And you shall be called Ellie.....

I know you are all itching for a hostel/bunk room update. After one night where I was in bed before my bunk room buddies I was all set to try my Spanglish and converse with my roomies once I had woken up. Cue they had left already, never to return.  So best intentions and I now have 6 bunks to myself.
I am kind of a ready to have some friends if only share the ridiculous sized portions of food with me.

Just a little cheese and ham toastie!!!

So today was a welcome relief with a fun tour guide and a couple who seemed lovely and I tried my Spanglish out on them and the tour guide (Walter aka JJ, work that out)  spent most of the time teaching me more Spanish after deciding my name was too hard to say.
"Livvy,lippy, ibby, ivvy, ivy too hard do you have another name?"
"Yes, Elizabeth."
"Ah Elizabeth, so Ellie is better that is your name....it is easier....yes.....Ellie."
So I have spent the whole day trying to remember to answer to my new name!

Off to look at some lakes and the Garibaldi pass which takes you through the Andes as you cross from one tectonic plate the Scotia to the other the South American plate. Ushuaia sits to south of the tail of the Andes where they have turned from N-S to W-E here the mountains only reach 1500 metres odd versus some big one beginning with A thats 7000M tall or something.....
First stop was for a coffee, turbo fuel here even the guides say next stop the toilet!!! We are at a local winter sports centre , Tourism is a staple part of the economy with more information places than you can shake a stick at, and the winter side of it is slowly growing. 
In particular dog sledding,  cross country and motorski things, throw in for a bit of snow shoeing. The dog sledding fascinates me as i love animals and these dogs seem all gorgeous but are super stinky live outside and attached to chain when they are not sledding. They seem super friendly but ultimately aren't like your pet dogs and definitely won't be trying to sit on the sofa with you like Wolfie!!!
I also discover that actually what I imagined would make a good dog sledder isn't the wolfie sized dog but these smaller short haired things that are super quick called greyster. They seem to get a bit more of an indoor home while the furry fuzz balls that are more husky like have their own little homes. They all seem pretty happy

First stop was the Garibaldi pass and Lago Escondido (transated to the hidden lake, ha ha)
Can you see it?

And the Garibaldi pass the old one winding down towards the lake with the modern one up top! It wasn't until 1935/6 I think that this road was made, otherwise you came, everything came by boat.  A decendant of the indigenous people Selk'nam used their knowledge of how they followed the Guancos to create, decide that this was the place to do. In 1956 the first car went from Ushuaia to Rio Grande this now completes Route 3 which is part of a big biker route with North Pacific highway I believe. Hence in a lot places, border crossing, bars you see a lot of stickers from teams/groups

 This 6 KM lake sits at 80m above sea level and feeds the bigger Lake below through one little river at the end of it, glacial in formation and freshwater thats also pretty shallow max 50 m and frozen on top today in places!

Lake Fagnuna is the divider of the plates at 105 km long up to 90 m deep and only 50m above sea level it is the second biggest lake in Argentina  and just looks like you are looking out to sea, well.....
In my case it felt like something out the Truman Show where I could be looking out for miles or could be a white wall about 50m away but more than a stones throw because I tried!

A bit of 4x4ing took us to the lake and we learnt about Castor, beavers and the problems with beavers (a broken english conversation about beavers is remarkably amusing). But they were introduced in the 1930s in theory to use their skins for something however they have no predators and turns out weren't that useful and so now just have a bloody good time DAMing the whole place up felling a few trees! doh

It is amazing even without the blue skies and the dramatic 1000M odd mountains hiding behind a white veil the place still photographs pretty damn well and the biggest thing of all I have never experienced silence quite like it. 

(Yes it may be that I have no one to talk to, but I don't generally have much to say these days!)

A mound of food yet again with a bottle of wine between three and some serenading from our guide and we were all falling asleep on the way home!

Dropped off and asked out for dinner and drinks by the guide JJ, you will have to come back tomorrow to see where that went, an Argentinean that can't say my name so calls me something completely different. Though to be fair the ski rental place had the same problem as did the coffee place......

There are moments when travelling alone that you notice it, the couple today asked if I was travelling by myself and were very surprised. They said I was a superwoman for doing that. That in Argentina people don't travel by themselves and especially as my Spanglish leaves a bit to be desired. But I guess I amaze myself at my ability to be by myself. But sometimes when there is no one sat at the table or just when you are super tired. Sometimes I wonder then despite all I am seeing and doing I am just super super tired and wish I had someone special to share it with.
Instead I have all you multitude of special people some that appear to have  tried to fling themselves far away but have been very good at keeping me company.

.....cliffhanger...will love blosson in Ushuaia.........