It´s been too long! I´ve forgotten what I´ve been doing! Ok, I´ll do my best....

We set off for El Chalten on a rickety old bus with the imaginatively named "El Chalten Travel", and after 6 hours of driving through the wilderness we arrived in strange little settlement itself. The first thing we noticed as we got off the bus were the 80 mile and hour winds, the second was the dust blowing in your face, and the third was that we had overshot our hostel by a good 30 minute walk. Well, 30 mins is taking into account us completely misinterpreting all directions given to us by the proudly mulleted locals, and walking in a huge circle to reach our destination. It didn´t help that whenever you wanted to ask for directions, you were confronted with a long wide dust road completely devoid of human life and a few small buildings shuttered up against the wind.

The town was kind of like what I would imagine a frontier town in the US would have been like back when the pioneers were busy settling on the unclaimed (except for those pesky indians) land of central North America. Just a few small streets surrounded by the most enormous and magestic pieces of natural artwork mother nature has ever produced. Huge red cliffs tower threateningly over the town on one side, while on the other side, the mighty fitzroy massive stakes it claim over the entire area. The Fitzroy Massive, probably spelled Fitzroy Massif, is indeed, Massive. And pointy. In fact it has lots of pointy bits. Sorry, that doesn{t sound very impressive... Ok, it has huge towering needle-like structures of rock that tower a gazillion metres into the sky, dwarfing the otherwise mighty mountains that hem it in from all sides.... better? :)

So, on out first day there we were so tired we just ate a hugely overpriced pizza and went to bed. It had been days since we had slept properly and quite frankly we were both feeling very grumpy and in need of some serious sleep. The next morning we were reborn, and leapt out of bed at about midday, ready to really make the mosty of the day. Well, the half that was left anyway. So off we set on a day trek to see the mighty Mount Doo Da and a lake or something. It was really something! The hills were alive with the sound of music. really! anyway, trekking is not really great anecdotal material. We walked, we looked up, we took a phote, we walked more, we got there, we ate lunch, we walked back. But yeah, it was pretty cool. :)

Next day we woke up in the middle of a twister. It was frantically ripping the roof off of our room in an almost succesful attempt to take us to Oz. At least that´s what it sounded like. An almost continous series of crashes, wails, sounds of loose things flapping, heavy things crashing, and all the time the wind screaming through it all. It was far too windy to get up early. Honestly!! It really was! Well, believe what you like, it makes no difference to me. So we got up at about midday again, and found out that everyone in the hostel had felt the same and decided to stay inside for the day. But by the now the sun had come out and we decided that seeing as it was our last day there, we´d better make the most of it.

We headed off on the second walk. It was amazing.

The next day, we were up bright and early to catch our ridculously over priced bus through the middle of nowhere. what a journey! It was like being rolled over hot coals in a tin box on wheels. You couldn´t open the windows because of the dust and it was baking in there. The view was amazing... for the first 10 minutes. Then it was the same for the next 12 hours. I mean EXACTLY the same.

"If you´ll look out on your left ladies and gentlemen, you´ll see what we locally refer to as the "middle of fucking nowhere". And if you´ll turn to your right now, you can get a clear view of what we like to call the "side of fucking nowhere". I know what your thinking. It looks the same right? Not so! The first has a road to it´s right, and the second has a road to it´s left, giving each a distinct character....."

I´m being unfair. Of course it´s pretty amazing, I mean it´s patagonian wilderness after all. Maybe it was spoiled slightly by the fact that your body was being so violently shaken about by the bus that your head couldn´t stay still enough for your eyes to focus....

Well after 12 or so hours driving through the middle of nowhere, we finally arrived in the middle of nowhere. But it had a name. Perito Moreno. Just like the glacier only slightly less imressive. So we finally got to go to sleep, before getting up again at 8am and getting back on an even smaller, even more fucked bus to do the final 14 hours to El Bolson! And to top it all off it wopuld have been the same price to fly!!!

Anyhow, now I´m in El Bolson, and staying on a really cool campsite, enjoying all the joys of camping whilst staying in a bed inside with a bathroom and a big kitchen... :) We´ve met some really cool argentinians and are having a lovely time, thanks for asking! :) I´m heading back to Santiago, Chile, on the 17th Jan, and from there gonna work my way up to Lima in peru, via bolivia. This in fact is my orinal plan for my 3 months in S America, and I{m about to attempt to do it in under 3 weeks!!!! Wish me luck!