Hola. Firstly, congratulations to the Ironman NZ finishers with Wal (10:03, 66th overall), Gedi (11:51, 429th overall & 51st female overall!), & Ritchie (10:30, 133rd overall). It's great to hear I've already got 2 Amigo's to join me for Oz in 2005 too (no backing out now fellas). Congratulations also (a little belated I know) to Ritchie and Naisy with young 'Keith' (for now) on the way. I've just finished a five day hike around the Torres Del Paine National Park. I flew from Santaigo to Punta Arenas (ugly, expensive place) about 8 days ago, then took a bus north to Peurto Natales which is the gateway to the park. I got all my stores ready, left a heap of stuff with the hostell (I packed reaalllyy light for this week), and got the bus the next morning to the park (about 100km's of dirt road). The Torres is a very popular walk in SA and you could tell pretty quickly. The first days walk was up toward the Torres campsite where you can climb up to a saddle to get a look. The tracks were very heavily worn with stacks of errosion and 'alternative' paths everywhere. The first day is the same day that the daywalkers do so it was to be expected. The campsites (all of them) were also in a poor state. For some reason they have tried to put in flush toilets instead of pits at the campsites, and of course none of them work. That leaves only one alternative, and it appears that the crowds don't favour walking too far from camp to 'have a moment'. I got up on the first morning before sunrise and climbed to the saddle (about 45 minutes). It was well worth it. When the sun comes over the back of the mountain it hits the 3 Torres (towers) and lights them up with an amazing amber light. I was lucky enough to have a completely clear morning and the 20 minute show was pretty impressive. The second day was a walk back down and around the base of the mountains. The third morning I walk further around, pitched my tent at a campsite beside a river and walked up to a place called camp Britanica (alongside a reasonable size glacier) which most of the climbers use as a base. From here you could get almost 360 degree views of huge snow and ice capped mountains and again the weather was kind (although the wind was so strong that I struggled to walk against it at times). I went back down to the campsite, made a coffee, and sat on a rock by the river and watched the mountain for an hour or two as big falls of ice and snow randomly topple from the big ledges (the peak here is about 3,000 mtrs). You can also sit and watch what I assume are enourmous Condors drifting and gliding around the mountains (must check that fact). Day 4 was a long day (about 8 hours) further around the mountain and up past the Grey Glacier to a campsite a few hundred meters from the terminal face. I couldn't beleive the size of this glacier when I first got over a ridge and saw it. It must be nearly 1 km wide (could be getting carried away with that, but you decide when I post the pictures) and goes back further than the eye can see. The enourmous lake that feeds from it has huge icebergs drifting around from the glaciers icefalls. I'd been keen to camp beside a glacier for ages and it didn't dissapoint. I spent a few hours hanging out on a rock beside it and the weather helped out with another cool sunset. During the night I woke up to the enourmous boom of what must have been one hell of a icefall. It rained all night too which means I've now got a wet tent in my pack. b*****. The last day I walked back down from the glacier to a lake where you get a boat back to where the bus leaves from. I was b*****ed and hungry after the last two days as a friendly mouse managed to get into my food bag which I'd hung from a tree branch (it would appear no quite far enough out). The only food he hadn't tasted were 2 packs of Instant Mash, my coffee, and luckily, some chocolate I had in the tent (you don't keep food in the tent because these little fellas have a habit of eating through the tent to get to the food, something my camping neighbour learnt the hard way). The park was well worth doing, but it was obvious the peak season had only ended a few weeks ago. When you compare the management and facilities in New Zealand with here, NZ wins handsdown. I've heard rumours of them limiting numbers in the park, but I wouldn't bet on it. I'm sure the parks pretty profitable with the ugly prices they charge for entry etc. I got the bus from Peurto Natales to El Calafate in Argentina yesterday. This was a 6 hours trip on dirt roads again. There's a few things I've learnt since heading south. One is that the Lonely Planet guide is useless (I've seen more 'facts' in the bible or a Liberal Party press release); two, no matter how badly cracked a bus or car window is IT CAN ALWAYS be held together with silicon; and three; my spanish is really, really, really bad. Argentina is cool though. El Calafate is a very pretty place and (sadly for the Argentinians) you can live like a king here after their currency collapse a few years ago. It's great to have some european influence in the food finally as I've missed it alot. Argentina has (arguably) the world best steaks and it was the first thing I tested. Pretty impressive, but just to be sure I'll test it again and again...... If you didn't know the exchange rates you would think this place would cost you a fortune. For example (and I'm still in the 'expensive' south), you can get a great steak in a very flash restaurant (white linen etc) for about $8. It doesn't quite feel right going into these classy restaurants in my fleece trackies and boots and picking anything I want from the menu (so I bought some jeans yesterday). A reasonably good wine (by my lowly standards) from the Supermarket will set you back almost $2. There's something wrong (or right) when a bottle of good red is cheaper than a bottle of water back home. I'm heading out tomorrow to camp near the Mereno Glacier which is supposed to be bigger and more active than the Grey at Torres and is the worlds only 'advancing' glacier at present. Finally, I've sad news for anyone who knew our beloved dog, Zac. Sadly he was put to sleep recently. Plenty of good memories remain (eg. the 'bone' incident, Kegga). RIP Zac. I'll let you know the drum on the glacier when I get back soon.