Our South America trip in summary

The first thought is how did 7 months go so fast and can it really be over already - its scary!!! The next thought is after a I take a few moments to think about my backpack is that yes its over and I'm glad cos I really dont want to have to live out of a pack, organise a trek, sit on a bus/plane for over 10 hours in a row, find a hostel, find our way around a new city (althou Cork is almost like that to me now), do the backpacker chat thing (you know the one - where ya going, where ya been, where you from, etc) for a very long time again! We have had an amazingly diverse and interesting trip, much better then we ever thought it would be (or could have imagined from reading guidebooks), much safer and friendlier and we even managed not to kill each other despite seeing each other basically all the time :)


Highlights
These are the bits of the trip that really stood out for us. They are not necessarily the most scenic or the biggest or the wettest or driest but for us they were a real highlight and something we always want to remember.

• Carretera Austral - this was just 5 epic weeks, each day better then the last and just the best scenery you could imagine. Very few tourists, basic tourist services so an adventure travelling and getting around there as well. The hiking is as good as it gets (altho do bring mossie repellant!). This was possibly the best 5 week run of travelling we have ever done. Best bits included
  
• walking in Valdivian rainforest in Park Pumalin & seeing dolphins
  
• continuous unbroken mountain scenery every day
• isolation of hiking in Lago Jenemeini and Tamango reserves
• around Cerro Castillo hike
• glaciers glaciers everywhere including O'Higgins day trip on a boat on Lago O Higgins
  
• PN Quelat day walks to glaciers - unreal
• the people experiences, the lovely and friendliest locals of our trip, the complete relaxed feeling and no need to care about being robbed -no locks or keys required
• skinny dipping in ice cold lakes and rivers after a hot days walking, camping with not a soul next nor near us for miles (well we think anyways!)
• walking 25kms across the border to Argentina, then hitchhiking with the border police on their high speed boat, followed by a lift on a dump truck into El Chalten
  
• Rainforest experience in Los Piedras - fantastic 2 weeks immersed deep in the jungle, miles and miles and days from civilisation (depending on what ya call civilisation and the power of your outboard motor) surrounded by huge trees, monkeys, birds of all kinds, frogs, all the creepy crawlies you ever dreamt (or nightmared) about and just great fun and adventure.
• Bariloche/El Bolson hiking - very well setup and organised huts and tracks, stunning scenery and forest, surrounded by mountains and also good for meeting Argentian people (as opposed to tourists). Refugio Otto Meiling was spectacular especially for ice walking and condors. Nahuel Huapi was beautiful and the walking near El Bolson was superb especially all the forest and potential for heaps more up here.
  
• Hiking over John Gardner Pass to see Glacier Grey in front of the southern icecap plus day hike up Valle Frances on the Torres del Paine grand circuit were absolutely amazing days. This absolutely blew us away despite the overcrowding on the rest of the track. Its worth doing the hike just for these 2 days. The rest of the hike has some other highlights such as walking alongside Glacier Grey for 10kms, watching the ice fall off the front of it, of course the Torres themselves and the view from Lake Pehoe of the Cuernos (a very famous view in Torres del Paine).
  
• At Fitz Roy in Los Glaciers NP, watching sunrise on Cerro Torre was stunning. Walking the section from Laguna Torre (Campomento de Agostini) to Campomento Poincenot (front of Mt Fitz Roy) was beautiful thru forest, alongside lakes and incredible views as Mt Fitz Roy came into view. The 3 hr return walk to Laguna Los Trece with spectacular views of Mt Fitz Roy, the glacier underneath its towering cliffs and looking down onto Lake Sucia was breathtaking and unforgettable. From Valle Electrico (super base for day walks and further if you have ice experience) we hiked upto (well almost) Cerro Electrico which rewarded us with a 360 degree panoramic view of the southern icecap, and surrounding mountains, valleys and glaciers. Unbeleivable and probably the best day walk of the trip, if ever that we have done.
• Salta and surrounds. Fantastic, lunar, desert, forest, high altitude, vicunas, traditional lifestyles and art crafts, historic villages, great places to stay, vineyards, good food (empanadas especially - prolly the winner of all the trip), amazing colours and landscapes, canyons, mountains and valleys. Seeing is beleiving how many different landscapes we drove thru each day.
• Salar de Uyuni - high altitude, volcanic landscape - gobsmacking. Volcanoes, flamingoes, dali -esque landscapes, lakes of sulfur, arsenic, etc, geysers, history - a must do of any South American trip.
• Machu Pichu and the Inca Trail. We expected tourist nightmare and tho it was packed it was still incredible. What a place and what a setting. Unforgettable. The mountains and cloudforest probably made the trip for us.
• Iguazu Falls - as big and spectacular as waterfalls get
  

What we would do differently or not do at all
Hindsight - if only we'd known some of the things we know now but sure maybe if we did then we wouldn't have had some of the experiences we did have. Saying that there is a few things we could have done to help make our own travels easier so here's are a few things we learnt (or in some cases rediscovered) along the way that we want to keep in mind for the next time (if ever) we do something like this.

• Spanish - we should have started before we left and also maybe applied ourselves a bit more on the trip but with the basics we had it made our trip much easier, good to be able to have a few words with the locals and more fun in general
• Music - how could we forget to bring music. Our biggest mistake
• Earplugs and sleeping tablets - a sanity saver for long bus journeys
• Be more aware of the seasonal variations
• do Torres del Paine and Fitzroy in March (altho some of the huts are closed on the Torres del Paine circuit) as the numbers of people are way lower. Saying that if your in the region and the weather is good go for it!
• in Bolivia we were too late for Amboro NP as it was wet wet wet.
  
• in Peru we missed Ausangate due to rain (altho annoyingly it cleared up after we left) which is another point dont check what ya missed out on :)
• Bariloche is great from March to May and probably from Oct to Dec (for low altitude hikes) as well altho I think in Jan/Feb is possibly very busy plus loads of horseflies and mossies.
  
• In Bolivia, have very flexible travel plans!
• Places we found overrated - just because someplace is on a tourist checklist doesn't mean its the best.
  
• The hiking around Bariloche for us was the equal of Torres del Paine and Fitzroy even if the scenery wasn't so dramatic, the hiking for hiking's sake was much more interesting in a more beautiful setting with way less people (altho maybe if we were there in Jan/Feb it would be a bit busier).
  
• Ushuaia - its a bloody long bus trip to/from there and its not that beautiful, very touristy and arse freezing cold most of the time. The hiking is very enjoyable but nothing better then further north.
  
• Colca Canyon - unless your going to hike then dont bother - go and see condors at Refugio Otto Meiling and 101 other places anywhere along the Andes. Just look up and open your eyes (altho watch out for the big birdie poos - 2 litres of crap from a vulture on the head wouldn't be pleasant)
• El Chalten - what a dump of a town but the scenery is worth it. Book your accomodation WAY ahead. Try to spend more time out hiking and not in town. Also be prepared for swarms of large Israeli groups dominating all the free campsites (this goes for Torres del Paine as well). Staying at paying campsites helps avoid this problem for some reason ;) El Calafate is similarily drab but better setup town. Its worth the pain for the glaciers but remember there are glaciers elsewhere in Chile and Argentina that dont have the mega hordes of tourists.
  
• Cusco - very touristy but I suppose thats all we expected from it really. Worth a visit.
  
• Bring a stomach of steel!
• We dont like touristy, overcrowded places so we should avoid them :)
  

Places we'd like to see again (or do for the first time)
There are some places we didn't have the time (beleive me even in 7 months we ran out of time), the energy at that time or the budget or else just plain discovered for the first time that we would like to take a look at if we ever get lucky enough to do a trip like this again. Here they are

• The southern icecap - if global warming hasnt melted this area then this would be a fantastic region to do an expedition on, possibly from Villa O Higgins or else via El Chalten. This would require reasonable organisation, good weather luck, a good budget and either experience on snow/ice or a reliable guide/expedition company to show you around. Its a stunning area mostly in Chile. There is also a Northern icecap north of Caleta Tortel which runs nearly as far as Cochrane.

• Carretera Austral -
  
• hiking some of the more remote and unexplored areas in particular
  
• some of the valleys off of Chacabuco Valley such as Rio Aviles Valley, plus there are more valleys that we dont know the names of. This is all being conserved now under The Patagonian Foundation
  
• Valle Leones
• around Park Pumalin
• San Lorenzo (best with a hire car and very easy)
• Futaleufu
  
• potential for further exploration
  
• more of the archipelagos by boat
  
• south of Cochrane, some amazing photo oppurtunities and campsites if you had your own transport plus old horse routes to explore
• scenic flights
  
• Chilean IGM has superb 1:250000 maps which give a great overview of the area. Buy all the maps you need before your trip to save you hassle as these maps are difficult to find on the Carretera Austral itself

• Rainforest - either in Bolivia and/or Peru, would be funky to do a trip to/from Puerto Maldonado to Bolivia via a river boat. Manu would be amazing to visit. Potential up the Los Piedras as well.
  

• Bolivia
  
• Hiking in Bolivia - hike from the Yungas down to the rainforest. Need guides
• Noel Kempff National Park, also Amboro NP
  
• Bus trip in the dry season in the northern rainforest regions
  

• Peru
  
• Ausangate Circuit, also maybe the Salkantay (buy the topo to see there are multiple interesting possibilities up here)
  
• Huarez region altho needs altitude acclimatisation
  

• Argentina
• Bariloche and El Bolson - heaps more fantastic, easy to organise hiking here
• Salta - explore more of the region via car especially the cloud forests
• Mendoza, Cordoba and San Juan - funky areas to explore if ya had your own transport plus plenty hiking potential
  

A final splash in Buenos Aires before heading home to Cork

Reached Buenos Aires after 22 hours on a bus from Salta which was fairly mind numbing. The last 3 hours were particularly slow as there was poor road visibility due to extensive grass fires further north in Argentina. Did I mention that the Retiro bus station is more like an airport then bus station with a huge number of gates and buses. Found out on the way to the apartment that the Boca Juniors game we were supposed to be going to the next day was already on so the STUPID football agency told us the wrong date (I did check and it wasnt me getting backpacker dates fuddled) so didnt get to see the footy after all ... doh.

Spent the next week hanging around Buenos Aires with Nan, Helen and Robyn in a blur of shopping, sightseeing, walking, eating and drinking. Did a little walking tour (by ourselves of course but no need for tents on this one!) out to Palermo and Recoleta and also one with Nan down to the Costanera Sur Wildlife reserve near the port which was actually really good. There was heaps of birds down there altho the air quality is still quite poor. We did a trip out to Boca as well. Its very colourful but a bit tacky tourist with everything geared at taking your tourist dollars. The Museo de Bellas Artes Benito Quinquela Martin which is a muesum set up by the guy who the muesum's namesake was really good tho. Good views of Boca from the top as well and some interesting paintings that he did. For shopping we found loads of funky little design shops and markets (especially at the w/e) around San Telmo so managed to buy what we needed without too much pain (altho any type of shopping that involves clothes is always somewhat painful for me). For eating we stayed pretty much local in San Telmo with a couple of trips back to Petanque (French restaurant ... excellent) and also to Parrillo 1880 which was very good. Other then that we ate in the house as the food markets in San Telmo are great.
We did try a few of the local bars as well and even ventured out to a microbrewery - the Cruzat Beer House - in a different burb one night. It wasn't as good as we expected as the beers really weren't too our liking at all. We did a sampler of their 10 beers on tap (got a little minitature pint glass style glass with a taste of each beer on a round stand) and found them all to be very sweet and heavy. Maybe we're just used to the crisp, cold beers of Aussie but most of the beers made us feel sickly. We did order a pint each of Koala's (a local BA beer) but the head went flat in seconds and it was warm and too sweet. Gave up at that point and headed back for a pub crawl of San Telmo which was good craic.

Flew out of BA on monday evening with Iberia and this time everything went much more smoothly then on the way out. We didn't get bumped or put on standby, put in seats on different rows, the airstaff on the flight were really friendly, the food was palatable (seriously it was ok for air food) altho the entertainment still sucked, the seats are awful and the leg room is ample for hobbits (althou their feet would get stuck under the seats). We only had an hour to spare in Madrid so whilst we managed to catch our flight our luggage got left behind. This suited us perfectly as we could now fly to Cork and not get charged 140 euros more for excess bagagge (always a silver lining in every cloud!). Iberia delivered our luggage by courier to Cork the next night - quite impressive really and so much less hassle for us - would recommend losing luggage ;)

So we're back in Cork about 3 days, haven't done much yet except catch up at home and trying to lose the last stomach bug that South America gave me (thankfully it didn't kick in til we reached Cork) so hoping to catch up with everyone very soon so watch out!!

Its great being home and despite all out stuff being in boxes and all over the house (sorry Mum) its way better then living out that pack!

Salta - transformation from backpackers to poshpackers

We arrived in Salta mid afternoon on wednesday after the 18 hour bus trip from Mendoza. Had booked into Las Rejas hostel which is very friendly, welcoming and a really good place to relax for a few days. We didn´t do a whole lot in Salta as we were waiting to met up with my aunt´s and their friend on monday so we basically spent 5 days reading, chilling out, drinking coffee and watching the crazy drivers negotiate junctions in Salta. Lots of the junctions have no lights or give way signs and it appears like its all a magic way of tearing thru junctions as fast as possible so as to miss any other traffic and/or pedestrians and/or cyclists. We eventually firgured out that its a flow ´rule´... if the cars on your street are moving then keep driving otherwise you have to stop. Saw some very close escapes.

Salta is a colonial city with some colourful old churches and convents. Its a good place to just stroll around, visit the artesanal markets and shops, walk or take the cable car to the top of a hill near town or just sit in one of the plazas and people watch. There´s not a huge amount else to do but its very cheap there and the local Salta beer is good too. Empanadas, tamales (a corn kind of pattie wrapped in corn husks and steamed), and locro (a stew with corn and meat - quite tasty) are some of the regional foods we tried and it was good to get a change to pasta and parrilla! We also found a little lebanese place which was quite good and very cheap. Saying that I seemed to get at least one hair in every dish we ate - maybe I was just unlucky as there wasn´t that many bald people about but its a bit off putting.

On monday afternoon we transformed from ordinary, tight ass backpackers into POSH packers who rented cars, drank wine all afternoon and stayed in hotels NOT Hostels ;) as we were now going travelling with Nan, Helen and Robyn. There can be many names for our little group of 5 including 2 aussies, 1 canadian and 1 irish or Dunk + 4 broads or Dunk and too many women or 2 aussie + 3 cantillons plus many other ruder varieties - just use your imagination!

We picked up the rental car (a renault Logan for just over 1000 pesos for 4 days, plus an extra 120 as we returned it 3 hours late - very reasonable between 5 of us - from Noroeste car rental) and headed out to the airport to collect Nan, Helen and Robyn who arrived on time - it was great to see them all again and kind of strange too catching up in such a faw out place. The 3 ladies had packed lightly luckily as out packs filled half the boot at least. We headed off towards the hills and Cafayate which is about 180kms drive south west of Salta via Quebrada de los Conchas (aka Quebrada de Cafayate). The drive started off thru low lying farmland planted with maize, sugarcane, tobacco and not sure what else. It was a bit cloudy so we couldn´t see the tops of the mountains but it was very easy going on a nice asphalt road all the way. After about an hour we started to climb thu the Quebrada (canyon) and the scenery changed dramatically from green and flat to dry, dusty and mountainous. The drive for the next hour to Cafayate was stunning as we creeped up the canyon thru spectacular mountains, rock and earth colours, rock formations - its really impossible to describe the wind and water sculpted landscape of amazingly intense colours and variety. We passed thru areas that looked like castles, towers, columns, pinnacles, etc plus there was cacti and tough desert bushes everywhere. We arrived into Cafayate just before sunset tired but elated from the beauty of the scenery. The first place we tried which I thought I had made a reservation for was full - somehow they had managed not to get my email ... altho they had got one and replied to it ... anyways they recommend another hotel - Portal del Santo - which was very new, modern and comfortable and just a block from the town square. The guys running it were incredibly friendly and welcoming to us. Dined at the El Rancho in the town square which was ok altho nothing spectacular.

Cafayate is famous for its Torrentos wineries so the next day we headed out to the Etchart winery and gate crashed a tour (which was in Spanish) and got to sample some of the local wines. Not the best to be honest so we didn´t purchase altho it was cheap. From there we visited the local goat farm which was fascinating. Got a free tour which was really interesting and we were shown some goats, told all about how they feed them (they eat alfalfa, leftover grape skins for fibre (its like a rich purple pulp), some seeds off the local trees and other stuff - we could have done with some of that variety ourselves on some parts of the trip!), the milking parlour (they milk 400 goats once a day - takes 2 hours and each goat produces 1-2 litres of milk) and where they make the cheese plus we got to taste the cheese which is probably the best goats cheese we have every tasted. Bought plenty of it anyways!! Went back to town where we got empanadas for lunch from the ´House of Empanadas´just off the square ... they were great!! Fresh out of the oven and loads of different varieties. We drove back out to the canyon again to see the colours and sand dunes in the full light of day ... so amazing. The hotel has full parrilla facilities so we decided to avail and cook for ourselves that night. Myself, Dunk and Nan went shopping whilst the others took a siesta but the shops didn´t open til 7pm (siesta is serious in this part of the world) so we visited another couple of bodegas and the pub. Got another tour in Bodega La Esteco ( I think - its across from Bodega Nanno where we tasted Tannat wine - very bland - but all the wines we tasted there were pretty low quality) which showed us the grape compressors, bottlers, etc - really interesting and good wine too (or maybe we had numbed our tongues at that stage) so splashed out on a couple of bottles which cost us a massive 30 pesos (6 euros for 2 good wines). Ahhhh its tough being a posh packer. The bbq area in the hotel was fab - full on asado, wood oven and parrilla grill plus all the tools required to cook up a great feed. Was a good fun night (except maybe for Dunk slaving over the stove) - the guy in the hotel was very impressed that we managed to cook everything properly altho he said he had the local pizzeria number ready if anything went awry!!

Next day we headed off towards Cachi over mostly ripio (gravel) roads which turned out to be much more remote, narrow and slower then we expected. It was an incredible drive thou and the scenery was just stunning once again - rock formations, sand hills and amazing colours and scenery all the way. We stopped at Antagasacto (!?) for lunch which is just after Quebrada de Felchas (Canyon of Arrows) which was amazing. From there we passed tiny, remote settlements where everyone seemed to be out in the fields picking peppers and putting them out to dry on the ground. This place has an untouched for centuries feel about it (especially the roads which were not built for 2 way traffic) with the Andes looming tall and dry in the background, green valleys full of crops and pampas grass and irrigation channels running alongside the road. Seeing is beleiving here and even the photos will never do it justice. We stayed in El Cortijo hotel in Cachi which was a funky little boutique hotel - think its my favorite spot of all the hostels and hotels we have stayed in and very welcoming once again. Cachi is a lovely town with an immacutely maintained square. Lots of little artesanal shops for the ladies to browse (and buy in) altho we stayed in the little cafe on the square drinking beer instead ;) there´s also a church with cacti ceiling and confessional box. Really interesting little place and we could easily have spent longer there. Dined at a little restaurant just near the church and tried some of the local goat stew which was very good.

On Thursday we headed back towards Salta thru Valle Encantado but first thru the National Park de los cardones which is a park to protect the 6m tall candelbra cactii. We passed over a 3400m pass and then into the park with its 100s of cactii standing tall.There´s a 14km straight stretch of road which is just amazing to drive along with all the cactii on either side and snow capped mountains in the background. We then drove over an area that was similar to the altiplano of Bolivia and Peru so very flat, dry and high altitude where we saw some vicunas and donkeys. From there the road heads to Piedra de Molino which is an incredible lookout over the Valle Encantado which has steep, velvety, green slopes and deep valley winding all the way down thru Quebrada de Escoipes towards Salta. Its stunning and remarkable in the dramatic difference to what we had seen in the first couple of hours that morning. We headed back thru Salta and then headed north on the Ruta 9 to Jujuy - this was another amazing transitition in scenery as we now drove on a narrow, one lane sealed road that climbed steeply up thru dense cloud forest all the way to Jujuy. The poor brain was having troubles keeping up with all this scenery and environment changes!! We drove thru Jujuy which is surrounded by massive green mountains literally towering above the city in the north. Its like something out of a sci-fi movie really and hard to absorb fully. We headed north for another hour to the famous little town on Purmamarca which has 7 colours of sand in the hills just behind town. We left the cloudforest behind just outside Jujuy and changed back into more high altitude style scenery of the Andes with dry, desert -scape all the way to Purmamarca. Purmamarca is a sweet little place with a great market and artesanal shops - even I was slightly excited by the shopping there - well for about 10 minutes anyways. We stayed in a fantastic hotel - La Comarca - which was built in adobe style with beautiful gardens and blended perfectly into the landscape. The hills are breathtaking with the intense colours and formations.

On friday we allocated the girls an hour for shopping which was reduced to 20 mins as there was some sleeping in done instead. We then headed west towards the Salinas Grandes up and over a 4100m pass which was very beautiful and scenic again. Saw shed loads of vicunas again - seems like they live on very little water as there wasn´t much up there. The salt flats were very impressive and we drove onto one little area where we could watch the locals mining the salt ... what a terrible job shovelling salt all day in that exposed area. Didn´t linger too long as it was very glary and quite high altitude so headed back to Purmamarca for lunch (and some more shopping!) before returning to Salta via Ruta 56 and 34 which were much quicker then Ruta 9. The drivers in Argentina tho are reckless and its just scary watching some of the manouveres. Anyways we got back safely to Salta, got the ladies booked into Hotel Salta (slightly jaded and rustic but perfect location) on the main plaza and had a quick snack before heading to the bus station for the 22 hour bus to Buenos Aires.


We had an amazing 5 days of continously changing scenery, gourmet drink and food (aside from one service station lunch of toasties!), hilarious entertainment from Nan and Robyn singing along merrily (including some fine examples of chicken sounds much to Helens´s delight NOT), gorgeous places to stay, unbeleivable scenery (I know its worth mentioning again) and just happy, fun times. We´re now in Buenos Aires after a less then fun 22 hours on a bus (I nearly cracked on this one - TG its the last one) and relaxing here for the next week til we all head back to Ireland (Nan first on friday, then me and Dunk on monday), Australia (Robyn on saturday) and Canada (Helen next week sometime). We missed going to Boca Juniors on saturday night as the tour agent we booked thru told us the wrong date (MUPPETS) so we might go and see River Plate this weekend instead altho thats the hurling equivalent of going to see Offaly playing instead of seeing Cork play so we might spend the dosh on something else. I even bought a Boca Juniors cheap imitiation jersey but when I tried it on about an hour ago realised it looks just like a Tipp jersey so going to have to flog that before we return to the rebel county.

1 week of 7 months travelling left which is a bit of a strange feeling as its gone really fast but by the same token I cant wait to go home and catch up with everyone and not have to look at that bloody backpack for a while again!!

Taking it easy in Mendoza

Mendoza is in the heart of Argentina´s largest wine growing area. Its incredibly dry around here (200mm rain a year which is the equivalent to a damp Monday mornings worth in Cork) but the vineyards are all irrigated with water from the Andes which are pretty near here.

Its a really well laid out city (population of greater metropolitian are is around 900k) as the whole place was thrashed by an earthquake in 1861 so it was rebuilt with very wide streets, low buildings, plazas, parks and trees everywhere. Every street is lined with trees on both sides and some have an island down the middle as well plus all the plazas have beautiful big old trees and are really well equipped. It seems to keep the whole place feeling nice and cool despite the 30C days we`re having here (once again this is not supposed to be normal this time of year).

We arrived after 18 hours on a bus from San Martin de los Andes which was actually ok and we even got to see Aconocagua in the morning light on the way into town. Staying at a lovely hostel called Alamo which has good breakfasts, lovely spacious rooms, towels and good chill out areas including a garden. Been here 4 days now and haven`t really done anything except wander about the city. We did have good intentions of getting a bike yesterday but we ended up getting up late and having a long, lazy breakfast cos we got chatting to someone about Tassie so ended up just being too lazy to get the hour long bus out to the wineries. We did manage to walk to the central park on sunday (as everything else was closed) and it was hilarious - everyone in the city seems to go there for the day, grannies, families, kids, couples, cool guys hooning and showing off their old, citroens, ford falcons, chevys, fiats etc. It was jammers and there was hardly a spare blade of grass to park our lazy butts. Also the siesta from 1pm to 5pm is strictly observed here ... all people do is lounge or sit in cafes but all the shops close - its great!!

Aside from that we have walked the entire inner section of the city which revolves around Plaza Independencia, drank coffee, eat lots of icecream (in a place called Ferrucio Soppelsa where you can get a cone with 2 flavours of icecream for 5 pesos and its incredible - pecan cream might be the best but so is the choclate rum and raisin), shopping (our clothes are a disgrace and we have to go to the laundry every 3 days as we only have 2 good tshirts each - we now have 3 ;), the rest can wait til BA), surfing for jobs (agggghhhh pain), eating out (indoor market has a lunch deal of half a pizza, 6 empanadas and a bottle of beer for 20 pesos, went to a great parrilla last night (Estancia La Florencia) and a crap pasta place 2 nights ago called 390 (it was crap in all respects)), eating in (altho the supermarkets have food shortages due to farmer strikes here so no meat or milk and the veggies are not great but we did find curry powder and made a half decent chicken curry), blogging and ... wait for this ... DOING NOTHING (this is the longest sentence ever in a blog). We did think it would be easy to DO NOTHING but since we haven`t done this for longer then each of us can remember its actually really hard. Anyways seems to be getting easier as time passes so another week of this and we`ll be complete slobs!

Ok speaking of which time for coffee or icecream or both maybe as we have another 18 hour bus tonight to Salta. Sleeping pills are our friend ;)

The Lakes District

Just a quick note to say we´ve really been in the Lakes District ever since we reached Puerto Montt by ferry a few weeks back. The lakes district encompasses an area of Chile and Argentina where there is ... well lots of lakes!! Its the northern most section of Patagonia. Bariloche is on the shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi which is massive and has legs, arms, branches and bays leading off into the mountains in all directions.

On April fools day we decided to finally move on from Bariloche after spending the best part of 3 weeks based there. Feeling a little sad to say goodbye to all the good memories but also glad to be heading off for something new we headed off to Villa la Angostura on one of our more delightful bus journeys of 75 minutes. The bus journey heads out briefly into the dry, desolate steppe landscape before heading back along the lake shore and back into the forested landscape. The little town cum village is situated on the north shore on the opposite side of Lago Nahuel Huapi to Bariloche and is where all the rich Argentines go on hols. This can be seen by the large number of cabanas and posh places to stay. We found one of the few hostels to stay -its named after the town itself and is really a sweet little place. The sheets were shiny clean (often in hostels we dont look that closely cos what the eye dont see the body doesn´t want to scratch or squirm thinking about), floor heating, on suite and a great kitchen and lounge area.

On the first afternoon we headed out for a look at Lago Correntoso (which is one of the lakes on the famous 7 lake drive) which we eventually found after walking thru a maze of beautiful houses and roads to nowhere. The lake was stunning and still with reflections of all the mountains around it. From there we wandered back into town along the main (dusty) road along the Lago Nahuel Huapi. The 2 lakes are connected by what must be the world´s shortest river - its flows about 100m from Lago Correntoso into Lago Nahuel Huapi - water as clear as could be too. Probably ended up walking around 12kms all up so had worked up quite a thirst. Tried some of the local brew called Epulafuquen - it was absolute piss especially the dark beer which tasted like the leftovers of burnt spuds water (not that I ever burnt spuds!). Like if I bottled that myself I´d be arrested I reckon. Unfortunately seems like anyone here can stick a label "artesenal" on chocolate, beer, food of all kinds, jewellery, etc and get away with selling it at premium prices no matter what the quality (or lack of). The only good brew we tasted in this area was the El Bolson beer which was really good, the Benroth choclate and Jauja icecream. Everything else I could do better myself.

The next day was clear and beautiful again (if I got paid for everytime we said that in Patagonia we could travel for free for the next 3 months!) so we headed out to the PN Los Arrayanes which are 300 year old, rare trees with cinnamon coloured bark. The walk out is along a narrow peninsula surrounded by the lake. Its 12km each way and meanders along thru lovely forest. You could also bike it but we only have hiking boots and flip flops so decided against that. At the end of the peninsula is where all the arrayanes are and its really incredible sight to behold. There´s a sturdy 2m wide wooden walkway thru the trees (presumably to protect the forest and keep the tourists inside the rails) with good photo chances. There´s also a cafe and a shop selling "artesenals" inside the forest. Wonder how many 300 year old trees made way for those? Its a bit baffling really as they could have put both these structures about 200m away where there was lots less arrayenes. Ah well I´m sure there´s a good and sound ecological reasoning behind it right??? The walk back was lovely but quite dusty at the end and we covered about 30kms so in hindsight a bike would have been an easier option.

From Villa la Angostura we took a bus to San Martin de los Andes via the famous 7 lakes district. The route is mostly via ripio (gravel) which is been worked on to upgrade it to a sealed surface. Its really beautiful and majestic drive all the way and heaps of nice places to stop for photos, camping etc. The only stop we got was to watch Argentine roadworks in action as a group of guys placed a new drain across a road. Amazingly noone got injured or died cos those fellas were lining up for it. They were placing a large 2m wide, 15m long, corrugated steel drainage pipe into a channel dug into the road. One guy was standing in the newly dug drain as this thing dangled from the bucket of a digger (that threatened to be tipped over from the weight of the pipe onto all the fellas standing in the drain below). He was holding this thing with one hand - must be the man with the strongest arm in the world) as it swung from side to side and looked like he´d get his head chopped off. Happily he didn´t and we all moved on after about an hour to see more beautiful lakes and mountains and an incredible view down onto San Martin de los Andes as we reached it. We did also see some more areas of beech changing colour which is very pretty.

San Martin de los Andes is another town for rich tourists but plenty backpackers there as well. There´s tons of parrilla, pizza, pasta restaurants on the main streets and its a pretty setting on the lake. We stayed at the Puma hostel which was once again lovely and great value. As this was our last night in Patagonia we dined out the fancy ´Ku´restaurant which has a really varied menu (altho there was parrilla, pasta but for once no pizza on the menu). Yummo and would highly recommend it.

Next day we left Patagonia on the 19 hour bus to Mendoza. We have had an unbeleivable time of it. In 3 months we have been up and down and all around the Patagonian Andes on both the Argentine and Chilean sides. The weather has been incredible. We had one week of rain at the start of January and hardly a drop since then - its probably been the driest, sunniest summer since records began in Patagonia so in that respect we were so lucky (altho makes me wonder how everything can continue to stay so green and lush if this continues on a longer term basis and where will all the snow for the glaciers come and how fast must they have melted before our eyes this summer?). The highlight was the Carretera Austral and also some of the really unexpected beauty of the hiking around Bariloche. Obviously Fitzroy and Torres del Paine were also incredible but we seemed to get more enjoyment from the first 2 areas I mentioned - its hard to know tho - maybe in 3 months time when we´re sitting back behind a computer, its the drama of the latter walks we will remember and use to stay sane :)

Right time to head north for something different and an easier end to our travels!