The Airport and some stuff that happened before I got here

Once again it has been a while since I.ve actually made a blog entry and this will actually be the last entry I make while actually being ¨on the road¨ so I will make it as good as possilble in the remaining few minutes of internet time that I have

PATAGONIA

-USHUIA

was a bit cold but still like 20 degrees except up on the mountain or on a few days when it was really cold. The park here was beautifull and the city was very charming and was perfecly what a remote cold town should be with dogs roaming the streets etc. Got to climb a mountain and see some penguins and eat some decent food.

-Puerto Natales and Torres Del Paine national park

This was a very backwater town and very very windy. We had sand blowing in our faces at all angles. We were lucky to arrive at all because on the second leg of our 16 hour bus ride the company had double booked our seats and we only got to go because we refused to get off the bus. A few people had to stand for the whole four hours.

The park here was the most amazing of the trip though with beautifull scenery and we got to take it all in from our minivan tour for slackers which we had no choice to be because we had only one day to see the whole place and it took the whole time in the van with a few mini hikes thrown in for good measure. The park was amazing with glacier lakes and chunks of glacier ice floating around and crazy mountains etc. etc. We stayed at a hostel with a crazy mean owner who had something bad to say about everything, even though we bought all kinds of tickets from her.

-El Calafate and Perito Moreno Glacier

Next stop was el Calafate. A ski resort type town, turned desert hiking resort in the summer. There is one main street that is packed with shops and cafes and tourists and many surrounding dirt roads with scattered hotels and hostels overlooking amazing views of mountains lakes and valleys. The Perito Moreno Glacier is huge and beatifull, and pieces were falling off of it all the time. We took a boat trip to get close but really the network of paths and balconies they have on a hillside infront of the glacier is just as close. This is a very well established tourist attraction, and there are really no hiking trails avaliable to explore the rest of the park, which is composed of moslty gentle hills of arid shrubs and rocky glacier covered mountains so we just stood and watched the glacier for a few hours trying to coax some really big chunks of ice into the lake...

-El Cheltain

This was a beautifull town in the middle of a national park managed by pasionate and knowledgable park staff. We did a long hike out to a glacier and on the way saw many pretty sites including canyons and river valleys and were chased by many aggressive, large, lazy flies one of which almost drove Patricia crazy. I got myself injured and did some small relaxed hikes the next day while Patricia and Luciana tackeled the toughest trail in the park. Patricia made it all the way to the end which was quite a feat and when they returned they were adequately destroyed to enjoy the 36 hour bus journey to Bariloche after a shower and a good meal (the best one in a while for me; giant triangular raviolies stuffed with squash and covered in butter and cheese. mmmmm)

-Routa Quarente (40)

After being convinced by our hostel staff of the beauty of this long, winding and largely unpaved road, we decided to go this route to Bariloche. However, the scenery, though beatifull was more or less the same for the whole 36 hours. We did get treated to seeing a sunset and moonrise over an exceptionally flat part of the road. On one side of the bus the moon was full and glowing orange as it rose over the horizon in a matter of minutes, while the sky was still glowing pink and red from the sunset. Very amazing. Then we slept and woke up in Bariloche.

-Bariloche

Bariloche is another town in the middle of a national park but in contrast to tiny quiet el Cheltain this is a bustling city. Set on a giant blue lake surrounded by distant snowy mountains and scattered with variouse forms of pine tree, Bariloche closely resembled Vancouver. And when we got the view from above, the network of lakes, and islands in lakes and intricately curved shorlines, it strongly resembled the gulf islands. But the clear blue water of the lakes was quite unique and make it look more like the mediterainian and I wished we hadn,t been too lazy to pack our bathing suits on our sole excursion out of the city.

RETURNING to Buenos Aires

We returned to Buenos Aires on another rediculously long bus ride - this time with very large comfortable seats but with very loud airconditioning and flashes of porn on the tv.s, and bad food except for the chicken and mashed potatoe dinner, - and did some shopping and went out for dinner and slept and woke up and now I am here at the airport... and I have to go get my plane