On our own..

Well, on Thursday we left the safety of Pachi´s spanish-speaking abilities and caught a bus for 20hours south from Buenos Aires to a place called Bariloche. We were sweet in Bariloche, it´s real touristy so heaps of people spoke english and we´ve come far enough that we can order meals in spanish no worries. We stayed there a couple of nights and have now caught a bus to Villa La Angostura where we will be for the next two nights and then will be traveling around what the locals call la ruta de los siete lagos (the seven lakes route) for the next 10 or so days finishing in San Martin.

Before we left Buenos Aires a few people thought maybe we shouldn´t come here because they have heard it´s a lot like New Zealand and thought we should see parts of Argentina that weren´t. We came anyway. I can see how people would think it´s like New Zealand. Lakes and moutains and real nice scenery but that´s about where it ends. These lakes are huge and you can see mountains with snow on them that look real close even though it´s 30degrees. The water in the lakes has come straight off the Andes so it´s real cold but it´s so crystal blue and clear that we can´t help ourselves but try to swim in it everyday. So far I haven´t managed to go past hip height into the water, Cam´s gone under every day and Craig only wussied out yesterday. I´m going to have to go under today though because last night when I tried to use the shower some lady with a bum-bag spoke a whole lot of words to me in spanish and wouldn´t let me passed.

We´ve got cameras with us but accidently left the cord that puts them onto the computer at Pachi´s house so no dice with photos until we get back there.

Highlights of 7 lakes trip so far have included making our own Argentinian bbq on a fire we built ourselves whilst drinking one litre beers (Putt - you´ll be happy to know that even though we opted for visiting the lakes we´re still drinking dirt-cheap 1litres) and earlier today when we were eating lunch in town and some baby managed to lock itself in it´s parents car with the keys and toot the horn over and over again while it´s half distressed/half embarrassed parents could only watch and try to teach a 1year old how to unlock a door. What made it more amusing was when a car cut off a truck on the other side of the road so the truck beeped real loud and the baby responded by starting to beep it´s own horn again.

Anyway, hope everyone´s alright. We´re really having so much fun and haven´t got into any trouble by not knowing the language yet (unless you count last night when 3 people told us we weren´t allowed to light fires just anyway and had to use the bbq areas but we thought they were all just telling us to pour water on the fire before we went to bed). At the moment our rough plans are to head back to Buenos Aires in a couple of weeks and then shortly after go to Iguazu falls (and maybe in Brazil) and then back to Buenos Aires for a while then head over to Uruguay for a while then back to Buenos Aires and then home.

Mum - hope you have a really good birthday. I wrote you a post card but so far we haven´t found anywhere that will send out of Argentina. I think I´ll just bring you a present home so I don´t have to learn how send parcels in spanish.

Hope New Zealand´s summer has warmed up and that everyone´s having half as much fun as us (though that´s unlikely).