Finally made it to El Bolson, (still Argentina)...

Hello there,

Well feeling a little jaded to say the least! Have been on the computer for 2 hours so far trying to download photos onto CD, and it is going very slowly...! Really wish had my laptop here... oh well, can`t have everything!

We finally made it to El Bolson. We met 2 guys on our last day in El Chalten, one English and one American, who entertained us that night before our bus. The bus turned up only 40 minutes late, and we left only 95 minutes late... oh dear, the buses here are meant to be good! The up side is that we were sat next to a couple of Israeli guys, who were very good looking. So Hayley and I had some nice day-night-dreams to go to sleep to! It wasn`t helping that one of them, Adir, had half his shirt falling off so we could see his well defined muscles... the 3 years conscription in the army that they do certainly does shape them up rather well...! Anyway, off this obsession (I was pacified when I was told that there were more Israeli guys in Australia too)...

So we were turfed off the bus unexpectedly at a bus stop half way through our 30 hour journey. Luckily this was at a reasonable time in the afternoon, so we spent an 2 1/2 hours on the bus stop floor, waiting for another bus to come to take us to El Bolson and Bariloche. All went well when we got on the new bus, but was rather disappointed with the journey. We had gone up the western side of Argentina, because the road, route 40, is meant to be THE road to do, in terms of stunning scenery. Well it was identical to the other 4,000km we had done from the north to the south of Argentina on the coast side! But this time the road was untarmaced, and made from mud and gravel...

Which led us to the next problem. Suddenly in the bus there were screams from the back, so we pulled over to find out that the window had completely shattered (no shatter resistant glass here!) all over the 4 israeli girls, as a stone had hit the window. So they moved into other seats, and we turned up at the tiniest town about 20 minutes later, where we spent 90 minutes in the service station, as the bus drivers cleaned out the glass and taped plastic over the hole, so we could continue on our journey. Talk about a palaver!

So we finally arrived in El Bolson, surprisingly only 90 minutes later than expected, and found ourselves a gorgeous little hostel. The girl was so kind to us, and showed us up to our room that was free, so that we could sleep for a while. Normally we are not allowed to check in until lunchtime, so often spend our time hanging around feeling horrid and dirty. The hostel is really cosy, we have our OWN ROOM! with a double bed and pink and purple walls, curtains and duvets... proper duvets! The family is wonderful (the guy superglued my sunglasses back together again), there is a kitchen and the showers are hot. Such a warm welcome after a very uncomfortable bus!

So just been doing errands today - no walking for us as blisters still too sore, (none of us want to even see our trainers again for a long time!) and Hayley`s ankles have swollen slightly due to the long bus journey, so we are taking it easy this time. Off to Bariloche at 5pm tomorrow, (think we are 2 or 3 hours behind the UK), to then stay there for a few days. Rather a rush now unfortunately due to our flight out of Santiago being on the 19th MARCH! Nearly the end of south America, and very sad.

Anyways, gotta go and do some more computer stuff, but love to all,
Alice xx