Yet another lazy day in Bariloche. Now I've been here six days and it feels strange to leave tomorrow. Good that I'm coming back after the trek :) The weather quit improving today, it got cloudy and the usual wind has been blowing all day, accompanied by rain now in the evening. Thus, the farthest I've made it from the house is to a take-away restaurant two blocks away, where dinner was bought: Chicken and french fries. Very healthy indeed. Hope it transforms into a lot of nice energy during the slog in the snow which awaits us in Puyehue.

Helped Carlos a bit in the afternoon, he was cleaning his friends and other climbing equipment since he's off to Refugio Frey on Tuesday with some pals of his; they're going to do some climbing there for a few days. Also borrowed his climbing shoes to try out the small bouldering wall they have here at Bolsa del deporte, that was fun :) Carlos is a friend of Carlos the owner, he's been living here for about 3 months and helps out with maintenance around the house. Actually I'm meeting a lot of Argentinians here and I think it's great, to meet and get to know the locals. It really is a good thing to be able to speak the language when you're travelling!!! Argentinians are a bit different from Chileans in that they talk a lot more about the situation in their country than the Chileans do, and for a good reason: The situation in Argentina really seems to be quite bad. People are worried and angry with the politicians and all the corrupt assholes (summing up the general opnion...) who have wasted the huge foreign loans given to Argentina without ever letting a penny of it (more or less...) get to the common people. So, now people are stuck with a crippled economy, huge foreign debt, insanely expensive food and clothing, low wages and hopelessness reigns. Sounds maybe a bit too dramatic, I don't know, but it's what everyone talks about. Have heard the words 'civil war' on several occasions... although I don't think people are too serious about that. People have lost all faith in politicians (is there any people on Earth still having faith in them???), army and police, and some people have reached the conclusion that having hope is energy wasted so they try and pull themselves out of society, becoming more and more anonimous (maybe that's why one of the biggest supermarket chains here is called La Anonima??). They sell their houses and cars, get rid of mortgages and loans in one way or another, close their credit cards and bank accounts, and try to disappear. If the system fucks around with you for too long, your reaction would be: Fuck the system. Why not??

Wow, I can die happy now! Hiked to Refugio Lopez (a hut, just in case) and it was soooooooooooo beautiful. Hardly a cloud in the sky. Decided I'd have to go all the way and continued to the top of Cerro Lopez, a 2000m peak. There was a lot of snow; melting, wet and heavy snow, and all of it glued onto really steep hills. Thrilling. Reached the top after making billions of steps in the snow (and occasionally falling through it to my hips), and was awestruck; the view which met me on the other side was unbelieveable. Rugged peaks covered in snow as far as the eye could see, a lake shining like silver in the afternoon sun and a pair of condors tending their nest in a huge rock tower. To the west the peaks disappeared, giving way to the endless flats of Patagonia. I'm sure I could see all the way to Iceland!!!

This place I'm staying at, La bolsa del deporte (which translates as The Gym Bag!), is fabulous. The other day there was a big barbecue party here, we could eat as we wanted of that delicious Argentine beef for only 4 pesos (i.e. 4 USdollars), and when I came home tonight, starving, I found a pizza party going on where I could eat as much of Mono's homemade pizzas for 50 cents. Too good to be true!

My Israeli friend Arnon (whom I call Nonni, in the Icelandic tradition) arrived this evening. Looks like we're going over to Chile again on Monday, to do a trek in Puyehue National Park, since the Nahuel Huapi trek we wanted to do is still impassable. I'll have to be back though and do it later in the season. Maybe in January...

Another lazy day in Bariloche, Argentina. Not much hurricaning going on right now :) The weather actually has improved a lot, so it's a shame just to sit around doing nothing!

Finally got the last information I need for my application on the e-mail yesterday evening. Now the computer is my only problem; this computer here doesn't support our strange Icelandic letters. Have to figure that out somehow. Anyway, I only saw this e-mail a few minutes ago and since it's already almost closing time for the post office I won't reach it. The application will probably have to wait until Monday. What a shame!!!

Am really looking forward to going hiking again. Bariloche is a great town, set in an awesome scenery of wild rugged mountains and vast open spaces. The lake, Nahuel Huapi, is enormous and when the wind blows, as it's been doing since I got here (and yesterday we actually had some snow downtown, would you believe that!), it looks like the ocean, with huge waves hitting the shore. The hike I was planning to do is rather "wild" at the moment, two Israeli guys I know started it last Thursday and came back yesterday evening, totally exhausted, after doing three days worth of hiking in two days, walking in snow up to their knees and getting lost time and again. Cool!! I might have to wait a bit longer... it's really a bit frustrating to see all those beautiful hikes still more or less impassable. Doon't even want to think about what Fitz Roy or Torres del Paine will look like when I get there, hopefully in the middle of December. Everything covered in snow... should have practiced cross-country skiing a bit more :)