Anna and Steph Were Stalked By Pigs Once Again!

Some of you may recall an incedent with Wilbur the pig.  This time there were three, only not nearly as big, but we´ll get to that in a bit! ...

We had an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC three days hiking in the Lake District (Patagonia not to be confused with the one in England). On the path we met 2 nice American climbing lads who were carrying at least 20kg each.  Compare this to our 9 or 10kg and you won´t be wondering why they took a bit longer to reach the campsite.  

After a very nice dinner with them and even after all Steph´s enthusiam, we still managed to miss the stars! (To be fair, it wasn´t star watching time until about 11pm ... definitely past our bedtime.)

We had a spritely start to the day, with much scrabbling and huge packs (well, huge in Anna´s mind).  Though we did get to the top and passed a slightly older couple on a day hike. From there it was down a nice slippery scree slope through a valley with lots of nice BIG BLACK FLIES (Steph took to calling them a number of names, none of which will be repeated here).  Walking up out of the valley we encountered a group of Isrealis who commented on "how difficult it was for a couple of women to be walking by themselves" this was greeted with a "hmm" smile by Anna, who changed the subject immediately (Steph the "not as strong" hiker in their eyes, was still cursing the flies).

On the decent, the Isrealis were surprised to find that Anna and Steph weren´t "skiing" down the 2nd scree slope, in hope of killing other hikers below them even after it was suggested that we should. Anna didn´t smile and change this subject with that one.

Once we´d reached the basin, we found ourselves a BEAUTIFUL campsite and did manage to see the most amazingly spectacular stars!

Breakfast was spent with a Londoner named Nigel (no worries about any hanky panky ... he was in his mid to late 40´s ... that´s too old even for Anna!) After an "apparent" 7 hour hike, we would reach the main road.  After 4 1/2 hours (including a leisurely lunch and pee break by the river) we encountered the main road. There we met an adorable Argentinian family, who were on their holidays in Bariloche and all too delighted to give us a lift to our hostel door. (The husband had done the same in his day).

Leaving good olde Thomas and Bryan (our favorite hostel thus far), it wasn´t until we were an hour or so down the road to El Bolson that Steph announced she´d left her shorts at the hostel, this left her with one pair of shorts - good thing she hadn´t left her boardies!

We spent a fantastic 3 days, camping in El Bolson.  Compared to Bariloche it was much more in the wilderness.  Unfortunately, the rangers didn´t seem to understand that when we said we´d like to hike for more than 6 hours, we didn´t mean 5 or 4, we did actually mean 6 ... or more. This met us with some beautiful walk on the first day with a 2 hour kip in the middle of the day by el Rio Azul. 

The second day hike was more of a hike, the back of Anna´s shirt is proof of that. She was, in a word, REPULSED. About 30 minutes into the hike, we happened upon a farm and Anna had the presence of mind to wave hello to a family of 3 pigs that were, doing what pigs do, behind a fence.  About 5 minutes later, we heard the distinct noise of pig grunts as then trundled up the hill after us.  At some point Anna asked if one could run from pigs ... and then choose to run ... and the pigs ran too.  So we went for out smarting them ... and hid in a bush. This seemed to work until we heard the pigs ahead!!! After listening for them in a bush, we decided the pigs had disappeared and it was time for us to move on.  And then the mum was infront of us again!! So people, humans can NOT out run pigs ... or atleast not Anna and Steph. After our 3 hour hike to the top, which was supposed to take a grand 4 hour OR more (due to it´s steepness), we started our decent.

Crossing the "Indian Jones type bridge," we were greeted by a nice Argentinian man who said that for A$ 10 he would drive us back to the bus stop and for A$10 extra from there he would drive us to El Bolson (the bus was A$8 and wouldn´t be arriving for 3 hours).  Did he think that after a 5 hour, rather than 71/2 hour hike that we wouldn´t be able to walk our 1/2 hour to the bus stop?? Who knows! But we got him in the end ... 5 minutes from the bus stop, he stopped and clarified that he would charge A$10 there to El Bolson.  Well, that beats a 3 hour wait for the bus!

Being back in town so much earlier than expected, there was only one thing to do ... eat more ice cream! We had 2 new flavors: Chocolate con naranjitas (that´s chocolate with orange bits) and Almendora (sp?) - almeretto.  (This was on top of the 2 new flavors the day before being Canela (cinnimon), chocolate brownie and the leading marscapone con frambuesas).

Back at the campsite, we took the opportunity to use the flint to MAKE FIRE (don´t worry, it was safe and in a fire building place) - only twigs and sticks were harmed.  But we succeeded!! The 2 Argentine cyclists in the tent next to ours were impressed with the fire and checked out Anna´s tent (she was exstatic).

Today lead to much excitement as we spent 4 hours in the Bariloche bus station picking out other traveller´s nationalities (you can spot them a mile off)! There was a short side trip for Steph as she spent a whole A$6 to pick up her shorts which were being held at the Green House Hostel ... see, really the best hostel!

After a drawn out border crossing and 2 drug dogs, we made it to Chile.  Here we will spend the next 4 or 5 days trekking.  While this is no Green House Hostel, it has it´s own 1970´s ski lodge appeal and the owners have opened their home as well as bunny, dog and 2 cats up to us backpackers.

Until next time ... hoping there aren´t too many pigs chancing us!

Anna and Steph