Promised photos

By now I hope everyone has caught up reading the blog. We´ve been travelling a lot so did not really have the energy or means to update frequently. If I happen to be a bit verbose in my writings, sorry, not going to change! Here is another LONG update!

We finally arrived in Bariloche after the plane has been delayed by more than 5 hours! What made this particulary frustrating was that nobody could tell us what the hell was going on! Most of the planes were late and the weather seemed fine... It also didn´t help being really tired and not getting any sleep or food! All calculated, we went something like 38h without sleeping properly.

Luckily we had a great view from the plane as we approached Bariloche, a relatively small city (population 120 000) nestled in between the Andes, the beautiful Lake Nahuel Huapi and forests. Because we arrived so late, we really struggled to get a place to sleep. February the lake district is THE holiday destination. After dragging our backpacks up and down steep hills we finally found a little family run place. It was pretty nice and cheap. We put our bags down, made some coffee and then it was off exploring again. Bariloche is pretty. Snow covered mountains, a big lake and little stone and wood buildings selling home-made chocolates and jams. It is very touristy, but not in an annoying way.

Although it seemed great, we decided to march onwards. We are getting behind schedule. It was a VERY hectic morning. We decided to walk the 4 kilometers to the bus terminal, when I discovered, halfway, that my waterbottle containing wonderfully cold orange juice was gone. That made Lloyd think and look for his money pouch which, as it turned out, was gone. He quickly ran back to the hostel in a state of panic leaving me with the bags. I started thinking and quickly rummaged through MY bags finding his money pouch, which I thought was my hat! An sweaty, exhausted Lloyd pitched up, just SO relieved to finally get it back! We hurried onwards to the bus stop, learning that all the busses for the morning has gone. Just before we gave up we got a bus that was running a few minutes late and managed to get on in the nick of time.

The journey was probably the most spectacular of the trip. We are now into some serious mountains. The route runs right along the spine of the Andes through ancient forests dotted with huge blue and green lakes and rivers so clear you can see every stone. The roads were not in particulary good shape because of recent snow and road works (most of it was dirt) and our bus got stuck on a steep hill for about an hour. Luckily it was on a construction site and the workers eventually managed to get us over using rocks, rubber mats and construction vehicles.

We finally arrived at San Martin de los Andes at about 18h. And wow... It was worth the trouble! This beautiful little village (10 000 people) is bounded in by the Andes on three sides and another beautiful lake on the other. It takes about 20 minutes to go from the one side of the town to the other.

By then we were insanely hungry and went foraging for food. Venison, steak or trout. We ended up eating parrillada. It was 18 pesos each, relatively expensive (a bit cheaper than a steak) but we were totally defeated by this meal! The owner brought us a reasonable plate of gross looking meats consisting mainly of different organs. We were sorely dissapointed but nevertheless consumed everything which turned out to be pretty tasty (except blood sausage, ugh...) and ate the bread that came with us. When the owner took our plates we were really full. He then put some more plates in front of us. This seemed like a really strange thing to do. He also brought a another basket of bread... Then he put ANOTHER big plate of excellent meat in front of us! Ribs, lamb, a big juicy sirloin each, and some chicken and pork! We asked him if we could take it home and he said no. I proceeded to stuff the big steak into my almost bursting stomach, ate the lamb and then had to retire defeated. We were very close to the point of actually getting sick! We asked him again and this time he said, OK, we can take it home! I was still full this morning...

Lastly, today. It may seem like a quiet, relaxing day, but it is actually a very special day. It is our first washing day! We finally came to the point where it is simply impossible to wear the same clothes again (after more than three weeks).

And with that thought, I´ll leave you with some photos from El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier.

Adios,

Neil