uzbekistan? Well they take credit cards in Antarctica. The shop that is run by four UK volunteers for four months of the year living in Antarctica with no running water takes credit cards and Uzbekistan doesn't, go figure. If the workers are lucky they get to hop on the odd ship and take a shower and the ships supply them with drinking water.

Antarctica Round One

Antarctic golf with a penguin caddy. 

Antarctica wow, how do I say this, it was so good I am going back. Yes that is right, 10 days of amazing scenery, people, nature and laughs. Not enough time to process what I have seen as there was always so much to see and do. You couldn’t go to sleep because you might miss a whale spotting and it was light out for 22 hours of the day and one wanted to see sunset and sunrise on the icebergs and the on goings on the bridge watching the captain and his crew work there just wasn’t enough time for me to document what has been happening in a blog post or my journal. If you weren’t on deck watching the penguins swim and fly through the air or a humpback whale breaching you were in the lecture room receiving a presentation from one of the eight or so biologists on board to teach you about what you were seeing and then the friends I met, god we had good times and my cheeks are still sore from laughing continuously. The food what can I say, amazing. Backpackers are not use to three courses meals three times a day, wow, Roger the baker and his fresh hot bread at each meal. So on a whim and a prayer is that how it goes, no on a whim I saw a sign listing a last minute deal I couldn’t resist and so I booked it and I leave less than 24 hours later this time for 19 days. So in total it will be almost a month in Antarctica. That was the last continent for me to visit and well it appears I have started the process again. How lucky I am.

Zodiac cruises through the icebergs, spectacular, penguins squawking, seeing a penguin chick hatch, taking the plunge into 0 – 1 degree Celsius Antarctic water, crazy fun, what an experience. Incredible weather, being able to hike up a mountain in my t-shirt one day, going through the roughest sea in the world in record time, not having to puke for the expected two days because God was on our side and made the passage smooth, therefore allowing for an early arrival by seven hours and therefore an extra expedition to land. Hurry up and vacuum your outer cloths so we can get into the zodiac and go to land. They didn’t want to contaminate Antarctica with foreign seeds or plants so a good vacuuming is in order. Seeing seals, having a barbq in Antarctic waters surrounded by beautiful mountains and icebergs, wow what an epic adventure. I am spoiled for sure, but my siblings have been saying that for years. So what else is new, oh yes I am going to Antarctica for a second time. Stay tuned.

A Humpback Whale breaching 

The link at the bottom has about a tenth of the pictures I took, but I tried to limit it for you, even though you could just shoot and not use the view finder as every shot was beautiful.   

PS Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. All the best for 2013. Christmas was different, but great, spaghetti, barbqs and Santa with an orange beard stay tuned. 

A plunge into the Antarctic waters

Just another day at the beach

Click on this link for some of the photos from Antarctica

Check out my friend Ruth's blog also, she documented some of it day by day http://gon​eirianboth​arleat.wor​dpress.com

Antarctica here I come

A chocolate Christmas Tree

Today is the day. I catch the boat to Antarctica, the last continent for me. Wow a pretty cool feeling. I am starting to get excited. The Patagonia region has been beautiful itself and I have been living in the moment enjoying Ushuaia and the great people who I have shared the last few days with. It is neat how when you are traveling your paths overlap with people and because I have had a few days here I know 10 people going on the same boat as me, so one tenth of the people.

Enjoy the holiday season will be thinking of you all sending you warm wishes from the land of ice, but not too warm we don't want it to melt.

This is the boat I am taking to Antarctica

Click on this link for some more photos from Ushuaia

From Uzbekistan to Argentina

Christmas Market in Madrid

Well I am at the end of the world as they say. I am in Ushuaia the southernmost city in the world. I was 60 hours in transit from Uzbekistan to Argentina, with 31 hours of flying time. I had a day in Madrid and it was nice to be back in a county celebrating Christmas. I ended up in a square where the Christmas market was set up. To be honest it didn’t feel like December to me or Christmas time until I saw the market and heard Christmas music playing. Madrid had a national holiday and it was full of tourists a shock to my system, being back in a first world country and amongst the masses.

Patagonia

Ushuaia Argentina has a great National Park, Tierra del Fuego part of the Patagonia region and I had a great hike/walk there for eight hours with a few hostel mates. What good fun. I have been alone for a month and to have the comic relief of an Irish girl and English guy bantering back and forth was great. My cheeks were sore from laughing. The town is small and it has a great vibe. You see people in the street and they stop you to tell you their news and the verdict on last minute deals on Antarctica trips. Whether they are in or not, what date they are going, who’s boat they are going on?  Dave my roommate is going on Dec 13 and I am going on Dec 14 so that is what we are comparing with.  I now know five people who are going and only one of them came here with the intention of going and getting a last minute trip. All the others are getting over the huge spontaneous purchase they just made because, well you are here and so close, it’s an incredible opportunity. Some are vibrating from excitement and others the cash they just dropped for such a trip. Dave the English guy should work on commission he has been encouraging people to go for it and all of the people he has talked to are now going.  

One foot in Chile one in Argentina

Patagonia is beautiful. It was such a lovely day of walking and great company amongst the mountains. We walked on one trail and could go no further as it was an unguarded Argentina / Chile boarder. So I had one foot in Chile and one in Argentina. 

Oh yes I almost forgot I ran into this group of guys riding BMW motorcycles they rented in Chile for 24 days and are now riding through Chile and Argentina. Oh the possibilities. I love those bikes.

It also takes a bit to get use to the fact that the sun doesn’t set until 11 pm in Ushuaia. A big night out the other day resulted in a potential incredible book, but because of my young audience on this you will have to wait for a beer and me to tell you in person or read the book if I write it when I retire. I can say it is proposed that my boat to Antarctica is a former Russian spy boat this I got from a Lithuanian ex KGB.  

Click on this link for photos from Patagonia and Ushuaia Argentina

Here is the link for the Madrid photos

Tashkent Uzbekistan and the Meat Market

How are you doing for brains?

Well I am back in the land of the living. I have access to the money in my bank again. I was able to finally hit an ATM. The first ATM that has existed in the three cities I have visited in Uzbekistan. Freedom and I was able to use my bank card and not have to do a cash withdrawal on my MasterCard, so even better.

I have been trying to do it on the cheap not knowing if I could get money in this country so it was nice to not have instant noodles for dinner again. I splurged and went to the 17th floor of my hotel for the view and dinner, only one there and the big spender my meal and two drinks cost $9. Up until that point I had spent less than a dollar that day. It was 50 cents for the minibus to the train station (and I had already paid for the train ticket) and then in Tashkent, the capital they have a metro that comes right to the train station and a change and two stops later I popped out literally at my hotel, 30 cents for a metro ride. It was so simple and so cheap.

It was an eight hour train ride that was supposed to be seven, but the train stopped with two hours left in the trip and waited for an hour while the track was being repaired. I arrived to two wedding parties having their pictures done in the lobby of my hotel and this hotel has some people staying in it. I can say as I end my trip in The Stan’s that in my month in Central Asia I did not meet any other tourists, expats, yes, but not tourists.

Today I met a guy from the States who has been here for two months trying to learn the ins and outs of doing business here as he is interested in moving here with his family and setting up some small businesses. There is a lot of potential here but it is quite difficult, so I wish them good luck.

A little tongue action for you?

I always love checking out the scene on the meat market and although this one had some woman it was not that kind of meat market. If you are looking for babushkas they were there and they had brains and you could get some tongue too and there were nice melons in the veggie market but the cool thing of the day was the intestines, sheep heads, brains and of course the tongue. To my vegetarian friends mind your eyes to all others enjoy the meat.

Well The Stan’s have been an experience and a fabulous one at that.

Click on this link for pictures from the Meat Market and Tashkent Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, Samarkand and Bukhara

Uzbekistan; a five hour proposed trip from Dushanbe to Samarkand or Tajikistan to Uzbekistan was a 12 hour trip. The roads were pitted with huge pot holes and it took over two hours to go 65km on a dirt road to get to the Tajikistan boarder. Then once in Uzbekistan there were paved parts and then the driver would slam on the brakes because the road would drop 8” or a foot and become a gravel road for a section. To the Tajikistan boarder I took a taxi and was the only one in it, $60 then once I walked through the boarder crossing and had my passport checked half a dozen times I caught a shared taxi with three babushka sisters for $25 the rest of the way. I was happy to share with the babushkas, you just never know who you could be partnered up with and babushkas always take you under their wing. So we shared cookies, nuts had a communal lunch and went the 10 hours together sharing more nuts and fruit.

I am not sure the state of gas over here, but there are huge line ups over 3 km’s long with people pushing their vehicles to move them ahead while waiting for gas. Then there are people at the side of the road selling it out of 2 liter pop bottles or other containers.

In Uzbekistan the sites are spectacular. They are covered with blue/turquoise tiles and there are so many mausoleums and medressa’s (Islamic academies or seminaries) that they start to blend together. Samarkand has been remodeled and has pedestrian streets and modern western looking buildings, but no ATM’s. Yes, none. I have never been to a county with no ATM’s, my card has not worked at certain ATM’s before, but this country does not have them and in my opinion this is the Stan with the most tourism and still no ATM’s. Thankfully I carry American money and can convert this on the black market. The rate is better there and it is a well known fact that you change your dollars on the black market. Guys carry grocery bags full of money. I changed $40 twice. Once I got 80 000 in the licensed place and 106 000 on the black market. The largest bill in Uzbekistan is a 1000 and everyone carries wads of money around. A chocolate bar is 2000, less than a dollar or a dollar depending on what rate you are going by. Luckily I had American to use and if I didn’t there is the option of doing a cash withdrawal on your credit card, will need to revert to that in the end probably but in the mean time I am eating two minute noodles and shashlyk (meat roasted over hot coals that costs a dollar) for dinner to keep the American lasting longer.     

Bukhara is beautiful. It has incredible Medressas, mosques and streets winding you through to the many ancient attractions. The weather was great about +12 degrees Celsius. Bukhara is more authentic than Samarkand and has a wonderful vibe to it. The sites and ancient streets are spectacular to stroll through. It hasn’t been as modernized as Samarkand and therefore is more attractive. It is incredible the craftsmanship that exists over here and from so long ago. The architecture, tile work and brick work is fascinating. Let alone their current embroidery work. Speaking of which, I bought a handmade embroidered jacket today that took the girl 30 days to make. So much for trying to hold on to that American. They don’t know how much money they are losing in their economy by not having ATM’s or letting people pay by credit card there are tons of things I could have bought.  

Click on this link for pictures from Uzbekistan, Samarkand and Bukhara

The pictures with the blog don't do justice for what is included in the above link. Sorry there are tons of photos and I am sure they all start to look the same, but there are so many incredible sites.