An Active Christmas

As most of you are aware, i'm not the most active of people. Well, all that has changed in the past three days. Christmas eve was spent on a 38km bike ride, Christmas Day hiking up a volcano (2,850m) and today (Boxing Day) White Water Rafting. Still, I did manage to find time to watch the Man U v Wigan match!

I've now left the arid north behind and am in the lush green lake district. I stayed one night in Villaricca in the most German hostel i would ever have imagined finding in Chile, and then headed to Pucon. The hostel owners are really friendly and cooked the 6 of us straying there Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We managed to try 4 different types of alcohol and still stay in form for the trek the next day.

In the next few days i'm heading to Bariloche which is the chocolate capital of Argentina so i'm guaranteed to undo all the good work i've done in the past few days!

Hasta Luego Argentina, Hola Bolivia y Chile

Well, have now finished my first stint in Argentina. I went walking in Iruya and then changed plans slightly to pop into Bolivia to see the Salar de Uyuni for a few days. Despite being in literally the middle of nowhere we managed to gate crash a Bolivian graduation ceremony which was fun despite my lack of Spanish. I´m now in Chile but the town is very touristy, expensive and i´ve already seen most of the scenery from Bolivia.

I can gladly report the National stereotypes are alive and well. 3 hours away from a really remote village, the Italian girl had to have a coffee before we could walk back, on crossing the border for Bolivia (i usually opt for the ´get to where we´re going as soon as possible ´approach) the French guy insisted on stopping for an hour to have lunch. I´ve been knocking around with a couple of English guys these past couple of days and drinking has featured heavily - i´ve only just gotten rid of my Saturday night hangover.

I heading east now and will try and see the world´s largest copper mine tomorrow - from the pictures it seems very James Bond- esque but i guess i´ll find out tomorrow!

Ronald McChoripan

Well, one down, eight more to go!

This week was a bit slow to start with - no travellers about Northern Argentina so was a bit dry (and not just cos i was heading towards the desert!) Did a few tours from Salta which were really amazing - saw some salt planes and the scenery was incredible (pictures on Flickr). Particularly fun was the Argentinian guy on the tour - despite the fact he spoke less English than my Spanish (and that is some achievement!) he insisted on talking to me non-stop. He came up with the idea that we should open a Choripan (argentinian hotdog) stall together and sell them to Man United hooligans. Among his other ideas were us renting out girls (don´t ask) and opening a winery in Manchester. I feel sorry for the American girl with us as she had to translate everything he said to me!

The night of the tour we stopped i wine country and had an asado - Argnentina BBQ. Was a good laugh although i´m not sure they understood me when i asked if the meat was Tesco finest.

After Salta i headed north to see some more Rock valleys around Humaucha and Iruya. Its really nice and peaceful here, but boy is it cold - its 7pm and i´m wearing my fleece with my trekking coats and boots. Tomorrow, i´m planning to walk 7 hours to San Isidro and back with a French guy and Italian girl i met - i just hope my fitness levels are up to it....