First rest day

We have declared today a much needed rest day after skiing for seven of the last 8 days.  The need for the rest day was becoming increasingly apparent as we struggled to stay awake until dinner.  

Well it is almost a rest day, we went dog sledding this morning. There are several large kennels near Ushuaia housing 50-100 dogs each.  Snow in the valleys is getting pretty slushy but it is still quite a neat experience being pulled through the forest by a team of twelve dogs.

 Leena's progress at downhill skiing has been most impressive.  She came on the trip intending to focus on cross country skiing and saying she would not be downhilling "At All".  However on her last day she conconquered both the top lifts, skiing the blue and red runs with confidence and style.  Rumour has it that she had a good sleep before dinner, but she was first up this morning and out for a full days museum and art exploration.

This afternoon we will be packing for a two day tramp and leaving early tomorrow.  With snow on the valley floor we will need to hire snow shoes (or Rackets as the locals call them), but have checked out conditions with the locals and found a suitable track and target camp site.

Ushuaia is growing on all of us.  In summer it is a frantic place, full of impatient gringos heading for Antarctica, but at this time of year foreign tourists are rare and everyone seems to forgive our lack of Spanish and work hard to communicate.  So much so that we are still not practicing our language skills enough.

Spring has arrived today and temperatures are heading into the low teens.  It is positively hot after the snow of earlier in the week.  Part of the hot is caused by the heavily subsidised gas prices.  All buildings seem heated to about 25 degrees or more.

Ross