From Buenos Aires, Argentina to Pucon, Chile

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Hello campers. Well, started again. Had a decent journey over, well as decent as a 12 hour flight can be. I have a new method of flying - tranquilizers! Slept for nearly 10 hours without having to resort to alcohol. Heather was out for even longer. If i hadnt woken her she'd probably still be on the flight.

BA was as cool as ever, ate about our own body weight in cow and drank some more fantastic wine. Bought a beautiful painting of La Boca (a colourful area of the city) from a market. The artist must have been in his eighties and was obviously well respected by all the other artists selling their wares. He was so happy when we bought one of his pictures. We both got big kisses and had to have our photos taken for his album. He has a full record of all the people who have bought painting from him. So thats in the post right now, hopefully to be seen when we get back.

After BA we flew to Bariloche, in the Argentinian Lake District. Famous for its skiing, trekking, and most other adventure sports. We went for a walk in the snow in temperate rain forest, started out beautiful but ended up near enough crawling through a type of Bamboo that was all bent over the path because of the weight of the snow. Pretty exciting though, but got pretty wet. To dry out we went to the resorts most exclusive hotel - the Llao Llao. Wasnt allowed in at first, looked too poor! But eventually they relented and let us into the bar. What a place. Its where all the monied Argentinians stay when they are skiing.
We went on a 2 hour horse trek up a mountain, I think i weighed as much as my horse whilst Heather looked like a proper little jockey on hers. Horseriding is obviously in her blood as her horse was very obedient whilst mine pretty much did as he liked. Like to think another hour and I'd have been leaping over hedges with the best of the Rutland Hunt (not rhyming slang)...

Took a 10 hour bus journey over the border to Chile and to Pucon, in the Chilean Lake District. Pucon is home to a huge active Volcano, which you should be able to just make out from the photos (though the weather has been pretty poor). The aim was for us to climb to the top and peer into the bottom and all the molten lava. However, somewhere between Bariloche and Pucon i picked up a stomach bug and ended up in bed for 2 days. Heather went off to do it but the weather was bad and they didnt quite make it to the top, rain and zero visibilty. You had to wear full mountain equipment - crampons, Ice axes and beautiful 80's jumpsuits (modelled in the only picture that was worth taking!)

We probably should have realised but the weather has been much colder than we expected. Pretty much like winter in UK but with odd warmer day. So much for the shorts, vests and flip flops. Amazon basin had better be warm!
Bus to Santiago tomorrow and fly to Calama near the border between Chile and Bolivia. Into the Altiplano and Salt plains in Bolivia on Wednesday.

Enjoy the pics.

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Comments

[Mandy]

Hi
Hi Guys so glad you made it back there - looks just amazing... the pics are fantastic and make us all very jealous. everything the same as always back here so keep on enjoying the fun over there. keep us posted love M x