Hey folks, I’m still waiting for the cruise ship to hear back from the HR department, this was the email I received a couple of minutes ago:

No news but this is not uncommon. Our mills grind slowly most of the time.
Have fun on the hike and I’ll let you  know if and when anything comes up.

So fingers crossed and I will just keep playing the waiting game (can’t say I’m enjoying the waiting, will prob head off for a hike) 

Today marks day 22 in Ushuaia for me, a place I have become to love, the 4 seasons in one day, the haphazard construction of houses that look like a jumble of lego blocks on a child’s bedroom floor, but they give me a feel of home with the Bach feel about them (for the international readers, a bach is a New Zealand holiday home where the emphasis is on comfort and not flashiness). After land locked Paraguay I am eating up being by the ocean, the mountains. Yesterday I went walking up in the mountains, perched myself on a log, overlooking Ushuaia, watched a cruise ship leave the port, then it started to snow, it’s times like that it’s hard not to get philosophical, yeah the brains been going overtime of late.

One thing I don’t like about Ushuaia, the dogs, it is one angry breed of dog they have down here, they are like the P addicts of dogs. The locals are always telling me to watch out for the dogs, and the other day a friend got bitten while riding her bike. There are dogs in the streets everywhere, stray ones that live in the mountains and in the street. I went for a run the other day, lets just say there were a few occasions where I thought I would have to change my underwear. The dogs are so big here that the local even ride them, check the photo out below!

So what have I been doing here in Ushuaia the past 22 days. Well my life has basically consisted of sleeping in a 6 bedroom dorm, which I don’t mind until the room mates have to catch the 5am bus (the only time bus that leaves Ushuaia), nah it’s all good, met some great people. My original plan was to sleep in my tent, but I don’t think my budget Paraguayan tent would stand up to the snow and wind here, or me for that matter! Plus the hostel has proved invaluable as a meeting place of Antarctic bound travellers with inside knowledge, and not to mention the staffs have been super helpful. I spend my days sitting in “my office” in the hostel (photo below is me in the chair that I call my office). I am basically a part of the furniture here. I am like a beach as the Travellers come and go like the tide – Gosh I’m getting quite poetic aren’t I? Is there a nobel prize for poetry, or maybe I one for talking crap!

People come back from sightseeing and doing boat trips to walk with the penguins, or to see the light house at the bottom of the world, or visiting the numerous museums, or hiking to the glacier and they usually say “are you still there?”. So that’s what I have been doing. Although I did a cool bike trip the other day and went out to the Playa Larga with a great view back over Ushuaia with the mountains as the back drop. I have also been numerous dinners with fellow couch surfers and news friends; it’s not all sitting in the chair, well during the day yes. Good times.

It’s quite funny, travellers arrive and ask me what there is to do in Ushuaia? I just say “theres a national park, or a hike to a glacier, apparently some boats rides etc, I heard they are all pretty good”, “so how long have you been here?” “3 weeks” “oh”. But for me, I’m not here to be a tourist, the reason I am here is Antarctica. I also think I have reached a saturation point in my travels, I need some normality, you know how it is when you been something for a while, it’s like eating chocolate, the first pieces are amazing, then after that its just something you put and in your mouth and eat, you still like it but its not as amazing as the first pieces. That’s when you need to put the chocolate away and have it later when you crave it again. Don’t get the wrong idea I like travel and chocolate, I think I just need a bit of normal life and routine to remind me how amazing travelling is again, at the moment the travel scene is my reality, normality and routine sound quite inviting, a holiday even – haha listen to me, I bet right now all the people sitting in their offices reading this want to inflict some sort of pain on me. OK, I best shut up and wrap this up.

I’m off to play the waiting game. Crickey, I just looked at that photo of me in the chair, I will have to photo shop some arms into that photo! And no I haven’t picked up a herion addiction whilst being in Ushuaia, I just have athletic arms!

Nuthin but love Hap