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| Our guide - this is indicative of the height difference between Reece and Chilean men. |
The warmth we felt towards Cerro Castillo was only heightened by our trip first thing in the morning to 'The Cave of the Painted Hands', an historical site a few kilometres down the road. It wasn't a recommended spot, in fact people had told us there were better sites across the Argentinian border. But for NZ$4 we had a guided tour of a site indigenous Teuhulche people had marked their terrirtory with painted handprints on the rockfaces. The highlight of the excursion had to be our sweet guide, name forgotten, who also took the opportunity to help us with our Spanish, providing slow and simple explanations and offering encouragement while we set about crucifying his language.
Next stop Peurto Tranquillo and no sooner had we arrived that we were being approached with suggestions for hostels and places to eat. Only later did we realise this was by guides competing for business for the main attraction of the area, the Marble Caves. In searching for a guide boat to transport us to the caves we took our usual approach of checking out a couple of places to compare prices before settling. It seemed to pay off as in the process of working out my next phrase in Spanish I had been offered a $US10 discount before even realising I was in the process of bargaining the price! The other operator must have seen what was going on as by the time we had walked over to him the price had fallen a further $US10.
Despite the positive result, the whole situation, combined with the hiked prices in town for accomodation, had left us in a foul mood so we drove a kilometre or two further to set up camp for the night. On the beach of Lago Carrerra we enjoyed a flask of pisco sour bought from the local minimarket, the national cocktail Chile and Peru argue over the right to call their own. The night culminated with Reece persuing one of his favourite outdoor pastimes, lighting a fire.
Nice work Reece, can never light too many fires.
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