San Martin de los Andes

So we arrive in this lovely little village that is surrounded by mountains and lakes. Another place that feels like a real ski resort-which it also is- in the summer. Stunning. After checking into our hostel- which was ok but run by a cool guy who was ridiculously layed back- we ended up in a nice restaurant-bar (called Deli) by the lake (Lago Lacar) where we had some food and we could not help but have a couple of liters of Quilmes each. this was in the middle of the day and as we got back to the hostel with great plans to go out K feel asleep like a baby for the night while Martin had a bbq at the hostel . It was one of they guys who worked at the hostels bday and all his Argentine friends came for the bbq. It was only Martin and a Danish guy who were gringos but they had a great laugh with the Argies. It should be pointed out that all the people at the party were about 18..at a push!!

Next day K woke up fresh and we got trekking maps from the tourist office and off we went. We went up really steep mountains to a viewpoint that looked over the mountains and lakes. Amazing. the area belongs to the local indigenous people called Mapuches. The are was called Curruhuinca. We trekked around their area and watched how they lived. It was so different and really good to see. they live of agriculture and like we would have a very long time ago. We also walked out to an island and on the way back met an older couple from Salt lake city who were really nice.

That evening we went to a restaurant which looked lovely and had lovely staff. After weeks of watching locals enjoying massive asados in restaurants we decided to order some. It was disgusting. Intestines, Liver, More instestines. To say it was rotten is a compliment. Luckily the wine was good….

We were leaving the next day but were dying to go for a mountain bike ride up the mountains. We decided to go down the hill we walked up on our trekk which really is not for biking but we thought it would be fun. In order to get to the top we were told to get up another way which was ridiculously steep and it went on for ever. Like there was not one bit for like 15km that had any flat part. Once we got up and started descending down on the trek from the day before it was absolutely brilliant. We were mad even to try to attempt it but it was so much fun. Cant wait to do some more biking. So tired but loved it.

A pic of Captain Birdseyes nephew (thanks mr Carolan!!) who we met on the mountain....