The Silly Season Down South
We have obviously hit the silly season in our travels. Its summertime down here, so I suppose that the timing is just right, but it seems to have worked anyway. Emma and I are both so relaxed (Emma is sleeping a minimum of 10 hours a day, so how could she not be?) and just taking in all the sights, that I suppose we have gone a little soft in the head. The start of all this was the expedition to The Miladon Cave (La Cueva del Milodon). This is a cave in between Puerto Natales and Torre del Paine, and pretty much a mandatory stop. I wasn`t overjoyed to be going - from what I had heard in town I thought it would be tackier than all get it. There are a series of three caves, and in the largest about 100 years ago someone found extrarodinarily well preserved skin of what turned out to be a milodon, or giant sloth. Since the skin was so well preserved, there was a lot of speculation that someone had in fact found a _live_ milodon, and various expeditions set out from London came down to Patagonia to find one, but to no avail as many many years later carbon dating revealed that the skin was a few thousand years old to say the least, and that Clarence Birds Eye was onto something when he perfected modern day deep freezing, as it was a natural deep freeze in the cave which had preserved the skin in such good condition. Despite this history, which I find interesting enough, I was uninterested as what you see in town are just signs and models everywhere of milodons, which are not particularly attractive creatures. Picture a sloth. Now picture one 10 feet tall. Not pretty, eh? But never mind, if its mandatory you`ve got to go, so we did. The cave itself was fabulous, and very interesting. Its a huge cave, I won`t even guess how high or how wide, an interesting geological phenomonon, and great views, so when you throw in the history that they have been able to piece in there as well, its worth the trip out. But for Emma the piece de resistance was the plastic life sized model replica of the milodon which stands at the mouth of the cave. The girl has lost it. There is now a t-shirt with dancing milodons (strategically bought to have a clean shirt after camping, which is at least cunning), there is a ceramic model milodon, there are postcards sent home of the milodons, patches for the backpack. There is also a dance of the milodons, which seems to have been modeled on the oh so famous hampsterdance.com website. This was not the first, but certainly the strongest indicator of our decent into silliness.

Again, silliness can combine with stupidity to produce interesting results. It was a long bus ride to Argentina. Our only reading material was Millbrooks "The Falklands War, 1982". A very interesting book, but since the Argys are still laying claim to "Las Islas Malvinas", maybe not the most cunning thing to bring. It was conveniently left on the bus at the border crossings, along with giggly whispers to "not mention the war". While a thorough and detailed military history, having been to the Falklands it is quite hysterical. There are interviews with people that we met, and the attitudes and actions just make us shake our heads and say "yes, that`s the Falklands for you." My personal favorite is the two little old ladies on South Georgia who, when called up to confirm that they know what is going on, play "Land of Hope and Glory" as loud as they can down the phone to their Argentine captors.

But by the end of a long day of travel, bored to tears with our busride and very very hungry (I was anxiously awaiting my chacerero), it just turned into kids in the back of the bus, singing every camp song we could possibly remember, much to the amusement of our Japanese traveling companions.

But now we are here, back at the Magellanic Strait, gearing up to head north and eventually (some more eventually than others) to home. There is shopping to be done, as of course family back home wants pressies and things (good lord, what do you people want? All we know is we have to bring back giftage, but what for crying out loud, WHAT???????? Answers via email please.) and there is a really good chocolate shop, and of course laundry (oh, clean clothes. Hiking is great fun, but man I am ready for a new shirt myself. It will not have milodons on it.) It was like coming home to come back to our hostel again, and we were greeted quite enthusiastically by the owners. If only it will hold out. I clambered out of my top bunk this morning, didn`t quite get to the floor and somehow tripped in midair, laying flat on the floor with one leg splayed across the bottom bunk. The guy who up to that point had been sleeping comparitively peacefully until some chick fell on him was quite understanding about it, but still. I may have changed on this trip, but its reassuring to know that clumsiness never goes away.

Love,

Anne