Celebrating Christmas!!

Eclairs
Polenta
Insane
Christmas

We arrived into Los Alerces National Park on Christmas Eve, and after dinner I brought out my sweetie stash to share with the group - as Christmas means mountains of overindulgence on chocs and sweets. I had been looking in supermarkets for a Celebrations or Quality Street equivalent, but Argentinians, despite being sweet-toothed, do not seem to go in for big boxes of chocolates. Instead I settled for a massive bag of toffee eclairs and a large bag of hard boiled sweets which I had mistakenly taken as chews. On seeing me fill bowls with sweeties Pete was not to be outdone, he jumped into the truck and opened the secret food stash, revealing a yard long box of Jaffa cakes! Needless to say a major sugarfest was had. The eclairs were decimated and I was glad that I had the foresight to hold back half the pack for Christmas Day!

Francois and Sue alternated as DJ, keeping the party atmosphere going. Me and Steve played a few table football games against Robin and Jane/Colin. We lost woefully, came up with superb excuses and sadly did not take defeat so well - which is unusual for Liverpool supporters ;-p!

Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed, shenanigans were had, people became human skittles - falling over all over the shop, a few tree branches got very friendly with Ken, and so he returned the favour by hugging one for quite some time. We rang in Christmas Day at midnight.

Christmas Day bought lots of fun. Secret Santas were revealed. Ken got me a lovely wooden diary so that I could easily update my blog. My little note to Jeanne had her, Heather and Kirsten in tears, that hadn't been the intention but I was glad that she liked it and the accompanying gifts.

Pete looked uber cool as a shade-clad Santa, he's been growing out his beard especially for that role. Kirsten was decked out as Rudolf and Graham gamely donned a pair of tights in order to be Santa's helper elf.

Games of twister were played, with forfeits like downing 'shots' of Jameson and receiving wet willies were rife. UNO cards also made an appearance and Sue ended up with some horrendous hands. Playing with Odyssey rules the game goes on forever, but great fun is had. Robin and Colin checked if me and Steve wanted a table football rematch, sadly the restaurant owners seemed to have 'misplaced' the ball - personally I think they hid it in the hope of a quiet evening. All was not lost though as Robin produced small rubber balls that we made do with, they weren't ideal, but were better than nothing. Again Steve and I lost the first match, it was not looking good at all. Then, by some Christmas miracle we won a match. Delighted with ourselves we left it at that, both agreeing that playing a decider would be pushing our luck and we should instead bow out on a high.

Christmas dinner was amazing with a spread of lamb, beef, pork and sausages, roast butternut squash, white cabbage, aubergines, polenta, and potato salad. We had Panettone and orange chocolate cake for dessert - nom nom!!

St. Stephan's Day was a relaxed, chilled out affair. Most of the day was spent sunbathing, reading books or in my case playing with kittens. A small handful of insane nutters did venture into the glacial lake, as apparently it's a Boxing Day tradition in the UK. Daft as brushes the lot of 'em! My excuse was that I did not think that the icy cold conditions would have been suitable for my toe, when probably it could have been the best thing for it. Heather, Francois and Tony were first to take the plunge. Graham rather regretfully dived in off the pier after foolishly betting that Heather would wuss out, not get wet nor put her head under the water. Unfortunately for him I got photographic evidence so he had to man up and deliver on his end. Loads of giggles were had and no one seemed to catch hypothermia - so all in all it was a good day!

Cueva de las Manos

Entertainment
Pete
Images
Cueva de las Manos

Went to see Cueva de las Manos which is a cave located in the Santa Cruz province in Argentina. It is famous for a series of hand paintings. The art in the cave date to 13,000 years ago. Bone-made pipes were used for spraying paint on the wall to create negative hand silhouettes. There are also many animal paintings such as guanacos, still found in the region, as well as hunting scenes. Saw the famous stencils: the six-fingered hand, the Enigma, the Dancer, and other paintings associated with this heritage site.

On the drive to the campsite Pete spotted an armadillo on the roadside. He stopped the truck, leapt outta the cab, went thundering after it, flip flops flying in all directions, feet mashing on every thorn possible; it was quality entertainment at its best! We tried directly him from the truck but the little blighter was too quick for Pete. Boy can they move at lightening speed when they want to. I'm happy to just have seen one, as we've been on about it for the past month. Sadly in all the confusion we have no photos of the armadillo, nor any pic of Pete acting like a primal hunter - we were all too busy laughing and enjoying the spectacle. Hopefully it will not be our last armadillo, (smooth on the inside, crunchy on the outside), sighting.

Third Bush Camp

Endurance
Prepared
Incessant
Camaraderie

Bush camp three was another OMG what were we thinking event. We had traversed back via the Magellan Straits and we camped in a similar gravel sand dune area to the first bush camp. Again the weather was miserable, however this time I learned my lesson and was more prepared so had waterproof pants and gloves on. While I was considerably drier than last time, I still had to endure multiple face tent slaps. It was nice to see that while we were all drenched, and freezing cold, everyone who had successfully put up their tents went to assist anyone that was still struggling against the elements.

While the crew cooked outside we again huddled in the truck, peering out at the sky, willing the rain to stop. Other lessons learned from the first bush camp meant that we had left the luggage on the truck rather he unloading it. Due to the persistent rain we ate dinner on the truck. In order to make ourselves feel better we tucked into a few Panatone cakes afterwards. The majority of the group stayed up until late, chatting and drinking, wistfully hoping that the rain would ease. Unfortunately it did not and so Pete and Kirsten had to kick us off the truck so that they could get to sleep.

Howling winds and incessant rain throughout the night made it sound as though the tent would be blown away, thankfully my only worry was that I might overheat in my snug 4 season sleeping bag. Waking the next morning we discovered that our tent had developed a water feature during the night - I emptied three bowlfuls of water from it. Luckily we had kept the sides and ends clear for just such a reason. Must get tent waxed once it dries out!

Second Bush Camp

Embarrassing
Probing
Interrogations
Chile

Bush camp two was in Chile, shortly after we crossed the Magellan Straits. Thankfully we had a much better experience than before - weather stayed dry, we had a delicious tagatelle chicken stir fry and watched a lovely sunset. So far truck dinners have been savage! Long may this trend continue.

Jeanne produced her cosily snug down jacket due to the chilly Chilean conditions. She needed a wee bit of help in zipping it up completely which led to comical attempts. it also earned her the nickname Kenny as with only her eyes visible from the coat she totally resembled him.

We managed to start properly bonding as an entire group around the camp as everyone chilled out after dinner and the 'hot seat' was born. Basically whoever was seated in the middle was interrogated with daft, deep, awkward, embarrassing and probing questions. Duncan had interview style 'where do you see yourself in 5 years' questions, (he got off easy being the first), turns out Jeanne has a favourite child and told us why, and Graham didn't even have to think who his 'if you had to be with a man' would be, shocked us all with his speedy response that didn't skip a beat (Hugh Jackman, as Wolverine!). Thankfully all were good sports and answered every question without refusing. This camping lark ain't so bad after all!