23:00 - Today is Lisa's 40th birthday. We all wished her a happy birthday at breakfast but Sunitta added a little extra. She initially asked her if she had bought a dress for her birthday (after noticing she was wearing her normal walking outfit). Lisa who would normally retaliate was I guess taken by surprise and just said 'no'. So Sunitta instead of dropping it enquired if she had brought a dress with her for the event. To you back home it might seem normal that one would wear a special outfit for a special birthday but if you had seen and been in some of the places we had been to you would understand why that seems superflous. But Sunitta is a princess in a bubble through and through. I was trying not to giggle. Marcelo picked us up at 8.45 to go to the docks and board a catamaran that would take us on the Beagle channel. We saw whales, dolphins, cormorans, penguins and sealions. The weather was great...cold but sunny and blue skies. The only unusual event worthy of note was Sunitta saying that Karen had her mother's complexion: yellow! Considering that Karen is a white caucasian british specimen and Sunitta's mum is Indian, that seems a little peculiar (and I am leaving out the fact that being called if yellow complexion may not be a compliment in certain cultures!). I probably took way too many pictures as usual. When we got back, me and the terrible trio (sometimes also known as the awesome foursome) went looking for the money exchange place. This time it was closed for technical reasons! Rarely have we been able to change currency on this trip, but luckily in Argentina everyone loves dollars. We changed focus and decided to look for a place to have a quick bite to eat. After running into Toby who was sorting out the cake for Lisa, we opted for a quick burger in the irish pub just around the corner from our hotel. Excellent choice! We spent the next couple of hours walking around town and taking a look at the souvenir shops (I am trying not to buy anything as I have no allowance in my luggage for it). We ended up also sharing a couple of tarts and drinks in a lovely coffee shop. We then made our way back to the hotel as we had an hour or so to relax before we were due to all meet up for dinner. We went to the sister restaurant of the place we had been to on the first night. Speciality crab! I opted for a fairly bland gnocchi (not the best I have ever eaten) in my attempt to avoid meat (there will be enough in Buenos Aires) and crab (that I have eaten already). The cake and candle were brought to the table at the end of the dinner and we all sang happy birthday to Lisa. She also got a card signed by all of us and a fridge magnet of Route 40. The restaurant kindly offered a bottle of bubbly which was a lovely way to end the evening. Our end if the table had a giggle and Toby was partly the butt of jokes as Sunitta had disclosed that she had had a dream about him where he was standing on an island and was being eaten by a whale as she was looking on! By the way she had decided that she would not come for dinner as she doesn't understand why people don't just quickly eat their food and leave and why we spend so much time at dinner (2 hours being too much, but if you consider on average it takes an hour to get a main dish it's actually not bad). I have twice tried to explain the social aspect of sitting down to eat together but to no avail.
Tomorrow we leave for Buenos Aires where we will spend the last three nights on this tour. It's a fairly late start so I am looking forward to some rest now.