Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
White-water rafting on Manso to the Chilean border
I got on a mini-bus and drove for two hours with our group to the manso river. We had a second breakfast and then got kitted up in wetsuits and stuff. We got on the water after having our pictures taken and there were some calm parts of the river to practise as it was grade III (not too hard but some of us including me were beginners.). I think our team was pretty good and only two people fell out unintetionally. There was a lot of boat tipping and falling in and we were able to go through some rapids ourselves out of the boat. The rapids had funny names like exorsista and garganta profunda.
We had lunch at a campsite and then had half an hour on the beach by the beautiful green clear water and I went in for another dip. Much colder without a wetsuit!
Refugio Frey
I went on a hike up to Refugio Frey which is a good few hours tough hike (in my opinion) up and around a mountain but not to the top. Apparently it's one of the easiest but I'm not so sure. I went up with an English guy I met in the hostel who has been going lots of trekking and so had no problem alomst running up. He was a good pacer I suppose. At the top there was a refugio (refuge) which really was a refuge as I was really exhausted. There was a lagoon (full of melt water I suppose from the snow) and I had a dip. Pretty cold. A girl from the shore told me I was 'loca' (mad). Good observation. I also bumped into an English couple who had been travelling for a while in south america and they told me their stories and recommendations of places to go on the descent. We all just managed to get back down the bottom to catch the bus back into town. I certainly won't be doing a hike like that any time soon. White-water rafting the next day!
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Bariloche-arrival
I arrived in Bariloche at about lunchtime and got a place in a nice hostel. I met an English guy who had been there a few days and an Australian and we wandered down to the tourist info to get info on treks. I thought I'd be brave and do a two day trek but chickened out. I'm just going to do a nice easy one tomorrow which means I can have a good sleep and don't have to miss the breakfast. I took a wander in the town and it's really touristy compared to Junín. Hardly anyone is from Argentina and there seem to be more tourists than locals. There are also lots of shops which is going to be a bit dangerous for those of you who know me and who also know the size of my backpack at the moment. I think it weighs more than me!
Junín and the Parque Nacional Lanin
I took the micro with Cesar to the park and we went for a small trek. We saw loads of different types of birds which don't even exist in England and lots of wildlife. The best thing was the view of the volcano Lanin and the mountains and the quiet. To get to the area we trekked in we had to get a boat across part of the lake which was manned by two little boys who rowed us all the way to the other side for a small fee and you had to ring a bell to get their attention. They ignored me on the way back though and I had to go and ask one of their cousins to take us. Photos will follow when I work out how to put them on from my video cam.
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