Happy New Year!

Many happy hours with the penguins and several hundred photos later, we left Punta Arenas and travelled by bus to Puerto Natales. The next leg of our journey was to be more active, adventurous, with 4 days walking in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The setting was spectacular for our first night at the Refugio Laguna Amarga and after getting to know the locals, the guanacos (similar to llamas, spit at you if they're not happy!) and flamingos, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the towering peaks, the torres of Torres del Paine. Mad as we are, we crawled out of bed in the freezing cold and pitch dark at 4.30 to watch sunrise, and the snow on the mountains turn pink, and were pleased in retrospect that we did as by the time we got out of bed a second time, 4 hours later, the clouds had rolled in and it had started to rain. The next 3 days we experienced all 4 seasons, having to change from t-shirt and shorts to rain gear and woolly hats and back again in rapid succesion as the weather alternated between glorious sunshine and hailstones or snow storms. Regardless of the weather though, the one thing that stands out in my mind is the vivid colours of the park - the turquoise to emerald waters of the lakes, the rich variety of orchids and other wild flowers, the snow, the different types of rock which made up the mountain ranges...

It was a Hogmanay with a difference: mountain hut with an amazing view of the Grey Glaciar. Hungry from our exertions, we were greeted by the welcome sight and smell of whole lambs sizzling on racks over an open fire. We'd lugged a bottle of champagne all the way up there and a chunk of ice, which had broken off the glaciar, proved to be an excellent fridge! Weary from our long hike there, we opted to see in the Belgian and British New Year with a rather out-of-tune rendition of Auld Lang Syne followed by Flower of Scotland, but didn't manage to stay up long enough for the Chilean one! Although, don't know whether it was revenge for our singing, but we could certainly hear the Chileans celebrate their's!

Relieved that we'd planned a lazy New Year's Day: a relaxing 3-hr boat trip to see the glaciar close up (I'd always thought the photos I'd seen of blue glaciars had to be a trick of photo shop but they really are a bright, piercing, intense blue - a breathtaking sight!) and then a return bus to Puerto Natales. One thing we've discovered so far on our travels is that everything in Chile moves at a chronically slow pace, including restaurant service. Nearly missed our connecting bus in Puerto Natales as it took an hour and a half to get served soup and a sandwich. Good but not entirely convinced that it was worth the wait...

Today, back across the border to Argentinian Patagonia along a rather bumpy and slow road. A fairly bleak landscape but occasionally brightened up by beatiful flowers or wildlife, including the ostrich-like rheas. Tomorrow, we head out for a day at the Perito Moreno glaciar where we'll be fitted out in hiking gear and crampons to walk on the glaciar itself.