Hi everyone

For people who love mountains Torres del Paine and El Chalten are
places to go. The mountains are majestic granite pillars, in some
places topped with back sedimentary rock, formed by an upheaval of
magma but not a volcano. The glaciers are also amazing. We have seen
quite a number by now, with lakes of blue, green and grey at their
bases. Mt Fitzroy near El Chalten is a really impressive granite tower
(over 3000m) and as we were returning from a walk we encountered three
climbers who had just reurned from the summit.

We have done some fantastic walks in both places, from about 16km to
30km (that was a long day with much uphill climbing. One of our group
tore the ligaments in her ankle on the first day in Torres Del Paine.

After the mountains we flew to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego
(the southernmost city in the world). It's quite alarge place
(about 80,000  to 100,000 people). Here we have done several boat
trips and we were lucky the weather was fine. We went to an island
where we walked and later took a boat on the Beagle Channel
where we saw a number of bird colonies and also a sea lion colony but
unfortunately, no penguins. We would have had to go on a longer boat
trip to reach the penguins.

Tomorrow we set off for warmer climes - Salta and the Atacama desert.