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A long bus ride from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, at 19 hours...but it went quick enough. Across the Pampas was both inspiring and monotonous, if that is possible. At one point we went over an hour on the same straight piece of road, with no bends or corners at all. The scale of the landscape is pretty dramatic, with semi desert and arid areas, as well as fast flowing rivers and forests. Arriving in Bariloche we are surrounded by mountains and lakes and great beech forests. We found our cabin some 20 kilometers out of town up a dirt road....OK, so we will need a car.
Our cabin is really lovely. Surrounded in trees with birds twittering away and a walk to one of many lakes nearby we are ready for Christmas. Christmas? Yes, we are in paradise for Christmas this year, or at least so it feels. We are lucky and apreciate that.
Anyway, on Christmas day we went for a drive around a local circuit of the lakes in our hire car. The views across the lakes with the majesty of the Andes rising all around was stunning. I am impressed and generally not easily impressed. In the afternoon having followed a long and dusty road we came across a place advertising "Canopy"....we checked it out and inside an hour found ourselves flying through the canopy of the beech forest at some 70 feet in the air. It was great. The place takes you for a 20 minute 4 WD drive up the face of a mountain nearby and then you put on harnesses (after spitting out dust and flies from the drive!) and you are ready for the zip wires!
A series of steel wires have been set up through the forest heading down hill and you are soon flying through the air between the trees, with a birds eye view of forest and mountains. It was exhilarating and an unexpected way to spend our Christmas afternoon. Fab!
We signed up for White Water rafting on Boxing Day (obviously the adrenalin of Christmas day needed a boost!). The river was a 2 hour drive away on the Frontier with Chile, called the Rio Manso Superior, de la Frontera. For those that know rafting this was a Grade 3/4 rafting trip (with 6 being the highest grade), so pretty ambitious for us rafting virgins!
Never mind, in for a penny and in for a pound. The experience was amazing and the scenery, (when out of the water) was once again just stunning! The River Manso starts in the Andes and crosses Chile to the sea. The water is glacial grey / blue, bloody cold (fresh off the ice) and needless to say...fast! We were in a PINK raft...the colour in stark contrast to the river. Our raft had 9 folk in it, including us, with me (David) at the very front of the raft and Anni at the back. We shot a series of rapids, with the third rapid sending me sailing through the air and into the water....yep it was cold, but that really did not register. I was in the middle of one of the more serious rapids and underwater for a spell before being spat out again...right next to the raft. Willing hands soon dragged me back into the raft and we were paddling toward the next set of oblivion!
Anni took a dunking at one point when our side of the raft completely disappeared under a wave and four of us were washed into the water. Like drowned rats we are soon shaking ourselves off back in the raft and back on our way...and Anni had a smile frozen across her face! The experience was fun, exhilirating and for some (no names mentioned here) terrifying too! (but she never backed out and we both felt the achievement of doing it!).
Anni further distinguished her self at one point were we managed to stand the raft on its bow end and all but one person were unable to stay on and ended up in the river.....while Anni sat on the raft all alone, looking on! How she managed that trick I do not know, but I guess someone had to make sure the raft did not go far without us!
Yesterday, we opted for a calmer day and took a ski lift up Cerro Catedral (2300 meters) and took in the views of the Andes and surrounding lakes around Bariloche...amazing.
We have really enjoyed our time here, it is simply beautiful. Tomorrow we catch a plane and head a couple of thousand kilometers south to El Calafate. The flight will be amazing as it follows the spine of the Andes, so hoping for good weather and a window seat. We then start our 15 day trekking with a small group of folk we will meet tomorrow night. The trek will take us south through Patagonia into Tierra del Fuego and finish in Ushuaia, the most southern town in the world. We will walk on Glaciers, climb mountains, circle lakes and get sore feet...but I think we will love it! We probably will not have internet access during the time so will update at a later point.
See you in Ushuaia
David and Anni
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