Saturday 22nd September

We arrived in Ushuaia late afternoon and was met and taken to our 'Hotel'. Accomodation on this trip is great but this hotel was the best, the rooms were great with our own TV (for tom) and hairdryer (for tom too!!), heated floors, king size beds, walk in shower, porn magazines in receptions (for tom again!!) and enough space for tom to go for a run in the room! That night we headed down the steep hill to the river front of this port town and coaxed Nikki into a seafood restaurant. Me (lisa) and Nikki were really adventurous and had cod in parsley sauce, but seriously guys, it was a posh parsley sauce!!! Tom had steak, AGAIN!!!! oh and we noticed lots of chocolate shops on the way home, and clothes shops, so i stopped to buy a new black evening top to cheer myself up from my lack of nice clothes sydrome which was at critical stage by now!!!!

Sunday 23rd September

Our tour itinery for the next 2 days was in spanish, so we had no idea what we were doing today, but we knew our pick up time! Our tour guide gave us a basic explanation saying we would be snow shoeing, huskie ride and nordic skiing, which cheered us up!!! Most of the snow had melted cos of the dammed warm weather, but there was just about enough left. The valley wasnt as spectacular as the scenery we'd seen elsewhere, but it was more about the activities. We were fitted with our snow shoes and told to walk with our legs apart, slightly!!! now this i could do! we headed across the valley with a group, some young german lads, a german girl who was being stalked by one of the german guys, and lots of old people!! We then head through the forest and started to climb up hill, where we had to keep stopping for the old people!!! But that did give tom chance to make yellow snow! After seeing a non impressive waterfall we headed up a steep snowy hill and rested at the top while the old people caught up! It was this point Tom realised he'd lost his camera somewhere so charged down the snowy mountain in his snow shoes, reached the bottom and realised it was in his combats pocket!!! so he climbed up again slightly red faced!!! The cool guide then took us down a very snowy part of the hiill and told us it was more fun to run, so we did :o) we spent most of the time falling over, then waiting again for the old people who came down on their bums!!!! We headed back through the forest to a log cabin and had hot cholcoate and cakes whilst the old people talked politics. After we had a husky ride which was cool, but they stunk, poo'd a lot and didnt go very fast!!! We had a great lunch next to a huge log fire, eating a whole lamb almost and salad. After we had a cross country ski lesson which a huge bird who was a champion skier! it was very different to skiing, needing lots of co-ordination. We all fell over quite a bit, especially doing the downhill bit, but she said most people dont learn that in first lesson! Nikki had the best fall, busting her shoulder!!!! We headed home after and ate at some horrible pub on the main road and shopped some more. The main road in Ushuaia is very busy and loud and has chav's in hoodies hanging around the streets and kitted out cars pumping out the loudest music. But they have great chocolate shops and clothing shops!!!

Monday 24th September

I (Lisa) woke again being sick (slightly worrying) so missed the morning trip and left Tom and Nikki to go on their own! It was a crap trip, they went to the national park, went on a super slow steam train, went to the border of argentina and chile and spent the rest on a coach!!! In the afternoon we had a boat trip booked as apart of the tour and was told we'd be picked up at 2.45pm, we wasnt. Then got a call from the agency asking where we were, we were supposed to be at the pier at 14:30pm... not impressed... luckily the boat waited for us, though they got an earful from us!!! it was a small boat which lonely planet said was better a they get closer to the wildlife, so we were now happy! We headed off down the beagle channel.The only disappointement was the penquins were not in ushuaia at that time of the year, nikki and i were devastated! But to our amazement the captain spotted 3 penquins in the sea, he made our day!!! he was a cool guide and we headed to an island with sea lions resting, and got really close, such cool creatures. We circled a lighthouse then went to another island where indigenous lived and killed sea lions to put sea lion fat on their skins to make them warmer!!!!! That trip saved the day after the disastrous morning trip. That night we ate at a local fast food joint with the local chavs, drinking fake smirnof ice and beer!!!

Tuesday 25th September

This was another flying day, and we had 2 flights to get to our next destination of Bariloche. I should mention the planes were really weird with engine at the back, which didnt help toms fear of flying!!! Our first flight wasnt delayed, shock horror, and we landed back in calafate, the runway you cant see til you land on it! we got off the plane, walked out of the exit door, straight back in the entrance and back to the same plane!!! lol, but then our plane was delayed so we had to move 5ft to another plane!! The plane to bariloche was slightly betterbut tom was really getting quite scared now. I tried to be sympathtic, but me and nikki were more concerned at the lack of snow that we couldnt see out the window as we landed. Bariloche is famous for skiing and snowboarding and had extended the season due to heavy snow fall, but we couldnt see ANY!!! Then just before we landed Tom informed us that if we looked out the other side of the plane there was loads of snow, grrrrrrr!!!!!!