Think of the wierdest hotel or place you have ever stayed in, then times the weirdness by 100 that image you have in your mind may be the place we are staying in now. We arrived at Huilo Huilo Reserve with no idea what this was, we saw a tree house, hotel in a mountain and a mushroom lodge. We managed to find our way to our canopy village which is a village in amongst the trees of the Huilo Huilo forest.

This is our lovely little cabin amongst the forest which is amazing, to get to it you need to walk along and elevated board walk into the forest about 100 metres from the entrance. We do not have proper beds we have camping beds that are elevated of the wooden floor, they are very comfortable.

The next day we went and explored this wonderful village and walked to each of the different hotels and lodges. I think this one is the coolest, MAGIC MOUNTAIN. This is a man made mountain of rock with a hotel inside, from the outside it looks amazing and on the inside there is a spiral staircase that leads up to all the different rooms. There are about 20 rooms that looked a bit small. We did not get to stay in this place.

After exploring Magic mountain we went on a 2 hour walk down to Salto Fuy which is the main river and connects into lago Fuy. This is the Salto which is waterfall in Spanish. The waterfalls are very powerful but not compared to Iguacu. The walk was very nice and and we could get really close to the waterfall. It was called the walk of spirits and it is a peaceful walk where you can stop and meditate near the waterfall.

After the peaceful walk we came and explored the tree house, this is the architecture of the inside of the treehouse. A hollow tree with rooms going round and round then and lookout on the top to see the volcan Mocho. After this we went and did our first activity which was Zip Lineing through the forest about 50 metres above the ground. We do not have any photos of this adventure but if anyone has ever been to tree tops in Gosford it is like that except higher and not as many obsticles. Then we went home to our nice camping beds.

Oscar :-)

Another day of travelling and it all went wrong, we arrived in Trelew hoping to do some dolphin watching, when we got there mum rang the company and they said they were not doing it that day. That then ment we had about 12 hours to kill before our bus to Bariloche. The first thing we did was go to a little Welsh influenced town called Gaiman 15 kms out of Trelew. We arrived in the boiling hot weather and looked for the tourist office, we did a little walk around the town before we did what we were waiting for...                                We had Welsh high tea, it was pretty cool having all the little cakes and the best tea I have ever tasted, then we went back to Trelew.

In Trelew we now had about 6 hours to kill, so we visited the dinosaur museum. It was pretty awesome, we got to see all the different dinosaurs and the time they existed and what wiped them out. This sculpture is fake but the real bones are in the lab which the scientists work in. The dinosaurs we saw where ones that where found in the Patagonia Region. After this we had a walk around and watched a street ceremony before going off to have dinner and catch the 13 hour bus to Bariloche. That is where we are right now and it's raining:-(

Oscar :-)

Elephant seals don't look the way I thought they looked it's only the males with those big fat trunks. We woke up at 8.00 on Thursday morning to go and see these wierd looking creatures plus a few cute little penguins. A person called Juan came and pick us up to drive us out to Punta Ninfas, for our private tour to see the Elephants Seals. We drove until we came to a stop and Juan said "the car can't go any further so we will have to walk", so we jumped out of the car on the beautiful sunny day and did some trekking until we arrived at the beach. We saw from the top of the hill down to the beach 2 groups of Elephants that we could approach and examine what they do during the day. We sat right next to them and took a few photos, then Jaun told us a bit of info about these creatures. Every male has about 20 females and they choose which ones they like, sometimes there might be some conflict between two males going for one girl so they fight with their elephant like noses and they also bite and scratch each other. Their flippers actually have finger nails and are very sharp.

This is the second group we visited and they seemed a little bit more alive, they wriggled and wobbled and occasionally looked at you with there big brown puppy eyes. In this group there was one young male and some females and pups that have learned to fend for themselves. At this time of the year the elephants peel their fur and with their nails they scratch the fur off, I don't know how long in takes I suppose it depends how big they are. After this we walked back to the car and drove back the homestead for lunch. The Goucho cooked us lunch before we set out to see some penguins.

These are the penguins we went and saw, they are only about half a meter tall. They nest in the branches in the shade of these little bushes and make nests by making a hole in the bush. There are different types of these nests. There is this one wich is the most popular then there are the ones where the penguins dig a tunnel in the ground which is nice and cool and in the shade of the branches. Then there's the nests which are basically a hole in the ground, padded a bit with of straw. The penguins are only here to breed, look after eggs and look after their young, then they travel many many miles further South where they are cold or freezing which is just how they like it.

This is the beach that the penguins come in and out from when they have done their fishing. The penguins and their partners take turns in going fishing, one goes out to have a feed and one looks after the eggs. We got to sit on this beach and this is the view we got, we could not go any closer to them because we would scare them away. Did you know that when a penguins finds its partner they stay together forever, they mate and breed with the same penguin every time. Not like the Sea lions and Elephant seals. The penguins still fight for the ladies but they only get one each and forever.

This is a fossil of a sea money and it is a creature from millions of years ago that got stuck in the rock type clay that we trekked on. We saw many of these fossils but they look really weird. They were in the ocean but when the tide came up they got stuck in the clay. Other things got stuck in the clay as well like shells, clams, oysters and lots of coral. After visiting the penguins we drove back to our apartment in Puerto Madryn and got ready for a day of traveling tommorow.

Oscar :-)

On Monday we started our 24 hour bus trip from El Calafate to Puerto Madryn, we took a 4 hour bus ride to Rio Gallegos, then from there we went to Puerto Madryn in carma suite class which was pretty cool. We arrived in Puerto Madryn on Tuesday.

Beep, Beep, Beep went our alarm at 6.00am, then the second alarm (mum) woke me, Scarlett and Dad up and ready for an amazing day of swimming with the seals. We went and did our training at 7.00 then put our 3 wetsuits on and set off at 8.00 towards the animal reserve. We jumped into the freezing water with our instructor Fransisco and 3 other people and snorkelled our way towards the seals. We had three seals come right up to us and I got to pat one, we moved and swam and the seals followed with joy, jumping up and down and swimming right under us. We looked in at the shore towards the seal colony and I saw 2 massive seals that at first I thought were elephant seals but they were just lazy males, the rest of seals were mothers with their pups and other female seals. The ones that swam with us were some pups that had just lost their fur, they were very energetic and came right up to us and let us pat and hug them, and their mothers watched closely by the shore.

Oscar:-)

You'll never guess what I did today (Wednesday 20 November ) !

I snorkelled with the seals in the ocean off Patagonia.

We had to get up at 6.00am to be in the water at high tide, when the seals leave the rocks to swim. We had to put on three layers of wetsuits because the water was so cold! We even had to wear a hood and gloves. Next we got in a little boat and drove out to where the Seals live.

Once we were in the water and in a small group the seals came right up to us and swam behind us. Then one came right up to me. I let go of my dad and gave it a big hug. When we stayed in our small group and kicked on our backs they would follow us. It was the mums and the pups that came to visit us. The female seals were darker and the male were a lighter colour.

On the the beach there were two big males and I was a bit scared as I thought they might come in the water, but our instructor said they are too lazy.

I started to get a bit cold near the end, before we got back on the boat and had some hot tea on our way back to the shore.

Sadly that was the end of my amazing experience swimming in the ocean with seals.

SCARLETT

A glacier is a big, enormous, massive sheet of really, really thick ice! This glacier is 3km wide.

A glacier is made by rain being pushed by really strong winds from the ocean to the mountains. Then the rain freezes and falls into the valley in a line and creates a glacier.

We rented a car and drove down to El Chalten. On the drive our car almost got blown off the road!!

When we got there we went for a 3 hour hike up to a lagoon. When we got there we saw a view of the mountain called Fitz Roy. It was very beautiful. Daddy and I saw a woodpecker on a tree! This was special because they are very hard to spot. It had a scarlet red head and dark blue body.

The next day we went for a walk to a waterfall. In the afternoon we walked up the worlds most windy mountain!! I nearly got blown over. It was scary.

Today we went to the Bird watching place in El Calafate, we got to have a sleep in this morning which was great. At the bird watching we walked around the lagoon and saw many different types of birds. After this we went and did some things around town, today was a rest day because we are going to have a jam packed day tommorow. Below you will find some photos of the birds we saw.

Here is the Austral Flamingo which is the pink Flamingos, the white ones are called Chilien Flamingos.

Today we went on a boat tour on Lake Argentina. We woke up at the same time as yesterday and got picked up at around 7.20. When we got to the port there was a massive line to get onto the 3 boats, we lined up but not for very long and got on the boat. Our first views were of the icebergs in the Upsala canal which I will tell you about a little later on. The first Glacier we saw was the Upsala Glacier which is the biggest of all the Glaciers on Lake Argentina, there is more info about these later on in the blog. The next thing we saw was a miniature hanging glacier that hung on a mountain above the lake, there is also more info later on. Then we saw the Spegazzini glacier which is 1/4 hanging and the rest is in the valley and on the lake, more info down below.

The next and final thing we stopped at was the most famous Glacier on Lake Argentina and maybe even Patagonia, this Glacier is the one we walked on yesterday and it is called Perito Moreno. Me and dad went into the front of the boat about 20 minutes before we arrived at the Glacier. We stayed out there in the freezing cold and the howling wind so that we could get the best spot to look at the Glacier and take photos. Then we came back to the port and caught the bus back home to our lovely hostel in El Calafate There is more info and photos of the glaciers below.

These Icebergs have fallen off the front wall of the Upsala Glacier, now they are floating down Lake Argentina and slowly melting. The iceberg you can see is only 10-20% of the actual iceberg and the rest is under water, these icebergs are the biggest on Lake Argentina because the Upsala canal is the deepest of all the lakes, the reason all the icebergs are all from the Upsala Glacier is because it is the Glacier that is melting rapidly. Here are some photos of the Icebergs we saw in the Upsala canal.

If you look closely in this picture you may be able to see the Upsala Glacier which is where all of these ice bergs are coming from. This Glacier is much bigger than the Perito Moreno Glacier. This Glacier is 2kms wide at the front and 50 kms in length, this Glacier was made the same way as the Perito Moreno Glacier (see the blog before if you don't know.)

This is the impact of climate change in the Upsala Glacier, see the first pink line that says 1946 is where the first observation of the glacier was taken, then the next pink line is in 1997 and you can see the impact f climate change. Now in 2013 it would be even further back and would be decreasing at a quicker rate thanks to global warming.

Here is a little glacier that has melted a lot over time and now is not floating on the water, in the winter it may touch the water but I don't know that for sure.

This glacier is called Glacier Spegazzini it is a hanging Glacier and it is about 12 square km. It is about 500 metres above sea level and once was a Glacier that was connected to Lake Argentina.

This is the connecting part of the hanging part of the Glacier that is connected by the mountains.

This is the other part of Spegazzini that is 134 square km's and 17km's long. It is the highest Glacier in this region. The name comes from an Italian botanist called Antonio Speganzani who did a lot of work around this Glacier.

This is the Perito Moreno Glacier which is what we walked on yesterday, this photo really puts in perspective how big it actually is but this is only 1/2 of the Glacier. This is the north side, we walked on the other side of it. This is the most famous Glacier because of its growth, in the summer and spring the Glacier melts and looks like this, but then in the winter it goes right up on the shore line where the rocks are. This causes a problem because it blocks off the connection from one side of the lake to the other and so the west side of the lake has 26 more metres of water so the lake basically floods until the it creates a hole in the ice. Then that hole eventually collapses, the last collapse was in March 2012.

Perito Moreno is 254 square km's, 13 km's in length and 2.5 kms wide at the start of the glacier. The ice wall at the front is around 40-60 metres, this Glacier is named after the person who discovered the Glaciers and Patagonia. This Glacier has many calving events which is where the little layers of ice fall off into Lake Argentina. This is also why Perito Moreno is so famous because of all it's calving events.

Here is the other half of the north side of the Glacier that I did not get in the other photo

Thank you and please come again

Oscar :-)

Today we woke up at 6.00 and got dressed in the freezing cold ready for what was about to be an amazing day. Our tour bus arrived at 7.30 to pick us up and go to the Glacier, this photo is at a viewpoint before we got on the boat to the Glacier. We got on the boat and waited for everyone to get on, then the boat started and when it went around the bend you could see the Perito Moreno Glaciar. We arrived on the other side of the lake and went with our tour guide called Louis. Our group was small because it was English speakers. We went through the forest and went onto a beach and Louis briefed us on what the Glaciar is, how old it is and how it was formed. The reason the Glaciar was formed was the winds coming from the Pacific Ocean hit the Andes then go over the Andes and collect up lots of snow and ice, then the wind travels down the other side into a lake at the bottom of the valley of the Andes and some other mountains on the other side, and that was how Glaciar Perito Moreno was created.

After the briefing we went up the huts to put on our gear for walking on the Glacier. We had to put on these things called crampons that hook on the the bottom of your shoes so that you don't slip on the ice. After this we went on the ice and Louis told us how to walk with the crampons going down the ice and going up, then we started.

We walked around a part of the glacier for an hour and a half, it was absolutely AMAZING. We jumped over crevases and drank the water from the little pools, the water in these pools looked like that water had been died blue because the water was the bluest blue I have ever seen. Before drinking the water you had to break the ice sheet that was quite thin which just says how cold the water was! We walked up to the summit where you could see across the whole Glacier which was full of crevases but it was amazing to look at.

At the end of our trek there was a huge hole that was really deep. I asked Louis if he had ever been down and he said yes, I thought maybe he had done it once or twice with ropes, but then he just climbed down it and then climbed right back up it. It was amazing to watch and when he popped out the other side one of the Japanese tourists in the other group said "Spider-Man".

The next part of our trek was going to the lookouts to view the Glacier, from the different angles and parts. We saw the north part of the Glacier which looks exactly the same as the other side. When we went to the second balcony we saw both sides combined and that really put in perspective how big the Glacier actually is.

This is just 3/4 of the glacier which, it was amazing to look at from all the different places.

This is me after I just got hit by a snow ball from Scarlett, there is snow on the top of most of the ice because it does snow but then it turns into ice.

This is me eating the fresh ice, which was delicious, but after eating it my mouth got so cold.

This is Scarlett standing where all the ice blocks fall and crash into the ocean.

This was an amazing day and definently once in a lifetime.

Oscar :-)

Las Flores By Scarlett

The first day we went on a chair lift to the top a big hill. The next day we drove to Punte Este and we saw seals in the harbour. Onthe last day we stayed at the beach house and swam and made sand castles and that night we had a BBQ on the beach. It was a very beautiful place and we had a great time.