Argentina into Chile

We are currently in a nice little town called Pucon nestled in the Chilean Andes in the shadow of a large smoking volcano called Volcan Villarica.

The passed few days have been fairly action packed - over and above the usual travelling (about 10 hours of bus to cover a distance of about a centimetre on the map) we have been: riding in the steppe of Patagonian; mountain-biking around the lake district outside of Bariloche; and taking zip-lines through the Andean rainforests.

Bariloche was nice - full of chocolate shops and steak restaurants. A bit too cutesy perhaps? It was also where we did horse-riding - a definite highlight of the trip. The whole experience felt so personal that it actually hurt when we were shown the guestbook at the end and saw pages upon pages of people's comments and praise of the place.

We were taken to a small little house that the guy had built himself - a wooden and stone lodge overlooking a beautiful patagonian valley. The son took us out on the horses (where the talk moved towards ownership of the Falkland Islands or Islas Malvinas) before sitting down with the family as the mother cooked a meal. It was a real highlight.

More exercise came in the form of mountain biking around the smooth country lanes of the Circuito Chico and taking in the various lakes and a huge hotel at Liao Liao that wouldn't look out of place in Austria as a former dictator's hideout.

Then...onto Chile. What we had initially thought would be a five hour trip across the Andes (which were absolutely stunning - a lot like the Pyrenees) turned into the bus being emptied of all the passages and luggage at the Chilean boarder as we had a sniffer dog sniff around our luggage, and put through an X-ray machine. Talk about a drama. Some people / criminals were pulled aside for attempting to smuggle through some cheese sandwiches.

We finally arrived in Pucon, after a three hour stopover in Osorno. Pucon is all wooden houses and tourist offices. They are everywhere and all offering adventure outings of every kind - zip-lining through the canopy was another highlight - 30 metres up zipping from tree to tree at speeds of up to 70kph! - even the Israeli's were having a good time!!)

We have also managed to squeeze in a couple of hours at a Termas - or hot spa, which was hot and which we had alone (along with about 50 - 60 other Israelis). Memories of Japan came flooding back. ii desu ne!

Other things:

1. ISRAELI UPDATE - they have officially taken over South America. Where are all the Brits, let alone South Americans?
2. SPANISH - Perfect and imperfect tense is hopefully mastered with a sprinkling of the future tense. Forming the subjunctive, however, is proving a little bit tricky. Indicative? So last week.
3. The Volcano alarm went off yesterday - turns out it always goes off at noon. How we laughed.

Pictures to come - internet is painfully slow...