SlideAway

So we have now been in Chile for just over a week, and it was an adventurous one at that! We travelled to Pucon, via Osorno, from Bariloche, Argentina. Pucon is a small tourist built town, in the Chilean lake district. The main attractions to draw people to the town are adventure based activities; rafting, kayaking, mountaineering etc, or the more relaxing natural hot springs.

So our intial plans for Pucon was to climb the snow capped, Volcano Villarrica, one day and take it easy in the hot springs the next. That, however, wasn´t how it happened. When we arrived on the Friday the rain was somewhat torrential, and was forecast to continue on the Saturday, so treks up the volcano where out of the question. After a day getting acquainted with the town, we were offered the chance to go to the hot springs, we took this opportunity, seeing as the clouds where clearing and the night sky visible. After a bouncy and slippery trip in the back of a minibus we arrived at the springs to find 7 pools to take our fancy, and a single wooden hut to change and keep our clothes in! So having had a mainly wet and cold day we headed straight for the nearest pool. Walking down the steps our feet tingled as the blood rushed back into our extremities, with the temperature pleasantly warm and soothing! After about 15 minutes and a slight wrinkling of our skin we decided to move into another pool, we couldn´t determine whether this next pool was hotter or not, due to the freezing night air we had walked through in soaking swim gear. So after a few more pool changes, we settled in a mid temperature pool, and took to watching, the now clear, night sky, a large half moon, bright, and plentiful stars, and then right on cue a shooting star streaked across the sky. At the top of the springs was one pool, in which, we had seen nobody, so being the ever inquisitive we headed in only to find this one not to be a "hot" spring.The journey back from the springs was pretty fun, as the night had gone on and the beer flowed, for some more than others. Two Germans in the group had come to life anf to make it more interesting, our driver put on some German dance music, and soon erupted the two man rave in the back of a hyundai mini bus.

Stock Photo of the Springs and changing hut

So still to visit the volcano we had been assured the weather was on the turn on Monday morning, being the trusting type we listened to the guides advice, set our alarm and awoke at 6am, only to find an overcast day and reports from the base of the volcano confirming what we could see above our heads. So back to bed we headed. The same routine happened on Tuesday, 6am, rise to find more cloud overhead, only this time the reports from the base where claiming clear skies. Apprehensively we loaded into the minibus, along with two Israeli girls, and a Canadian, Austrailian, and headed for the hills. On route we found the van to be passing through some thick fog, before entering the national park. As the van sped through the dust tracks, the skies exploded into a glorious blue, giving us our first glimpse of the task ahead of us. From the van we took a small walk to jump on a chair lift, this part scared Katie, never having had the pleasure, of your knees being taken from under you by a metal bar! At the top of the chair, all the groups where gathering to put on, full cold weather gear, and crampons. Our guide showed us how to hold the ice axe and what to do if we slipped, but then continued on, we wondered if he knew something we didn´t. No cold clothes, no crampons, the brain was ticking, until canadian asked, and we where told "the snow is soft and the crampons, won´t work proper, and the extra weight on our feet would slow us down, and tire us out more quickly". That was reason enough for me! We made what was seemingly quick progress up the first slope, and at the first stopping point, the top seemed close. We then set off zig zagging our way to the summit, only to find that after 50 minutes of walking we where only slightly nearer, maybe the initial stop had caused some wishful thinking! Here we stopped for a bite to eat, a steep inclined slope, where we had to dig out a seat to stop us from sliding down the hill, after a quick 20 minute break, we where on our way again, this time walking for just on an hour, and feeling in dire need of a drink! We still hadn´t reached the summit, it was at this point lots of the groups, bunched up and the climb became slow, this allowed my mind to wander and the fear of how we where going to get down struck me. This lead to a few near misses with slipping and sliding back down the hill we had climbed. Finally the top came into view and the reality of it all so close. When reaching the top three of the five of us collapsed in a heap on the snow, the canadian went walking to the edge, and the fifth still climbing! After recoperating for a few moments and taking some much needed fluid, we finally realised the view below us.

View from the top

 Once we had air back in our lungs, we took a little walk around the openning of the volcano, and much to my disapointment you could see no lava, and smell no eggs. The smell of the fumes, was much worse than anticipated and the taste when they hit the back of your throat is horrific! So now onto the business of getting down. The guide told us to get all the cold weather gear on, even though I was still sweating buckets from the climb, he then handed us each a bum board, and then finally it clicked. The first few descents, where a little steep so the back protection, was all the equipment we needed to slide. As we got lower and the snow more wet, we needed to us the bum boards. Now, this wasn´t as easy as it might sound: deep snow, a heavy rucksac, and

Another view from the top

an ice axe as a break! Well the first few attempts could have spelt diasaster, going sideways, backwards, head first, you name it we ended up that way! Three slides later and multiple bruises we finally mastered it only to be told, that had been our final slide and we needed to walk the rest of the way!

Bruised, battered, soaked and shattered, we were shipped back out into town in the minibus, where a few well deserved beers where waiting for us, and for the first time since we had arrived in Pucon we could see the volcano from the town. Talk about an experience of a life time! This was definitely one of them! And suprisingly when we woke up the next day we could both walk, without any problems, or pain!

After a few recovery days in Pucon we have travelled North and are currently killing time in Chillan, the birth place of Bernardo O´Higgins, the man who lead Chile to independence. From here we head to Santiago, where we will spend Christmas and New Year.

And finally, a fact about Chile: it is the second-largest producer of salmon in the world.

Nuts

Here we are in the Chilean lake district, and it is just like being in the English equivalent! Vast open fields, every shade of green imaginable, luscious trees, and RAIN! A total contrast to the arid, brown, and desert like southern Argentina. There's only one thing consistent between the two and that's cows, every other field cows. Huge herds of them!
Well, first, a border crossing traumatic experience. As we are leaving Argentina, the bus is sheep herded into the Argentina entrance queue, (baring in mind we are trying to exit) both of us are feeling a little anxious, no bugger speaks english and our broken Spanish isn't getting us far. Eventually we get to the desk only to receive the right exit stamp, but no entry stamp! So it's back on the bus for another 25 minutes to the Chilean border! Once there again herded into an office but this time put in order in the queue, quite painless and another new stamp in the passport! However we are all kept in the office and in comes the sniffer dog. Alls well, then we collect our bags for them to be x-rayed, you guessed it, we both get our bags searched. Well, katies wash bag get searched, and me well, it starts with the wash bag, then the contents of the main pouch on my bag get emptied into a plastic tray, and all in search of what? PEANUTS which in actual fact are my malaria tablets, oh and guess who get to repack the bag!!!

Now that's off my chest what have we been upto? Well from el calafate we took a 28hr bus to bariloche. In the winter its one of the biggest ski resorts in Argentina, and at the right time of year quite the party town!

views over the lake

From here we had some outstanding views of the surrounding mountains, still snow capped for the most part. we took an easy hike, had both of us gasping for air after 10minutes, up cerro campanerea, the effort was well worth it, it gave us a total panoramic view of the mountain ranges and multiple lakes and islands!

some of the views

 Now bariloche had national fame, not only because of drunken students and even more drunk skiers, bariloche is notorious in the chocolate making world, and of course it would be rude not to sample it!
One final thing from bariloche, we found our cheapest carton of vino, 4.90pesos that's roughly 85p for a litre, and it puts lambrini to shame!

katie  and aforementioned wine

After nearly two months in Argentina, I finally tried maté, a herbal drink, that every man, woman, young and old drinks! Everyone carries a thermos of hot water and what looks likes hollowed out coconut, and a special sieve spoon to drink the concoction, well what can I say? It's rank, it tastes like old leather, and I've chewed on old leather! Apparently I tried the most popular, an a sweeter one is available, I won't b trying it thank you very much!

So our destination in Chile is Pucon, set within 20km of an active volcano, and surrounded by multiple hot springs, and in the shores of a massive lake! That's all we can say for now because we are still on the bus getting there!

A new feature, country fact: In Argentina, the plague is still a commonly recognised disease!

Ice Ice Baby

And England thought it had ice

Anything England does Argie does better, while reports of a foot of
snow in parts of England filter through facebook, we have travelled,
23 hours on a 3 buses, to deep south argentina to the centre of
Patagonia! More specifically EL Calafate!

El Calafate is set on the biggest lake of this fine nation, lago
Argentina, when arriving here there was a noticeable drop in
temperature combined with an increase in wind speed, described as a
constant breeze in late spring early summer. If we are experiencing
light breezes I would hate to feel a gale, the hostel appears to rock,
and jumping straight upwards resulted in being blown about a foot from
where you initially took off!

The reason for our stay in El Calafate is to visit the world famous,
Perito Moreno glacier, one of few in the world that is actually
growing! Moving about 2m a day! The apparent notoriety of the glacier
is because of it's growth and a special event that occurs about every
two years, where the glacier meets solid ground and forms a bridge,
this acts as a dam until the water wears a tunnel through the ice, and
eventually the whole thing "explodes"

The reason for its notoriety

So on the day of our trip to the glacier we wake up to a sunny, blue
sky! But within an hour the clouds have rolled in and the forecasted
rain, turns out to be snow! We board our minibus and take the 80km
trip into the glacial nation park, through some of the surrounding,
now snowcapped, mountains. Our first stop of the day is to take a boat
out to the southern face of the glacier! This stands 40m above the
lake, and shows the impressive structure of nature! It was absolutely
Baltic on the boat, fortunately we went prepared with multiple layers
on, an just about kept warm!

A cold Katie on the boat

From the boat it was back to the bus, and a little way up the road we
where dropped off at the viewing balconies, 5km of metal walkways,
giving views of the northern and southern faces, plus the
aforementioned world famous joining of ice and land! It was actually
colder on land than the boat, and the wind seemed to pick up along
with the periodic snow storms!

Wrapped up Alex

We were told that visiting the glacier on such a day gave us much more
picturesque views as the ice appears to glow blue against the dull
backdrop, as opposed to looking white in the bright sunlight! We did also get to see the creation of ice bergs, as a chunk of ice breaks of the glacier and falls in to the lake below.

The Northern face

One of the unofficial highlights of the day came from earwigging into
an old American couples argument, which consisted of him wanting to
stay where he was, and her wanting to go onto the lower balconies, and
the back and forth argument that ensued kept us entertained whilst
eating our lunch!

We briefly met one of a group of guys who have driven from Canada
through America, and south America with a target destination of the
antarctic, I didn't have the heart to point out that there was water
between Tierra del Fuego and The Antarctic!

Think that's all to report for the time being!