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  Bariloche, Chile
Sunday, May 6, 2007

Having left the desolate patagonia land behind we arrived back in Bariloche at 2am on the Sunday night.  Three days solid landrover travel demanded the need for serious catch up on sleep and general laziness.  However, being the suckers for punishment that we are we soon found ourselves lured back into the activity/social circles.

The next day we hiked up to a viewing point (Mirador) in the National Parque in Bariloche.  The climb wasnt actually very long but was unbelievably steep and through a beautiful forest with waterfalls, however the necessity of breathing preceded any appreciation of the scenery.  Once we reached the top we realised how overexposed we had been to amazing views as we were all quite casual about the gorgeous mountains and lakes and not even a camera was produced.   That afternoon a group of us from the hostel went to do the ´canopy´which was basically a set of ziplines through the heart of the forest..so cool as at times you couldnt see the other platform and it felt like you were just flying through the trees like a monkey.

After such a productive day we headed out to the local hotspot ´The Wilkenny´ (yes, an Irish bar, but of the six bars in the town - five were Irish - v.strange) which ended up with ridiculous spin and lifts and wedding style dancing much in the fashion of such classics as Dirty Dancing and Grease - or so we thought at the time... think the locals may be slightly more scathing of our talents once they got over their bemusement.

Somehow the next day after minimum sleep we managed to pull ourselves together to attempt horseriding.  I say attempt as although Christine is a horse pro I had never been before and have no plans to ever go again. ever. 

At the beginning it was ok, got on the horse without a problem and set off up the mountain, however I had quite possibly the fattest horse ever ´Moniqua´.  She was lovely but was sweating so much carrying me up this mountain that I felt massively guilty when I could have walked it and saved her the trouble.  A slight concern arose at this point as the guide kept on stopping me to tighten the saddle every ten minutes or so which was a bit disconcerting.  All seemed to be going well and I was actually quite enjoying it as we came back down the mountain via ridiculously steep forest paths through foliage and ducking under trees.  That is until I fell off.  To clarify I didnt actually fall, the sweat from my obese horse made the saddle slip and as it slipped I kind of just slid off into the undergrowth as we trotted along.  I think I would have preferred to have had some kind of dramatic fall but it was actually pretty pathetic.  There was one moment of panic when I thought the horse was going to fall on top of me but she was completely unbothered by my predicament and viewed this ´slippage´as an opportunity to much on surrounding greenery.  I was not impressed, this was not the Black Beauty saving her beloved rider from certain death relationship I had envisaged.

To add insult to injury just as we finished I realised I am actually allergic to horses and began to wheeze and eyes stream.  I had to walk around for the next while with people crossing the road to avoid me as my bloodshot eyes had me looking like a complete madperson.  Its over between me and horses.

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