When you don't know where you're heading, every path will take you there.

In the last few days i've made a decision, one of those life changing decisions i guess, but i think it had to be made. I have been in Bariloche since December looking for work and trying to start on a new life, living on borrowed money and borrowed time - wasting borrowed money and wasting borrowed time. It became clear to me that in the UK one is rewarded by doing hard work, and even if you have a shit job you can still be the best in your workplace by working hard and being efficient, as i lined up for an hour long supermarket queue, i realised that here, for some strange reason, things are a little different, people don't seem to ever work at full speed. People working as slow as some people do here would get them fired in a first world system, but i guess the bosses don't care as they were the same when they were employees. For this reason, and for the obvious time of year issue which means that the zone is now going into low season - no tourists, less money, less jobs - i have decided that i'm going to keep on traveling for the next four months. I have an airfare to London on the 20th of September and i am going to use this to go back to England. I will look for and get a job and resume the life i had before leaving in October. I have realised that even if i did find a job here, the situation i'd be in would be great for seeing the surroundings, but the wages and currency exchange would make it extremely difficult to travel to save up for any other projects - i'd be stuck here. I prefer to work in a not so naturally beautiful place but have enough money to be able to make some of my dreams come true and get to know a bit more of the world. Today i sold my car and the money will go straight back to my parents, where it came from. I will be hitch hiking south to see a part from Argentina i have never before seen; the great glaciers. After probably suffering a bit of cold weather down there i will head back up to El Bolson, grab a few things and head up to Buenos Aires, leave a couple of things with my grandmother there and hitch north, i'm thinking Cafayate to pass the winter in a nice warm place. So they're my plans for now, i'd like to thank everyone here that has helped me these past few months including my Granma in Bariloche, because i couldn't have stayed here as long as i did and given it a shot without them. I am now free of responsabilities and "irksome obligations" again, ready to enjoy another four months of traveling before heading back to the UK. I am happy that i got to see, as an adult, what life here in Bariloche is like, and that i have come to a solid conclusion as to what i want to do.

I hope all is good back home, see ya in a few!

PS: will update this in a few days.
Thank for reading!
Santiago.

"We all love the mountains, but the mountains don't give a fuck about us."

We parked the car up at a friend's house who lives near the start of the five hour hike up to the Hielo Azul refugio, it was a fine day with just a few clouds covering the sun that left alone would definitely have made us too hot. Christian and Mariana came with us about an hour up the mountain where we shared some mates before they went back home and we continued our never ending struggle of carrying ourselves and our twenty something kilos of gear.

We got to the refugio - supposively meant to be a mountain shelter - about three or four hours later, it was getting cold and the night was setting in, as we arrived a woman came out to charge us for our stay and it was fifteen pesos just to set up at a tent. That price didn't include anything at all, not even a cold shower or some dry firewood - it sucked.

We spent about two hours trying to make a fire which when started would just be consumed by the humidity and cold (well below freezing). We cooked up some rice and sausages and crawled into our tents, we decided we were going to leave as soon as we got up, going to the mountain was meant to be an escape from money and the system, but had just been charged for fuck all.

We went down to town that next morning and spent the day in El Bolson, we decided to climb the local C. Piltrikitron which is about 2260m asl and offers the best view of the town almost directly above it, as we had a fine day with literally no clouds we could also see a few peaks that were further away such as C. Tronador (3400m and about 100km away).

That night was spent at the local cervezeria drinking some of the local brews with some other people we met on the summit, they were traveling by bus and sleeping in hostels, but we found enough in common to keep the conversation up.

I wanted, before we headed back to Bariloche, to climb C. Perito Moreno, this is a mountain that was pretty much facing my front gate when i was nine or ten years old and i've always wanted to climb it, we headed down to the base and woke up nice and early for the at least 10 hour climb, but we were faced with a miserable sky covered in heavy rainclouds. Now back at El Bolson the WiFi at the YPF gas station is telling us the weather won't improve until next week, so we will most probably head back today and enjoy the comfort of a nice bed.

Although we didn't fulfill our intentions of visiting more of the refugios around the area, i found out these are left inhabited in the winter, and they have to leave them open to the public. I plan to head to one of them and spend a nice week chilling in a winter wonderland come July or August.

That's all for now,
Santiago.

just amazing

Ben has made his way to Bariloche and we're going into the Andes for the next few days. We are going from Hielo Azul down to Los Laguitos where we hope to find a possible route to cross the Andes by foot in the future. We slept in the car last night and just as well because it rained a lot during the night, the good thing is it that same rain was snow up on the peaks so it should make for some interesting trekking with even better views!

That's all for now,
Santiago.