Miami Downtown...

On Friday, we went for a long walk downtown Miami. Nothing really special, but the skyscrapers are quite nice. There is water everywhere, which makes it look nice (even nicer with the yachts...). There are also Mc Donalds (but not as many as we would have expected).

Views of Downtown Miami... (lack of inspiration)

Christmas is already everywhere, but it looks slightly out of place, with 30 degrees in the sun, and the palm trees.

And this is the front door of our youth hostel... I like the reflexion :-).

Miami... at last!

We are now in Miami, but the trip here was not an easy one. It all started out "well", we got up at oh four oh oh (oh oh oh... I was so tired) in the morning and got a taxi to the airport. We get there with lots of margin and we go to our gate just in time for a marvelous sunrise. We sit around for a while, time goes by, and all of a sudden its gotten really late without any of us noticing. Just then someone is walking by calling (i.e. mumbling) our names. It turns out our flight has left, from a different gate.

ok, it's not our plane, but we did see the aircraft moving backwards from the boarding gate (just like in so many movies - or in HIMYM, for the fans).

So we go out through security, which is quite a process that does not include being officially cleared into the country, and go talk to our airline. It turns out we'll be on standby until 15.00, then until 15.20, then until "un momentito" (an expression that can mean ANYTHING, but usually implies quite a lot of time) and finally they give us new tickets to Lima. From there on everything went smooth, we had no trouble changing our tickets in Lima and we even had time for one last Cusquena beer before taking off for Miami.

You have to admit that the sunrise at BA airport was quite captivating... the best explanation to our stupidity we found so far (although it might have been that subconsciously I (P) really really wanted to see my sister, who was flying a couple hours later from BA).

So far we have been walking around town a bit, seen the sunrise on the beach and slept a few hours as we didn't get to sleep much on our flights.

Everything in here have been sooooo cliche until now... We miss South America!!!

Good Bye South America!

We are done with the first continent for this trip. Early (VERY early) tomorrow morning we are flying to Miami, via Lima. I guess this is the time to get buhuhu-nostalgic and the like, but I am a bit to tired for that, so those of you who like nostalgia can go back and read some of our older posts. Next time we´ll be writing from the USA (unless the current flooding and massive rainfalls here in Buenos Aires stops us!).

This is the end... of the World - Ushuaia

Getting to the end of the world by road is quite tricky... First, looking at the map, you'll see that the borders are such that you need to do several border crossing if you want to drive from Argentina to Ushuaia (still in Argentina...).
There is no bridge to cross the Magellan strait (shown in the next couple pictures).

The boat transporting the bus does not look as new as the ones in Stockholm's archipelago, which is a bit crazy, but at least, there was an entire team of dolphins following us, apparently ready for a rescue operation...

The last 400kms are quite painful since there is no asphalt road (eventhough I was getting used to it...). But the landscapes of "Tierra del Fuego" are breathtaking.
Ushuaia has about 50 000 inhabitants, and live mostly of tourism (id est : it is a totally overpriced town). For only 4000 us$, I could buy a last minute ticket for a 10 days-cruise to Antarctica, but I did not (only because I have my plane tomorrow...).
It is situated right on the Beagle Channel, which is the number one attraction here (there is also some skiing, but now is off-season).

On the Beagle Channel...


Onk onk onk...
Some Cormorans :-)

The very famous lighthouse on the Beagle canal...



Today, the weather is not so nice, and Miguel just got his flight back to Buenos Aires, so I'll just chill, reading my spanish book, and drinking hot coffee. Tomorrow I'll fly as well to Buenos Aires, where I should meet Gustav.

Puerto Natales

After the trek, I was quite exhausted, so I slept the two hours on the bus ride back to Puerto Natales. Unfortunately, we did not have much time in Puerto Natales because the bus to Ushuaia was booked for the next day, first thing in the morning. Puerto Natales is a lovely town, in the Chilean fjords.