Patagonia

54 degress South. Doesn´t probably mean a lot to most of you out there. What it means is wind, and cold. Yeehah! Let me put this in perspective for you:

Sydney: 34 degrees South
Melbourne: 38 degrees South
Hobart: 42 degrees South
Punta Arenas: 54 degrees South! Thats almost Antarctica baby!!

That means we are about 1,400km below the bottom of Tasmania! Think about that for a second..... if that is hard to fathom, just think of it as 2000 return trips to your local shops.

We have been here for two days now and are trying to scrounge our way onto a cruise that goes down to Cape Horn (latitude 55º 58’ 28’’) and lands there so you can stand on the end of the Earth, thats if you can stand from the wind. We are doping to get on at the last minute around 5pm tonight.

Had a pleasant flight down here, well until we started our descent. We had a great view of Perito moreno Glaciar from the topo f descent which was just stunning. We then had the approcah from hell. It was one of the roughest approaches I have ever been in and I love bumps in the flight. It was in Fac. so rouge, that I did not realise we had actually landed. It was 80kph at the airport and the little airbus we were on was protesting vehmently.

Thats the first thing you need to know about down here. Its Windy. I am not talking about a slight breeze you get in Australia, I am talking about the wind that threatens to pick you up, dorothy style, and deposit you in another country. Poor oRob has nearly blown Hawai a couple of times. I have more mass (thats what I am calling it OK!) and am able to stay put a little better.

We have come down here a little unprepared in terms of activities and are trying to wing it on last minute trips. Its proving a little tricky as it is peak season down here so a loto f staff is booked out for a while in advance. The season down here lasts from October to March as alter that is is just too cold or snowed in.The town itself is right on the Magellan straight which was one of the earliest trading routes between the Pacific and the Atlantic that allowed chips to bypass the trecharous Cape Horn and the huge seas found there. Originally called Sandy Point, it took on the spanish equivalant of Punta Arenas about 100 years ago.

It is not at all mountainous down here, in fact, It is quite flat and there is a lot of farming, especially with sheep. In Fact it might interest you to know that there are in fact a lot of Welsh settlers here and the local language is in fact a dialect of Welsh. Quite amazing when you consider its about 12000km from Wales.

No pics yet as I seem to have misplaced my cable for the camera. Hope to get another update in from the boat if we get on, wish us luck!