Week 5: It All Began With A Bowl Of Chips

I redrafted the opening paragraph of this entry a couple of times. Each time it still began with "and I think it is fair to say it ended with..." however the events of the week just kept on going. I think I can finally now say that the week ended with me accidentally throwing my camera charger away with my rubbish at the border to Argentina. I had only had 2 hours sleep and was in a bit of emotional turmoil having said goodbye to Jen after 3 weeks of travelling together. I was still a little "in my cups" as they say but I think that is rather beside the point.

A great view of the volcano "Osorno" on our bike trip

We had what I can only describe as the most indulgent week. We treated ourselves to a flight to avoid a 30 hour bus journey with 2 border crossings; the night we arrived in Puerto Varas we treated ourselves to wine and mojitos in the bar around the corner from the hostel (where we were given a free bowl of chips by an admirer of Jen's - which started the whole chain of events), and on Tuesday we splashed out on a spa day with massage, followed by what began as "just one hot chocolate" and ended with salsa and going to bed when it was getting light.

Look how happy I am!

Ready for our spa day

In the next few days we did a beautiful day trek in the (FREE!) National Park, went for a 32km bike ride, and then called to get a lift home because we were feeling a little under the weather from the night before, and it really was quite hilly. On our final night we went to a concert to raise money for an operation for one of the hostel owner's friends, and then went out till the early hours. Much to our annoyance, the club rudely shut at 5am, and despite my best efforts to stay awake I had to go to bed and only just caught my bus - sleeping through 5 alarms and only waking when Jen started shaking me.

A note on the river rafting for the Navy buffs. If you haven't already heard on the grapevine... I bumped into Commodore Portsmouth Flotilla with his wife and children. He was as one would expect (we did start to refer to him just as "the commodore" although my friends kept getting confused and calling him "the commander" best not mention it) although not quite to the eccentric reaches of Commodore Miller. His children however were very charming and I recieved best wishes from all the family for my AIB when the time eventually comes.

My Dad advised me not to rush around too much on my travels, as quite often you see so much more by staying still, and the last week proved this to be very much the case. We mingled often with the locals and got to know the town and surrounding area very well. Rather than just seeing the sights we also learnt something about the community and customs. Sadly, the time did come to move on and after a pretty horrendous bus journey - which was probably worse for the people sitting near to me - I arrived back in Argentina.