Wandering Around the World

Well our crazy days of trying to speak and understand Latin Spainish are well and truly over. 3 months seemed so long at the start of our world adventure but has certainly whizzed by. Over our final italiano charasco burger and chips in the restaraunt at Santiago airport we had a laugh thinking back on all the weird and wonderful people, places and experiences we've encounted. We were almost sad to leave. Just at the right time before the tears began to flow a gaggle of nuns toddled by making the South American nun count an impressive 32. (Nun counting started in Sao Paulo when we were waiting for our bus to Foz de Iguazu and carried on in most bus/coach stations. Seems rather sad, I know, but when your killing time nun counting is the way to go)

Oh yeah, it's now the 3rd of February but we didn't even get to see and of the 2nd. Not too sure where it went but all I can say is it had nothing to do with excess alcohol intake. The flight went pretty smoothly once the pilot announced they had a couple of final checks to make sure everything was 100%.

On arriving in Auckland at 4.30 am we had our tent checked for "illegal soil" and we were home free. Sarah's Uncle (Frank) had kindly offered to pick us up and when we got through to the main exit, at just gone 5am, there he was hugging his coffee. What a star!
Depsite not having much sleep the night before Frank also managed to take us round a couple of the nearby attractions being:

• an extinct volcano, the One Tree Hill domain, which had the loudist insects in the world and was only 30mins walk from Sarah's uncles house.

• The trendy and modern harbour, station and streets of Auckland city

• Mt. Eden with even closer views of the Sky tower and the moutain ranges in the distance.

Never one`s to sit back and do nothing we decided to fit in another 2 day trek in the gorgeously green lake packed Parque Huerquehue. We had two days before heading over to Mendoza, Argentina which made the days pretty long. The walking was all under the shade of monkey puzzle tree forests around numerous blue lakes. Extra insentive came from the natural geothermal pools based at most campsites at the end of the trail. The nearby volcano Valarica,just outside Pucon, helping to heat the springs. After a days walking the pools lived up to expectation with steaming hot water to soothe aching muscles and bones. We went in more than once just to make sure we were relaxed enough before putting our heads down.

We got up before dawn and make porridge in the moonlight. Just to make sure we were heading the right way the farms dog decided to follow us along the cow track. We thought he`d stop once we got back into the park but 8hrs later the dog "Mut-mund" as we named him was still by our sides. We let the park rangers know about Mut-mund`s wandering antics to which they just nodded and said he`d been seen around before.

We´re now back in San Martin de los Andes (SMA) after arriving back from another brilliant 3 day hike. The weather was more than perfect, no biblical storms or snow to contend with this time, plus the route a little easier.

On the first day we took the rather expensive tourist boat trip acoss the Lago Lacar to Quila Quina, a tiny lake side village/resort. Having bought a map of Park Lanin, which included our route, we set off in search of the trailhead. All I can say is that navigating with a 1:200,000 scale map on a trail with no markings isn´t the easiest thing in the world. Thanks to the help from an Argentine couple we found the trail, an unmarked cart track starting next to a sign in Spainish saying something along the lines of "Private property do not enter" Another 4 hours and a few strip to shorts and sandles river crossings we made it to the hidden lake. It was more than worth the effort. We found the wild campsite, dumped our packs and headed down the the waters edge. We were truly blinded by the sun as the waters surface turned into a huge golden mirror. As the sun sunk behind the mountains in the distance the temperature plummeted making soup and pasta followed by hot chocolate the tastiest meal in the wolrd.

Waking up to freezing conditions when you´re wrapped up in a cozy sleeping bag is never nice but we had a long day ahead so only had 1/2hr lie-in. Come on, we deserved it. A huge bowl of yummy porridge and some chocolate later and we were off before any one else had even appeared from their tents. The mornings´ trail led us through the tallest bamboo and up and over to the next valley. With plastic ticker tape sporatdiclly placed along the trail we manged fine up until lunch which we had in a little clearing. Not too sure if it was the sugar rush from lunch but we lost the the trail and had to struggle through bracken, bamboo, brambles down hill. We managed to find the trail once more and crossed paths with a bunch of Argentine lads walking the other way. They said the next camp was 5hrs off but had brilliant lakeside beach access! From this point onwards the going was easier and followed pretty close to the lake edge. The lads description was spot on as we approached the camping area the lake`s edge was little more than 10 metres away; brilliant for skimming stones (only managed 13 bounces)

Our previous relaxing night definitely didn`t make our 5am start any easier. We had to make the 11.30 bus to nearby Hua Hum, only 9km away but it was either that or wait until the 8pm bus. The walk to Hua Hum was pretty easy and just followed along a 4x4 track `til it met the main(?) dust road. We asked at the Argentinian border control about the bus and they said we could wait anywhere and it`d pick us up. After a bit of a wait by the side of the road a cloud appeared in the distance. We were both glad to find the cloud was our bus and jumped on board whilst trying not to inhale too much dust. We were soon back in SMA were the cosy ensuite was waiting for us along with the local and much needed laundrette.

Settling in Bariloche
So we arrived into Bariloche after a mammoth 33hr bus journey and in need of some luxury we found this great little hotel run by the craziest grannie ever. The decor was dated but had the comfiest bed, well anything beats a semi reclining coach seat. During the day we made our preperation for the 3-4days trekking ahead of us; got our food together, popped into the local mountainering club for a map and status of the route then picked up some trekking poles due to the potentially snowy conditions on some of the route. As we were returning home from dinner it started to rain and didn`t let up for 15hours!

Bad weather sit out
Calling the next day a right-off, due to the weather ,we managed to find two beds in a cosy but outdoor adventure orientated hostel. The perfect place to sit out the bad weather. After a look on the internet for the local forecast we decided to make our way to the mountains the following day.

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 1
We woke early to find the rain had eventually stopped and made our way to the bus stop. After asking a bus driver and a helpful Dutch couple we rushed to the right stop, chucked our bags in the boot and jumped onboard along with 20 other trekkers with standing room only. The coach was so heavily laden that it scrapped the road as we swung round corners up hill.

After our human sardine tin of a bus journey it was a joy to be making the most of the suns rays and taking in the scenery of the surrounding lakes and mountians. After 4 1/2hrs of passing through dense green forest and scrub our nights stop over come into sight. After our fist experience of walking over snow and crossing a fast flowing river we managed to find a great spot for our tent at the edge of the nearby lake. An interesting dinner of ham and pea soup, pasta and instant potato flakes was soon followed by a well deserved nights kip.

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 2
Early to bed early to rise and all that. Yet again the weather had the upper hand and we spent the day:

• diverting mini rivers away from our tent

• listening to thunder rumble around the valley we were in

• keeping warm in our sleeping bags

• eatting crackers, salami, chocolate and rasins plus - anything but leave the tent in the biblical downpour

• making runs down the side of the lake and over the river for the essential loo stops at the refugio

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 3
As the weather settled it gave us the window to make a break for it. The only thing to left to decide was whether to return back down the path we had come up on day 1 or push on up out of the snow covered valley slopes and down and out of the next valley. The snow was all too inviting and were soon walking up the snowy and rocky slopes, following the all important trail "red dot" markers. 2 hours and some scrabling up rocks later we were on top of the 2000m high exposed ridge looking down across scree slopes, meandeering rivers and our next set of snow dusted slopes to climbed in the distance. It took us another two 1/2 hrs of forest trails, boggy areas and a few river crossings to reach the mountain slopes we had viewed earlier. For our efforts we were rewarded with the largest rainbow I`ve ever seen, spanning the entire valley now below us.

As we climbed higher the weather closed in, turning the sky a grey/purple colour and eventually giving way to the expect down pour. From this point we could see refugio Jakob far away down in the valley. Having our end point in sight made the evil scree slopes easier to negotiate but with thickly packed scrub and worsening conditions we lost the trail. Not hard when the trail is through a huge boggy area. We pushed on, following rivers down slope, until we reached the main river next to the refugio. Now that light was fading fast there was no point in trying to pick the trail up again so waded across the river and soon found the refugio, our lifeline for the night.

After a hearty meal of pasta, instant veggie soup and potato flakes we put our heads down for the night with the rain pelting it down on our poor tent.

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 4

We packed our soggy selves up and headed out from the refugio down into the adjoining valley before coming to the crossing point just after a huge waterfall. We presumed there would be a simple bridge of sorts but we presumed wrong. What we were confronted with was steel cable spanning width of the river. Yet agin there was no choice. We had to wade through the torrent of water and hang on for, litterally, dear life until we reached the other side. Sarah`s bag got a little wet but apart from that we survived unscathed.

Returning to Argentina we had the guarenteed luxury of staying in a comfy bed with ensuite for the whole of the festive season. In addition to this the views from the chilled out sofa areas, the hostel basically faced over the town and then the lakes and mountains beyond, were worth it alone.

Not all days were spent looking round tacky tourist shops, enjoying the best hot chocolate in the world or buying even more handmade chocolate, honest.

Christmas was a bit of a let down with regard to the festiveness of the whole town. They didn`t even have a Christmas tree in the main square or any lights. I made up for it in our little dorm by buying Sarah some decorations for one of her christmas presents.

For Boxin day we went with a brilliant dutch couple to the nearby Moreno glacier, the most active glacial region in the world. We hired a car and spent the whole day gazing at the glacier. With the face being 50m high and almost 5km wide the chunks that fell off into the lake made one hell of a crash.

We saved the best local attraction til last. The local bird reserve was a bit of a joke with huge fallen down concrete telegraph poles and bashed up bird hides. We did get up close with swooping hawks protecting their territory though.