Beautiful Treks in the Andes

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Next stop Cordoba, which was pretty dull apart from doing a sky dive and Seans birthday celebrations. The sky dive was the biggest adrenaline rush of my life. I'm a little scared of heights anyway but I was shitting it. On the way there I was tempted to jump out of the taxi and leg it. We got to the site and they give you a short instruction. Around your first 10 jumps need to be tandem so there's not a whole lot to do only arms in at first, arms out and legs up when landing. He does it all for you. You go up in a small plane that can sit three people and there's no backing out now. For some reason the higher you go, the scarier it gets. Why is this. If you fall from 100 metres you're brown bread 2.5km likewise. Maybe, its the time it'll take to hit the ground and the anticipation. What the fuck would be going through your mind knowing you have 90 seconds to live. Donagh did the skydive aswell but unfortunately for Sean he was too heavy, and on his 28th birthday. We actually didn't go on about it cause we could see his head was wrecked. Cordoba is a university town and we hit it out of term. Maybe its better in term cause alot of people rave about it.


We also had a night out for Seans birthday in Corboda. This was also our last night before we all went our separate ways. I was still quite concerned about money at this stage and still son't think I had gotten properly into the spirit of travelling. I arrived in Bariloche after a 24 hour bus journey and failed attempts at trying to get with the stewardess. She did give me a big kiss on the cheek as I was leaving though. The busses in Argentina are real comfortable. Big double decker yolks with loads of leg room and cushy leather seats with almost full recline and ample leg room.

Bariloche is a picturesque town in Patagonia. It looks Germanic in parts and I think was the destination for lots of German emmigrants. It is in the Andes and also the lake district, which makes for some stunning views. Bariloche itself is situated on a lake and surrounded by mountains. I made the mistake of checking into a hostel with mainly Argies who I couldn't have the same craic with, due to my Spanish being shit and maybe cultural differences. Its difficult to have fun in the same way with locals. I did make two friends from BA though, Federico and Marcus. We went to Irish bar Wilkenny most nights. The women here were savage as in Mendoza. Argentian women are hot and pretty classy too. They were also really interested to talk to Irish people and spoke good English. I really should have picked up some chicks here but I think I was a little intimidated by hot they were and was still having problems with the different game over there. How do I meet them again? I'm leaving in a few days time. No mobile. I live in a dorm etc.


The mountains around Bariloche are covered in snow during the winter and it is a major Argentine ski destination. In the summer though, it is quite warm and we went trekking up a hill called Cerro Otto one day. This was a good experience and the views of the surrounding lakes from the top were well worth the walk. They had alot of St Bernard dogs around this town. These are my favourite dogs. The weather in Bariloche was not that good. It was a little windy and cold as I had moved into Patagonia. It would be fine usually but I had come for the sun and I moved back to BA to meet Donagh after a few days.

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