It´s taken us almost 15,000km to reach Ushuaia, Argentina. Commonly known as ´The End of the World´, it´s cold, quiet yet still virtually sunny at midnight. We´re only an armslength to Antarctica (well just 1,000kms away), though judging from the cost, we just opted to sail the Beagle Channel instead and admire some stinky seals mating in a fat tangled hump of seal love.

From Santiago´s blog, we travelled south to Pucon to climb Volcan Villarrica - a live volcano. After donning on the crampons and ice pick, we only made it 1/3 of the climb due to strong winds and falling ice (mainly caused by the teams above us from their foot steps). After a failed attempt, we packed up and moved back to steakville (Argentina) to continue some hikes through the Mont Fitzroy region near El Chalten. It only took 6hrs before the flesh on my feet were mashed to bits, due to our poor orienteering skills which made us lost in a swamp in cold sludge. But we kept fighting and pushed further south to El Calafayte to view a biog lump of ice called the Moreno Galcier. A glacier which continues to move making stange noises and throws spectacular chumks of breaking ice.

Xmas was edging near, so we jumped back into Chile in to the region of Torres del Paine National Park. Quite a nice backdrop for our xmas celebrations. Apart from the usual excessive amounts of alcohol, it was a perfect opportunity to stick a huge rod up a lambs arse and spit roast over charcol.

Now in Ushuaia, Argentina, we celebrated New Year´s Eve from the end of the world. Now just a distant blur and mild headache, tomorrow we move north for the first time towards Buenas Aires. We´re all looking forweard to ity, as we are mentally and physically sick of mountains and cold weather (considering it´s SUMMER!!). Anyway, gotta go and drink some more fluids. New photos and the dynamite viodeo have been uploaded - enjoy.

cheers, hatton.