Leaving Bariloche

There are 6 of us in the room we are staying at the youth hostel, and at least 5 of us are leaving tomorrow, so our room has been a formidable mess for most of the day as everyone took turns trying to put some order in their luggage. In a small room, that gets very confusing. I was thankful to have gotten most of my things ready in Puerto Madryn, which meant that I was easily be able to put aside what we are leaving at the hostal (I won't be bringing the stuff I brought for the kayaking trip and diving) and only needed to take minimal stuff out of the top of my bag (clothes and toiletries). My big bag full of ice gear is with the company and they are bringing it tomorrow when we take off, so that is one less worry.

A good part of the day disappeared getting ready. Lots of shopping for food, measuring, calculating. Of course, it is not so critical here as, first of all, if we bring too much, we can leave some on the 4th day on our way up, and if we don't have enough, we can buy some at the refugio. It is taking a lot of space, because of all the fresh food we are bringing. I think I went a bit overboard. A huge bag of grapes, bananas, tomatoes, zuchini, peaches, avocado... and 2 huge chunks of fresh cheese. The idea is to eat all of that in the first 3 days to avoid carrying it up. The guys had to get ropes and other things. I needed to find a screw to replace the one that fell out of one of my walking sticks. Fuel. Incredible how time consuming all those things can be.



We had a great lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, it was so good! The Rodrigos are on a mission, they need to put some weight back on after losing quite a bit in the mountains, and as they are both really thin to begin with, this is not a good thing. They eat incredible amounts, it's hilarious!



We also got in touch with friends of friends. Julio's friend Leandro and his wife Natalia are coming over for a beer, as well as the Rodrigos' friend of a friend Milton, so it should be a lively evening. Right now, as I hide from the chaos in an internet café, they are getting their bags ready. I will be heading back very soon to start dinner. Wish I could say we are going to bed early for our early start tomorrow, but it doesn't look like it will happen.


Leandro, Xuxa, moi, Rodrigo et Natalia.