snow capped mountains

beautiful Bariloche a smallish tourist town known for its ski ing, trout, chocolates and ice cream. It also provides us with cold days(0 to 10 degrees) many lakes to wonder around(we are in the lakes district)and snowcapped mountains to explore. we are staying in a nice cosy dorm which is great to come back to after a day in the cold. socks, beanies, gloves and some new shoes(waterproof might help kellys shoe situation)are all on the shopping list.yesterday we went for a venture out on the public bus and found ourselves on a ski lift up to a little mountain with a great vista of the surrounding ones, then a little trek through the forest where we walked past bamboo forests(a bit eerie in this weather) huge pine trees and had lunch by the lake. our pre packed tomatoes and lettuce froze in our sandwiches before we had the chance to eat it!! it is quite surreal walking through town with these beautiful mountains and lakes as the backdrop, unlike anything in oz.

bamboo forest- coldest walk ever!!

determined to climb a mountain while in bariloche, sally and elysa headed off to cerro otto with a new found columbian friend, lina, and under the instruction of a couple of locals head up a dirt road lived with pinetrees towards the top of the mountain. the road quickly diminished in size as we passed all the locals houses until finally we found ourselves halfway up a mountian with no real track to follow. refusing to give in now, we followed our guide, a local dog that took a likeing to us, completely the wrong way for a 100 metres or so before deciding to wing it ourselves... after all, we could see the top of the mountain... and that where we were heading wasn`t it??? needless to say, going straight up the side of a mountain without any paths in teh freezing cold is really hard yakka... we were so releived to finally make it.... and were even able to relax our sore limbs in a rotating cafe at the top of the mountain (where the regular tourists get off the chairlift!!!) eating chocolate cake and sipping hot chocies, mmmmm. i have the feeling that this is the start of a mountain climbing obsession for sally and elysa!!! haha

bariloche sunset

beautiful ol´ tree

bloody tree hugging hippy!!

elysa on top of lakes world

hitting the town with some other travellers

sal infront of amazing mountains