Hope you´re all doing well, I´m good´n hot and sweaty here.
I really can´t remember where I left off but if you read the update on the website - why am I doing that again? - then at least you´re up to date.
I could go on and on and on about the condors flying beside me and how beautiful the Andes are for hours but I feel as if this is the place to dish the dirt....
Unfortunately I appear to have become quite clean living (well reasonably) so not much to dish I´m afraid! However I am about to go to Cusco for 2 weeks (at Least!!) so I´m sure I can remedy that.
Well, since you last had to read about me blethering on I managed to reach Chile. Via the Condors I might have mentioned, on horseback, my calves are still raw I swear.
Didn´t do to well in Torres del Paine as I thought all the refugios were full (liars) and just did a whistle stop tour - thanks again for the socks Derek! I also saw loads of loved up penguins and got incredibly cold..
All beach time in Chile was destroyed by monsoon type weather so what´s a girl to do but drink wine and chat randomly to locals. It hasn´t improved my language skills much but it´s a hell of a lot easier after the 2nd glass of wine. I think I may have mentioned the horror of the girl with the split open face! I went to Chiloe an island off of Chile and it was Fiesta time. Atuned to my new sense of good behaviour I went to bed early - or at least earlier than the others. I was awakened by noise outside my room and opened the door to something that A&E would reject. A drunken kiwi girl with her face smashed open. Oh joy, after rejecting the idea that I should ignore her cos I had an early bus my bad karma crap took over. I did try to fix her up but my extensive (oh yes) first aid kit was on the mainland. It´s true, when you really need it...
So I had to take her to hospital at 4am. I´m still surprised there was one. The Island is the size of Skye and we were on the smallest town there, but they were so sweet, and after they sewed her back together with string I got the bus. I won´t tell you much about that day but at my grumpy best!
Anyway, I climbed a Volcano in Pucon - it was Villarica not Olsorno tho for all you die hards out there! What is this compulsive need to climb things, why why why?? And why agree to join the fast group (who I think were Olympic athletes in disguise) and why insist I´m doing just fine when my legs have taken on Bambi qualities?. However the Chilean guide, Oscar - possibly the only sexy Chilean ever - was enough to keep me going. Has to be said, standing at the top of a smoking volcano was mesmerising - and sulphurically eye watering.
Need I go on about the view or have you all got the picture? Think so, anyway had to slide down the Volcano on my backside wearing what I can only describe as black latex nappies. I had a bit of a pant wetting moment when it was so steep and toboggan like, I was a bit worried but what the hell. Your meant to use the ice pick to slow you down but I didn´t get the hang of that bit so I went tearing down the Volcano at full throttle doing a 360 degree spin with my ice pick flailing in the air going shiiit the mountain should´t be facing me! After hitting a few rock formations I survived. I´m sure it must be illegal in Scotland!
Hot springs followed all lovely....
Now in Mendoza, ah back to Argentina, think I missed it a bit. Anyhow fab city and staying in a great place, have managed to get off the hammock long enough to write this.
Been to see an Argentinian football match at the World Cup stadium here. Yeah, it only hits you when you get there that they hosted it nearly 30 years ago! It was a pretty bad game and players were getting sent off for punching after 5 mins. This is the premier league so I presume all the best players play overseas! They also wouldn´t let us in the Terraces with the "Hooligans" and "Bad Boys", shame. God it was so hot and they took our water off us. Extreme measures meant us sitting there throwing cups of water over ourselves. A very fetching look! Usual stuff, rafting and off to the vineyards tomorrow on a bike. Hmmm, wine tasting and cycling, can only end with gravel rash.
I´m quite happy in Mendoza but have to leave as got to start the Inca trail on Monday (climb every bloody mountain). This means a bus journey back to Santiago, fab journey tho, then a flight to Lima and then another to Cusco. Oh I´m planning to stay there for a long time!
Right you lot get back to work,
Keep in touch, missing a Scottish accent (although 2 out of 3 Scot´s that I´ve met I´ve got a connection to, no matter how vague!) And bloody well get Skype!
