Walking in the Lake District

Throughout the Lake District in Argentina, there are chocolate box towns, many of which have an architectural style similar to Switzerland. This style is a little exaggerated, which certainly annoyed some of our Swiss friends! Of course, being a Lake District, there were plenty of stunning lakes and walks. The thing that amazed me the most was the amount of wild flowers, in particular lupins, which lined vertually all the streets and lanes of the countryside. It was particularly nice to see hundreds of wild strawberries, in typical alpine style.

Gaucho Friends

Whilst in Bariloche, we decided to go pony trekking across the Patagonian landscape in true guacho style! We had two lovely horses and Stu was very brave, especially since he´s not really ridden a horse before. We were guided by two guachos, one guacha girl and a crazy guacho - he spent most of the time hunting hares with his two greyhounds (who were very hungry as they hadn´t eaten for days). Two hours into the ride his dogs had caught two hares, which were skinned and hung up to dry during lunch.

For lunch we found a clearing, with a bit of shelter from the fierce Patagonian westery winds. We tied the horses to some scrubs and searched for firewood to build an open fire, which would later be used as our parilla (or BBQ). Whilst the wood burned, we ate nibbles of cheese and salami with crackers. Once the charcoal was warm enough, the guacha pulled out four massive hunks of steak and eight fat sausages (and some lovely empandadas for me). We watched the world go by, washing down our parilla with cheap red wine.

After lunch, it was back on the horses and back to the ranch. We would definitely to that again - it was a real treat to see the Patagonian countryside by horseback. We used Carol Jones, who was lovely. Food was good and the cake was great!

Working Our Way Down South

Well, we left Huaraz with a great send off by all the other volunteers, which was lovely. Since then, we´ve more or less been sat on a bus. We gone from Huaraz to Lima (8 hours), then jumped straight on a bus to Tacna (18 hours), then taken a cab to Arica in Chile (1 hour) where we stayed overnight (phew). The next day we took a very posh bus with a flat bed - the height of luxury, to Santiago (29 hours), where we stayed overnight again. The following night we took the bus to Osorno (16 hours) and then in the morning took another bus to Bariloche in Argentina (6 hours). So we´ve literally been on a bus for the last 4 days to get right down to the Argentinian Lake District approximately 3,500 KM below Huaraz! It´s absolutely beautiful here. There are plenty of crystal blue lakes sitting at the foot of the lovely alpine mountains of the lower Andes and lots of chocolate shops. We plan to savour both later! One thing though, it´s very chilly down here and the wind is bitter! Ouch! We´re here for a couple of days and then off further south for more cool, crisp days and amazing glaciers.