More bikes and lots of chocolate

With Jen now hobbling around with her gammy leg, we were done with Chile for a bit so we crossed back over to Argentina and thought that we would chill out for a bit in Bariloche, even though we were going back down south slightly when we were heading north. Chocolate and beers were on the agenda so we were looking forward to enjoying the lazy life.

There was no direct route to Bariloche from Pucon so we needed to stop off for a few hours at a place called San Martin. Pretty cool place, all to report from here is that a bloke we climbed the volcano with left his ukulele on the bus and ran back to get it (successfully) and we also went to an Irish bar which was ridiculously overpriced. It was also super rainy so got drenche before the  next bus ride. Upon getting to our hostel in Bariloche after the second bus journey, late at night there suprisingly wasn´t really a lot going on.....a nice hostel with a nice dude on reception but no one about so we got an eatly night.

Getting up the next morning, again, there wasn´t really much going on, no one about. Thinking we had booked a dud hostel, we ventured out into the town on our own in search of chocolates! Walking down our road we came across a road full of trees which people had given knitted outfits which was pretty cool.

There was also a pretty cool central area where some dude had carved out sculptures from wood.

But wood to us was boring, the excitement was in the chocolate and we weren´t dissappointed! Walking around town we came to a whole bunch of chocolate shops, which were absolutely massive. Imagine a shop such as your local WHSmith or something similary sized. One floor of WHSmith was the same as this chocolate shop, absolutely massive. We´d never seen so much chocolate in one place. With giddy faces we strolled around and decided what to have which was tricky as it all looked amazing.

We did finally decide thought and with sketchy Spanish we tried to order, mainly with pointing. Luckily the woman spoke pretty good English so it was all good. Collecting up our chocolates, we went and scoffed them all straight away with a view of the lake and mountains. They were ace if you were wondering. Some of the best chocolate I´d ever sampled.

With the chocolate fix satisfied we went back to the hostel and planned our evening, which just so happened to be munching on some steak as we had agreed this was the last of many steaks we would eat in Argentina. Arriving at Alberto´s, a reputable steakhouse in Bariloche and one talked about by almost every traveller who had been to Bariloche we ordered up some steak, chorizo sausage, blood sausage and chips (and mandatory wine). What came out was out of this world. First up the chorizo and blood sausage to wet our appetites which were incredible in themselves but nothing in comparison to the main. The steak was literally rhe best thing I had ever tasted and it was accompanied by the biggest moutain of chips you´d ever see. We didn´t know what to do with them!

Steak munched, and with stuffed bellies I joined Jen in waddling back to the hostel. Next day was another lazy one, so not much to report. With guilt setting in that we should actually do something productive with our time here so we organised a bike ride the following day with the two other girls in our room. The bike circuit was a bit out of town so we hopped on a bus. After half an hour I saw a bike rental place out the window thinking nothing of it as I thought there would be a few. Turns out that was the only one and 10 more minutes on the bus we realised we had gone too far and had to jump off there and hike back. Good start! Getting back to the bike rental place we sorted everything out and set off on our merry way. The views were cool. mountains in the backdrop of forested areas.

Once again the bike ride turned into a bit of a hassle, with a lot of the "biking" being walked by Jen and another girl from the room. I decided to bike the whole thing just so I could claim I had so biked on ahead and then waited for the others to catch up with their pushing tactics so at least I can claim I biked the whole 27k circuit.

Some more awesome views looking over the lake....

Getting the the highest point we thought we would take a sneaky break (we had to wear the bibs and helmet if you were gonna say anything!)

At this point there was a cool moment where we spotted a bird of prey just chilling out on the road. 10 points if you can identify the bird as we couldn´t! Anyway this majestic chap wasn´t scared of us and I was able to get right up close to it and take this cool shot.

With some easy downhills from here out we could take our time and take in the views.....

Coming across some amazingly blue water we left the road and stopped for our packed lunch by the river and lake.

Riding on after lunch we smashed a lot of it out the way, only for me and Jen to look back and realise our roommate Kathryn was no where to be seen. She wasn´t the fittest bless her and was doing more pushing than Jen so we were a bit worried as to where she might be. Stopping for a moment some local bloke pulled over and ranted some Spanish at us, all we understood was "Chica" (meaning "girl) so I left Jen there and cycled back to check on Katheryn. Turns out she got cramp and was sat cross legged on the side of the road. After a short recuperation period she got back on her way and we completed the circuit. 

What better way than to celebrate with a good old drink, so we had some beers at the microbrewery along with some food at about 11.30pm so we were obviously starving. I ordered trout as it´s supposedly a local dish. Big mistake as my dish was mainly bones. I was tempted to ask if any fish came with my bones, but I just ate Jen´s left overs and had more beer making me content!

The next day we thought we better smash some more chocolates seeing as we were off soon. So we went to another 2 chocolate places and got a bag from each which we would eat during the day and save some for the bus and the next destination, the wine region of Mendoza (cos we all know wine and chocolates are a great match)

When in Pucon.....climb a volcano

Arriving in Pucon and following on from the epic bike ride which didn`t involve as much exercise as anticipated, we thought we would actually smash some proper exercise out. We`d done a mountain so we thought we`d slightly deviate from the norm and climb a volcano. That coupled with the fact that everyone goes to Pucon to climb this volcano. So we checked into our hostel with our American receptionist Utah Washington.....that´s right an America bloke called Utah Washinton. Only in America right?! That´s like me being called Leicester London.

So with our minds made up we got a good nights sleep before the big day. Waking up at 6am (thought travelling meant lots of lie ins!) we suited up and awaited the tour guides to pick us up. They got here about 30 minutes late and then we faffed around for a while making sure we all had the ride equipment and sizes etc. We thought we had it easy with a decent walk not anticipating the kit we`d have to carry with us. Seemed like the W trek all over again.

Getting into the carrier we were pretty comfy, until they realised they didn`t really have enough space for the 16 of us along with 5 tour guides between 2 people carriers, so we had to squidge 4 people onto a row of seats for 3. After leaning forward for the 45 minute drive to the base of the volcano, we arrived with the sun just about fully illuminating the mountain.

After a short safety briefing we set off up a small walk to a ski lift thingy, with the tour guides all highly recommending that we took the ski lift option to save an hours hike and to save energy. BALLS, MEGA BALLS. Sorry, nothing to do with the blog, just went on bbc to find Leicester down 0-2 to Watford at half time. Back to the blog.........With most the group opting for the hike option (including me) we hiked on up, watching Jen and another girl floating by on the ski lift above our heads. Turned out to be a great shout, the first hour to the top of the ski lift was the hardest part of the whole day! We hoped the rest of the climb wouldn`t be quite this hard!

 

 

Thankfully the climb evened out a bit after that first ascent. The three girls and the guide who had taken the ski lift didn`t wait around for us though, by the time the rest of the group had got to the top of the ski lift they had already done one without us. 

At the ski lift drop off point we were told this was the only toilet, so I took the opportunity to relieve myself, only to find a frozen toilet, round the corner would have to do.

After a short 10 minute break for the hardcore climbers, we set off again and pushed the pace to catch up. And catch up we did, getting to the next resting point only 10 minutes behind the girls who originally had a 40 minute lead on us (Jen will probably disagree but the lift took 10 minutes and the walk took an hour so look at the maths!). (Yes Jen most certainly disagrees, we were waiting for there group for longer than 10 minutes and in our defense we had a rather large unfit guy in our group so we took the pace slowly!)

Getting to the resting point we all met back up and took in the views and appreciated what we had just climbed already. There were plenty of other groups at this pòint as this was where everyone stopped to put on the crampons (spikey grip thingies you attach to your walking boots to grip to the snow). Jen didn`t think I`d believe her, but when I was walking up the first bit she met our mate Cyrille at the top of the ski lift. This guy turns up everywhere!

Obviously not the 15k+ we had on the W trek, but still a fairly hefty backpack with some weight in it, mainly for the summit and way down, but we`ll get to that later.

Crampons attached by the tour guide (who incidentally was the 8th person to call me Pique) and a good old break to take in water etc and take in the views, we set back off again, waddling like ducks trying to get used to the crampons. Single file was the theme of the day, still not sure why but the guides weren`t impressed when I broked formation to chat to Jen!

After a while the volcano decided that a slow ascend was no longer the deal and it decided to get a bit steep. By a bit steep I mean pretty ridiculously steep! This picture was taken holding the camera completely flat....and this wasn`t even the worst to come!

It was getting so bad at one point that one guide had to carry a girls bag and also tie her to him via a rope in order to get her up the volcano. At the time we thought that was pretty funny as anyone would.

However karma quickly reared its ugly head on us, more specifically Jen! Climbing up the steepest part of the volcano (which was only about a 100m climb but that steep that we had to zigzag our way up for about 30mins)  Jen`s feet gave way. Again it sounds amusing but slipping on the snow coupled with the fact that crampons are attached to your feet suddenly removes the comedy from the situation. With the snow giving way under Jen`s right leg (I always thought that was her fattest leg) it fell down with her left leg soon to follow. Of course with crampons strapped to feet, they are soon to follow the leg and with that, Jen impaled herself with her crampons. She was clinging to the side of the volcano with her pick axe, with one foot plus crampon stuck in her leggings at the top of her thigh ( that was one bending leg!). Looking at the situation with Jen on the floor, it didn`t look to bad. A hole had appeared in her leggings and all we could see was a scrap on her leg. Thinking she had gotten away with it, the guide asked to take a look.....raising the hole in her leggins slightly revealed the extent to the injury, a good cm deep gash. 

With the guide bandaging her up on the side of the volcano, we were now quite some time behind the rest of the group. The tour guide was lightening the situation though asking if he had permission to touch her leg, whilst turning to me and saying he had a wife and kids so he wasn`t in it for the kicks and that his wife would kill him anyway if she found out he had touched another girls leg! So Jen got patched up. For some reason Jen didn`t really feel much and decided to troop on, even though a rusty manky spike had just intruded her leg tissue. She refused to look at the bloody wound, but that didn`t stop her picking herself up and making her way up the volcano. I didn`t mention at the time but it was pretty dam close to her femoral artery which could have potentially been life threatening (dont worry folks it wasn´t that bad).

Following the "incident", we continued in our little group of 3 (Jen, me and the only tour guide of the 5 who seemed the slightest bit bothered by what had just happened) making our way up the last bit. With Jen understandly shook up and feeling a bit wobbly, the tour guide was holding her hand whilst pulling her up, and I was taking the weight of her backpack ( Jen says she didnt notice this so doesnt believe any weight was taken) and making sure she didn`t slip from behind.

After 3 times the amount it should have taken, we finally got up the last couple of hundred metres, over snow and rocks whilst still in the crampons. Here`s Jen`s victory pose when at the top, whole in leggings (and leg) on show.

 

The top was epic, but cold...... on goes the waterproof jacket and trousers we had lugged up the beast. 5 hours since we started we could pose away.

And the volcano itself was pretty cool, if you were lucky you could see steam coming out as it is active, with some lucky people even getting to see lava being blowed upwards (but not out). Unfortunately we were neither of those people and just saw a crater on top of a hill!

But it was still definately worth the effort, enhanced by the fact that Jen had pushed through her self mutilation. YYEEEAAAAHHHH, sorry Leicester scored! Just two more now lads!

The other side with view. You can make out another massive volcano in the distance.

There was a slightly higher part that you could climb to which many did, but Jen didn`t feel up to it favouring the resting of the gammy leg....

......didn`t stop me going up though! Here I am coming back down, captured by Jen (thanks for the "bigfoot sighting" comment Jen)

With the views soaked in and warm dry clothes on the fun could really start now! How do you get back down a mountain in a fifth the time that you made it up? Skis is a good shout if that was what you were thinking but we didn`t have those so what`s the second best option? That`s right, sliding down on your arse....so that we did.

This turned out to be a right laugh, bobsleighing down on your arse, using your ice pick to speed you up if needed. Turns out I definately didn`t need that sliding wildly off the path upsidedown with the tour guide yelling to slow down. Problem was, I couldn`t slow down, even when i tried to slow down with my pick axe. Must have been all that extra Argentian steak weight I had accumulated. It was a different story for Jen though, she couldn`t speed up....so pathetically so that she was pretty much completely stationary for the most of it! With me laughing whilst watching her struggle from below, I finally took pitty on her and ran back up to met her, linked ice axes, and pulled her down the track whilst running alongside. Cos that`s just how nice I am!

Getting down the volcano and back to the hostel we dropped off our backpacks and had a complimentary beer, thankyou very much! We showered and got changed in our new room for the night....this big tent.

With the hostel folk, we decided to celebrate our acheivement with more beers so went out for that and a burger, which turned out to be yummy. Fortunately we also had 2 nurses on the tour who took a look at Jen`s leg and randomly 2 doctors who we had recognised from the navimag boat where in our hostel and also looked at it and redressed it. So Jen was in good hands. Here`s the doctors handywork!

The next day the sun was out and we could really appreciate what we had just climbed. Here`s the volcano in the background as we walked around the streets of Pucon. Well, Jen hobbled actually!

Soooo turns out Leicester are in the championship for another year as I finish this blog.

Jen`s bum is on fire (read on for an explanation)

Arriving in Puerto Varas we were pleased to find a little quaint town which confirmed our choice to get straight out of Puerto Montt even though Derek stayed behind with the intention to stay the night. Backpacks back on, we weren`t so impressed to find a massive hill up to our hostel, we thought those days were over. Sadly not, but in the knowledge that this hill was only minimal (according to our picture we took of google maps, which we found is the best way to navigate a new city without a map before checking in) we pushed on up the hill for a few minutes and found our hostel.

After being buuzzed in we were greeted by the hostel staff, followed by two people we recognised from the navimag boat but didn`t really talk to, followed by two others from the same boat of whom we had talked to not only on the boat but also in our hostel in Puerto Natales.

After those four had checked in we rocked up and checked in to what we thought was a private room for the two of us without any luxuries like an en suite etc. However, for some reason we had been bumped ùp, maybe because it was low season and no-one had booked it, but instead of our minimal most basic private room (which we thought was a treat in itself), we now had the biggest room in the house, the family room with en suite roll top bath. This bad boy was bigger than most 12 person dorms we had come across. With a double bed, a single bed, couch and table and chairs and still so much room for activities. With Jen not impressed with my suggestion that she took the single bed, we put our stuff down and went out for a stroll around the town.

Not a whole lot to report here, we had a look around, ate some food, I attempted to ask for a menu in a little empanada shop, she didn`t understand me so I grabbed what I thought was the menu which turned out to be her accounts book which she grabbed back so we walked out hastily, bought some food from supermarket, cooked that food, at that food, then watched the hobbit in the hostel which turned into a little battle between us viewers and the landlord as to who could have the volume as they wanted it. He`d come in and turn it down, then we`d turn it back up when he left, only for him to come back and turn it down etc. Think we won though! (Hobbit is pretty good by the way if you can get past the silliness)

Anyway, what this blog is really about is an epic bike ride. After an awesome sleep in our super ace bed, we decided that we should get back on the fitness bandwagon following our four day lazy boat trip so we rented bikes from the hostel. For some reason the owners were suprised we were doing this, maybe because of the rain, but this wouldn`t stop us Brits. Or perhaps it was because it was 32k to the destination (small town called Frutillar). After being given a shady sketched map of where we had to go, and some minimal verbal directions we set off.

Didn`t take long for me to go wrong, following the rules of team man, I didn`t really listen to the instructions given to me so had a 50/50 of going right or left out the hostel. Turns out right wasn`t right so after Jen took the map off me and backtracked a bit, we were actually on our way, with Jen learning how to use gears on a bike for the first time. We were told that we need to follow the rail track all the way to the first village so that we did. Wasn`t much room to cycle, and what was on offer was a not so much fun dirt track with pretty big stones getting in the way. Thankfully the train track wasn`t used anymore so nothing to worry about, other than some bikers coming the other way, and the fact that Jen couldn`t really ride in a straight line whilst trying to use her newly found gears.

Sticking to the supposed path by the train track, I noticed a path go off into the fields, which I ignored thanks to the instructions given to us. After a few minutes following the train tracks we concluded that this couldn`t be the way as the stone path was getting smaller and more hazidous. We consulted the map and noticed a few bushes lining the path so we agreed that the small route through the field earlier was indeed the way. So back we went and confirmed this to be the case. Getting 10 feet onto the path Jen lost her shoe so doing the gentlemanly thing, I stopped, walked over to her shoe.......and took a photo.

Getting out of the fields we were told to stick to the tar roads, another thing which I conveniently forgot and proceeded to follow a dirt path to a dead end. So back we went again and rejoined the road, past cool houses such as this one.

Me and my bike......

There were a lot of hills on this 32k bike trip it turned out, with not much room for us on bikes as the cars zoomed by. This also led me to discover that Jen cannot ride bikes up hills, so most of our time was spent pushing the bike until we got to a flat or a downhill. I think we only ended up cycling about 3k in total! To be fair, the hills were ridculously steep and there were plenty of them.

As well as hills we had to endure some crazy dogs. They were just sitting out on the front of their owners property and they must have taken a disliking to bikes as all of them came out and barked at us, the most persistant of which chased us for about half a mile whilst nipping at our feet, teeth out menacingly. After the first mean canine, we saw the second one coming and got up a bit of speed to pass the little critter, but still didn`t stop him from defending his territory and snarling at us viciously whislt chasing us down the street.

The weather was pretty much like England so you guys weren`t missing out on much on this one! Looking back on where we had just come from, it kinda looked like an English countryside. You can see how steep the hill is that we just walked.

After finally getting to Frutillar after 4 hours or so of biking (mostly walking), we had a look around the place. Notably there was a cultural centre thingy but we were tight and didn`t pay to go in. Had a nice restuarant with it too. There was a dog there too but thankfully he was a nice dog, if anything too nice which became annoying as this dog would now follow me around Frutillar for the next 10 minutes.

We grabbed lunch in a nice little cafe type thingy and ordered a chicken sandwich and chips each. The sandwich was huge, enough for 2 anyway and it came with about 5 scoops of guacamole, way too much!

After contending with ridiculous hills, manic dogs and with the time slipping away from us, we chickened out of riding back (even though a lot of it would have been downhill). To quote Jen, her "bum felt like it was on fire" so this was another reason why we opted against biking (on fire cos of the bike saddle before any jokes). So what does someone do when they have bikes and they don`t want to cycle back 32k to the hostel.........they obvioulsy jump on a bus and pay an extra fare for their bikes. Turned out to be a pretty good deal as our bikes actually took up 4 seats so we had 6 seats in total, 2 less in than we paid for.



After our epic bike ride, we checked the weather in the next destination and decided to get outta Puerto Varas pronto, so that we could climb a volcano in good weather!

Living the life on a cruise ship.....who said backpackers were on budgets

Okay.....so it wasn`t exactly a cruise ship but more of a cargo ship called the navimag which also had loads of cabins for people. Costing 200 quid in total it was a much better idea getting the navimag up through the Chilean fjords from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt, mainly because it was cheaper than buses (as well as being more scenic). Especially when 4 nights accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner were included.

Anyway, after our tired legs were recuperating following the W trek, 4 days on a boat relaxing sounded like heaven. With Leila and Mark opting for elsewhere on their travels, we were joined by Derek who had the same thing in mind. Leaving at 4am Tuesday morning, we had to go to a safety briefing Monday night and also board the boat that night to save time getting everyone on in the early hours of the morning. So on Monday night we were led to our navimag boat, and what a majestic sight.

Finding our dorm was a bit tricky, there were corridors leading all over the place but we finally found our numbers and made ourselves at home. It was pretty cool. Comfy enough bed, with a little curtain to pull closed so that you could have your own privacy. We also had a sound couple from Bristol in the other two beds called Rory and Fi who we would end up playing drinking games with.....surprise surprise!

 

Testing out the bed I wasn`t quite so impressed to see someone`s grafitti on the roof of my little area. I`m hoping it was someone joking or else I spent the next 4 nights in someone`s personal cesspit. Now I see what the privacy curtains were for.

Putting the fact that I would be spending a third of my navimag time in the former occupants personal pleasure pit behind me, we went and checked out the rest of the boat and were surprised to find that the boat actual had it`s own bar. Didn`t see that one coming, proved by the fact that we had smuggled on 3 bottles of Chile`s national liquor Pisco, and a litre box of wine. Good job too as the prices at the boat bar were pretty steep, it was almost 4 quid for a small bottle of beer, compared to the litre of Pisco we had bought for under 2 quid, and it was clearly necessary to have 3 of these bottles!

Having made ourselves at home on the boat, we decided to have an early night saving the drinking for the next night. This decision was also influenced by the fact that we all had to get up for safety briefing number 2 early the next morning.

The weather was alright for the first full day on the boat and the views were pretty cool. The first morning we would come through the narrowest channel on the stretch, where we saw some sea lions chilling out on a rock. The picture below is us approaching the narrow channel. 

 

There were also other cool mountains and things to look at along the way.....but after a while it all got a bit similar, mountain after mountain lining the channels we were passing through. Good job we had a pack of cards to keep us entertained. 

However.....I highly highly highly doubt that you made out the relevance of this picture, as we were lucky enough to see a whale doing it`s flappy fin thingy out of the water. About 500 metres or so away, it was a great show in eyesight, however it was too small to pick up on camera. You can actually just about make it out in the left of this shot but tis but a small blip. It was an amazing sight though with one person noticing it outside, the rest of the occupants were quick to catch on and rush outside to view the spectacle.

Come sunset though, it was even cooler with the skies producing some awesome contrast against the stark silhouettes of the surrounding landscape.

With the scenery being swallowed by the night`s darkness, we snook our own cheap alcohol into the bar area and played some drinking games with Derek. After a while Jen and Derek went to bed (seperately before you jokers get in there). I wasn`t ready for bed so I infultrated the group that Rory and Fi were in, seeing as there were 3 more of them and it looked fun as they were playing drinking games. And fun it was.....staying up an extra 3 hours and exhanging drinking games.

Time for bed after I taught them a lesson at how to play hands, only to be reminded about what I was returning to.....thanks mr graffiti man!

The weather would soon turn though hitting open water for the first time the next day, as it`s impossible to navigate a boat the whole way up the Chilean Fjords, meaning a slight detour into the sea for a good 8 hours before returning to the channels again. This however would prove the downfall of most on the boat....enter sea sickness! With a film being offered which we were excited about (March of the Penquins......a must see if you haven`t already) we gathered in the communal area only for Jen to last about 10 minutes before being forced to lie down in the bed for the rest of the night, the only way to calm the sea sickness. She had already been in bed for most of the afternoon and managed a couple of mouthfulls of food at dinnertime. I stayed up to watch the little penquin chaps with Derek, turns out penquins are resilient little animals, walking miles and miles to mate, through the harshest winters known to man, whilst starving themselves for 4 months. Sounds fun.

Grabbing an early night following the movie, not to leave Jen on her own (cos I`m just that nice) we tried to sleep as we were literally being thrown around from side to side in our little cabins. We found out the next morning that we had gone through one of the worst storms in a while through the night!

Waking up the next morning we were excited to hear that eggs were on the menu for breakfast.....however excitment quickly turned to dissappointment as the scrambled eggs which were served up literally looked like a pile of sick according to most, all I could think of though was the collective discharge over 4 days of the previous occupant of my bed. Now there`s a thought for ya! Jen and I opted to turn down these image provoking eggs however our mate Derek decided to go for it, not sure the pepper on top made much difference but he said they weren`t the worst eggs he`d ever had.

On the final full day the weather looked a bit better so I decided to rock the Leicester shorts option and t-shirt. Everyone else was wrapped up pretty warm but all real men clearly don their home teams shorts and a t shirt and that is all. Menly Men. With apple in hand I decided to float in the picture below.

Everyone was chilling out on the top deck, drinking wine, playing cards and giant chess and generally having a good time socialising.

We were even joined by massive jellyfish , passing them every 10 seconds at one point. This picture kinda just looks like a white blob (no I won`t make another reference to the graffiti) but trust me, they were massive jellyfish which were easier to make out when there.

Being the final night the navimag were keen to throw some entertainment our way in the form of bingo. Exciting yes but not so much when you don`t really know the spanish numbers. Luckily our tour guide would read them out in both languages. Sitting with our newly formed group of 8 (original Derek, Rory, Fi and the 3 others) we sat at a table playing drinking games til the bingo started. When it did begin, I got off to a great start getting the first 4 numbers, which would turn out to be about all I got. The navimag gave out awards for 1, 2, 3 and 4 lines and then the full board. I got nowhere, 1 line is all I got by the time someone made the whole board, who happened to be one of the girls we had met in our newly formed group. Fair play. Shame the prize was a navimag fleece that no one wanted.

Following the normal bingo, the guide introduced us to the loser game of bingo. First all women would stand up with the same board and you would be out as soon as you hit any number on your board. The final woman would have to dance with the final man who would do the same thing after the woman was found. With Jen hitting the first number called out (lucky her) she chirpily sat back down and enjoyed the show. With the random woman left behind it was onto the men. With plently of banter between the 4 lads in our group of 8, I was disgusted to see that 2 of them were out dead quick. With me and one other lad giving each other some stick I was gutted that he got out first. Forgetting that it wasn`t just a game between our table I looked around to see only 5 others in the room still in. Balls (and not the bingo variety). With our group finding it hilarious after another random bloke dropped out, the remaing 5 of us were pulled up to the front to finish the game off. Another person drops out...down to 4, poo. Another one drops out...down to 3, even bigger poo.

With my lot thinking this was the funniest thing ever, and me resigned to the fact that I was going to have to teach this room full of people how dancing is really done, a number on my board was drawn leaving me to chuckle my way back to my seat to the dissappointment of our lot, leaving a 1 on 1. The next number eliminated the other person and following a gentlemanly handshake between the 2 last men, the loser of the women and men were left standing like numpties at the front of the bar. Knowing what they had to do, they were not so pleased to hear gangnam style put on to dance to (making me even more happy I wasn`t left up there cos I f%$king hate that song). Strangly the bloke seemed to be in his element doing some amazingly camp dance moves to the laughter of the crowd. Good on him! Thinking he had deserved some reward, we were all sad to see on his behalf that his reward would also come in the form of a navimag jacket. Jokes on him.

After all that excitement, the music was turned back on for the obligatory end of navimag disco, which turned out to be pants with only the little kids on board dancing (one of whom grabbed my arm and tried to make me dance...no chance little kid a) because i was resuming drinking games and b) being labelled as a paedophile is no laughing matter is it Jimmy?), we got bored of the overly loud music as it was getting in the way of drinking games, so we went downstairs with our alcohol and continued our drinking game ways for a few hours.

Getting up early on the Friday we disembarked the boat, which felt weird to walk on actual land without swaying about. Arriving in Puerto Montt, the rumours we heard were true......that it was a dive. So we didn`t even look around, just jumped on a bus to Puerto Varas where our next adventure would begin.