Esconsed well and truely in Patagonia after a fairly long mini-bus trip into the Torres del Paine National Park and our hotel, Las Torres Patagonia. I think I can rest easy, with each passing hour, the spectre of a Chilean armoured police tank

Now, on a different topic, let me firstlystate categorically that I am extremely fond of most Americans. They are universally somewhat naive, whilst not humourless, lacking the insight into irony, at least the unique Australian variety. Those I meet on the my travels suffer a moderate degree of heath anxiety, self medicate to an alarming degree, tend to vote Democrat and are in general philosophical about the American way of life, although they also universally, on average have 5 types of guns in their households. I have yet to meet an American who does not own at least one firearm.

I am the only Australian in the group the rest are either American or our Spanish tour guides. The woman seated opposite me, as soon as we leave Ushuaia produces a large resealable plastic container of drugs! Not the illicit sort typical in South America, but an eye watering pharmacopoeia of cough linctus, analgesics, antihistamines, multivitamins and several aerosol formulations, presumably for and several aerosol formulations, presumably for asthma.

I