The rest of Patagonia

Well Fay and I managed to keep each other occupied for the 4 days we were waiting for the boat to leave. On the Sunday, we checked out and made our way to the port (which basically consists of one jetty!) where we checked it before midday as that was what we were told to do. We were then expecting to board the boat at 2pm and leave by 4pm. We, once again, were in for a surprise. It turned out that the boat wasn´t actually leaving till the following morning at 6am and we were boarding at 9pm - so we had another day to kill!! The weather was really bad - lots of wind and rain - so we made our way to the smartest hotel in town as it was warm, clean and a place we would never normally go. After 5 hours, 2 jugs of hot chocolate (costing us GBP2.00), we moved to Indigo (the only smart bar in town) and consumed a couple of very nice Pisco cocktails. We then proceded to the only pizza joint in town where we met up with Fay´s friend Johnny who was also waiting for the boat. Eventually 9pm arrives and we get to finally board the boat. The boat is actually a cargo ship, not a cruise liner (unfortunately), but we knew this already. Fay and I were sharing a cabin, which was slightly on the cramped side but would surfice for the trip.
We then had the usual introduction in Spanish about safety, rules etc, then came the English version (which seemed to finish a lot quicker than the Spanish version - either it takes longer to say things in Spanish or we didn´t get told everything - I´m betting on the latter!!). We then all settled down for the evening to watch a movie and then to bed. Surprisingly enough I didn´t get any sleep due to the fact it was incredibly noisey as they were loading the boat all night!! Everything went quiet at 5am for half an hour and then all hell let loose. The boat went into full swing for departure and at 6am we were off - finally!!
Our days on the boat were not that exciting. We would get up for brekkie at 8.30am, watch a movie, have lunch, watch another movie, have dinner, watch another movie and then bed. In between we would pop outside, take a look at the view (which on the first two days wasn´t that great as it was cloudy and sometimes wet!!) or play lots and lots of cards! We did have some lovely people on board - although there were only 15 of us tourists on a boat which can carry 180 - so we had lots of room. But we were sharing the boat with lots of lorry loads of cows, horses and one dog which we could hear but never saw (even on the open sea you can´t get away from the dogs in Chile!!).
On the second day we left the protection of the islands and hit the open sea at 1pm. The boat suddenly began to toss around quite dramatically for the next 12 hours. Several of the passangers did not take this too well and spent most of the day getting to know the toilet!! Suprisingly enough, I did not feel sick at all. So the few of us who were fine, played cards and watch a movie. At dinner time only about 5 people turned up (soup was not served for once) and we all attempted to eat spag bog without throwing it around the canteen! Not an easy feat when you only have two hands and you have to hold your fork, glass of water, plate and tray all at once!!
On the third day the clouds gave way to the sun and the views were amazing. The sunset was gorgeous and it really made the boat trip worth while. It was definitely a great way to see parts of Patagonia that you would not normally have the opportunity to see.
On the final night we all realised we all had quite a bit of alcohol left over so we spent most of the time trying to consume it. Fay and I hadn´t got that much alcohol compared to some others. A group of 4 people had brought in 16 litres of wine between them and 3 bottles of spirits. Due to the fact that they had spent most of the second day being sick they had a lot of alcohol to consume (although they did successfully lose 2 bottles when the boat tossing started as they had just left them on the table and they promptley slid off and smashed all over the floor!).
We arrived in Puerto Montt at 2am in the morning, although luckily we didn´t have to leave the boat until 8am. Although that didn´t make much difference as once again they spent the night unloading the boat which meant no sleep for moi!!
So at 8.30am we left the boat (we had to wait for some of the French guys to get ready) and made our way to the bus station. Two people Fay and I had met on the boat, Marc and Emma who were from England and were travelling around South America were headed the same direciton as us. So we all got on a bus to Bariloche in Argentina - I had finally left Chile - It has only taken me 5 weeks!
Once in Bariloche, we found a hostel and then went for a walk around town before heading out for dinner. We went to a great restaurant were they serve so much meat (I never knew there were so many different parts of a cow you could eat!). It all tasted great.
The next day we spent looking around the town, doing shopping and in my case trying to send stuff home as I seemed to have collected a lot of cr*p again!! Bariloche was a lovely little town which is famous for its chocolate. Mix it with Dulce de Leche (which is condensed milk boiled) which is what they sell by the bucket load in Argentina and you have a great combination!!
The following day did not start well. We were all heading on a bus to El Bolson on a bus at 7am in the morning and getting a taxi from the hostel at 6.30am to get there on time. Fay and I were relying on my phone to wake us up. But this didn´t quite happen - it sort of went like this:

Fay: Sara, its 6.30am
Sara: No, its not, its 5.30am, my mobile says so.....
Sara: Oh Sh*t, I forgot to change the time when we left Chile!

We both lept out of bed, shoved everything in our bags and got downstairs (all in 5 minutes).

Poor Emma and Marc were sitting downstairs waiting for us. They didn´t know which room we were in so couldn´t wake us up! Luckily we made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare - few!!
We got to El Bolson at 9pm to discover that the market which we had specifically gotten there early for didn´t start till 11pm - some of us weren´t too happy about this! We found a hostel to check into which was up in the mountains. It was actually closed as it was out of season but they couldn´t resist 4 tourists so opened it up for us!! We had a lovely day in El Bolson, eating ice-cream, shopping at the craft fair and walking around the town. In the evening I made dinner for everyone at the hostel.
The next day Emma and Marc left to go to Buenos Aires. So Fay convinced me to go for a walk up the mountain to see Bosque Tallado which is a ´shady grove of about 30 figures carved from logs,´ plonked on a mountain! We started to walk up the road to the mountain and on the way we met some Argentinian guys who were doing the same. The four of us managed to hitch a lift to the end of the road with an Argentinan couple, thankfully as that part of the walk alone would have taken us 3 hours. We then had to walk another hour to see the sculptures. It was slightly harder than we originally thought. It turned out the pathways were all covered in snow/ice and neither of us were wearing the proper clothes. Fay was in a skirt and I was wearing shoes with no grip. I had huge problems trying to stay upright and not slide back down the mountain. After 45 mins we stopped for lunch and took in the amazing view. As we finished packing up and Fay had just zipped up her bag, it suddenly decided to slide down the mountain. I looked on in horror as Fay just sat there watching her bag. Luckily it stopped just before it went over the top and would never have been seen again!! She slowly made her way down and retrieved it - that was close!!
Anyway, we then made out way up to the sculptures, which were pretty cool, although some of them were covered with snow so you didn´t get to see all of them properly.
We then decided to walk a bit further up the mountain to the house/hostel, I only made it another 5 minutes before I decided to not go any further as my shoes were useless and I couldn´t get any grip. So I waited (what I thought would be 30 minutes) for her to climb their and then come back. 2 hours passed and she didn´t come back. I was very worried something had happened to her. I scrambled up the mountain - ending up on my face a few times and eventually made it to the house. There I met the two Argentinan guys that we had met at the beginning of our walk who said that Fay had gone up to the top of the mountain and that that would take a couple hours. I was slightly anxious because she was on her own, the snow was 3 feet deep plus in some areas and I needed to catch a night bus which was leaving in 3 hours and it was going to take us that long to get down the mountain! After another 30 mins she turned up safe and sound and we made out way down the mountiain. I spent half the time sliding down on my arse as I just couldn´t stand upright, but it was lots of fun! We managed to get down the mountain in time for my bus and I then set off to Puerto Madryn.
I arrived in Puerto Madryn at 7.30am, checked into my hostel and was expecting to chill out as I hadn´t slept on the bus. But I had booked to do a tour for the following day and there was a space to go on it in 15 minutes. I quickly put my stuff into the locker and jumped on the bus.Our first stop was one of the beaches on the way to the peninsular. The Southern Right Whales come so close to the shore as it is really deep there. We saw about 3 mothers with their calves playing around - it was awesome!! We then jumped back into the minibus and headed out to the peninsula. On the way we passed the island which inspired the drawing in ´The Little Prince´of the snake that swallowed the Elephant - the island really did look like the picture!!
We then boarded a boat and set off to see more Whales. We spent an hour out in the Bay and got to see loads more Whales. Some were breeching which was excellent. The sounds they made was amazing and the whole experience was great. Finally I have managed to see some whales after 20 months of traveling!!
Afterwards we drove further into the Peninsular and stopped off at another beach where we got to see Elephant Seals. They are really big, but at the moment they seemed to be conserving their energy as apparently the mating season will be starting shortly!!!
As we were driving around, we would stop occasionally and look at the wildlife. We saw an armidillo, their version of the emu, horses, a really odd looking hare thing as well as lots of sheep. At one point we had stopped to look at an emu, when our guide got off the bus. We were all wondering why until we saw the little lamb beside the bus. The lamb immediately mistook our guide for his mother and ran over to him in delight. Everytime he moved it would run after him. It was really funny. We eventually found its real Mum, but every time the guide tried to take the lamb over the mum would run away. It also didn´t help that the lamb kept running towards our guide and not its real mum. Eventually our guide put the lamb as near to its real mum as poss and legged it into the bus. We quickly drove off, with the lamb in pursuit!! Fortunately its poor little legs couldn´t keep up so it gave up, but its Mum did go after it this time!!
The following day I stayed in town and walked to the end of the pier to watch some more Whales. There were loads about and I ended up watching them for 2 1/2 hours!! They came really close to the pier which was amazing. At one point 5 of them decided to come and play right next to where I was standing :-) I can´t believe there are so many whales here and they are literally on the doorstep!!
Today I am heading to Buenos Aires on another night bus. I love the buses here, they are so comfortable. The seats are huge and there is a waiter on board to serve you your meals and drinks!! I am absolutely loving Argentina :-)
Right now I am going to head back to the pier and take one last look at the whales - yeah :-)