The End

All good things come to an end, and this last year has definitely been a good thing. It's a bit shocking for it all to be over and we are probably still a bit in denial. However, the memories will live forever as they say.

We have seen so many incredible things and met some wonderful people over the last 12 months and feel so fortunate to have been able to experience it all. The inevitable question of 'what was your favourite place?' has already come up, but its exceedingly hard to answer. Just when I think I've got it pegged down I remember something else. As of today this is how I stand, my favourite country was Syria, primarily because the culture is so different and the country so surprisingly beautiful. Also the Syrian people made it for me, they were hands down the warmest people we met on the whole trip. However, the best experience would have to be seeing the mountain gorillas in Uganda, although closely followed by safari and the great wall. I think Leighanne would vote for Malawi, the tiny sliver of a country only recently made famous by Madonna's exploits. Again the people make the difference and especially the children. The children of Malawi are precious and provide some of our fondest memories. For the next few weeks and definitely for years to come we will look back at the times we had together, and although some times where hard and testing the overall experience has been life changing. It has also been great including some of our pictures to give the blog a bit more life. The ones above are a few of my favourites.

On a personal note I'm so glad I have perservered with the blog as it has allowed me to keep a semi-journal for the first time ever. With my inability to write more than a few sentences by hand, being able to put my thoughts and views into cyberspace has been refreshing. I hope everyone who has followed our trip has enjoyed reading our accounts, I apologise for any bastardising of the English language, but hey I'm an Engineer by trade what can you expect. Thank you to everyone who commented, we enjoyed reading them.

Till next time, goodbye.

Buenos Aires

The spirit of Tango, Evita, and Maradona is well and truly alive in the streets of Buenos Aires. The city is incredible, with enough culture and nightlife to rival any city anywhere on the planet. The inhabitants of BsAs sure know how to enjoy life, dinner consisting of a huge steak, salad, red wine or beer doesn't begin until 10pm with non stop partying till the early hours. How they actually get any work done during daylight hours is beyond me. It's probably why the banks open at 10am and promptly close at 3pm. BsAs really belongs in the grouping of Paris, Barcelona and Rome, but it is stuck at the bottom end of South America and the locals seem generally pissed off about the whole thing. How it is possible to financially ruin a country that is self-sufficient in energy and agriculture is beyond me and a good porportion of the Argentinian population agree. Most Argentinians walk around with a rather large chip on their shoulder, but who can blame them. They have definitely been dealt the sort end of the stick by political incompetence, but are slowly and surely pulling themselves back up.
On recommendation from Matt Springate we found lodging in the San Telmo suburb of BsAs and it was superb. A very cool and hip hostel only minutes from an overflowing selection of bars and restuarants. On our first night we met Fay and Jamie, friends from England, and took in a positively tacky Tango show. Full of high-slit dresses and knowing looks the tango show was everything that a tourist show could be, but it was still fun and afterwards we headed to one of BsAs famous parillas (aka carnivore heaven) for steak. San Telmo is the birthplace of tango and can be seen live in many bars and restuarants in the area. However, the best place to see tango is on Sunday when the Plaza Dorrego holds it weekly antiques market. Enterprising locals put on free tango shows in the street, all for a little spare change in the hat.

The nightlife in BsAs is legendary and we managed to sample a bit of it on a few nights. In our old age a big night out takes days to get over so we didn't indulge everynight. A couple days before leaving we met up with Johan, a nomadic Norwegian who used to work with Leighanne in London. He now as the lifestyle everyone dreams off living in one of the worlds great cities. He has the envious job of writing articles for international and local papers and magazine on the best of BsAs culture, entertainment and sports. Can you believe people actually get paid to do this? We met him out in Palermo for a few seemingly simple drinks, but didn't manage to get home till 4am.
Football in all of South America is passionate to say the lest, one only needs to remember the fate of the Colombian player who scored an own-goal against the US in the 94 World Cup and ended up on the end of few 9mm bullets. As one of the great footballing nations, the sport is of a serious nature in Argentina. In recent weeks there had been news reports of increasing violence at football matches in Argentina. River Plate, one of the biggest clubs in the country, had been playing their domestic matches almost behind closed doors. On our Thursday in BsAs we decided to get the full cultural experience and go and watch a match. River Plate was playing Caracas of Venezuala in the Copa Libertadores, South Americas version of the Champions League. River Plate is the club of the elite of BsAs with their stadium 'El Monumental' located in the plush suburb of Palermo. We managed to get seats to the match and although the traveling support from Caracas was limited the atmosphere in the stadium was immense. The support for all clubs in South America is passionate with 'social clubs' providing the main fan base. These social clubs have incredible importance and power. The former captain of River Plate used to donate a decent proportion of his salary to one such social club so they would treat him nicely with huge banners and songs in his honour. Big clubs such as Boca Juniors and River Plate can have social clubs with memberships exceeding 50,000 people, enough to have any owner or manager pay attention. The actual game was a bit dire with River Plate getting beaten 1-0, but the fans didn't stop singing and chanting for the full 90min. The sight of 60,000 people jumping up and down in unison can be quite spectacular.

BsAs is a big city and in order to see a good proportion of it we decided to sign up for a bike tour. It turned out to be great fun cruising along the wide boulevards that typify BsAs. We cycled through Puerto Madero, the redeveloped docklands area, and into Palermo, Recoleta, and Belgrano the ritzy end of BsAs.

On our last day in BsAs we decided not to see any of BsAs and instead boarded a ferry for the short trip across the Rio de Plata to Uruguay and the beautiful town of Colonia de Sacramento. Originally founded to facilitate the smuggling of illegal goods into BsAs, Colonia is now a very quiet cobblestone street town of great cafes and restuarants on the banks of the river. We had a great fish lunch then wandered the streets until the rain started to fall in sheets. It was a perfect day trip to escape the hustle and bustle of BsAs.

Our original plan of taking our time visiting the beaches along the coast on our way to Sao Paulo quickly vanished after visiting the demons that seem to inhabit every Brasilian Consulate. What should of been a simple process of getting a tourist visa for Brasil dragged into a weeks worth of waiting. So instead we opted for a sure bet of a beach and boarded the bus for Florianopolis in Brasil. After 31 hours we arrived to pouring rain. Luckily it cleared the next day and we spent 4 glorious days working on our tans and me trying to learn to surf, rather unsuccessfully as my new scars attest.

After Florianopolis it was onto Sao Paulo and our very last stop on the trip. Time to start thinking about the real world and what changes our lives will encounter in the near future.

Slight Change of Situation

On our last day in El Calafate before turning north for the long trip to Buenos Aires we went horseriding for the last time on Cerro Frias. The mountain is about 30min outside El Calafate surrrounded by beautiful countryside with the snow capped peaks of the Andes in the distance. The horseride was wonderful, even as the temperature plummeted the higher we got. From the farmhouse we climbed steadly up a ragged path scaring large Patagonian hares from under their bushes along the way. The hares where huge, some the size of decent sized dogs. After climbing for about an hour we traversed along the side of the mountain until we turned the corner and got stunning views of the Andes bathed in a brilliant red from the remaining sunlight. As daylight started to fade we began the descent down towards the farmhouse again and what would be a fantastic barbeque dinner and wine. After dismounting from the horses I managed to get Leighanne to come down the fenceline to take a picture with the mountains in the background. At this point I turned to Leighanne and spoke some private words then asked her 'if she would marry me'. She obliged with the correct answer and after savouring the moment we went inside to celebrate our engagement. So for the last few weeks of our trip we have been celebrating as well as dogging the many wedding questions that have come our way from family and friends. However, we would like to thank everyone who has sent heartfelt emails and cards wishing us all the best. Hopefully we will soon have answers to all those questions.

Patagonia

Southern Argentina means Patagonia. In a country roughly the size of India, Patagonia dominates the lower region. I always had the impression that Patagonia was mainly breathtaking mountain scenery and dense alpine forests. In the last 2 weeks of traveling throughout this region I have discovered that I couldn´t have been more wrong. Patagonia is an immense plain of nothing. It stretches seemingly on forever, with limitless skies sprinkled with bizarre clouds. We spent about 4 full days on buses moving around the region and didn´t see a single tree above 1 foot tall, anything taller and it simply gets blown away. The wind is fierce and very cold as it thunders down the western side of the Andes on its way towards the Atlantic Ocean.
At the very southern tip of Patagonia before moving into the thousands of islands that comprise Tierra del Fuego is probably the most incredible sight of power and size you could ever wish to see. Powered by the third largest icefield in the world the Perito Moreno glacier moves ´quickly´ down the western side of the Andes towards the small town of El Calafate and is really beyond description. I had seen a glacier in northern Norway a couple years ago, but this one is on a whole other scale. At the face of the glacier were huge bits of ice regularly break off causing mini tidal waves in the lake the ice stands 70m above the water line and 100m below it. A mere 8km up the mountain and the ice is 700m thick and at the glaciers source, 30km up into the icefield, the ice reaches 1000m down to the bedrock. The center of the glacier moves at about 2m per day, making it one of the fastest moving glaciers on earth, hence its rock star personality of crashing ice and bobbing icebergs that feature regularly in the pages of National Geographic and on the Discovery Channel. Our trip to see the glacier up close was fantastic. It started with a boat trip in the lake to get a view of the glacier face from the water. Afterwards we strapped on cramp-ons and actually got to walk on the glacier, getting great looks at beautiful shades of blue and deep crevases. We even got to have a scotch on the rocks, cooled by bits of ice probably formed during the life of Christ. We then went up on a nearby hill that allows great views of the glacier face and a chance to see its river-like path up into the mountains. We could of stayed all day just watching bus size pieces of ice crash into the lake.
After experiencing southern Patagonia it was time to start the long long journey north back towards Buenos Aires. Ruta 40 is a very lonely stretch of mainly dirt track that goes from far northern Argentina to the southern tip hugging the Andes spine. Up until last year it was impossible to travel the length of this route by public transport. However, there is now a company that plies the route from El Calafate upto Bariloche, 2 full days and 2500km away. The scenery along the length of the road is vast and barren. This part of the country is the true Patagonia, inhabited by very few people except the hardy cattle and sheep farmer. Although the trip was very long, being able to see what most of Argentina is about was rewarding. It is truly an enormous country with some breathtaking scenery.
After reaching Bariloche our journey through Patagonia was complete and the only thing to do was board another bus for the 20 hour trip to Buenos Aires.