Hey Guachin

Woke up very late (11), but still managed to do my morning routine, cook and eat breakfast and start waiting before we left. We were planning to take a bus out there, we had been told that it would cost 20 peso per person, but the conductor told us that it was 30, something which my 3 companions (David, Santiago and Oscar) greatly opposed, so we spent 25 minutes finding a taxi that would take us there and back for 100 peso (25 each, saving a magnificent 5 peso per person). However we got there, and started a very long walk up to the "Laguna Esmeralda" and past it (pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twaize/), and as you might be able to tell from the photos, it was very beautiful, and we had a great time walking up there. Both Santiago and David speak good English (Oscar doesn't speak English at all), so it was a mixture of English and Spanish. During the English parts I spoke a lot (they spoke English for my sake), and during the Spanish parts, I listened intently, trying to pick up parts of the conversation (they knew I was doing it), or just hanging about in my own thoughts (I'm very good at that). Underway we met a lot people, including an Alaskan called Colin (whom I talked with for a while), and two Brits together with a Canadian, a platoon of Argentinian soldiers and a lot of South American hikers. One thing that happened here as it had in the national park, and which will never cease to amaze me, is the changing weather. We had a blue sky to all directions (to begin with), and throughout the entire day, blue sky above us. Yet still it sometimes rained (the wind would carry it), but far more bizarely, it even started hailing once in a while.

We had arranged with the taxi driver that he would pick us up at 7, so at a point we realised that we had to turn back, even though we wanted to go forward (and see the nice caverns and the glacier). But we turned back and only waited for 10 or 15 minutes at the starting point before the taxi driver appeared and took us back.

Once back in Ushuaia I bought five stamps and posted my postcards, went to an internetcafe, went to dinner at a place called "El Turco" where I had a Milanesa Completa, which is a kind of schnitzel with 2 eggs and french fries, quite delicious. Thereafter I hurried back to my hostel to pack my bag and go to bed, as I had to get up at 3.30 in the morning and catch a bus to Punta Arenas... That's right, this was my last full day in Ushuaia, I will now be going into Chile.

P.s. If you are in doubt (well how could you know), David has long hair, Oscar has little hair and Santiago is the one in between (talking about hair). From left to right (http://www.flickr.com/photos/twaize/2244618911/):  David, Santiago and Oscar.

P.p.s. The title of today's post is an expression similar to "what's up", only far more informal, and it only works in Buenos Aires; it was an expression that David and Santiago taught me, it is pronounced as "hey wauchin".