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Published: February 25th 2009
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Hi everyone,
A very important thing has happened since we have last made contact.Yes, i have become a thirty year old. I feel wiser, not necessarily as wise as a thirty year old but hey. But i definitely don´t feel like i am thirty, still feeling like a twenty something year old. Not necessarily looking like a twenty something year old. Oh its difficult!
Right straight to or back as we have to rewind, to new years. We had a great night.A very fancy dinner and some lovely wine. Then the ozzie couple we met up the mountains came to the resturant and we joined them and drank somew more wine. It was about 11in the evening when they arrived.Soo it was midnight and the waiters brought out champagne and we all wished everyone "feliz anno neuvo", happy new year. After that we went to the Irish pub Wilkenny ,as if,and met the two english guys that we met up the mountains. We had a great night. Home at about 5ish. The next day was as you may well have guessed a very unproductive day. It was all good!
Next stop on our journey was planned and the next day we
headed off to El Bolson.This is a hippy little town with a market nearly every day selling all sorts of things. It can be difficult to find anything original or authentic but its nice to look at all this stuff and taste some authentic local beer.Nice!
We chilled out here, did some e-mails and stuff until one day we decided we would check out the sites. The first was a short hike up the hills to a national park that had a rock face that looks like a face of an indian "Calbeza del Indio". While there we could also go to see a waterfall. Although there was a sign to the waterfall we ended up nearly in someones backyard nearly back in town.Nor sure how that happened but we didn´t manage to see the waterfall. We walked back into town with quiet a bit of dust on us. We decided then that we would hire a couple of mountain bikes and head up to see these wood carvings done by the locals that looked impressive, worth the trip!
NO NO NO!! I don´t know how to express myself more vivdly but what we went through to get up there
did not make it worth it. We managed to cycle i would say 1/4 of the way. There were points that i tried to get on the bike to cycle but i couldn´t. There was also a point where i nearly threw the bike over the side of the mountain. It was nearly impossible. There were people getting taxis up this thing. The same taxi driver passed us 4 times on our way up. Each time he just smiled at us!Nice! Give us a lift mister! It just went up up up. There was a sign saying 4km to the look out. This was after 1 1/2 of punishment already. I said to Joost that that must be the whole way up at the Refugio, not were we are going! But oh no! We would hope its around the next corner, but it never was.
You have to understand that this is a hard hike even without bikes,but we decided we would push for most of it to heavy mountain bikes up it. I thought it would never end. And well it didn´t, because when we reached the lookout we had to walk another half hour, luckily without bike up
View from where we were on the bikes!
Hadn´t even got to the top at this point! to see these carvings. Tempted yes tempted to just forget them but we couldn´t do that . We had already done three hours. We had a dribble f water left. I was hoping to buy a coke at the top but there was nothing. I was crushed!
So we locked the bikes up and headed up. It was a struggle! but we got there and as i said they were not worth what we went through to get there. We checked it out took some pics to show we were there.
As per usual it doesn´t take half the time to get back down. Thing was i had only got a front brake. Did i mention this is all dirt road! So we bounced the whole way dwn. I felt my kidney hit my spine at one stage!My hands were so sore as the grip was hard plastic with nobbles on them. I really thought i would end up coming off the bike. It was so steep and bumpy. But we made it down in 45mins and i nearly cried when i saw the tarmac. My body was battered!
First things fist, BEER! To was the dust down my throught!
We were filty! We showered, ate and lay down. Why you may ask do we do these things? Well you don´t know how bad it will be until half way through and then we are too stubborn not to finish what we started! Loco!
For the next few days our butts hurt but we recovered very well. So the next day we took a very sinple and relaxing trip on the famous "La Trochita". For those who think old steam trains are just special, maybe remined you of old movies and indiana jones etc this one looked great and has a long history. It was not so long a train journey. Infact i wanted to buy a souvenier at the other destination until the train stopped in the middle of a field and turned around and headed back! As If! Anyway the pitures tell this story so have a look.
OK So on the move again swiftly. We found our next destination and headed in that direction, Trevelin, by bus. We managed to find a nice campsite owned by two Israeli guys. Although alot of mozzies it was a nice spot and they were very friendly and helpful.. A short
hitch hike from here was the small welsh town of Trevelin where yopu can consume large quantities of tea and cakes. We indulged and it was very very nice! Fro here we planned to go into the Los Alerces National Park which would be our first sighting of a glacier! The guys at the campsite drove us to the park which it a goo 1 1/2 from Trevelin and alot of it is dirt road. Bumpy! Think was we got there but we had to get ourselves out of there too! We were with an Israeli girl and a swiss girl. We did a bit of a wolk around but nothing major and then chilled out beside the river where joost and myself went for a swim which was chilly but refreshing. We chilled out for a couple of hours and then we had to find a way out of there so we started to thumb. After 10 mins we were in the back of a jeep (outside) on our way back to Trevelin. It was fun and exciting but my god we got distroyed. The dust was soo much. The swiss girl got dirt in her eye and she
was wereing hard lenses and it was a disaster.
It was a family, an old couple and their teo daughters who picked us up. They made a short stop at a friends house and when we went to go again the swiss girl asked to get inside. Reluctantly they said yes! It was so funny. She was so dusty from head to toe and they were so clean. Anyway we made it back to the campsite grey from all the dust and our hair was knotted from the wind. What a mess.So a shower was heavenly. The girls never made it back to the park but we did.
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leoni
non-member comment
Gefeliciteerd/ Congratulations!!
Hello Adventure Travelers Gill, congratulations, and good that you had a nice 30th!! Very nice pictures, I appreciate them even more now I know it took so much sweat and pain to get there, but I reckon (sitting here behind the computer screen :-) that it must have been worth it. Beautiful mountains and magnificent lakes! And of course great stories from both of you (have been reading several of them). Here in Esperance, Australia all is fine (except some very bad Weath crops, due to hail and rain). Its nice sunny weather here and last weekend I went waterskiing a lake with friends. My work as a (vocational) Rehabilitation Consultant is still very rewarding and enjoyable. I wish you two HAPPY TRAVELS but I'm sure you will. Look forward to your next south american update. Cheers Leoni