chao south america

So after 2 happy, hot days in Buenos Aires doing what i do best in big cities...shop, eat and party, I am now on count down to getting on the plane and zooming home to be with the family for christmas. Cant believe i have managed to get away with all my stuff without being charged for over weight baggage (thank god they dont weigh hand luggage) and am now waiting in departure bored and with money to burn on the over priced internet here.

Cant quite believe this year is finally over....it has gone so quickly and its had to digest all the stuff i have managed to fit in, despite being hideously lazy and slow compared to a lot of backpackers I have met. Will spare you all my thoughts on live, love and the universe but suffice it to say that I have had a fab time this year, am sooo glad i made the decision to come and now am really looking back to being with all you guys again and ready to settle down again, if only for a year or so (and i can here you groan from here mum!)

Oh, and loving the tax back system here where i have just been given back abou 50 pounds just for being british (or so i like to think) which means essentially one of my pairs of shoes was free (dont ask how many pairs i bought.....found a fab designer shoe shop for dolcis prices so naturally went mad!)

one of my new favourite places

Now in the little village of Villa La Angostura (second day here) and loving it. Its a really cute place, on the lake adn surrounded by mountains. Plus am staying in a lovely homely hostal so I dont want to leave. Unfortunately I have to tommorrow as i am on a flight to BsAs but there you go!

So today went on the obligatory outing which is a mountain bike ride through the national park. Now this is the first time I have been mountain biking where some lovely person in a 4 x 4 hasnt dropped me off at the top of the aforementioned mountain. So whilst I wasnt scaling mount everest on bike, it was quite up and down-y, with, it felt like, far more ups that downs. But the downs more than made up for it, being a lot of fun whizzing though the woods and trying not to kill myself jumping (ish!) over tree roots and storming through mud patches. Thinking I might do some more of this when I get home but only if I get some nice person with a 4x4 to drive me to the top! But back to the point, the park was beautiful and peaceful with lagoons that kept sneaking up on me forcing me to take nurmerous rests and then the special trees (the name escapes me!) at the end which the park is protecting are beautiful with twisted trunks and a lovely cinammon colour. Then to cap it all off, I had a lovely boat ride back looking at mountains (no way was i cycling home!), a swim in the lake and then a smiley happy bike ride back to the hostal where i ate lots of yummy ice cream! Bliss

But as of tommorrow, its goodbye mountains (and surprisingly hot, sunburn causing heat), hello buenos aires and shopping and humidity! Then home. How strange is that

The land of no signs

Was meant to go for hike today but instead spent most of it sunbathing! Now, that obviously will come as no surprise to those of you who know and love me, but given my recent declaration that I am to become a serious hiker, I should explain.

So yesterday went to the tourist info where a nice man told me I could catch the boat to this penninsula and then there was a lovely 4 hour walk (there and back) to a lake, coincidentally the lake we failed to find yesterday on the drive. So off i set this morning at the very civilised time of 11am (they cater here for v rich people who obviously dont like mornings and not hardy backpackers who always seem to have to start activities at 6am for reasons i have never understood) and arrived at the required spot 30mins later.

Now as this is the land of no signs, it was impossible to figure out where i was meant to go (the lake didnt even figure on the rudimentary map on arrival meant to demonstrate all the possible routes) so into the nearby cafe i went to ellict instructions. To be met by laughter. Turns out what the nice little man had failed to tell me was that the path was flooded with 1m of water. Grrr.

However, luckily it has been a lovely day and there are some v handy beaches on this penninsular lapped by lake waters, so spent my time reading a spanish glamour i had nicked (and to be replaced) from the hostal. Bliss. Then, to attone for not doing my hike, i went on the short stroll around the area to see cypress trees and a waterfall...all very pleasant.

Now back in town and trying to figure out whats going on. They are setting up for some kind of concert and there is a significant increase in the number of alternative looking people which doesnt bode well in a town renown for being posh!

la ruta de siete lagos

Its the route where you see 7 lakes, its very touristy and popular, we meant to do it yesterday but it rained. So today we did what every good tourist to bariloche does - hired a car and went driving along a dirt road past 7 lakes. Actually turned out to be the official 6 plus one we added as we missed the "hidden lake" so hidden was it that there were no signs or roads. We were really lucky and had a gorgeous day for it and the scenery was stunning (sorry, going to have to find a better adjective, seem to use it in every blog at the moment). Not much to say really.....just lake after lake of blue water surrounded by pine clad hills. Lovely. Can see why it makes people want to relocate here (pics dont do it justice but obviously have posted some as far more fun to look at pics than read my drivel!). So after many cries of STOP, I WANT TO TAKE A PHOTO, lots of jumping in and out of cars and lots of "ooh, isnt that pretty" we ended up at san martin de los andes (the end point, luckily!!), where for some reason i have decided to stay for a couple of nights! SM de los A is meant to be a pretty little mountain village that over here means lots of chocolate shops, ice cream shops and shops selling expensive bags....so heaven really! Unfortunately what it doesnt mean is that you are close to any mountain or access to the national park that you are here to walk in! A quick trip to the very help info people confirmed this to me and the best they could come up with for a walk tomorrow was a 30min boat ride then a 3 hr gentle walk. But to be honest, given my new found appreciation of how useless i am at climbing up hills that is probably all i can cope with. Shall spend rest of time shopping for expensive bags and some chocolate. ps for anyone interested, i actually cooked for 4 last night! Well, emma and rolf bought the food and emma gave me all the instructions but i was one of a 2 person team who produced a v tasty meal. hurrah. please do not expect this to be repeated in the UK

more walks

The weather gods really do love me, and now i can see why everyone raves about bariloche. When the clouds go away there are an awful lot more lakes and mountains than I gave the area credit for! Its absolutely stunning and everywhere you look there is a better view. So to take it all in I decided I was going to hike up a mountain today! ha! Unfortunately as I dont do much hiking upwards (and to be fair not much more on flat ground) I am not really sure of my limits. So 800m uphill, with an average walk time of 2.5hrs didnt sound unreasonable. But this was of course with amnesia of my Fitz Roy hike where a rise of about half that nearly killed me.

So off I set today with a girl staying my hostel who i met whilst trying to buy tickets out of calafate and had a lovely bus ride through gorgeous scenery. Then we got to the trail, and within 5 mins i was dying! Didnt help that she was really quite fit and I dont think she believed me when i said i liked to walk slowly. Did enjoy it in a mad, masochistic way, especially coming back down, and the views definately made it worth it. Well, I say made it worth it.....naturally didnt make it to the refugio I was aiming for! After an hour of climbing up we saw it......it wsa a very long way away still and a very long way up, and my legs gave way. So we had our sandwiches and came down again. But still feel glad I did the bit i did....reckon we got up about 500m so am improving!!!!! And have some nice pics which i will post when i get my cable. And of course this did all give me an excuse to eat some of the gorgeous chocolate they make here.

Okay, think there is some communal cooking going on in the hostal tonight which i am meant to be helping with, hope they mean chopping as obviously can do nothing else! Anyway, this all means I have to get back now to pretend to help!

More ice and snow

First an update on the disaster situation....turns out I hadnt lost my photos after all (but thanks for condolences vic and jez), just not looked very well in my bag!!! Looking for things doesnt appear to be my strong point on this trip. ipod still playing up but you cant have everything.

But onto my latest adventures, the weather gods do appear to love me after all and have just spent 4 perfect days taking lots of ice-realted photos in the heavenly place that is El Chalten....a small place in the middle of some spectacular mountains away from everything (including internet and mobile phones) and this, it turns out, is just what I have been craving for the last few days But before I managed to get here, had a fun hour in the bus station trying to get a bus ticket out. So you will probably recall (due to the fact i mention it every 30secs) that I was going to buy a luxury bus ticket for my hellish journey to Bariloche. Ha! No such luck. Turns out that the major internal airline was on strike and had been for 4 days so the airlines were hell and everyone was trying to get a bus (hence v long queue) and then as it is Patagonia there is one bus company who does the journey, they charge a fortune and only have the basic seats with no food!!!! Aargh. but at least thanks to the lovely woman in the office who sorted it all out for me, I finally got a ticket and have just got off from the following harrowing bus journey....

3rd Dec, 6pm Bus to El Calafate (4 hours)
4th Dec, 4am Bus to Rio Gallegos (4 hours)
4th Dec, 10m Bus to Comodoro Riviera (10 hours)
4th Dec, 10pm Bus to Bariloche (14 hours)
5th Dec, 1pm, Arrive Bariloche and collapse

Hands up who thinks travelling is fun and easy

but back to El Chalten. Its tiny.....didnt realise how small till i got here......bear in mind this is possibly the hiking capital of Argentina and it has a population of 500, one supermarket that is more a corner store with no hiking essentials (boiled sweets, chocolate bars etc), no internet (bliss) and 2 buses in and out a day. Its gorgeous though....everywhere you look there are snow capped peaks and, according to the lovely park ranger who welcomed us, the weather had been appalling until the day we got there......we were greated with clear blue skies, no real wind and views as far as the eye could see, hurrah. bear in mind the ranger refered to here as a small piece of Antarctica (thanks to the weather patterns) and you will begin to get a feel for how lucky we were.

So spurred on by his talk of our luck and how we should go and see the glacier while we could, I had a quick lunch and set off at 2pm on my first hike to the view point 90mins away. The walk was lovely and not tooo hard so reached it easily. And it was just gorgeous, plus had lots of fun taking self timed photos of myself infront of aforementioned view. So gorgeous was the view in fact that I thought, why not go all the way there.....its only another 90min of flat walking and the sun doesnt set till 9...you have time. And I was so glad I did (although my body wasnt thanking me!) Gorgeous walk through the glacial valley (v exciting....all those geography lessons coming back to me) looking at morraine and stuff with trees all around. And it was so quiet....hardly anyone else around so it was like heaven. Plus was amazing to see the glacier so close, had never walked through a valley carved by a glacier before and I put a stone on one of those piles that mark the way for the first time as have always wanted to add to one! The things that amuse me.

Then spurred on even further by the 1st day´s success and the good weather, the next day decided to tackle the 8hr hike to see Fitz Roy. Felt it in every muscle in my body as I started the first uphill but pursevered and the walk was even more lovely that the first one. Lots more people (if you want to know where all the middle aged Germans are, they are here) but still peaceful and lovely and generally refreshing to the soul, with lots more photo ops...have whole photo card full of the same 2 sets of mountains!!! So anyway, reached the beginning of the trail up to the last view point in fine form but then looked at it, and it seemed to stop in the clouds (in reality only 1km up with rise of about 500m but v tired by this point). But being me and not one to admit defeat I thought I can do this, and after an encouraging chocolate bar, off I set (ignoring the sign that said to only do it if you have proper shoes -i had trainers- and mountain hiking experience!). And despite being overtaken by a number of spritely OAPS and with some encouragement from a couple of guides, I did make it to the top. And wow. Not sure how to describe the feeling but it was one of sheer exhaustion mingled with complete pride in myself and utter amazement at the beauty. So ate my lunch in a daze, and then came to with the realisation hit that I had to get back again!!!! luckily all down hill or flat, but have never been so glad to see a village! It was all i could do to collapse into bed and sleep for a couple of hours and my body REALLY hated me the next morning.

But had plenty of thinking time on these walks and of the many fascinating and profound thoughts and theories I came up with, I have decided to share my "why i am nearly Argentinian" theory with you:
1) Have regulation large "rock star" sunglasses (see photo for evidence.....bought in Puerto Madryn)
2) Have regulation layered long hair that verges on mullet like if a bit shorted (thanks to Mendoza hairdresser)
3) Have passion for red wine, red meat and ice cream
4) Have new body clock where eating at 10pm is early

But reasons why I am not there yet
1) Cant conserve size 0 "disappear when I turn sideways" figure
2) Not fluent in spanish

Also decided to take up hiking (along with masters dissertation, salsa, spanish conversation and becoming more informed on world politics and history!!!) when I get back as seems to be perfect excuse to eat lots of chocolate.

Anyway, onto third day and you will be glad to hear (cause this is getting v long) that I did nothing but try to rest my poor body with lots of food, caffeine, reading and gazing at snow capped mountains. Couldnt do much else really as my legs were refusing to move. And on the fourth day i did another shorter walk to a lake, but the weather was starting to be mean by this point adn I was rather cold so didnt linger! Plus I needed to make sure i was back in time to raid the supermarkets of everything edible for my bus trip from hell ... no food was provided!

And so am now in bariloche where its cold but not snowing (hurrah!) and I am optimistic about getting in a couple of nice walks and things around here before heading back to Buenos Aires for some serious shopping......