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Published: March 26th 2006
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Hola otra vez
Me again. As most of you now know i'm on my way back very soon (updated now back!). I'll fill you in on the final stage of the journey.
I decided to head back to Argentina after my time in Rio. I got back to Buenos Aires and hit the same routine of watching football and drinking. It’s a hard life. I caught a Boca Junior game which now completes the set of Bs As teams. The best game in South America for atmosphere, which I’ve been to. We then went onto a club later that night. It was one of the strangest I’ve been to. They had a stage with the craziest dancing transvestites. Very surreal. I left Bs As pretty sharpish because the body couldn’t take any more nights out.
Got a bus down to a place called Puerto Madryn. Near there is the Peninsula Valdez which has some great wildlife and is the place where they filmed killer whales swimming to the beach to try and catch sea lion pups. I went in search of the orcas, unfortunately didn’t see one. However we did get to see Penguins, Sea Elephants, Sea lions,
Foxes, Emus, Loads of birds and armadillos (like the dime bar crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside). I went to a seal lion colony not far from one of the beaches on the Valdez peninsula, where I broke my rule of not going on a boat tour. The tour included an opportunity to snorkel in bloody cold water and see sod all wildlife.
I then got the first bus out of Puerto Madryn to go to El Calafate. After spending another day on the bus I arrived at El Calafate at about midday and found a place to stay. Once that was set up I got a tour for an ice hike on the Perito Moreno. The next day it was an early start and arrived at the glacier about 8.a.m. I then had to cross the lake by boat to start the walk, breaking my boat rule twice in one week. Though the boat trip was good as you got a close up of the south face of the glacier. Once the crampons were strapped on, we began a small walk in the forest at the side of the glacier and then onto the actual
glacier. On the way up we stopped at an Ice cave and got to pose for some cheesy photos.
Then set off on a 4 hour trek over the glacier. There were some amazing formations and the different blues in the ice where spectacular. On the way back from the tour, we took the boat again and for our efforts were given whiskey on the rocks (ice taken from the glacier). As we posed for a photo, a huge chunk of ice fell from the glacier, which all of us missed except for one of the guys cameras. I'm hoping to get a copy of the photo and put it on the site.
After the tour it was a pretty eventful day, as I decided to try and get out of El Calafate as soon as I could I had booked a bus for 4.am. Got back to the hostel to find my phone had been stolen or lost but whatever happened, the next stop was at the police station. Once that was sorted out, I decided not to bothering going to bed and found a bar. A weird group of Americans decided I should go join them
Peninsula Valdez
Sea Lions i was hoping to get caught by the killer whales and then continued to ply me with various shots. Thanks. After a few beers and chatting with the barmaid I left it a bit late and then ran to get the bus.
After being on the road for about a day I made it to the Lake District region of Argentina in a city called Bariloche. Its amazing place situated on the side of a huge crystal blue lake with mountains surrounding most sides. I decided to spend my last week here.
I spent the first few days just chilling out in the town and drinking in the numerous Irish pubs that seem to run this town. However over these couple of days I got taught the ritual behind preparing mate, the tea of Argentina that everyone lives on. This was the start of my addiction and I have ended up bringing a kilo of this stuff back. I think the weird looks I kept getting over in South America might continue in the UK!
Well the rest of my time in Bariloche was spent trekking in the mountains and going on some bike rides. I set off on a two day trek only to call it
off when I reached the summit on the first day to encounter a blizzard and the path I was meant to take didn’t seem to exist. I went back to the hostel and the next day we got better weather and went to climb another mountain with some of the guys staying at the hostel. We got some amazing views of the lakes and the mountains in the region. As we reached the refuge, we had to ask the ranger if we could carry on to the peak. As the weather was good we were able to, but the path turned into a bit of a sheer face and ended up rock climbing instead of trekking. That was great fun and so rewarding once reaching the top.
The next day was a bike ride in a similar area but I was able to go round a small peninsula and get different views of the lake.
After these last few days of activities I was time to hit the town again with new friends from the hostel. What better day to do it than Paddy’s day. After one of the best and biggest steaks of my life! We went
out to the bars and had a great laugh and even got to strut some of my salsa moves (which are now perfected?!?). This was after one of the best and biggest steaks of my life.
I was pretty sad to leave Bariloche but was then on my way home. Just two more stops on the way. One day at Bs.As where as usual I got to see another football game and then a day at Rio to top up the tan (????) before getting on the plane for home.
With a stop at Madrid and then meeting some grateful parents at Heathrow I finally made it back to freezing cold Cambridge. Guys what happened to the weather it should be the middle of spring. You could have at least organised some rain!
Anyway it’s good to be back (I think?) and will hopefully catch up with you all soon.
Chao
Dave
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