Update from Esquel

I'm in Esquel at the moment - a bit below latitude 42°S (same as home!) and in a really good mood; so it's time to update this little tome. I'm not entirely sure what jolted me out of the post-party-town-downer (thanks Bariloche...) though the following events either contributed or detracted in their own little way:

• I spent two days in the very pretty town of El Bolsón, which has a hippy market and mountain backdrop not totally dissimilar to Salamanca Market and Mt. Wellington.
• I'm onto my 3rd day without a beer and received a lovely postcard from my vacationing liver.
• I think my pack weighs about 20kg now, thanks to the very average pair of snowboarding boots I bought in Bariloche for $250AUD; a hoody I bought in B.A. that makes me look pregnant; a sleeping bag that's too thin to use in Winter; waterproof pants; gloves; goggles; boardies and a host of other crap that I only use one day in twenty.
• I accidentally went potty in the girls communal bathroom at my new hostel. Try telling me that the thingo on the door doesn't look like a boy. A very effeminate boy with boobs, but a boy nonetheless.
  
• I spoke to Dad last night and found out that they arrive in Argentina in September, not August, so I now have an extra month to kill in this great meaty, ($) change famished country after my foray through Patagonia to Tierra del Fuego. No solid plans yet, though spending some time learning Spanish in Buenos Aires or Mendoza is appealing.
• Last night I watched two of my favourite brain-off movies: Bourne Identity and Supremacy, then read a particularly beautiful chapter from Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow, entitled The Difference between Love and the Agony of Waiting (well... the first part anyway; the second part is about porn and dirty sex).
• I picked up some songs from the hostel in El Bolsón which I'd lost along with my iPod (Neil Young, Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed etc.); I'm very happy to have this music back in my ears (especially for the hundreds of bus-hours I have coming up).
• This morning I spent literally 15 minutes trying to get the shower working. I swear it had some sort of differential feedback system, such that merely resting my hand on the cold tap resulted in a temperature change of 80°C.
• I found out that skiing in Esquel is about half the price of Bariloche ($25AUD/day vs $50AUD/day for a ski pass), and they have better snow here.
• I've booked a tour today in a Land Rover that has cat tracks (instead of tyres) - more like a tank than Jimbo's East German crane.
• I met an American called Randy. It doesn't take much to cheer me up.

So, enjoy the snowboarding photos - I'll try to keep new ones coming in regularly. I hope you are all well and look forward to catching up either when I come home in November or in Europe when I head that way in January (unless you want to come with me around Northern Peru and Columbia in October!). Ciao for now!