Hola!

Well yesterday we all went on a tour of the mountains and lakes around us. The bus picked us up early - 8:30am and we got back about 7pm so its was a full day excursion. It was optional but we all decided to do it. We were on the bus for a lot of the time but we stopped quite often at lookouts and to stretch our legs.

We also did 3 hikes/walks, all about an hour or so. The first one was quite steep and went up a hill to an amazing waterfall - I forget the name - I'll post the photos later. The second was a walk along the black glacier. It comes down from a mountain called El Tronador. It was so amazing, at the bottom, as the glacier melted it went into a lake at the bottom, with big chunks of blacky brown ice, that actually look like rocks really. You can see it all in the photos but it doesn't do it justice really. We were standing along the edge of the lake - the moreno - so we had an amazing view. And we were lucky to see some avalanches happen high up on the mountain.

The last walk was to another waterfall. My camera didn't have any batteries but I'll get photos off Fay. This waterfall was different to the first and was one long fall of water into a little pond at the bottom, surrounded by caves. We walked right behind it and had a great view.

The landscape is really varied - the "estepa" (not how you spell it I'm sure) are shrubby/grassy lowlands and remind me a lot of Australia. Then there's the intermediary landscape which has a special name but I forget - and that's got taller trees as well as shrubs. Then the Andean forest which is more alpine I guess. But its still feels more like Australia, as its quite dry. But at the last waterfall there was also loads of native bamboo everywhere so it felt quite jungle-ish.

I got really burnt yesterday on my shoulders - the only day I didn't put sunscreen on before I left the hotel - as it was cooler and windy the day we arrived. But yesterday we had perfect weather, and I think cos we were higher up, I got really burnt :( Not happy Jan.

Today (sunday), Fay and I are just relaxing - we had lunch earlier and are about to go to the park so listen to our ipods and read a bit... I've got a long sleeve top on though and a big hat as well to shield me from the sun!

Tomorrow afternoon we got across the border into Chile and arrive at Puerto Varlas late at night!

x