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Published: January 10th 2006
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Yep it seems my ability to sit still, read, listen to music and watch some of an incredibly bad romantic comic starring Paul Nichols (yep, that guy who was on Eastenders once and covered his bedroom in tin foil or something!!) reached new levels as i´ve just stepped off an 18 hour bus journey feeling almost refreshed!!
Currently we're in Bariloche, which is the aforementioned 18 hour bus ride South-West of the capital Buenos Aires, near to the Chilean border in an area called the Lake District. The area is beautiful: Bariloche is situated on a vividly blue lake and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It is, however, also rather nippy - especially when the wind gets up. But it does give me an excuse to bring out the fleeces, scarves and gloves that have until this point being rather frustrating ballast located somewhere in the depths of my bag.
For the last four days James, Chris, Steve and I have been holed up in a beautiful hostel called La Morada which is located halfway up a mountain called Cerro Torre. The views from the communal lounge out over the lake and towards the mountains are stunning, and as the
weather has perked up since our initial arrival, we've been out walking during the day and cooking up huge amounts of food during the evening. Happy days!!!
In between our various walks around the area, Chris has managed to show us an (un) remarkable selection of geological features. First up was the "big rock", which had been featured in our guide book and was something Chris had been touting for some weeks. Far from being impressive, it just seemed to be a large boulder and even Chris had to admit to being underwhelmed. We also visited the Geology Museum, which was better than expected, although the highlights were almost definitely the juvenile quotes we left in the comments book.
"I love rocks. They make me happy. Sometimes so happy I touch myself. Oh! Trilobites!!"
"That's the badger. No, that's the Armadillo. Fossilised!!"
Bariloche has marked the final location where all four of us are going to be together in South America. Chris and Steve have had to head back to Buenos Aires in order to catch their flight onwards to Peru. The time the four of us have spent together since Christmas may have been short, but its been an absolute pleasure with plenty of banter and adventures along the way. Thanks for the memories boys.
Its now the eve of mine and James' first attempt to trek into the foothills of the Andes. The planned five day hike has been curtailed to just three as apparently all the recent snow has meant that the high level pass we were hoping to take is closed to trekkers and only suitable for those with crampons and ice axes. Interesting..
As part of our extensive preparations, James and I now bought a tent and a stove between us, and seem almost ready to take on the mighty Andes in a series of a long distance treks. I have also splashed out a massive 80 pence on a combined compass and thermometer keyring, which worryingly showed that the temperature had dipped to single figures for the first time on the trip. This idea of trekking into the wilderness is looking like its going to be very cold and wet!!!
I think character building is the term...
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