Sunday 13 Feb: Arrival in Futaleufú

The hosteria turned out to not be quite the utter bargain we had first thought, small matter of mishearing a factor of ten! But still it was not over expensive and well worth it to get in out the rain and have all our clothing dried. The breakfast was one of the better one's too - the toast and marmalade staples extended with cheese, salami, and scrambled eggs.

The road to Futaleufú, and ultimately on to the border, is quite a narrow and winding one, weaving through the gorges that make it such a popular white water rafting location. The day had started out fairly damp once more - nice dry waterproofs soaking within a few minutes! But as we climbed up and the day progressed, the rain thinned and we started to see some breaks in the cloud. After lunch we even risked removing waterproof trousers without the usual deluge immediately pouncing on us as is normally the case! As you approach the town you pass Lago Espolon, which the guide book described as having it's own pleasant microclimate, and sure enough just as we stopped alongside it for afternoon biscuits we were greeted with hot sunshine. Over the next climb, we were back under cloud once more.

I'd attempted to book ahead and get a hotel room for our two nights here, as a treat for being halfway through the tour, but everywhere had been full (as far as my Spanish could tell) so instead we settled for a campsite which at least lived up to the hot showers promise, and has free internet!

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