Active in Bariloche

A rainy start to Yumi's birthday allowed us some time to chill out before starting on some of the outdoor activities on offer in Bariloche.  The clouds soon parted and the beautiful blue sky reappeared and we were off.  You can take a bus and a chair lift up to the top of Cerro Otto, but why sit when you can walk for 2.5 hours (one way) instead.

Along the way, we met some interesting people: 3 Chilean cyclists who were taking a break by climbing a big rock, a Jewish Argentinian couple who asked Thomas to take not one, not two, but about 7 photos of them and 2 Argentinian guys who offered to take a photo of us, but we asked them to join in in our jump photo.

We had a delicious birthday dinner and then bought some alcohol to share with our friends at the hostel, a mix of Americans and a German learning Spanish, 2 Argentinian girls on a break from uni and an Israeli who shares the same passion for basketball as Yumi.  We celebrated until 1am (very late for Yumi).  So far, the people we have met have really made the trip.

The next morning--with a bit of a hangover--we made our way on a crowded bus to kilometre 18 to rent mountain bikes for the 27 km Circuito Chico.  Thomas was a bit picky with his choice of bike.  Really, who needs back brakes.

Yumi found a way to cope with the up hill climbs...practice counting in Spanish.  This kept her from cursing at Thomas.

The last 7 km took more concentration as we had to look out for potholes and traffic.  On the last hill, Yumi was in desperate need of a water break and started yelling to Thomas, "Pare!  Pare!"  He didn't seem to hear her, but stopped anyway in front of a cafe.  Oh wait, it's the bike rental shop.  We're finished, thank goodness.  27 km in 4.5 hours including a lunch break, a dip in one of the lakes and time to contemplate the meaning of life.  4,000 km in Japan?  It's going to be very interesting...

Luckily, dinner that night was being prepared for us by the hostel owner Gaston.  Yummy asado for all!

From Buenos Aires to Bariloche

Buenos dias a todos!

After 20h and 1600km in a bus, we have made it to Bariloche. We booked a "coche cama" (bus-bed) which is the equivalent of the business class in planes. There's plenty of space and you can sleep comfortably. 

We didn't see the time go by and we woke up in the middle of the Pampa.

Buenos Aires was great and it was a shame to leave it as we made a couple of good friends there. Stacey from New Hampshire, who is at the end of a 6 months trip in South America and Andre from Sao Paulo, who travelled to BA and Uruguay on a 2 week holiday break.

BA was quite empty and sometimes you just wonder where the people are, but it’s good for pictures J

We have walked across town and seen pretty much everything that can be seen in 3 days: from Evita’s tomb to Boca Junior stadium and its colourful neighbourhood: La Boca. We also went for a tango show and learned some tango moves, which we demonstrated to some people in the lounge of the hostel with our backpacks on (we were asked to as we were leaving and we felt so confident we couldn't say no).

We’ve learned that in BA everything is “2 blocks away”, there’s no rush, people are smiling, you can eat amazing sandwiches far away from the touristy area near the zona ecologica (which is closed on Mondays) and that –according to Andre- the “women’s bridge” looks like a man.

We were advised to go to the Tigre river, north of BA, but there's only so much we can do, and we know that we will miss nice places, wherever we go. We only have to focus on the amazing things we'll discover rather than the ones we cannot visit. Life is easy.

We are slowly getting used to being in summer and on holiday. We haven’t realised yet the extent of our journey, which is only starting...

Talk soon

Hola desde Argentina!

That's it Friends, we landed in a stormy weather yesterday in Diego Maradona kingdom!

Our bags were waiting for us  :)
Yumi's bag is 10.1kg while mine is 11.8kg. We don't know what we've forgotten yet :)

We met David in the plane, and his brother kindly dropped us off in front of our hostel in the San Telmo area.

We walked in town and enjoyed the baking heat. It was about 30 degrees and at 4.30pm, as the sun was probably setting in London, it higher than ever here. Summer. Woohoo!

Tonight, it's tango night, olé. it should be fun!
Pictures will come later

Hasta luego for now!

Bags are almost packed!

Good news!


We are getting there!

It was about time, we leave in 4 days :)
Yumi has packed her back and it's quite....er.... empty. We can't weight her backpack, but I'd say it's about 10kg.

 Watch this space, it's worth it! :)

Wanna know what's inside? Click here!
 If you think we've forgotten something, let us know and email us: yumiandthomas@gmail.com



As there is more air than stuff in our bags, we've decided to take shower gel (rather than buying it there, that is. We had planned to take showers) and other bits and pieces I can't think of now.

I'll take my favourite pair of trousers but I honestly don't think they'll survive January. I guess I'll have to replace them with some "Made In Argetina".

We've also packed a box which will be sent to Tokyo by Nico after we leave. Inside are our Bicycle essentials: clothes, trainers, helmets, horn (a really fun one bought by Santa Cécé, you'll find out more in September, hehe), gloves, tent, shirts, bicycle lights and high visibility jackets. It was worth doing it as it costs much less to send all this to Tokyo rather than buying new equipment once we get there. It will also save us some precious time :)

Challenge 2.0!

If you've read us yesterday, you'll know that we want to do our 1,000 push ups in Jan.

I made a huge error though. I discussed that with my step dad Didier, who said he'd join our challenge but would like to add 3,000 abs to it. "Sure!" said Yumi. "Doh"! said Thomas.

Anyway, it's more of a mental challenge so anybody can test themself and do it, so feel free to join our January Challenge. :)

Remember, it's 1,000 push ups and 3,000 abs (any type of abs you can think of) before the 1st of Feb 2011.

Who's in?
;)

Hey!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 !
Kick ass and think positive!

Challenge!

Here we go... The year hasn't started yet that Yumi and I have decided to challenge ourselves in January. No, we won't cycle across Argentina. We've decided to do a 1,000 press ups between January 1st, 2011 and 31st January 2011 .

It comes from a discussion Luke and Matt were having in the office and I mentioned it to Yumi later on that day. As a joke. I couldn't believe she was all serious about it and said "ok".

"Oh crap" I thought, "what did I get myself into?"

I hate push ups. Gimme abs or squats but no push ups!

The hardest about this challenge is that it doesn't seem to be that hard: We "only" have to do 35 press ups a day. Yeah, think about it. :)

I can hear Yumi in the distance "we start tomorrow".

Oh boy...