Happy Christmas Everyone!

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Well, we´re back in Argentina (and loving the cheap prices again)! It´s beautifully sunny but we went on a trek in the Nahuel Huapi mountains near here a couple of days ago and had to walk across snow along parts of the path, so we have kind of had a white Christmas! The trek was at around 2200 metres and actually pretty tough but, although scary, the snowy bits were fun and the campsite location was stunning, yet again.
We´re treating ourselves to a nice apartment with swimming pool for Christmas. It´s in Bariloche, which really is just like Switzerland. It´s a huge change from the ramshackle corrugated iron and wood huts on the other side of the Andes in Chile. It seems a lot more afflulent here and there´s a really marked difference in the language and people. The journey across the border in the lake district was a full day tour involving 5 coaches and 3 boats and, although expensive, definitely worthwhile.
In Argentina, people seem to celebrate Christmas more today, instead of tomorrow (when we have a 5 hour bus journey as a prelude to another 12 hours the day after!). So we´ve spent most of the day stuffing our faces with chocolate and icecream and are cooking a lovely meal in our apartment tonight before heading into town to meet up with some Scottish and Dutch friends we´ve made along the way. Cheers to everyone and have a wonderful day tomorrow!

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Photos

I´m dreaming of a white Christmas...
Believe it or not, this was one of the easier parts of the trek! Luckily, Nick always went first on the snow so I could avoid the parts he partially fell through! This was the start of the second day of the trek and, fortunately, it was followed by a leisurely 4 hours gentle trek through the forest down the mountain.

Descent to the campsite at the end of day one
You can just about make out the pair of trekkers on the track behind us. They were only two out of six other trekkers we saw on the route all day!

Bye-bye, Chile!
Nick on the boat crossing from Chile into Argentina.

Comments

[Rachel]

Meep!
Merry Christmas sweetie! Looking forward to joining you in NZ. Will see you on the 6th in Auckland airport probably. Your trek in Argentina looks wicked - what fantastic snowy scenes. Hugs, Rachel

[PG]

Great
Jessie, Nick both of you are having grat, amazing, wonderful journey...Enjoy it and have fun...Merry Christmas and all the best and further more for the new year Love Pier Giorgio (PG)