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Published: March 9th 2007
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Hi there!
Thirty six hours on a bus is not fun. Especially if they play the entire DVD collection of some latin American singer´s world tours the entire time. I travelled from southern Chile to mid Argentina this way. Next to me was an old swiss guy with a disturbing smokers cough and rudimentary english. He told me my drawings were "infantil" and showed me his masterpieces which I have to admit were pretty good. I tried to ignore him due to the cough but halfway through I succumbed to his offers of swiss chocolate and scottish whisky.
Barliloche is a touristy town in the lakes district full of chocolate shops and wealthy Argentines on vaccacion. I rested up in a beautiful hostel made of wood with a tree house and climbing wall, run by a red haired mountain man who bounced around to electro music offering backpackers marajuana for dessert.
I did some moutain biking around the lakes which are beautiful and I did an amazing trek on my own in the mountains. The first half was through a mountain forest full of bright orange, yellow and pink flowers. Then I reached a climbers refugio where i watched
some army guys training rock climbing. I went and spoke to one of the guys on the ground and told him in a mixture of charades and spanish that the rock looked like a huge gorilla with a baby gorilla under its arm - he didn´t see the gorilla. The place is a climbers mecca with the moutain peaking in a thousand jagged points. I had lunch here sheltered from the wind and then continued on the rest of the trek which was basically scrambling straight up and along a rocky mountain top clumped with ice. Below me were the peaks of other mountains and way way below lakes stretching out in the distance. I felt so exhilarated i kept doing that thing Rocky does at the top of the stairs again. Then it started to snow and blow and I was really cold and tierd so I started listening to my ipod which gave me fresh energy to finish the trek. At the end you reach a ski lift as in winter there is a ski slope there. I was glad to catch the lift down and get back to a hot shower, but the walk was amazing.
Now
I am in El Bolson, a hippie town from the 1960s where there is a famous market several times a week and the park in the town centre fills up with dreadlocked jugglers and clowns, people playing music and selling jewellry. I met some cool people here and spent most of my time hanging out trying to learn to juggle.....I´ll let you know how it goes!! Also was shown how to make some artesan stuff which I will hopefully practise and keep making. I have been doing some trekking and lots of camping in the rain with my super cheap tent without a fly. Today I sat in there all morning trying not to touch the sides!!! My spanish is so slow, I want to settle somewhere and get a routine so I can get better. Yesterday I trekked to a forest called Bosque Tallado, which means sculptured forest. I heard so much about it but I felt disappointed, when people sculptured the trees they stunted them and changed the colour with varnish and I just felt it wasn´t really a forest any longer, but there were some I liked made from fallen trees which kept the colour and feeling
carnival
Carnival in Barliloche of the trees. One called the unicorns dream and another of a knomes face.
I met a sweet young Argentine on the way up the mountain who kept me company talking about when he was a boy scout and how he learnt English watching Indianna Jones and Back to the Future. By the time we got back down it was dark and I was so very tierd.....my ankle is still sore and I went today and brought a elastic thing to wear.
Anyway this blog entry is very blase i know but it is raining here and I washed all my clothes so i had to put on WET PANTS, so I write to you with a WET ARSE!!! and am a bit subdued. I want some time alone, which you´d think would be easy to get travelling alone, but sometimes its not, but I am having the most special time and sending you all strength, love, fun and light
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D
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anonymous
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Great but I want photos - yr blog is soooo good. Mum.