This is why I have never kept a diary and am fairly poor at writing letters and emails to people - why I ever thought I would keep this blog up to date is beyond me! Nevermind, I have finally overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed by how long I have left is since last reporting in and will now regale you all with stories of the last 24 days!!!

Let´s see, if I recall correctly, when I last checked in, we were heading to San Juan for Christmas and to check out some of the more interesting aspects of the area. San Juan itself was essentially just another town that was nice enough but didn´t really have much centrally to hold your attention. We checked out the Museo Cientifico Naturales, where they have some dinosour skeletons on display, walked around the local park and decided that the best thing to do was to book a tour of the wineries; which we did. And the less said about that the better. Needless to say, close to Christmas, wineries closed, pretty much a waste of a day and money. Christmas day itself was kind of slow for us - ie. we were the only ones at the hostel and spent the day handwashing all of our dirty clothes. Apparently, this saves money but I can assure you the clothes aren´t as clean and fresh smelling as the washing machine makes them! Still, the sun was out and after our domestic chores, we sat outside and enjoyed some nice cold white wine. Lunch consisted of packet rice, cooked in 15 minutes with water. I know, those of you that sat down for prawns, salad and cold beer are jealous but as it is now a speciality of ours we will share the secret recipes when we get home. Fortunately, we were joined later in the day by a couple from Buenos Aires who were on three weeks vacation, a cyclist from Holand, who had so far ridden about 23 000 kms from Alaska to San Juan (he is heading to Ushauia) and another man from Switzerland. We all dined together at a local restaurant which we wouldn´t have gone into had the BA couple not been with us, so that was something.

Having had our fill of San Juan we thought it best to get on a bus out of town and so headed for San Augustin, which was lovely. Very laid back, very friendly and really quiet. On our second day in San Augustin we joined a tour and headed off for a full day of history and information. Our first stop we Ischigualasto or Valle del Luna - Valley of the moon, named as such because the landscape resembles that of the moon. Although it was quite impressive, I think our appreciation of it would have been much improved had we been fluent in spanish with a degree in archeology (it was at about this point, Andrew and Li-Ann, that I feel we really could have benefited from having Cristina with us!) but we were still incredibly impressed by the landscape and history of the area.

Following on from Ischigualasta, we headed over to Talampayu, which for us, was better than Ischigualasto. The vista, the rock formations, the history, just everything was really quite mind-blowing.

We left San Agustin a couple of days later and headed off to Mendoza, where we had planned on spending New´s Year Eve - what with this being the premier red wine district of Argentina.

Mendoza was a nice city, really, but I think by this point we had simply had enough of being in cities and around lots of people. After being in San Agustin we just wanted to get away from that and spend time really enjoying the country itself. So, New Year´s Eve was spent on a bus to San Martin de Los Andes.

San Martin was more like an alpine village in Austria than what I expected to find in South America. It sat on a large lake, had shops filled with ski and snowboarding gear and people with arms and legs in slings and plaster! It is also a great starting place to check out Lanin Nacional Parque - which we did. Having sought all kinds of information from the ever friendly and helpful oficino de tourismo, we donned our (full) packs and headed off for a three day hike in the national park around some fabulous lakes. Of course, our first clue that all was not as it should be was when the helfpul tourist lady said "of course, the park rangers haven´t actually opened the track yet, but it should be fine ....."

So, of we set, leaving behind only our day packs with the few items of clothing we wouldn´t need for the next three days and having stocked up on food to cook over the gas cooker we had recently purchased, for just such occasions. The day started out lovely, a nice trip across the lake on a boat, landing on a small, quiet, lakeside beach. We then had to check in with the park ranger, where we recieved helpful information and a map with some handwritten instructive drawings (or so we thought at the time) and off we went.

We began the walk at 12:30 (crazy I know but the hottest part of day here is more like 3 or 4 in the afternoon, so we thought it would be fine) and stage one was essentially straight up a dirt road and up and up and up. When I say steep, I am not exaggerating when I say that the cars could only make it in first gear. Still, after 45 minutes we made it to the top and had our first meeting with a group of Scouts and their guides who were doing the same walk. After a quick snack and water break, on we went. Thankful at this point that we were off the road and now on a track, very much unused by cars. This was nice, there was a small river to our right, mountains to our left .... and then came a fork in the road. Having perused all the instructions provided by the park ranger and the map we purchased on the advice of the tourist office, we had no idea and so took the road ahead (rather than the one up the mountain - at one point the ranger had said, keep the water to your right and don´t go up the mountain and whilst I could´t recall what this was in relation to, I was sticking to it). So we set off and came across the Scout group who were discussing whether we were all actually on the right track of if, in fact we should have gone up. Their pro-active leader then took off back the way we came to ask at a nearby house. Anyway, after some time and much walking back and forth along the two tracks, we all concluded that we were right and off we set. Tim and I soldiered on, leaving the scouting group paddling in the river and continued on until we came across a group of mountain bikers who were coming back from where we were going. They presented us with the (not so) cheering news that in about another 3 hours we would be there. They did, however, assure us that all but the last part was really quite easy walking.

After about 2 1/2 hours more we started heading up and up and up .... until we finally reached ´the hidden lake´after 7 hours of pretty solid walking. Not bad. After a refreshing and cleansing swim in icy cold water, it was dinner and bed, in preparation for the next days expedition.

About 1 hour after our arrival, the scout group turned up - still full of cheer and singing and energy - except for the leader who had to carry 2 packs up the final mountain!

Day two dawned and we set off full of cheery expectations about the day and making it to our next destination. This did not last long. Having descended the mountainous path out of the ´hidden lake´and wandering through a small valley, up we went again, stumbling over rocks, pushing through branches and wondering if this mountain actually had a top. It turns out it did have a top and of course, we eventually reached it - after about 4 hours. This part of the path had some challenges and some decision making to be done. One key decision was whether or not to take the left or the right fork. Now, the park ranger had said when you get to a fork in the track, take the left exit because the right is full of fallen trees and has not been cleared for a while. So we get to this fork (neither the first nor the last that we would be confronted with) and Tim goes right to check the way and I head left just to see. I had only taken a couple of steps when the sound of stampeding cattle had me heading for cover behind the nearest tree and calling for Tim. Once he recovered from his laughter and convinced me to come out from behind the tree, he explained that the cows were going away from us not towards us )I am still not convinced - they were really loud!). Still, given the broken tape covering the left hand track and the herd of cows just ahead, we took the right hand fork. Needless to say, I remained quite close to big, round trees in case I needed to head for cover from more out of control livestock! In hindsight, I still wonder if we would have been better off taking on the cows than the right hand track .....

The hours passed, we went up, we went down, we went over trees and under trees, we took our packs off and commando rolled beneath the trees. We waded through streams, hopscotched across rocks in the rivers and wished many a time for a chainsaw to clear the path. Each time we got close to the lake we thought, surely, surely, we must be close but then another tree would block our way and up the mountain we would go again.

As dusk came upon us, we really needed to think about camping for the night and could see, in the far off distance, a small clearing on the beach - this is where we headed and eventually arrived. Sadly, by the end of our 10 1/2 hour day, we hadn´t even made it the 8 km´s to the halfway point. Our spirits were slightly lifted when, about 30 mins. later, the scouting group arrived at the same spot having also been thwarted by the level of difficulty they encountered.

We dined with the scouting group that evening and learned from their leader, that he had done the same walk 2 years ago and had made it from the day 1 starting point to our planned day 2 end point in 1 day. Apparently, the area had been ravaged by some quite severe storms and they had ripped huge trees out of the ground and it still hadn´t been cleared. When I say that some of these trees were two metres in diametre and that even the most hardened mountain goats would have hesitated at some of the tracks we followed , I really am not exaggerating.

Day 3 started early and Tim and I made the rather clever decision to remain with the scouts and follow their lead on the basis that a) at least one of them knew the way and b) they had machettes. The only downside to this was that they are much younger, fitter etc. than us (translate to they walk faster and recover quicker!). Still, it was nice to have company and they sang and told us some stories about the areas we were walking through. And eventually we made it to our next destination (Cachin) and set up camp for the night. It really was beautiful - worth the walk or not, I´m not sure, but I am glad we did it.

Day four was just a short, 2 hour walk to get a bus back to San Martin. Unfortunately, the bus had some difficulties and broke down part way into the trip. This wasn´t an altogether bad thing as it gave us the opportunity to chat with some local people and share some stories of our and their travels. I think it also convinced us that our next stop, in Bariloche, would include some time in Spanish school. It´s all very well to have basic converstation and talk through a dictionary but it was now time to take it a step further to really make the trip worthwhile.

Next stop ...... Bariloche.

Anyway, I fear I have now written too much and bored you all enough so will sign off and provide with you some stories of Spanish school in the next episode.

Hope all is well with all of you

Take care

Tim and Tracey

PS - I know that many of the descriptions would be much better with some photo´s but sadly, I have forgotten how to attach them. Any advice on how to do this would be much welcomed. I have uploaded and downloaded directly and through flicka with no joy - Help!