Bariloche & Chiloe (24/Feb-2/Mar/06)

Castro, Chile

Really nice trekking area around Bariloche. Got a bus to the nearby ski slopes and started from there. A short first day, but with a nasty slope at the end - I was suffering a bit because of a bad back. There, surrounded by local guardias (there on a climbing and rescue course), we pitched tent and has a little paddle in the not-so-freezing lake. Lots of wind and some rain at night, but suddenly the rain stopped.

We waltzed happily out of the tent to find that the pitter-patter has only stopped because it was snowing! There was loads of low cloud and it looked beastly, so we had breakfast and took down the tent. We were going to call it a day and walk back down but by the time we had finished we had blue skies again. Less than an hour later, halfway up the first uphill, it was snowing and foggy again. We were surrounded by the guardias again, who were trekking because the weather was too bad for climbing. They went on up but we, not being that hot and orienteering, decided to see if the clouds passed. In the end we decided to finish the uphill and see from the top. By the time we got there we had blue skies again. Anyways, to cut a long story short, we got to the next campsite, and from there the next day we walked for a few hours down to the road and got a bus back to Bariloche.

The day after that we went rock climbing. Sadly we hadn't asked enough questions at the agency and we would be only doing top rope instead of leading, but it was still worth it, and we got some more real rock (rather than indoors) experience and reawoke some muscles. Did a few nice climbs and got a few climbing tips from the guide.

Wednesday we got the bus across to Chile, to the island of Chiloe. It is supposed to be amazing, with a different culture (the Spaniards retreated here and held out against the Chileans for a while during independence), different architecture (wooden churches and lots of the houses have tejuelas, wooden tiles, covering the walls), great food (milcao, curanto, big on fish and potatoes), wonderful geography (small islands, rolling hills) and beautiful greenery. And it's recommended by all the guide books.

It's bollox.

Well, not that bad, but definitely not what the guide books rave on about. Islands and rolling hills OK, greenery not as green as on the Carretera Austral, tejuelas we've seen all over the nearby region already (but churches are pretty amazing), food pretty nice (definitely makes a change from Atkins). Worth popping in for a couple of days if you are in the area, but not a "highlight". Today we decided to push on up to the lake district.