European no-frills airline Ryanair says it is to stop accepting American Express charge cards. They say Amex makes higher charges than most other companies and that they will refuse to take bookings on the cards from the end of June 2003. Ryanair emphasized that it would continue to accept other credit cards.

Ryanair reported a big rise in net profits in its last financial year. Net profits of EUR239.4 million (USD$281.4 million) were 59 percent up on the previous year and the carrier says it expects to see passenger numbers in 2003/04 to soar to 24 million from the present 15.7 million. They are predicting that they will overtake both British Airways and Germany's Lufthansa within three years.

And finally here is a very sad website, for all those who would like to “virtually” fly a Ryanair plane. http://members.lycos.co.uk/virtualryanair/AboutVirtualRyanair.htm

Facts about the Oceans and Seas of the world

Still in Argentina, after El Chalten, we journeyed on to another place called El Calafate where again we spent three nights and it was here that we saw our most spectacular glacier ever, the Perito Moreno glacier which is enormous, rising many metres in the air and looking like a massive landlocked iceberg but much more spectacular than any other iceberg.

We took a trip on a catamaran to go right up to the face of the glacier and the catamaran stayed an hour, just circling so that we saw the glacier from every angle and were able to photograph it ad infinitum. Some people used up an entire film or more just on this incredible natural phenomenon, as following the boat trip we were taken to a viewpoint on land where we could carry on gazing at the glacier from different levels. Many of our group refused to leave at the stated time as they were convinced they were going to see great chunks of ice break off. One chunk did fall off, which I didn’t see.

Then we moved on from El Calafate to the Torres El Paine National Park in Chile. Judith and I weren’t too impressed with the actual walks we went on there as they just did not match up to the 12 hour one we had done before and the glaciers we had seen then, as the weather was not good in the park, very misty and although we managed the walk (8 hours again but we did it in 7 hours), we considered it mediocre, and a lot of hard work climbing for very little reward. However, the camp site where we stayed, on Lake Pehoe was superb with the most magnificent view of the mountains with their snowcaps and this marvelous lake beneath them.

The actual facilities at the camp were atrocious, as the camp site was large and well used by an incredible number of people but there were only two loos for the women with one sink to wash at, and similar for the men, and only four communal showers in a different location which only produced out hot water from 8 to 11 in the morning and from 1900 to 2200 in the evening and very often we had to leave to go on our excursions before the showers were hot in the mornings and often arrived back too late to take advantage of the evening sessions!

The only good aspect of the camp was the tiny shop which was hardly bigger than a garden shed but sold the most amazing range of wines, beers, biscuits, snacks, cigarettes etc to suit just about every taste and did not rip us off as other places appeared to be doing. While there, we also went on a bus ride to a glacier (yes, this particular area both on the Argentine side and the Chile side is renowned for its glaciers) and although we could only see the end of the glacier at a distance we were able to walk around a beautiful lake with the most fantastically shaped and coloured blue icebergs which obviously had broken away from the glacier at some point. And this little place in the middle of nowhere had the most beautiful toilets we had seen in a long time as it had obviously just been built, was brand spanking new and had toilet paper as well as soap and hand driers and doors that actually locked and believe me that really is luxury in the public loos here!

And now I am in Ushaia, the city at the end of the world, on the little island at the base of South America called Tierra del Fuego and we discovered, Judith and I, with a visit to the little well run and very informative museum here that it was so called because when the first white men arrived they saw all these fires burning on the hills that the natives had lit, but whether this was to welcome or frighten away the intruders or just to keep the natives warm, is not known!!

It is extremely cold here all year round and 15 degrees is considered hot! The sun does shine but there is always a cold wind blowing and that gets worse in winter and spring apparently! We took a boat trip up the beagle channel yesterday and saw a colony of cormorants and a colony of sea lions and circled the lighthouse at the end of the world and yes, we took dozens of superfluous shots of everything in sight! But the boat was also a luxury as it was the first boat trip we had been on which actually served food on board and hot drinks and alcoholic drinks and for the men provided these two very attractive young ladies to serve it! And these young ladies would dress up in their navy blue topcoats with brass buttons to come out on deck and tell us all about the sights and scenes we were seeing, and informed the more ignorant of us that no, that wasn’t a colony of penguins we were viewing but cormorants! (They looked very similar with black backs and white chests and from a distance and even close to looked very penguin like).

Next month: en route to Buenos Aires and real penguins.

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

Globetrotters meeting 7^th June 2003 by Padmassana

Simon Myers was our first speaker, who described part of his epic motorbike trip from Beijing across to the border of Pakistan. Simon had been living and working in China and was thus able to buy a very unreliable motorbike and set off with some companions and a Chinese mechanic on their trip, no licence or crash helmet required. Setting off from Beijing under the gaze of Chairman Mao, they were soon in the countryside and breaking down at regular intervals. But thanks to having their local mechanic along they were soon on their way again.

Their group was often the centre of attention in the places they went through and they were often fed along the way, one of Simon’s memorable photographs was of a breakfast consisting of all the bits of a chicken that you are unlikely to want to eat. Along the way he saw where the Great Wall of China is nothing but a ruin and the Dun Huang Buddhist grottos. Somehow they managed against the odds to cross the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts.

At Urumqi they said goodbye to their mechanic who flew back to Beijing. The final few weeks to the border they were on their own. They had tried to keep their trip a secret from officialdom so as not to attract attention and problems, but at the border the guards knew all about them from a photograph and piece in a newspaper. The guards were surprised to see them, as nobody in China believed they would make it!

Our second speaker was Globie committee member Jacqui Trotter. Jacqui took a year out to travel around South America, during which time most Globies were kept informed of her progress via regular e-mail bulletins.

Her talk covered only part of her trip, from Ecuador where she first arrived and tried to get to grips with the language down to Chile. Jacqui was part of an overland group, which left Ecuador in November 2001 heading south into Peru. She showed us some wonderful pictures of Peruvian beaches and the snow capped Andean peaks.

She braved a light aircraft flight in order to see the Nazca lines, bravely managing to take a photo before airsickness kicked in. Jacqui showed us Arequipa church being held up by scaffolding after one of the many earthquakes that the area is prone to. Her other highlights of Peru were seeing a condor after waiting a few hours and the more obvious sights of Cuzco and the spectacular ruins of Machu Picchu. Crossing the border into Bolivia she visited La Paz.

By this stage as she headed for Chile the rainy season was starting and her vehicle had to make a long journey to avoid the salt flats. Jacqui and her fellow travellers continued over the border and visited the Salar de Uyuni, where she showed us the salt hotel, where literally everything is made of salt including the furniture and fittings. At the end of this section of her trip Jacqui managed to take some superb photos of ice breaking from a glacier, right place, right time.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

The Beetle received this e-mail from a Globetrotters who thought it might be useful to pass on to other travellers. If you find yourself under the weather, there is almost always an alternative remedy to finding the local doctor – but if in doubt, seek proper medical advice.

Ø Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately – without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional pain relievers.

Ø Did you know that toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?

Ø Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 tablespoon of horseradish in 1/2 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

Ø The Beetle’s own remedy for back pain is to put some powdered ginger and some water in a pan and heat until very hot; stir it all around. When the water is cool enough to handle, soak a tea towel in the water and ginger mixture, wring it out and place it over the sore area – bliss!