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??