Goddammit, I lost the photo contest?!?

Are you KIDDING ME?!? It was my game!

And disappointing to see that mum voted for Marcus.

Still, good to see I'm upholding the British tradition of making up games then being crap at them [see cricket, rugby, and football for more info].

Here's the haps:

The boats have made it through Chilean customs!!! Which means:

1. There's a chance they'll be on a truck tomorrow!
2. There's a chance they'll be in Punta Arenas on Sunday!
3. There's a squeaky little outside chance we'll be paddling on Monday!
4. And last but not least, it means that I won't have to post the picture of the 'Christmas Tree Fire' that Marcus was so keen on this morning when it all looked so bleak.

Aside from Boat-Drama-Chapter-237...

Last night we were warmly welcomed at the home of Fernando and Carine who hosted us and 4 other local paddlers [palistas!] for dinner and beers. Sergio, Diana and Lucas brought centolla they'd caught that afternoon and - although the restaurant version was good - the freshly caught stuff was a different kettle of fish altogether. No pun intended. The paddling community [Eco Deportes Ushuaia] are 15-strong and provide free kayaking for kids. They're also trying to add

kayaking to the Ushuaia curriculum, and, change the widely held belief that kayaking is a tourists domain. Check out their blog here http://ecodeportesushuaia.blogspot.com/.

After dinner we repeatedly watched footage of Walter [photo] fluffing his roll on the day's kayak [yes, we know Walter 'water was too shallow' :) ], and the guys also showed us a few hundred really interesting pictures of coastline we're going to paddle, and gave us beta on good landing spots. Thank you kayakistas! For the food, the beta and the new vocab ["traje seco"]!

Today Marcus gave a clinic for the local kayakers [but he can tell you more about that] while I continued to chase down Chilean customs before they left for Christmas [finally some movement, woo hoo!]. Other than that: we're starting to like mate; Marcus has finally realized how much food I can consume [he didn't really buy it despite all my warnings]; and it's still breathtakingly beautiful here in this far flung town where the air's fresh, the sea water's see through, and the mountain range falls into the ocean down a series of steep streets :)

Lastly [is that a word?], I know you're all like "Christmas Tree Fire? Sounds intriguing." So OK, OK. Here it is [photo].

We hope the pope feels better soon and we wish you all a Feliz Navidad!

We Wish You a Merry♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪We Wish You a Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♥ ♥ ♥We Wish You A Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

... and two kayaks for us! ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥