Heading to the End of the World

Hello, friends! Don´t have much to report today, as I haven´t exactly been as productive with my last few days in Bariloche as I thought I might be. But the "activities" I wanted to do are expensive, and I had to buy some new hiking shoes. Gotta have priorities!

But, it has been a lovely few days here. Very relaxing. I feel like I´m on vacation! Three hour hikes in the mornings, big relaxing lunches with books, naps in the park, pool playing after dinner. All good things.

So my bus for El Chalten pulls out at 6:15 AM tomorrow morning. Yeow! That´s early. Not sure what kind of bus this is going to be - don´t think it´s quite as deluxe as the one I took from Buenos Aires - but hopefully it will be comfortable enough for me to do a bit of sleeping. We shall see.

We have a full day of driving tomorrow, straight down Ruta 40, then the bus stops at Perito Moreno (the town, not the big glacier - though I am going to see that...later) for the evening, where we have a hostel reservation somewhere. Saturday morning, I am going to go check out the Cave of Hands, and then it´s back on the bus, for another full day of driving. We are due to arrive in El Chalten around 9 PM, I believe. Chalten Travels, who organizes this journey, is the only company (I think) that runs down Route 40, so you are sort of forced into the tourist thing. Hopefully, my fellow travelers will be cool tourists like me (I am so cool.) and not annoying tourists, but I cannot hand-pick them, unfortunately. If only I ruled the world. I would like it so much:)

Anyway, I have a hostel reservation in El Chalten til next Thursday, at which point I think I am going to El Calafate to see that Perito Moreno glacier. After that, I am considering Puerto Natales, the jumping off point for Torres del Paine, and after that, I am considering Puerto Montt, Chile. That´s the loose plan, but you know, these things are...subject to change. Then straight up Chile, then back in to Argentina for Mendoza, Cordoba, Salta, then back into northern Chile for the desert, then PERU! I think. I just get silly excited thinking about all of this. Silly!

I need to go pack now. And have a final cena with the family. And I might actually go to a reggae concert later tonight because...why not?

Not sure what kind of internet access I am going to have in Patagonia (they don´t have ATM machines in El Chalten, so who knows), so it may be some days before I can write again. But until then, much, MUCH love, from a gal who is loving life at the end of the world!