Celebrated our first passover a few days back which was a lot of Hebrew (some translation) a lot eating and much more red wine. Yes, it is written into the festivities that you must drink and eat to you burst. There is apparently another celebration the reversing of fortunes with a Persian king where you have to get drunk, but unfortunately for Ros we have missed that one by a few months.
We haven´t seen too many gauchos here (cowboys) we did see a fox catcher who was skinning it outside a cafe on the road in Argentina (probably for the touristas). There seems to be a preference for the beret rather than the traditional felt. They drink a very bitter herb tea in Argentina called mate or yerba mate (pronounced mar-tay) which is stuffed into a cup and doused with hot water and then drunk through a metal straw. This is downed and more hot water is added before being passed to the next recipient. Its seems to be more of a social event than a refreshing thirst quencher as it has the bitter taste more akin to beer than tea. Some say it has some hallucinogenic properties but probably after you have been drinking it non stop for the daylight hours. I am yet to empirically verify this. I will keep you informed as I plan to purchase my very own straw from the supermarket soon.
We have survived the first three treks without a scratch. And I think Ros agrees that the mountains here are slightly larger than those of the blue mountains variety, although she wishes at times that they weren't (especially at the times when we are walking up them). Please don´t be fooled by her over dramatisations of everything. We crossed paths with a group from Australia (avg age 55) who having breezed through all the treks we had done, bar Dientes, were happily dining on red wine cheese and bikkies before heading off to their next conquest!!
Three more treks (easy) on our way north before landing back in Ros' favourite city of Santiago and flying to Ecuador.
