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Well have been in yet another awesome place in Patagonia - really is an amazing area of Argentina. After the usual three hour delay we made it down to the end of the earth. This is the last inhabited place before the end of the earth. Am enjoying having another luxurious double room to myself with lots of squidgy pillows and lovely en-suite!! Backpacking is tough!!
Anyhow on our first day here we headed off to the snow sports area, trying our hand at a couple of activities. Safe to say I can not be trusted in snow shoes, I constantly managed to sink in the snow - think I might need to eat less!! Got a foot stuck countless time in some random hole that I managed to create! After trekking up a massive (well not that big but in snow shoes is hard work) hill Tom decided he'd dropped his camera and headed back down the hill to find it - having made it to the bottom found it in his pocket - apparently is even harder the second time especially with the added embarassement! We then got to head downhill - much more fun! Being one of the few in the group to take the tourguides advice I attempted to run down the hill - given my famous balance and lack of control I came crashing down several times, which you'll be glad to know Tom managed to catch on video! Lots of snow made the tumbling down really fun though. We then stopped off in a cool little loggers cabin for a real hot chocolate before taking a huskey ride to the lunch place. Having been seriously excited about the suprise huskey ride I'm afraid to say they stink!! The novelty of staring at their rather large bum holes wore off pretty quick and I do not think pooing while pulling a sledge is a skill i needed to witness! Also my OCD kicked in a little and apparently I like olympic style organised huskey's did not like the crazy pulling in different directions. Was def cool to have done though. In the afternoon we tried a bit of cross country skiing - again fun although I def prefer zooming downhill - rather than all this effort pushing yourself along. Following a successful lesson where we incorporated a bit of dwnhill fun and Tom managed to break his pole - unfortunately I got a little over zealous though and managed to have a small crash - on copious amounts of painkillers at mo but sure will be all good - the shoulder didn't actually dislocate. I should warn you though if you fall down a ski slope rather fast don't stick your arm straight out behind you kinda bent backwards!
On our second day we went to the national park in the morning and rode on a steam train to the end of the earth. The little history geek in me really enjoyed hearing the history of the area - the prisoners used to come down on trains in the crazy snow to cut down trees to fuel the city 20k away. There is literally a barren area called the tree cemetry where there are hundreds of stumps. We also saw a rather cool beaver damn which is so big it took the bevears threee years to build - no beavers in sight though :-(. That afternoon we headed out for a great boat trip on the beagel channel. We saw a whole little island full of wild sealions including pups and lots of birds which looked like penguins but aren't. Then much to my excitement having made clear to the captain quite how important it was we saw a penguin despite being the wrong time of year he managed to find a couple bobbing along in the distance! Seriously exciting times. Bit traumatised by the locals that used to canoe along in hollowed tree trunks to hunt naked cover in sealion fat to keep dry and warm - but guess I've never tried it so shouldn't judge! Even got to drive the boat for a bit!
Off snowbarding in Bariloche next!!
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