Brasiloche (English)

I am starting to think we should all learn Esperanto. Every time I make a blog entry, regardless of the language, I am fully aware of those friends who won't understand, it's frustrating. I am a bad translator I guess, because I hate translating my own stuff. If I feel it in a language, that's the language I feel like relating it in... so just you all be thankful this isn't entirely in Spanish! That is the language I've been living in here.

But it's going to be Portuguese pretty soon! Yesterday, I arrived here in the city of Bariloche, Patagonia's most important ski site (in the winter, but right now it's summer). Now, however, it is full of bopping teenagers, as this is the traditional place to come party the end of the school year (in this hemisphere, Christmas and school holidays coincide) and also, people come for trekking and climbing, which is remarkably plentiful and easily accessible in the area. I've already done a number of treks here, but I've never climbed. Rodrigo, Rodrigo and I plan on doing some rock climbing after the course, and Julio put us in touch with a friend of his, Leo, who has offered to guide us around to the different spots. He sounds like a very avid climber; his work place is close enough to a site that he actually goes during lunch!

So, Rodrigo, Rodrigo and I met at the hostal we are staying at, and after chatting, resting and eating, we met the rest of the group with whom we are doing the course at a close by mall. On our way, we hit just about every single bank looking for an ATM that would take Rodrigo's card. It frustratingly got rejected everywhere.

There are 11 people doing the course in all. In the last email we got, they said 2 Argentines and 9 Brasilians, and I was curious to know which of these two they had categorized me under as there was no mention of a Canadian. But 9 Brasilians! No wonder this city has been renamed Brasiloche, one hears Portuguese spoken everywhere. When we got to the meeting spot, I was ecstatic to see 3 other women!! Yeh! I wasn't going to be the sole girl on this thing! The second shock, however, was that two of them were all done up. They didn't look like the kind of people who were looking forward to 9 days of no possibility of washing. And of course, it turns out that they are not participants, they are the girlfriends of participants. The one woman who showed up looking sporty, however, is coming, and I look forward to some female companionship on this trip at least.

Most of the information was given in Portuguese and I was more than thankful to be able to follow, I haven't been to Brasil in 3 years. Rodrigo and Rodrigo are being endlessly patient with me (truth me told, most Brasilians are way too tolerant of how foreigners entirely destroy their language sometimes), correcting me and the such. I really look forward to learning as much Portuguese in this course (a Brasilian instructor is part of the group) as mountain technique.

After the meeting, we went shopping and had a delicious dinner. R & R are vegetarian, so I look forward to lots of vegetables with them. And then we all slept pretty well, it was nice to not have to get up early this morning.

I went running at the same gym as last time. This city is not easy to run in. It is on a slant, full of stairs and haphazard sidewalks with the usual crazy, disrespectful drivers. Treadmills are boring, but at least they let me concentrate on the run as opposed to the logistics of not getting hit. In a few minutes we are going to go for lunch, then shop for the things we still need and for food. As the first 3 days we will be in a place where an actual vehicle drops us off, I plan on bringing tons of fresh food (and wine), stuff one does not normally bring on these kinds of trips because they are heavy. There will be enough opportunity to eat freeze-dried food after!

So off to eat and shop. As of tomorrow, I will not be able to put in any entries. If all goes well, please send us good thoughts on the 14th, the day we plan on summitting the Argentine peak of Monte Tronador.