Hola Chicos and Chicas,

I realize that this will probably one of my last updates of my trip. With 1,5 months to go and only 2 cities left, the end of my journey in South America is near. When I think about it, it makes me sad. So far South America has been good for me, however travelling costs money and it's inescapable that after such a journey you have to return to the life of work and routine. I know my life will never be the same again (in a good way) after this experience. Besides, the future will be thrilling because I will be living in Canada for a while, visiting family, discovering my Canadian roots and gaining work experience in a country abroad, new and exciting things.

Even I know that my journey is almost ending I'm absolutely enjoying every moment of it. In the beginning I had to get used to Argentina (like I had to get used in all the countries). Though Argentina is a 'western civilisation' it cannot be compared to the countries that we live in. For me that's a good thing, because it makes you realize how incredibly blessed we are, with all the oppertunities that we have in the countries that we live in. Argentina was economical a very strong country and the peso was equal to the American Dollar. However this has changed, at the moment 4 dollars is worth 1 peso. Food is expensive, buying meat, fish, vegtables, maté, it's pricey, especially when your salary isn't in ratio with daily living costs. At the moment I have only been in Patagonia, and it is strange to realize that this side of the country has enough farms that produce meat and plenty of sea surrounding them for fish, why does it have to be expensive? Well I got the answer. It was explained to me that all the good stuff was exported to Europe or North America. That in the supermarkets you can find fish cought hundreds of kilomters away from Patagonia. Free trading they call this, it's crazy when you think about it. Why not first make sure that what you produce locally goes to the local market and everything what is left can be exported?

This also counts for jobs. It's similar all over the world. The locals (offcourse I'm over generelizing now) don't want to work in certain branches, in this case construction. So here in Puerto Madryn (where I am at the moment) many Bolivians work in construction, because they are willing to work even harder for less money. I guess everything is better then living in poverty in your own country. Doesn't this sound familiar with the Polish people that come to the Netherlands to work, or the Africans that escape there continent to work in Europe for a better life?

I met a lot of young Argentinians in the short period of time I have been here. They are all amazed by my story, quitting your job, earning enough money to travel for 6 months. Eventhough they would love to do the same thing it is more difficult for them. They told me your money is 5 times more worth, you can save 5 times as quickly. The saleries are lower then what we are used to, and to travel to Europe (I got the feeling that Europe is the place to dream of when you're born in South America) is almost impossible because it's so much more expensive. So the only thing they can do is work hard and try to safe money bit by bit. The most people I spoke to work 6 days a week. In some jobs it's uncertain if you have work each single day. No work means no payment. The social security we have (at least still have) doesn't exist here in South America. They don't have as much days off, they don't get paid as well for the hours they work, if you don't work you don't get money. It's simple, not fare. The locals from my age almost all life at home with their parents, or they live together with there partner. Getting a place for yourself is impossible, to expensive.
That's why people like to work for European companies, the working conditions are similar to European customs. So 4 weeks of holiday and a good salary. The people I met kind of struggle with this because working in those gigantic companies isn't the dream job. So they have to choose between doing something you love and earn a little or doing something you don't like but earn a lot. In one case a guy told me that he could work in this big company (not sure what kind of company it was, something with metals), they asked him to come work because his father works there and built up a good reputation. So the argumentation is so father so son. I asked him what made him doubt taking the job. He said: 'I would like to work there but just for a year or two. However that is not possible because I'm also responsible for the reputation that my farther has there. So if I just go there to earn money quickly and leave, it will harm the reputation of my father'. How social of him to consider his father reputation and therefore choses not to earn lots of money but just stay at his job where he is at the moment.

Offcourse it's not all bad and horrible. The quality of living here in the south is in many ways so much better than where we come from. To explain this I will tell what I experienced after my last update. I went to El Chaltén a small town in Los Glaciers National Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Chalt%C3%A9n). I told before that I was hoping for good weather, well the weather god was very very kind to me! It was beutiful for 3 days in a row! From the bus you could even see the famous mountain ridge, absolutely stunning. The giant hostel where I was staying was nearly empty, most shops where closed and many houses had shutters in front of there windows. It could have been a good script for a horror or arthouse kind of movie. But as I wrote already the weather was beutiful, clear blue skies, hardly any wind and not to cold. There was lots of snow which was so bright white due to the sun that it hurt your eyes without sunglasses.
The first day I did a part of the Laguna Torre trail. Hiking in the snow is fun but energy demanding and kind of tricky because lots of trail signs wheren't visible. That is why after 1,5 hours of walking I returned to my hostel, I couldn't find the trail in the snow and because I was walking by myself I didn't wanted to take any risks. So no views of Laguna Torre but a great viewpoint and some nice pictures all made the walk absolutely worth it.
Day 2 was reserved for the Fitz Roy hike. Again perfect weather! I started to walk early because it was a 6 hour hike. If you do the entire trail it will take 8 hours, however park rangers gave the advise not to go to the last view point because it was dangerous due to the amount of snow and ice. The hike was again (sorry I'm starting to repeate myself) absolutely gorgious. In the beginning I had some troubles finding the right trail, but once I found it I had no more difficulties finding the path. The track was very slippery at some places, most of the time you could walk around it. Though at some places it became tricky, a small path, a steep mountain slope on one side and an even steeper abyss on the other made it kind of dangerous. But taking it easy I survived all the tricky parts. The thing what really kind of freaked me out was the silence of the woods and the fact that there are puma's in that area. I don't know if you have ever seen pictures of puma's but often you can see the animal seated on a rock overlooking the area. Well during that trail there where all kind of Puma rocks (as I called them), exactly similar to the pictures I have seen. I guess it's my own wild imagination and I forced myself not to be scared. It would have been kind of cool to see a real puma (though preferable from a far distance ;-)..). The only wildlife I saw where some hares. At the end of the trail it was hard work because the snow would sometimes be so deep that it reached my knee. I tried to follow the steps of previous hikers to prevent myself from getting out of balance due to the thickness of the snow. It's kind of fun, every step you make you don't know what is beneath it, so sometimes nothing happens. At other moments your foot dissapears in the snow. In 6 hours I completed the hike, it was amazing. Walking by yourself, the silence or the noise of the wind (which also made it kind of spooky sometimes) and the great landscape.
The last day I did a very short hike to the waterfall Chorrillo del Salto. The weather started to change, it got more windy, and cold so it was time to go back to El Calafate and continue my trip to the north.

Well you might guess why I started this part of my story that the quality of live sometimes better is, than in the countries we live in. I mean with such a surounding, close to wildlife, close to nature, what else do you wish for? Seriously, when I was walking there I really asked myself, what more do I need. I could work there and go on one of the many many hikes as often as I want. I can go climbing, horse riding, mountainbiking, etc. I don't need a big house, expensive car, satellite tv (well maybe just to watch football) and all other kind of stuff. I mean being in this small town made me so, I don't know, balanced or something I guess. It's difficult to describe the feeling, it was really a moment that I realized I don't need anything else, this is the ultimate place. It's quality of life! It even made me doubt about travelling to other parts of the world. I was so sure to see the world but now? I mean who cares about Asia, Africa, Europe if you experience this and feel this way here in Patagonia? But no worries, I will travel the world and then I can really tell if Patagonia is the ultimate place to be.

So that was El Chaltén. After spending 1 more day in El Calafate I took the bus to Puerto Madryn and that is the place where I am at the moment. The bus trip was long again (almost 24hour), but I had 2 chairs to myself for the entire journey and we got food so it was a fine journey. I arrived in Puerto Madryn in the afternoon so enough time to choose a nice hostel. Normally I'm really influenced by the price, but this time I chose a hostel which is a little bit more expensive but it is worth it. They have a great living room, a pool table, the guys working here all speak English which makes it easy to communicate, just everything you need to stay for a while. That is exactly what I decided, to stay here for a while. I want to be in Buenos Aires the 4th of July to prepare for the visit of my parents and also to try to find a job for the next couple of months. So I have like 3 weeks to spend in Puerto Madryn if I want to. So Puerto Madryn....

The town is famous for it's wildlife. In the high season the sea is full of whales, sealions, pinguins, dolphines, orca's and elephant seals. At this moment the whale season is just starting, so it was kind of a gamble if whale watching was possible. However on the very first day that I arrived, one of the guys in the hostel told us that he just got a call that there where some whales near the beach of Puerto Madryn. We (2 Argentinian guests and me) went to the beach and indeed indeed WHALES!!! They where to far away to take really clear pictures but from the shore you could see them clearly. The first time I had trouble to find them but the trick is to search for squirts of water, what is caused when the whales breath. Eventhough the whales wheren't that close you could see that there size is enormous, sometimes they would show there tail. And what totally made me excited was the fact that you could hear them breath! It was really special, and I could stand there for a while just looking at these creatures moving through the water. Wondering why people kill these animals, wondering why people mistreat animals and ruin nature. What an experience and what a beginning for my visit to Puerto Madryn. Ow and besides whales we saw a pinguin (which has to be lost because all the pinguins go north to avoid winter) and a sealion (which is briljant, so much better then seeing sealions in a zoo).

Because I decided to stay here for a while I'm taking things slowely. So the first full day I did a 1 hour beachwalk to a museum (which was closed). The walk was fine and the whales were still present. And I saw again 2 sealions which where playing with eachother, jumping in and out the water. On my way back there was this moment (should have taken a picture) that was so uhm how can I explain it, well I'll describe it. On my way back there was this guy (guess in his 30ties) sitting on his tip-up seat (klapstoeltje) with in one hand a binocular and in his other Mate. This image so Argentinian like, it would have been a briljant picture. (Mate is the local drink here, grassy tea, very very strong and bitter, the Argentinians drink it all the time, especially around 5 o'clock with something sweet to eat). The rest of the day I just chilled out at the hostel and watched a movie with one of the guys working here. It is nice that it is quiet, people have time to talk to you about there country and there lives, which is really interesting. That evening we played some pool and I pulled an all nighter just playing pool and talking. As you can imagine I was totally tired the next day. However I decided to go for a run!!! Haha I suprised myself but running on the beach with whales next to you was the best run I ever had, and I actually really enjoyed it (and at the same time realized how travelling can be horrible for your fitness). That evening it was again an all nighter but that didn't stop me from renting a bike the next day to go to Playa El Doradillo. This is a beach 16km away from Puerto Madryn where you can see whales near the shore. Because of the season they told me that it might be a dissapointment to go there but it wasn't at all. You could see plenty of whales (however taking pictures was really dificult, it seemed like the whales where shy for photographes, everytime I wanted to take ons I was to late). The beach was amazing, totally empty with a pretty sandy colour and some birds. Because it was difficult to take pictures I decided to make a film with my camara. That was a good idea because I was able to film much more activity than I ever could have done by taking pictures. The highlight was absolutely the moment that a whale decided to jump out of the water (like you see in the documentaries) and fall back into the sea. The noise when it touches the water is great a big BAAMMM (like when you fall into the water from some hight, but then 100 times louder). The first 2 times I missed it but the whale was such a show of (and I really thanked him/her for that) that he/she did it a third time, so I could get in on camara perfectly! I spend about one hour at the beach and then cycled back to Puerto Madryn where I cought up with my sleep. Ow by the way on my way to the beach I got a flat tire, I was really glad that I was tought a long time ago how to replace it, otherwise I would have still been in the middle of nowhere walking for 16 km.

This time I went to bed early, but I woke up at 03.00. I couldn't go back to sleep because some guys in my dorm where snoring, so I went downstairs to accompany the guy that does the night shifts. The rest of the time so far I haven't done much. I will start a diving course on Monday. Apperently Puerto Madryn is one of the best places on earth to dive! It will be amazing. Because I already have my PADI Open Water liscense I can go for PADI Open Water Advanced Diving. I will make 5 dives, each one with a kind of specialisation, 2 or obligated, but I can choose 3 (examples what I can choose are wreck diving, night diving and photografing). Really really looking forward to this, eventhough I will have to study next week. Ow and I will go to the national park this week to see some elephant seals and some more whales. So lots of things to look forward to (also the possibility of playing football with the guys and going out in the weekend). Lots going on, lots still to do and organize (looking for a job for example!).

Well hope you're all doing well over there. That you guys aren't to upset update the Dutch National team (haven't seen one game, but offcourse I know the results) and that summer is treating you well. Take care.

Besos

Michèle