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!