Ouch, Jump, Ahhh!

Well.... sat down this morning in a cafe to have breakfast and wrote a whole section for this blog hit save and the power went down and lost the lot...so lets try in an internet cafe. We left Bariloche at around 8am very civilised and drove through some beautiful mountains. Our lunch time stop was by a river where a couple of locals were fishing and the trees were monkey puzzle, finished lunch and I felt something on my finger went to brush it off and was stung by a wasp! OUCH! One of the girls removed the sting for me and I thought it would be OK but about 10 minutes later I was all but crying for the pain and my finger was swelling rapidly. Took some pain killers and put some antihistamine cream on it and the pain subsided a bit but it kept growing - was thinking I may have to have my ring cut off but for some reason the swelling stayed only in my finger and didn't go into my hand. It eventually stopped getting bigger and the pain became manageable but was an interesting couple of hours. I still have a mark where the sting went in. We were on our way to Pucon and drove down through some very steep windy roads our brakes were OK but the engine brakes weren´t working so had to rely on the ordinary ones - put up the roof seats and had the most magnificent views of the countryside. In Pucon we camped at a nice looking site but the shower block left much to be desired and after one night there I decamped to a very nice hostel along with about 8 others. Had one of the best meals of the trip at a vegetarian place vege curry. Considering that Argentina is renowned for its beef ... Next day was white water rafting for me while about 14 of us climbed the Volcano - it's a live one and at night there is a red glow around the top while during the day you can see it smoking. The rafting was the best experience! fully kitted out so that the water didn´t even seem cold and we went into it a few times. Hope you saw the pictures I put on face book. Went down a few falls the biggest of which was a 4 - there is a 7 on the river and we had to get out of the boats and walk up and around the edge of the river - my comment - if I wanted to go climbing I´d have walked up the mountain! then at the end of the walk we had to jump off the cliff into the water and swim to shore - didn´t think that´s what I´d signed up for and was pretty scared at first - kept reminding myself that I used to jump off the jetty when I was younger and it was no different - once I´d jumped I didn´t know why I was scared in the first place. Unfortunately there are no photos of the jump. All in all a great experience. The mountain walkers on Mt Villarrica also had a good day but I was glad I hadn´t joined them quite a few didn´t make it to the top and they were exhausted. Most made it to the top of the snow line tho' and got to slide part way down I would have like to do that. Spent the next day lazing around the town. Went to a cafe for lunch at 12 and left at 5 just sitting in the sun with people stopping by for a drink. What holidays are all about. Went to a hot spring that night left at 7.30 got there at 8.30 so pitch black night and a 10-15 minute walk down a dirt roads and I do mean down with no lights. The springs were natural rock with gravel bottoms and a couple were really hot but it was a cool night so the hotter the water the better and we then had to make our way back up to the truck. Still well worth the effort. Another 6 am start with a truck breakfast.

19 Apr 2012

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