THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Kevin´s turn to blog, first, some favorite pictures:

Amber´s purchase from the woman who made it, El Bolson, Argentina. Amber had to have it when she saw it. It was hard to get the artist to give it up.

Closeup of the dress

Panorama shot from Catedral ski resort, Kevin on the right

Behind this rock is where we took off tandem paragliding. Kevin went first, skiing off a dropoff, but the parachute did not open and collapsed on top of us. We dug ourselves out of waist deep snow to start over, and got off the ground the second try, landing at the base of the ski resort about 10 minutes later. Then I watched Amber flying above us, landing on skis right in front of me.

The light and clouds changed our view daily from our hostel in Bariloche

Our friends from ping pong in Bariloche.

Amber at Lago Futalaufquen, Los Alerces National Park, outside of Trevelin, Argentina
We spent 3 days in this region, one of the most "magnificent and unspoiled areas of the Andes", with only one road through it. The Alerce trees are up to 4000 years old, the 2nd oldest in the world, behind the ones in California in the White mountains in the Sierras near Mammoth. Sequoias are the third oldest.

This is an Alerce tree, Lahuen in Mapuche.

Snowshoeing near Trevelin, Argentina. We had a guide who provided the snow shoes and led us above the Mapuche Indian reservation. It snowed while we were walking, our boots, socks and feet were wet by the end of the day. It was fun to walk on snow without sinking in.

The start of our climb above the refuge, we slept in the one on the right.

Amber on our mixed snow and rock climb above the mountain hut above El Bolson, Argentina.

Can you see Amber standing on the rock pinnacle on the left?

Sunset from the Refugio Piltriquitron. Our coldest night of the trip, sleeping in the drafty hut next to the refuge so we would not have to listen to the drunken teenagers. Still, it was not as cold as Kim and my sleeping in New Zealand! These colors just lasted a few minutes.
This 4 month old had spent 3 months at the hut, his parents were age 20, I had fun playing with him. The hut was very basic, with one central fire stove.
During our hikes in Los Alerces national park we took this timed self portrait, standing on a view platform. This hike around a promontory had 360 degree views of the surrounding lakes, forests and snowy peaks.


One of the peaks we saw from our boat trip on Lago Menendez in Los Alerces national park. We saw glaciers that are receding steadily.One of the valleys south of bariloche and north of Esquel. This is where Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid hung out for 4 years between robberies. We drove on dirt and gravel roads for hours, dodging potholes.


High school kids on the boat with us, who practised their English with Amber. We got off the boat to look at Alerce trees (you estimate their age by the number of millimeters diameter at eye level), and the ground was covered in clumps of wet ash from the recent eruption of the Chaiten volcano in Chile.Flamingoes and other birds outside the Welsh colony of Trevelin, Argentina. At our hostel was a 27 year old being paid by the Welsh government to increase the use of the Welsh language in Esquel and Trevelin, the only other place in the world besides Wales where they speak Welsh (along with Spanish).

This is Kevin taking off tandem paragliding, the pilot is running, amber is taking the video.

Here is Amber´s video while flying: