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The vista
At some point the snow ended and the clouds begin We left the house...After 5 days of sitting, waiting, and running the hostel between the 4 of us, it stopped raining. "What?" I hear you cry did you do until then. The answer to this question is nothing. I got a hair cut randomly one evening when we went out to the supermarket at about 9 pm (local time of course). I pointed to a picture and off we went. Sat me down and explained the programme that he´d been watching - a doco on the terrorists in Peru. Cannae wait! Having witnessed 2 robberies and rioting in Santiago, we kind of thought that would be the worst of it. Anyways, Mr Hairdresser promptly picked up something from the selection of scissors available on the counter in front of me. A shaving blade like they´d used in Victorian times, or when you go and get it done professionally. This sharp instrument is what would be used to create my new ´sophisticated´stiff style (stiff is Spanish for straight hair apparently). Now, Mr Hairdresser was a lovely man. I think he might have even have been shutting up when we went in but had forgotten to take in his sign due to
The 3 mountaineers...
We looked super cool the day we scaled the volcano masseeeve...honest. I looked the coolest, but don´t have any photos so you´ll just have to trust me! his involvement in the doco. However, when brushing my hair he´d caught my earring with the comb. Imagine the damage he could do with an open blade! The fringe proved to be the scariest bit. I´d also asked for a "little off the ends"...or so I thought. I lost a good 6 or 7 inches.
Next day to the volcano. Due to the cloud cover of recent weeks, we hadn´t actually seen the volcano yet. 7 am on the morning of the climb however, we got our 1st glimpse. Beeejeeesus. T´was high and snowy (please refer to piccys). Now we understood the air raid like noise that goes off once or twice a day...Tis a volcano warning in case of eruptions. This is one smoking hill and we had to climb up it. On the bright side there was a chair lift that could get you somewhere closer to the top. Even better, the ´rustic´chairlift was working. The man who we had to pay our money to was not there however. Even though the lift was running, we couldn´t take it. Harumph. Silly system - pay him next time is my answer.
Anyways, off we went. Crampons on,
The task in hand...
WE huffed and we puffed and we made it to the top (just) mittens and a maniac of a guide who would not let us rest for 2 minutes. This meant that we got up to the volcano pretty quickly, if not dying. Now this is a particularly active volcano where we´d been promised lava for Angela. At the top however, a huge cloud of sulphuric and noxious gases consummed us and we had to take a quick piccy and retreat as fast as possible. The gas burnt our lungs and our eyes, and we could taste metal for hours. The trek up had been pure, dead, horrible. Did not enjoy it. The way down made up for it. Given a nappy kind of contraption we could slide down the slope that had taken us 4 hours to get up. Excellent fun. We had to go out that night, but we were cream crackered for it.
As if that wasn´t enough, the next day we decided to leave the house and do something again. This was a 40 km bike ride. It hurt. Very nice waterfall was reached though. Chuffing freezing on the old hands though. So bad that when my brake cable snapped (the lonely planet had warned against bikes with dodge brakes because you have to cycle down the motorway), our hands were too cold to fix it. I lived.
Monday brought Angela´s passport. Yipee. We decided to spend our last day in Pucon doing what we do best - nothing - before getting a bus out in the morning. To celebrate we got camomile liqueur (interesting). Leaving was emotional, but t´was time. A whole new generation of inhabitants arrived and we got on the bus.
Valdillvia. They have sealions. They are big. We also got given cheesecake for breakfast in the hostel...random. Back on the bus for the border crossing to Bariloche. No problems there with Angela´s new passport and we entered Argentina, over the Andes in the beautiful Autumn sunshine. I had been singing extracts of Evita for most of the day. I was quite excited. Bariloche, the northern part of Patagonia, also happens to be the chocolate capital of South America at least. Forget the Swiss. This part of the southern hemisphere is where it´s at.
Handily, Bariloche is also incredibly picturesque. There´s a huuuuge glacial lake (100 km long), mountains and lots of wood. I like it. We went to a pirate restaurant (a classy one mind you - pirates are really real here) and settled down for a few days of chocolate, wine and empanadas.
Northern Patagonia proved to be just not quite cold enough for us. It´s still just a crisp day requiring a jumper. We booked a bus further into the depths of the latitudes. Southern Patagonia. Many of the roads are closed due to ice and snow. Boats are frozen in their moorings. This is where we head imminently. A 27 hour mission just to get there. Better be nice weather. Place bets now...
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Megan McLaughlin
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green with envy!
hi darling, i have been much enjoying your travel blog over the past months and am well impressed at how diligently you have been keeping up with them! thanks for including us in your travels!! if you need a break and want to chill at the beach in miami before you head home, let me know- we have a guest room these days : ) love to yourself and angela!