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Published: March 14th 2008
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Well, we finally wrapped up in Bariloche.
Our last weekend involved our Saturday blogging to you all, and then on Sunday, we took a little stroll to the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, beside Lago Guttereiz, our local lake and took a walk to see the little waterfalls that were in there. We had thought about hiking up to Refugio frey that Sunday with Peter, a guy from the Netherlands from our school who was looking for company. However, the trek was supposed to be about 16km, so 32 km return from our Cabaña, and I wasnt sure whether I was fit enough for it. We had a look that Sunday though at the start of the hike, and decided that on the Monday we would do a timed walk up the trek, and turn when we were running out of steam instead.
We went out for dinner in Bariloche that night, and ran into our pal Richard, from our "spooning with my lovely horse" experience in Pucon. We were all running in different directions but agreed to hook up again in Buenos Aires, so hopefully that will work out.
The next day we had our last class with Laura,
Laura me and Maria
Last day of pur classes only a 2hr one this time. She was a great teacher and we both were really happy with the classes. We said our goodbyes over a Mate (not to my taste unfortunately... its a cup of herbs mixed with hot water... Paul liked it though), and headed off on our trek. We made it to Playa Moriz (i think thats the name). The hike was fantastic, about 15km altogether, and I would have loved to go up to see Refugio Frey, but definitely only to stay overnight and do the return hike over two days. Peter had managed his hike ok, but he had left at 11am, and didnt return until 8pm that evening! (with a break for lunch at Frey). But sure its only now ANOTHER reason to come back to Argentina!
We packed up and said our goodbyes to our hosts at our Cabaña, Quimey Patagonia, by Villa Coihues at the lake, and went on our merry way tuesday morning. ( the Cabaña was fantastic, took their email address in case I convince my parents to take a stint of Spanish lessons in Argentina sometime). it was starting to get cold in Bariloche, we had had a
few very chilly morning walks to class, one day being 2 degrees and frosty, despite the warm sunny afternoons, so it was time for a change. (We'll be home soon enough for all that!) We flashpacked our way to Puerte Iguazu by plane, with Aerolineas Argentina via Buenos Aires, a budget breaking expedition that saved us 40 hours on buses. The first plane ride was a bit bumpy, and our landing was very questionable, (also not helped by Paul checking out the airlines safety record before we departed- we were flying with Austral, a subsidary of the airline), but our next flight was better, and we landed safely after our 12th flight this year so far! (We will have totalled 17 flights this year each by the time the year rolls over, having two very very large carbon footprints at the end of it, we had better start thinking about planting some trees!)
We have just spent our third night in Puerte Iguazu. We stayed in an ok hostel, with nice owners. They have a little bar, and we were due a welcome drink the night we arrived so we popped in to say hello. 7 Hours later, we
Spanish hut
lat look at our class room in the woods stumbled out, having had our fill of Cuba Libra, beer AND wine, never mind the cheap pizza. We also half convinced the hostel manager to consider setting up a webpage like either BBH in New Zealand, or Travelfish for Aisa, but for Argentina or Chile. Its much needed for here, its quite hard to get all the information you want here in one place! Of course there was drink involved so God knows, but it was worth a try! Needless to say our first day at Iguazu Falls was inadvertantly affected by the excessive consumption of Alcohol. We were probably last to arrive at the falls that day and first to leave. We did have an excuse luckily. We were booked onto the Gran Adventura tour at 11am, and set off on a 4x4 trip throught the rainforest. Did I mention that we are back in the tropics now. And back on Malaria tablets. Its hot hot hot here, and we thankfully had air con in our room to help us sleep. The jungle is thick here, and its really really humid, quite a shock to the system. We were quickly transformed back into our summer clothes, shorts all day,
post class exercise
We decided to do a short trek around the lake after class and leaving the jumpers at home in the evenings! Anyway, back to Iguazu, the 4x4 dropped us off at Rio Iquazu and we sped off down the river on a speed boat to get a fantastic vantage point view of the falls. We stopped at one waterfall and got a little close and thus wet. I thought that was it, but the boat drove around to the other falls, and got so close that you couldnt see for the spray, we all got drenched and there was tons of water on the floor of the boat. That didnt stop them bringing us back in for a second time though! Great fun, but once was enough for me. Paul said it was probably the look on my face that stopped them going for a third trip (we saw some boats later went in 3 times, but I reckon they were simply taking into account the water level on the floor of the boat rather than the scaredy cats on board!) Anyway, given that we were drenched from head to toe, and I needed a loo, we headed for some lunch, and boldly snuck home for the afternoon for a recovery nap.
It was an early night that night, and sure enough, we were up early and back at the falls the next day, to get our moneys worth. We saw it all (except the Brazilian side, which from where we were sitting didnt look like it would have a patch on the argentinean side), and walked our little feet off. It was amazing, Paul said it was something you just wanted to eat to keep it! Definitley a high point of the trip, we would both say. You will have to see the photos, which of course dont do the falls justice, or come see for yourselves. They have about 1 million visitors a year, but are looking to match Niagara falls, which have 5 million a year. (I think less is more myself, but I suppose thats progress). Its very touristy here, with lots of Gringos, and very little need for speaking spanish (After all our lessons TUT!), but we have been forcing our spanish on the locals none the less! The town Puerte Iguazu is small enough, but has nice places to eat, and is grand to stay in for seeing the falls. Anyway, my descriptions arent a
patch on the spectacular visions of the falls, so I will leave you all to the mercy of our less than professional photos!
One week to go now! Its getting harder to fathom the closer it gets. Getting on a 20 hour bus to Buenos Aires now this afternoon, but we will blog once more next week all about Buenos Aires, and then we'll be home to see you all. We will try not to force too many photos or stories on you all, given that so many of you have been dedicated to keeping up with the blog so know it all already.
Be seeing you all soon! x
Elaine and Paul
P.s. Since we announced we are coming home, our Stats have dropped remarkably, have you all gotten lazy!? Or are we not so interesting now that were so soon going to be normal blue collar rat racers once again! Dont forget we will be issuing written examinations to all our readers, to assure the ultimate concentration and commitment went into keeping up with our adventures!!!!! And failure on the exams will ensure that we will have to issue invitations to a photo slide
show evening, and we reckon we have about 3000 photos, so get reading! x
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Mark
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think you upset people by not posting for a while - we stopped checking ;)