Onwards and Southwards to El Bolson

Now it´s my turn to write on this blog thing so excuse the sp mistakes and general rambling!

We are now back on the road good and proper, having left Mendoza on Sunday. Coach journeys over here are becoming more random each time and after a ropey nights sleep onboard we woke up to a crackin game of bus bingo! There was still another 6 hours to go so we thought it would pass the time. The excitment from the rest of the passengers was overwhelming as the coach porter handed out the bingo cards and got out his petite bag of bingo balls. "Eyes down for a full house" he shouted in spanish and then picked up his trusty microphone. Numbers aren´t my strong point in english let alone spanish, however, there was a prize at stake so this bit of fun suddenly became serious! It was the longest 10 minutes of my life and the tension was nail biting; after 13 hours on a bus anything is. Before I knew where I was with my seisenta and setentas Han had one number left, suddenly ¨doce¨ was called out and she shouted BINGO! From a random game of bingo she/we had a lovely cheap bottle of plonk/paint stripper as the prize.

El Bolson is a beautiful little town and surround by mountains. Our hostel, ´Refugio Patigonico´, was great, loads of space, incredible views and surrounded by countryside; a nice change from city hostels. The hostel told us about Lago Puelo, a lake about 30mins south by bus and is gorgeous. Set against snowcapped mountains it has a couple of small beaches which we headed for on Tuesday. An afternoon of sunbathing and having a swim in the lake (with the mountains in the background) was just what we need after that 18 hour bus journey the day before.

Obviously lazing around is great but as we are surrounded by mountains it would be silly not to climb a couple. Well, now that I´m back from doing that I´m not so sure. We caught yet another bus, north this time, to the begining of a trail which would take us to Cajun del Azul. The canyon is one of the area´s great sights and after a 30 min walk we were at the beginning of the trail head, next to the Rio del Azul. The river at this point is very wide and there´s a lot of rapids so to cross it you have to use the Índiana Jones´style rope bridges, avoiding the missing wooden slats. We then hiked for about 3 1/2 hours through the alpine forest and reached the canyon at about 4pm. Whilst you are hiking you meet the river a few times and it looks so inviting and refreshing, however, its a glacial river and freezing at this time of the year. The final stage of the hike goes over bolders and up wooden ladders to another bridge which crosses the Cajun del Azul which is an incredible sight below you.

It was late afternoon and we decided to stay the night at a Refugio which was a couple of minutes from the river. Refugio Cajun del Azul, as it´s known, is an amazing place and really in the middle of nowhere so pretty much self sufficient with a large kitchen garden small holding and homemade beer! By night this large wooden cabin is lit by candels and a couple of tiny bulds running off a car battery. The refugio cooked us a amazing meal of spicy lamb patties, potatoes, salads and chutney, oh my god it was lush!!! After another couple of bottles of homemade beer we headed up stairs for our sleeping bags and what had become the biggest bed in the world. Not because of the beer but because we were on mattresses on the floor with nine middle aged argentinian men, every square inch of floor was taken up with either backpacks or bodies. Needless to say we slept well and were back on the trail by 9am and after an hour of walking the aches and pains were subsiding.
From El Bolson we are heading to Puerto Madryn, whale watching country so catch you later for more longwinded explanations!!!!!

Mendoza

We arrived in Mendoza on Thursday morning about a 15 hour coach journey from BA. The coaches are ace here, 160 degree reclining seats, films, blankets and pillows, but the funniest food arrangements!

We were due to start at Intercultural Language School on Monday so had a few days to look around, before we moved into our host family house. We joined up with a couple called Zoe and Paul to do a wine and bike tour around the bodegas in Maipu, just outside Mendoza. It wasn´t quite the idyllic and relaxing trip we had imagined. The bodegas are quite far apart and you had to share the roads in between with buses and lorries, constantly overtaking us but judging it pretty thinly! We survived and visited 4 bodegas, covering about 30km, and drinking our own body weight in wine!

On Sunday we moved over to Godoy Cruz and to our home for the week, casa de Malena! Other students stay at Malena´s house and while we were there there was also Denise (from Canada) and Merrian (from Brazil), as well as the house pets - Cato the gato, possibly the ugliest and most scared cat ever, and Flash the 20 year old tortoise! Malena is the most amazing cook and it was amazing to get home made meals every night, Tortás, Pasta fresci, roasted mini pùmpkins, mmmm! Although it´s taken a few days to get used to eating so late over here, 10pm at the earliest. Spanish school was hard, speaking English is banned inside so communicating is tricky when you only know a few words, I think we picked up a few things but definitely still need some serious practice.

We´re both suffering from some serious hangovers today after 2 nights of drinking. Last night we went to a great little club but we didn´t get there till 2am and only got to bed at 5.30am! It´s definitely necessary to have a siesta here if you want to live like the Argentinos do! We leave Mendoza tomorrow night, heading down to Patagonia, starting with a few days in El Bolson by the lake district before heading down to El Calafate, the perito Moreno glaciar and then down to Torres del Paine in Chile.

Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires on the 4th November after a nightmare 24 hours of flying. Our hostel for the week was called Carlos Gardel, after the tango legend. The place was fantastic and became our little haven for the week while we got used to the heat (32 degrees most days). We were based in San Telmo, a barrio south of the city centre, home to the Feria de Antigüedades every sunday, where a central square called Plaza Dorrego becomes full of stalls selling antiques, bric a brac and treasures. I think we hit this on the best weekend at the end of our stay as it seemed to be an anniversary of the feria and everyone was dressed up in costume.

We spent most of our days exploring the different barrios of BA, sunbathing in the smart parks of Palermo next to lakes, we visited the cemetery in Recoletta - a weird tourist attraction but a really peaceful and interesting place to spend a few hours, some of the mausoleums are huge and really gothic.

We walked to La Boca one day, the barrio just south of San Telmo, know for it´s colourful painted corrugated houses, the area was heaving with tango dancers, street asados and stalls.

One of our favourite spots in BA was Bar Federal, in San Telmo. It was right by our hostel and served the most amazing selection of food. Picada´s, wooden boards filled with hams, salames, cheeses, etc. And Pancho Completos, huge hotdogs with cheese and bacon - not healthy or particularly argentinian but yum! Another bonus was the huge glasses of Malbec, 2 for about 2 pounds! After a week we decided it was time to think about moving on and decided that the city of Mendoza was our next destination.