Rafting

Yesterday was really interesting. We went rafting at the Rios Andes. It's a level three river, which is pretty much average. They are graded out of five, and people I have talked to all seem to agree that anything below two is pretty boring. Frankly I don't think I would have wanted to try something higher than a three on my first time. It was scary enough as it was.

We got there pretty early in the morning, and they gave us some wet suits a rain coat, a life vest and a helmet. All this equipment was really uncomfortable when you take into account that it was 30 degrees, plus it made us all look like retarded space monkeys. Once we were all kitted out, we were given an explanation of what to do in case we fall out of the raft. I suppose it´s pretty safe, as there were two guys in kayaks following us and ready to pick us up if we fell out. We were then given a short training session on how to row, and the commands that the guide would yell out. There were pretty much only three commands: forward, backward and get inside. Forward means you have to row forwards, backward that you row backward, and get inside that you have to get inside the raft. This sounds strange, but you don´t sit in the boat, you sit on its side.

Once we finally got to start, it was really nice to have the wet suit that made us so hot before. The water was freezing cold, and a slightly worrying brown colour. The guide explained to us that this is because there was a flood three days ago, and the water level had risen a whole metre in that amount of time. This worked in our favour, as the river was quite tame before. There were quite a few rapids, but not enough so that we were rowing the entire time. This was really nice actually, as I was really tired by the end. I don´t think I could have managed to do much more. Afterward we hung out by the pool for most of the day.

Today, I head off to Cordoba where I will be spending new year's eve. Sagy is going to see some bridge somewhere. We've decided to split up for a while, and meet again some time in Brazil.

Mendoza

We left Bariloch a few days ago with some friends we picked up. We were to arrive on christmas eve in Mendoza and for some reason we could not see anything wrong with that. Basically we got here and everything was closed. People in Argentina celebrate christmas a day before with a big dinner, so finding a place to eat involved much walking around the city. Only one place was open, and frankly it was pretty disgusting.

Christmas day was pretty horrible in that litterally everything was closed. This was one wasted day just doing nothing interesting. Our plans to do a secret santa were foiled by lazy people not working on national holidays. Damn them!

Yesterday was quite alot of fun, though. Mendoza is right in the heart of the Argentinian wine country. There are many wineries that all produce a variety of very good wine and someone came up with a genious idea of doing a tour of these on bikes. Needless to say, the scorching heat didn´t exactly help the countless number of glasses of wine we had.

Chocolate Factory

Bariloche is famous for it's chocolate, and with very good reason. There are tens of chocolate shops along the main street. I almost wonder how they all manage to stay in business, but then I taste their chocolate, and it all makes sense. There is one shop which is so big, it is pretty much a supermarket that sells nothing but chocolate and ice cream (another local specialty, which is also delicious). This same company has a factory in town which is open to the public. Frankly, when I heard this, I was imagining something along the lines of a guided tour where they tell you all about the chocolate making process, and ending with some free samples. What we got was somewhat disappointing. It was free entrance, which is always nice, but we soon understood why. All you do is walk into a room with some glass walls behind which you watch people working. We were hoping that this would take up an afternoon after the Spanish lesson, but it only lasted a couple of minutes. Following our disappointment, we decided to go in search of another chocolate factory that someone told us about. This place is a little out of town, but we walked there anyway only to find that it is still under construction.

It seemed that luck was not on our side that day, until we noticed that right next door to this factory in the making was a gigantic slide. This might sound childish (probably because it is), but we both really wanted to go. There is a chairlift that takes you up the hill where a really nice viewpoint of Bariloche and its lake can be found. From there they equipped us with a sled and sent us down the hill at a really fast pace. It didn't last very long, but it was definitely worth it.

La Montaña

We've had a couple of days of Spanish lessons and it's only helped to remind me how much I hate learning languages. There is way too much memorising. I'm finding it very difficult (big surprise) mostly because the teacher only speaks to me in Castellano and as much as I know that that is the best way to learn a language, after the two hours are over, my brain is pretty much dead. Luckily the night life in Bariloche is quite nice, so there are plenty of good places to go and relax after a hard day studying.

Last night for example, we went to a truly excellent local bar. The atmosphere was something that I have never experienced before. There were two classical guitars on a stage which seemed as if just about anyone could pick up and play, as well as a microphone which anyone could use to sing. I got the impression that everyone in Argentina can either sing, play the guitar, or both really really well. There was a sort of band that played most of the night, but one of the members was the owner of the place, so he had to go and serve drinks every so often. During the times he was on stage, there seemed to be an exchange of insults between him and the audience. I failed to understand most of it, but they were apparently all very funny, because everyone would laugh after each one. This really was some cultural experience.

El Bolson

El Bolson is a small hippy town just south of Bariloche. We were told that there are some good parties there, as well as a nice market on Saturdays. Our first night there was spent in an Israeli hostel. It was really strange because everything was in Hebrew, and everyone would come up to me speaking Hebrew and being surprised that I'm not from the same country as them. They were all very friendly, though, and I had a pretty good time, as I was able to witness my first Hanuka. Some candles were lit, some doughnut type pastries were eaten, and wine was drunk. It was quite amusing.

The next day we went to the market, which was quite alot smaller than I was expecting, but we got to try some of the local beer made by the hippies. It was really nice, there were all kinds of different flavours. I had a raspberry beer, and Sagy had a strawberry one. It was really nice. The rest of the day was spent partying with the hippies. I had a relatively good time in El Bolson.

We are now back in Bariloche where we start our Spanish (or Castellano, which is what they speack here) lessons tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too difficult.

Pucon

We arrived in Pucon in Chile with the intention of going up to climb a volcano. The Wednesday on which we arrived was very grey and gloomy. We went to shop around for a good price on an excursion up to the volcano. Apparently it is necessary to have a guide with you. Frankly, that sounds fair because I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to mountain climbing. Unfortunately, everyone was telling us the same thing: the weather will be really bad for the next couple of days, so no one will be going up. We all agreed that we should probably wait a couple of days to see if the weather cleared up.

In the meantime, we needed to find something to occupy ourselves with. There really is very little to do in Pucon, other than climb the mountain. The only other thing that sounded amusing was the hot springs. We had been told that there was one spring where the let your bring your own drinks, so that's the one we went to on Thursday. It was actually a very enjoyable day. The weather was really nice, but we could not climb because the weather on the mountain made climbing too dangerous.

On Friday we were once again told that climbing would once again be impossible. We had had enough of the town by that point, so we decided to go down to El Bolson in stead.

Seven Lakes (Siete Lagos)

On Tuesday we rented a car with a couple of Israelis that we met in our hostel. With four of us it made it worthwhile to do this, as a bus would have been more expensive. We also rented some camping equipment to try and save as much money as possible.

The first day in the car was really nice. We stopped several times to appreciate the lakes, and we played cards in the car between the nice views. We eventually arrived in San Martin de los Andes where we would end up spending the night. Frankly there is not much to do there, but we did manage to find one bar which was quite nice. I really like the 'going out' culture over here, because people don't start showing up at bars until 1 or 2 in the morning; even on Tuesday nights.

The next day, we woke up only to find that our tent had leaked through the night. Luckily it hadn't rained hard, so our stuff was not very wet, but it was a bit of a worry for the next few days. We were lucky that it did not rain again during the night for the duration of our camping.

After packing all of the stuff into the car, we set off for Pucon in Chile

Bariloche 2

At this time of year in Argentina all the schools have finished, and all the graduates come to Bariloche to party. We´ve been joining them quite regularly. In fact we´ve done little else in our few days here. There are some very nice bars in the area, including a brewery with a very nice selection of beer.

Our plan is to rent a car and go to the Seven Lakes, and maybe even cross the boarder and go to Chile to see a volcano. We´re doing that tomorrow, and it will take a few days. There will be another two Israelis in the car, so that we can split the cost of the rental. We hear it´s amazing, so I am looking forward to it.

We have also booked some Spanish lessons for when we get back to Bariloche. It´s costing a bit of money, but frankly I think we need them in order to progress in the language.

Bariloche

Here we are finally in Bariloche. It took us quite a while to get here, but it was a pretty enjoyable journey. We met a Russian girl on the bus from Rio Gallegos to Comodoro Rivadavia who was also headed for Bariloche. Our plan was to go watch a movie and maybe go to see the petroleum museum, seeing as Comodoro Rivadavia is not a touristic city. Once again our best laid plans were foiled. The movie theatre is closed on Thursdays, for some reason, and the petroleum museum is closed forever. The latter is far less surprising however, as I really can´t imagine that it is very interesting. Fortunately for us, the weather was exceptional, and there is a very nice beach. We stayed there pretty much all day watching the local children throw each other into the ocean fully clothed. None of us could understand why they did it, but they seemed to really enjoy it. It was a very enjoyable day.

It was only after another 14 hours on a bus that we arrived in Bariloche. Frankly, I was surprised at how cold it was. I honestly thought that we´d left the cold in Ushuaia, especially considering how hot it was in Comodoro Rivadavia. The cold here is not like in the UK, though. The sun is out, and the sky is very blue, so at least it´s not depressing which is nice because we plan on staying her for a couple of weeks maybe. We definitely want to get some Spanish lessons while we´re here. We´ve managed to learn enough to communicate, but we´d like to learn a bit of grammar as well so that we don´t sound like spastics. So one week here will be spent getting lessons and the following week will be for treks and maybe even some white water rafting. Neither one of us has ever done it, so it should be a great experience.

Ushuaia

The bus ride to Ushuaia was rather interesting... we left Puerto Natales at 6:30 in the morning on a really squeaky bus. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep, but the squeaking made that impossible. Finally, when I thought that sleep was imminent, I was rudely awakened by the bus steward because we had to get off. We had to change bus in what can only be described as the middle of nowhere. We couldn´t see anything for miles, but somehow the buses knew to meet there. Frankly, we couldn´t figure out where.

Upon arrival in Ushuaia, we were quite hungry. We dropped off our bags at the hostel, and went out looking for a restaurant. We ended up finding an all you can eat meat place. ALL YOU CAN EAT!!! Plus, it only cost 30 pesos (6 pounds)! What an excellent place.

The next day, we went on a boat ride on the Beagle Canal. This is where you can see yet more sea lions, but most of all the last lighthouse at the bottom of the world. It´s nothing special, I suppose, but it´s an amusing landmark. It´s pretty much just a light house on a rock. It´s fully automated, so there isn´t even a person to wave to once you get there.

On the second day, we went to the Ushuaia National Park where we did a nice easy trek. It only took us about 4 hours, which is nice because then we had the rest of the day to do what we liked. It was also probably my favorite of the treks so far, as we got to see many more animals than on any of the previous ones. The whole park is not very well marked, though. We ended up walking along a road for an hour not being entirely sure if it was the right way. It got us to a bus, though, and that took us back to Ushuaia where we went to the aquarium. It was nice, because all the animals can be found in the Beagle Canal. In the evening we went to see a show called HMS Beagle. It was a really nice musical about Charles Darwin´s voyage to Tierra del Fuego. The entire auditorium (including the stage) was a life size scale model of the HMS Beagle. We both ended up learning a lot about Darwin´s life and his adventures in South America.

Right now we are on our way up north to Bariloche. We´ve had to make a stop in Rio Gallegos, the most pointless town in the world. It´s a hub town, so every traveller must stop by here at some point, but there really is absolutely nothing to do, so everyone avoids it like the plague. We had to stop off here once to get to El Chalten, but managed to get a bus out minutes after arriving. This time we got a bus out of here a couple hours later. We feared we might have to spend a night here, so this is relatively good news. Tomorrow we stop off in Commodore Rivadavia for about 12 hours where we´ll be able to get a bus to Bariloche. I´m sure we´ll find something to occupy ourselves whilst we´re there.

Torres del Paine

The bus came to pick us up from the hostel at 7:30 on Monday morning. It´s a three hour ride to Torres del Paine. The entrance to the park costs 15000 Chilean Pesos. This extortionate price also includes a really bad map of the park, so it was all bad...

The first day was quite fun. It was pretty difficult, as it was quite hilly, and our bag was at its heaviest since we had not eaten any of the food yet. The weather wasn´t great on this day, and it was actually quite cold by the time we got to the camp site. We found a group of Israelis which we had met in Puerto Madrin, and played cards with them to make the time go by.

On the second day, we went to see the Torres del Paine peaks. They were very nice. We stayed there for a while just taking pictures. We actually got quite lucky, as the sky cleared up by the time we got there. Everyone says that there is very little point of doing this park when the weather is cloudy, and I can see why that is. But as nice as those peaks were, we had to move on to the next section of the park. We went back to the camp site, packed up all our stuff and moved on to the next camp site which was 24Km away. It took us about 8 hours to walk all the way, and we weren´t sure if we would make it before the sun went down. By the time we got there, not only was the sun still up, but we had enough time to pitch the tent, and start cooking before it got dark.

The third day was a bit of a disaster. It didn´t stop raining, so we took the cowards way out and stayed in the tent all day. In a stroke of genius, we had brought some playing cards with us. This kept us occupied for the rest of the day. It was quite nice to relax for a bit, as the previous day was very demanding.

By the fourth day the weather had cleared up, and we went up to the French Valley. It was quite nice. It´s the only place in the world where the formation of the mountain is made up of one layer sedimentary, one layer of granite, and then another layer of sedimentary rock on top. Frankly, neither one of us knows what that means, but it sounds impressive. This was again another easy day. The whole trek lasted maybe 5 hours, and we didn´t have most of our equipment with us, as we left it in the camp site.

On the fifth day we decided to go home, as we'd had enough of the whole camping thing, and the only thing left to do was to go see yet another glacier. Plus we only had rice left to eat, and we were getting mighty sick of it.

It was really nice getting back yesterday and having a shower, some meat, and a drink. All of them were well deserved, I think.

Puerto Natales

We arrived in Puerto Natales late on Saturday. Luckily we had made a reservation at a hostel. The only problem was that we had to find it in the dark in a place we´d never seen before. Some pretty dodgey looking people were trying to get us into a taxi, but we were having none of it. They kept telling us that this hostel was miles out of town, and that it would take a long time to walk there. The truth is that it was only a few blocks away, and only tooks us about 5 minuts to walk to.

Once we were settled in at out hostel, we decided to try and check out the night life of this little village. We walked around for a while looking for even one bar. Eventually we stumbled on to some Austrian girls who were in the same situation as us... looking for a drink, but failing to find one. We eventually found one of the two bars in this place, and it turned out to be quite nice. It was an amusing night, because we were speaking german. Something I hadn´t done in a long time.

The next day we had to rent some camping equipment for our treking experience in Torres del Paine. We had a pretty hard time finding anywhere open, as it was a Sunday. There were a couple, but it took us all day to find a reasonably priced one.

We also had to buy some food for what would be a 5 day expedition. Seeing as neither one of us had ever done anything like this before, we didn´t really know what kind of food to take. We bought three kilos of rice, 1.5 kilos of pasta, and lots of canned foods. Basically, there was far too much rice, and the canned stuff was really heavy to have to carry.