A real grown up now

Except for a lot of buses and a few days of trekking, not much of real interest has happened in the last week hence the lack of update until now. As planned I arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche last night, in time for my 30th celeb (arrggghhhh) which will involve a meal and drink or two with about ten others from the hostel. Being travellers on a budget they were happy to accept my money in exchange for an evening of company! This morning I treated myself to a birthday beard removal, but almost wished I hadn´t as the 3 or 4 weeks growth took half an hour and a couple of blades to cut through. At least I feel younger for it.

My intention of white water rafting in Futaleufu never became anything more than a thought as after a long day of travelling involving a 9 hour minibus ride to the tiny Villa Santa Lucia (below) and a further 2 hour ride stood in the aisle of another bus to Futa, I had found some Argentinians that were heading straight for the border and decided to join them.

A short taxi ride to customs and a long dark wait for a taxi on the Argentinian side finally got us to Trevelin, a refreshingly larger town than all of the ones in Chile for the last 10 days. The next hurdle was accommodation, having nothing booked we wandered to a few places with no joy before the helpful policia crammed the 3 of us plus rucksacks into the back of their car and took us to a slightly out of town cabin. 3 pounds for the night and free lift back to town from the owner the next day, not bad at all.

Managed to get some much needed Argentinian pesos before catching a local bus (colectivo) to the next town Esquel and then another one for a few hours to El Bolson, a nice relaxing place with a bit of a hippy feel to it. The next two days I spent trekking, not the most amazing scenery and not helped by the cloudy weather (and rain on the second day) but a pleasant and tiring walk up to an idyllic refuge with a glacier a few hours further up. I camped here and got to practice some of the lingo with some locals who were also staying. Conversations didn´t last long. There were several suspension bridges on the way that had to be crossed, this was not the worst....

A slight geographical embarresment on the second day left me crashing through soaking wet undergrowth for several hours, leaving my boots waterlogged and taking some of the fun out of it. Eventually made it back to the town and splashed out on a hotel room for the next two nights (8 pounds a night and 65p for breakfast) so I could dry everything out. The cleaners really appreciated the damp boot smell, lingering as it did for two days until they were dry. I meanwhile spent the days relaxing and reading for at last I had found an english book. All 650 pages of it were ploughed through in a day and the kind stall holder let me swap it for another.

A final bus yesterday afternoon brought me here and I am now debating what to do for the next few weeks until Lucy arrives. Saturday looks like an attempt at Monte Tronador which is one of the highest peaks in the vicinity by some way and the summit, on the Argentina/Chile border, is supposed to give outstanding views. I am going with an english couple that I met in El Bolson and we hope to trek to the refuge below the summit and get a guide plus the winter gear (crampons etc) once there. We have been reliably informed this is possible, and it avoids having to pay unnecessarily if the weather is not good. After that back here, maybe some spanish lessons and definitely some more trekking. Bariloche is the ideal location for it with well established paths and refuges throughout the large Nahuel Huapi national park accessible with a short bus journey. The town itself is on the edge of a large lake and is in the skiing area with several resorts nearby (although the season doesn´t start until June). One of it´s attractions apparently is chocolate, well i guess as it´s my birthday a small half kilo bar won´t do any harm.........