Oh yes! I'm in country number 12 - CHILE! It's been quite a few weeks; much has happened since my last post. I'll try my best to remember, forgive me if some of the details are abit sketchy.

Thinking back to Bariloche... seems a long time ago already. I camped up in the hills in my little tent. It was cold. Very, very cold. In Mensoza I had begged for chilliness - no more. I kept getting these odd sensentions of tingling in my legs - I came to realise these are what goosebumps feel like after 6 months in hot countries. There's only one way to keep warm when you're camping... MIDNIGHT FEASTS! Yep. The best thing was that I had my own little house to live in. I haven't had privacy for a long time and it was really good to just have my own space. I went for an accidental hike. By this I mean I went for a stroll and ended up walking 30km. I saw SNOW. It was really beautiful, wooded hills with mountains on all sides. I felt very calm. My second walk and went round some of the 'Circuito' in Bariloche, which most people cycle round, but I walked because I was being thrifty. Had beautiful sunny weather and listened to the seed-pods popping in the sunshine. It's really touristy in Bariloche itself - it's the place where all the Argentians come for their holidays to get away from the stuffy heat of the north, but up there in the hills its much more peaceful. I did a couple of trips on the bus down to Bari, for hot chocolate and food shopping. It felt so much like I was in the European Alps I had to pinch myself. After five nights I decided it was time to move south again, and got the night bus to El Calafate; REAL Patagonia...

RUTA 40

This was my longest bus journey yet. All together about 28 hours on the bus, plus a few hours either side of general moving. As I said to one companion "There's a whole lot of moving involved in travelling". Well done El - Captain Obvious. The best thing about this trip was the exicting route we took. Literally went all over the place. Got to see some awesome stuff along the way, which I will now quickly summarise for you... 100s and 100s of miles of 'La Pampa' - scrub land as far as the eye can see, I became very familiar with the vanishing point of the road ahead. Wildlife - Flamingoes, 'Nandus' (ostrich-esque things), wild horses, armadillos, hares and HEAPS of condors. I now seem to see condors wherever I go... I think they can sense the exhaustion and are waiting to feed off my carcass when I finally drop. Bit morbid El?! Haha. There's alot of time to think on these bus trips. I like the head-space actually. As long as I'm moving I don't seem to get bored. It's being stationary I'm not good at. I watched as weather-fronts came and went, rainbows form and fade in the sunset; darkness slowly creeping in from the east. I hate thinking of all the things I miss in the night. We stopped at a few towns along the way, pretty bleak. The best thing about this journey was meeting my current travel buddy, my bus-friend; Rafaelle! A Swiss-German/Italian. He is fluent in 5 languages, damn him! Anyway, we got chatting and realised that we had the same plans for the next two weeks so joining forces seemed like the natural thing to do. We arrived in El Calafate, sleep deprived and hungry.

EL CALAFATE AND PERITO MORENO - THE WORLD'S LAST ADVANCING GLACIER

It may sound like a spanish story book, but this is actually the main attraction of this area. El Calafate is again touristy - not as bad as Bari but still basically existing solely for tourism. People come here for the trip to the glacier - which is pricey, especially for foreigners who get charged twice as much as locals. We adopted another german speaker - Dorit; who Rafi met on the internet and who was actually from Germany. Luckily all these guys spoke beautiful english (my german ain't so great and that's an understatement). We had to wait a day for the weather to improve but this was much needed after the mega-journey. It was utter bliss to sleep in a real bed again after camping. I am so very fond of beds. The weather got just good enough for us to get the bus to the national park, much excitement was in the air. It was really, really worth it. Perito Moreno is HUGE. It's hard not to squeal with excitement when you first see it, or remain dumb-struck; either will suffice. Magestic, massive, monsterous Moreno. How's that for some aliteration. Once out on the many walkways and view points you get pretty close to the big guy. 60 metres high (not counting the other two-thirds under the lake) and countless kilometres in length, it's a total beast. As it's still advancing (up to 2 metres a day!) there are constant groans, cracks and creaks coming from within the ice, and huge bits falls off into the lakes - much to our glee. It sounds sometimes like a war is going on in there, definately has a life of it's own this big bit of Ice. We had a mixed bag with the weather - bit of everything, but the sun came out sometimes and then you really see all the incredible shades of blue. Can't rememeber why this is but it looks damn cool. It was really great to be there with my new friends. Some experiences are just meant to be shared. After 7 hours with Perito we were ready to return to the warmth of the hostel. The temperature difference between where I had been for 2 weeks in the north and there was about 30 degrees. Celsius. An amazing day though.

EL CHALTEN

The three of us now travelled slightly northwards to the hiking hub of El Chaltén - deep in El Parque Nacional de Los Glaciares. I had decided to camp again, as all the campsites on the trails are free. This meant carrying my bag up a very steep path for about 7km but definately worth it - incredible views of the valley and mountains. Arriving hot and tired at Lago Capri campsite - perfect view of massive mount Fitzroy and a crystal clear lake to camp next to. The word idyllic springs to mind. I sat up on a rocky lookout and listened to the gentle lap of the lake and birdsong. Not a single other sound. The sun set over the mountain and Fitzroy loomed like a ever watchful sentry. I soaked up the last rays of sun before heading to my tent. It was like a dream. Then it was cold. Really cold. Got up at sunrise to watch 'Roy turn red, then pink, then gold. Back to bed. Raf and Dorit arrived to get me up and we did a big long hike into the mountains. It was hard going at some points, but worth it when we arrived up underneath the mountain and glaciers. Exhausted by the time I reached base camp again, plus decided to go all the way down to town to get Dorit's super warm sleeping bag then back up. However, I had the excitement of Tom (another German - seriously, I'm constantly surrounded by Germans, it's like we never won the war! Haha, JOKE!!!) who had cooked me CHICKEN CURRY! Legend doesn't even cover it. A can of Quilmes beer and another perfect end to the day. We spotted little lights of the mountain climbers up Fitzroy; I still can't believe people climb it - it's a total beast of a mountain. Sheer sides, snowy ridges - seems like madness to me. Incredible amount of stars too. Back to a lovely warm sleeping bag. Dorit is my saviour! Another big hike the next day, this time up the other valley. Much easier than the day before and we had sunbathed at the lake whilst watching icebergs drift about. Surreal. The weather was absolutely perfect. Not a single cloud in the sky. Do you know how often they get weather like that in Patagonia?! About once or twice a year. Lucky some? Walked back to my tent along a wild disused trail - I like getting off the beaten track. Listened to the distant rumble of avalanches after the hot day. They sound like thunder. Sometimes you see them and then hear the sound a few seconds later. Mesmerising. The next day I got up at 4.30am to pack up and walk back down in time for our bus. Pitch-black, cold, quite scary. Saw scorpians and spiders on the way down. Rewarded myself with a banana sandwich at sunrise. El Chaltén has been magical - but it was time to hit the big time and head to Chile for some 'proper' trekking...

But for that chapter, you will have to wait. The bets were on - Would the good weather continue? Ellie had sworn to repent and turn to God if we had 5 days of good weather for our trek... another German was yet to join our numbers... and border-crossing-dramas between Arg and Chile threatened...

Until next time Chicos :)

Els the Explora