Stacy and Tom in South America!

So, the first part of the trip has been quite draining, but Stacy and I are looking forward to an amazing day today.

What has happened so far...

1. We took of early Monday morning from Minneapolis and arrived in Miami and had plenty of time, 11 hours in fact, to sit there until we took the plane from Miami to La Paz, Bolivia. We then frantically went through a series of hoops to make sure we got on the next flight to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. My friend, Randy, was late to pick up the baggage, but I put it in storage so that all worked out, and Stacy and I were probably the last two to board the flight to Santa Cruz. Stacy had a chance to meet Sarah, third grade teacher at Highlands, and her friend Jen on the flight to Santa Cruz. I was pumped coming back to good ol´ familiar La Paz airport and seeing a familiar Highlands face and getting to introduce her to Stacy. I am already excited for when Stacy and I get to spend a couple days in La Paz at the end of the trip.

2. In Santa Cruz we had a discrepancy on the airline we should stand in line for to check in. Our tickets were issued through AeroSur, which is the airline we flew from La Paz to Santa Cruz, but our flight to Buenos Aires, through Asuncion, Paraguay, was to be through another airline, TAM Mercosur. Luckily, we had plenty of time to sort it out, since our flight didn´t leave until 3:00 or so. So, to make delays pass quicker, we finally made it to Buenos Aires, Argentina at around 8:45. We had planned to meet Sarah, her friend, and Isaac, highschool math teacher, for dinner at a real nice steak restraunt. Well, by the time our 32 US dollar taxi ride came to the restraunt, we had missed them. So, Stacy and I found a nearby, not quite as packed out restraunt to eat at and just not think about airports for awhile. We then proceeded to take another taxi, a little more pricy than the last, back to the Buenos Aires airport where we each got a little cat nap before checking in for our flight early on Wednesday morning to Ushuaia. After a brief stop in El Calafate, we arrived in Ushuaia at about 2:00 in the afternoon. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon finding a hostel, working on plans for the rest of our stay, and doing some exploring.

3. I will talk about what we will be doing in a little bit, but here´s a little about our stay so far in Ushuaia. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, from where you can take a boat down to Antartica if you so wish. Stacy and I don´t have time, so we won´t be doing that. The temperatures are not too bad, think a cool, Spring day in Minnesota. We are surrounded by snowcapped mountains, lakes that connect to the ocean, and lots of green forests. It´s breatakingly beautiful. Ushuaia is situated on the vast island of Tierra del Fuego.
Argentinos speak Spanish, but most of the time I can´t understand what they are saying, because it is spoken so fast and with more of an Italian lilt to it. But we have been able to get by alright. We spent the rest of Wednesday looking for a bus to Puntas Arenas in Chile. We finally found one at a reasonable price and will be boarding a bus tomorrow, the 2nd, (sorry, I have now begun updating you a couple days past from when I was originally updating), so that we will be there when our flight takes off the morning of the 3rd for Puerto Montt. Anyway, after contracting the bus we grabbed some burgers for dinner and went back to the hostel for a much needed night´s sleep.

4. Thursday- We got up around 10 and lazed around until 11 something. We then contracted a bus for 12 that would take us to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and bought some snacks. Of the four hikes they suggested, Stacy and I chose the hardest, naturally. :) We would have made it all the way, except for the nearly impassable mud that continuously blocked our way from climbing any higher. It was still a beautiful climb that made Stacy and I think of the Pacific Northwest woodlands. When we arrived back at the hostel, preparations were being made for the New Year´s Eve bash, which Stacy and I did not want to participate in. So we stayed in our room and slept for most of the time. We didn´t even get up the next day until 11. Sleeping in has been nice. It is sort of wierd though, since the sun doesn´t really set until 10 or later and rises just before 4.

5. Today- Happy New Year´s! Today was a pretty lax day. For a tourist town, Ushuaia was pretty dead today. Not much open at all. We did take a 3:30 boat tour and saw sea lions and many other different types of birds, but unfortunately no penguins. We are now back at the hostel. Stacy has our hostel reservations set for tomorrow night in Puntas Arenas, and we are looking forward to moving on to something new, as exciting as Ushuaia has been.

Thanks to anyone keeping up. I´ll probably have Stacy write the next post, but please respond with any questions you might have or comments. We would love to hear from you. Chau!!