We´ve been a bit busy so here´s the last few weeks summarised.
Glaciers
Travelled from Puerto Natales on a bus to El Calafate. Spent the next day on a boat looking at heaps of huge glaciers. The pictures are cool but it´s too much hassle to put them on the web from here so we´ll do it when we get back. El Calafate though was very expensive. Next day got another coach to El Chalten near Fitz Roy Park. Amazing scenery but I hurt my ankle so we needed to rest. Did a mini walk which was still good and for the first time since Australia cooked a meal in a proper kitchen...pasta with peppers and a raw egg plant...delightful! The best thing was the phones and internet...all sattelite connections...made us feel special!
Lots of travelling
Spent the next day travelling from El Chalten to Los Antiguos. 15 hours of annoying and loud chat, about 5 meaty empañadas (like pasties but belive me you can tire of them) and unmade roads. Made it to Los Antigous and then crossed the border into Chile the next day. Travelled to Cohayquie on a bus with a couple of really irritating camera trigger happy tourists wanting to stop for every single lake and mountain for another 8 hours. Then had enough of this coach lark and booked a flight to Puerto Montt.
The Chilean Lakes
Hired a car in Chile and drove straight to Villricca. Next day went to Pucon and did lots of adventure things. Started off with whitewater rafting on a grade 3/4 river...really cool and then climbed up Volcan Villarrica with ice picks and slid down our backsides to the bottom luge style. At the top you could look down into the crater and cough your guts up...impressive! Pucon and Villaricca were both awesome towns lots of things to do, places to stay and ice creams to eat. Our trip back to Puerto Montt was not as delightful. We couldn´t find decent places to stay and there was basically very little to do. Thank god for shopping malls and cinemas (although Babel wasn´t probably the best thing to watch given all our coach journeys! and the coach to Bariloche the next day!)
Bariloche
Arrived in Bariloche...finally on my birthday...it´s like tinsel town for tourists! Couldn´t find a place to stay walked round with our packs for a couple of hours but finally success and I did a bit of puppy dog eyes saying it was my birthday...the kind lady switched round some other rooms and we got to stay in the same place for 4 nights! Luxury.
Then we really got into the adventure thing....Started with an evening of canopy (flying fox through the trees), followed by a full day of horseriding and then a day of whitewater rafting! We ate asado (bbq) on each day and felt very full for the following day´s activity.
Off now to hire a car...you cannot believe how much harder it is here than in Chile! and drive to see the Dinosaurs...
