Flat....
Yup, we've left the world of gorgeous lakes and stunning mountains peppered with amazing glaciers behind and after a 14 hour bus journey we´re at the sea, in a land of flat.
the horizon is now miles away...
its really weird.
we are in scuba capital of argentina here... boats leaving the beach to take them somewhere ... who knows .... I haven´t been tempted yet.
there´s so much more to do.
We have been filling our time up with watching Orcas chasing sea lions, penguins up real close and the biggest sea elephants I have ever seen. If any of you have seen (or read) Dune - and that´s probably only a handful of you - it reminded me of the worms. Took him about 4 worm-like slithers to make the edge of the sea. and he seemed exhausted - the sort of flump he made at the end of each bout of exertion reminded me of the times when I was recovering from a hangover on the couch on a sunday afternoon and the remote control was just out of reach, reach reach just get it and then flump...
We went down to Punta Tomba to see more Penguins and this time they were up close . I wouldn't say you could get eyeball to eyeball as they are so wee/ ickle/ small (delete as appropriate), but certainly they were close enough to peck your privates if they got the mind too.
Afterwards we went to Gaiman to look at the Welsh (BTW well done wales although the Irish certainly won the 2nd Row Battle, roll on the lions - henson/ o'driscoll???)
Anyway, it was a really bizarre peaceful place. After miles and miles of a really arid landscape you come over the crest of a hill and the whole valley is green.
A lot of streetnames are Miguel Jones and there was an Oscar Thomas, Welsh language peppers the signs and dragons and wels flags flutter everywhere.
Bizarre.
For some reason Welsh (!!?) Cream Teas are the tourist thing. But you can´t just do 1 cream bun you have to do the whole lot.
So rather than fatten up we wandered around a bizzare theme/ sculpture park made from rubbish.
It made sense at the time.
Anyway, we´re now off up north to the high mountains via cordoba.
Am hoping that the bus journey up combined with some Bariloche acclimitization will hold me in good stead and there won´t be any HACE HAPE Brekenridge experiences.
This time I have added some photo´s for you.
Hope all is well back there and this relative flood of info makes up for the two weeks drought!
E
lakes, pink noses and sore bums
Hello there,
apologies for our absence from the world of e mail. Since last we met we have been travelling through the Argentinian lake district. First couple of stops in damp rainy towns with squillions of American tour buses from the huge cruise ships that dock there. The most amusing bit was accomodation, being ushered off the streets from 1 sister to another in the hopes that someone in the family could accomodate us, to staying with ´Don Raul', with his extensive knowledge and fondness for wood burning stoves. As you can imagine it wasn't long before Eoin had his head in the fire trying to make it bigger, which was met with horror and further explanations of the benefits of keeping your house damp and cold! Good for my spanish! From there we did a combination boat, bus 12 hour trip through the Chilean and Argentinian lakes, which was pretty cool and then arrived at our current base Bariloche. A hive of activity and very popular with South Americans as a holiday destination. It is very beautiful, a town on the side of a huge lake with loads of mountains all around. We arrived just in time for the Paddy's Day celebrations in a cleverly named 'Wilkennys'. We celebrated with a suitably multi-national crew. At the time we thought, wow he Argentinians really know how to celebrate St Paddy's Day but we have since discovered this was just a normal night out for them!The funniest moment was when an Irish guy grabbed the mike off the band and started singing Molly Malone. About 3 of us joined in when he forgot the words, but the dancing public were generally un-impressed with this display of Oirishness and were much happier when the band big-upped St Páddy with a Ricky Martin rendition!
You'll be amazed to know that we ran away from all the big night out action the next day and retreated to a hostel in the mountains. As we drove up there was a girl doing running stretches in the grass outside, which Eoin mistook for yoga. When we went in a Eoin smelt incense he started to panic that we would be meditiating for the next few days!!! Luckily twas not the case, they even had satellite so that we could watch the rugby!! It was great, we met some great people and have been on a 2 day trek in the mountains, staying in a refugio, and went on a 60 km bike ride yesterday (sore bums)around the lakes. Still having an amzing time, ,meeting great people, igonoring the annoying ones and improving the old spanish daily.
Eoin is still on the quest for the biggest steak. His previous plan was to learn the words for the different meats but he has now decided to use photos of previously slain beasts and has mastered vocab for 'bigger'
Weather is pretty up and down, we have aquired bits of wind and sunburn and a few new freckles, and Eoin has acquired a Gerry Adams beard. I am currently trying to convince him of the merits of trimming his moustache so that he doesn't find his moustache interferes with enjoyment of eating his steak!
Hope you're all well and happy. We're heading off tonight on a night bus to the coast. Apparently the seats recline fully back into beds and you get wine and food, all for a mere 15 of your finest English pounds!
Lots of love
Back from the wilds
Hello again,
Back in the real world again (P. Natales).
Just back from "doing" the "W" in the Torres national Park (thanks for the concern guys, but don´t worry the fire is now over although it was still smoldering at the east end and the land looks pretty devastated).
Anyway, trekking in the park was a truely magical experience.
Being non-traditional we apparently did it backwards but hey hoh that´s the people we are. However it seemed to make sense as the final morning was all downhill and looking at the poor people plodding uphill was even more rewarding as we could see the finish.
70km of hiking over 3 1/2 days was pretty exerting especially as we got our food calculations a bit wrong so had to do make do on raisons for breakfast, cheese and crackers for lunch on the 2nd last day. But the scenery was stunning and the changes from one valley to the next pretty unique. Walking through beautiful forests with Glaciers round every corner and Woodpeckers, Parrots and Owls flying around above your heads. Its pretty hard to make any sort of sensible comparisons.
The park is pretty unspoilt at the moment (apart from the fire but most of the burnt land is outside the main area of the park - the "Circuit" is closed for those who know what I´m on about) especially as there is no direct acces by road so you have to hike or boat in.
However there are a lot of "trains" of trekkers following their guides. Inclucing one Japonese couple who rushed past us and their guide wasd carrying their ruckscaks as well as his own. So on certain sections it may be busy enough that you see all of 20 - 30 people! So on a Lake district level it´s not that busy but when you could go for hours on some sections and not see anyone you did notice it.
I´d advise you all to get on the first plane and see it now!!! The landscape and atmosphere is so special that the number of tourists will only increase.
We walked on the Glaciers and did a bit of Ice Climbing which was exciting. 16 stone hanging by three little bits of metal was a real leap of faith. Aideen raced up the ice face and looks a real natural. Dunno if Cork has any Ice walls though!
The Torres peaks were truely spectacular. Climbed up to see them at dawn - 6.30 - and when we got there they were really impressive but had none of the colour all the postcards have. We thought we´d missed it but then all of a sudden it was like someone shone a red light on them and they were lit up with a glorious reddy orange.
The Wow factor was at set at stun.
In between we did a lot of trekking (15-25km a day) and it was sunny for most of the time but am so glad to be sat down here inside with no rucksack.
I was starting to really dislike my rucksack.
The sweat was pouring off me and the water is so pure coming straight from the glaciers (apart from the occasional shrimp which we nearly drank) that I had such a salt craving that I licked out the salt from an empty peanut bag.
Neil, you will be proud as Aideen has learnt how to make trangia mush. The last night´s meal of pasta, dried corn soup powder and curry powder reminded me so some of your best!
P. Natales is a lovely town. So lovely that they have a lovely vegetarian cafe (El Living) where, last night, we had a starter for me and veggie burger for aideen and then went right next door to a Parilla where the steak was the best I´ve had so far on the trip. Such foresight by the Town planners!
Have uploaded a couple of photo´s but internet is v. slow so may have to wait for others when get to a city.
Hope life in the real world is keeping you all well.
Take care and keep on trekking!
Eoin (PPS for Aideen)
