We picked the girls up from their hostel and it turns out they had an awful nights sleep and the hostel was basically a pile of shit. However today was not going to another one of those days, so we spoke about the days plan. There were a few options but decided to head to the glacier where you can do a 2 hour walk for free along it and then drive up to the national park. The other plan was to see the Penguins which would of been amazing, however it was a rip off and with our trip almost over we just could afford it.

 

We turned up at the glacier entrance (which like the rest of Argentina is awfully sign posted) and changed our shoes in to hiking boots. As I tried to open the office door a guide came over and told me it was closed along with the chairlift, as the glacier walking path had been covered by snow. We could of done an hours walk up the ski slope and made our own way along the glacier, but that was too much effort for anyone in their right mind. There is a lovely little tea house just next to the slope which we all looked in though. They sell the cutest trinkets and things I'd love to decorate my non existent house with, however only serve 2 types of tea. Not ideal for an English person looking for a cuppa cha

 

As we were on our way back in to town, Reanne had decided she would rather see the Penguins than come to the national park, so we dropped her off at the tour company so she could have an epic time playing with Antarctic Penguins (very jealous). The rest of us drove up to the national park to spend the afternoon there. We tried the student card trick but unfortunately it wasn't washing with the park manager and we had to pay full price (170 ARS). This also made Mandi very happy after the whole Los Glaciers park discount episode. Just as we were about to drive off I figured it would be best to ask the girl the best points to see in the short space we had. I'm so glad we did because it turns out, out of the 8 trails to walk and numerous view spots and wildlife points only 1 was open! One out of Eight is appalling, and we were so close to paying full whack for less than a quarter of the park. I tried speaking to the park manager to get some sort of discount but he wasn't budging on the price. We figured it would be stupid to pay the full fee if we weren't going to get a good experience, so began the drive to a free trail the girl had marked on the map. 

 

Yeah, that turned out to be the glacier trail which we had figured was also closed. With basicly everything to do in Ushuaia closed we didn't have much option but to walk around the streets looking at stuff we couldn't buy and food we couldn't afford. That was until Mandi got me and jord to cave in for some expensive but tasty food. I mean there was a whole issue with some funny tasting bread no one liked, but still ate. We though it was free...it turned out not to be, and that's never fun. But man did it feel good to get some real food in my belly. We went all out. Onion rings, sweet potato fries and calamari for starters followed by a serloin steak, salmon and king crab canaloni. Mmmmm

 

By the time we had finished I was well in to my food coma and darkness was just around the corner. We dropped Mandi at her new hotel and drove back out to Rio Olivia. For some reason we decided to pick the opposite side of the river to camp on, which turned out to be just the shittest idea ever. It was that windy, I could hardly put the tent up without it catching a gust and flying away. There was absolutely no fire wood on this side. A lot of the ground was swampy so I ended up with a shoe full of sloppy mud and it was so cold that everything wet ended up as frost or ice. Which by the time we got to bed was also the tent... Maybe a hotel would of been the better choice this time.