Firstly, this is probably the last blog post for at least 3 or 4 days, and probably for about 10 days. We´re in Penitentes. There is no Wifi; I have no phone signal; and I´m typing this on a computer from 1986. I typed all of this about 5 hours ago, but a power cut shut off the computer and the whole lobby. If anyone is reading this and wondering why their loved ones haven´t gotten in touch, keep waiting and don´t worry – it´ll be a while.

Our hotel here is very reminiscent of the hotel in The Shining. It´s our last chance for a shower and to sleep in a bed and we´re all on the look out for twin girls on tricycles. We´ve repacked our gear for the gazillionth time and sent the technical gear via mule to basecamp to be collected in about 3 or 4 days. We might get some sort of internet access in basecamp, but that´s a little doubtful.

Our days of eating and travelling are over. The last little bus journey will be to the trailhead tomorrow morning and then we´re on our own. No cars, no buses, no phones – just us and our feet.

In Mendoza this morning, we got our park permits and then went to the gear rental shop. the Clare lads all had to rent heavy mountaineering boots and wore them walking back to the hotel. It was a nice little moment for me, as these were the lads who led me on steeple chase over the Burren hills on a training weekend, while I was wearing my heavy boots and a loaded bag and they skipped along in their summer sandals and sang songs of the lightness in their feet and the joy in their hearts. There was no joy in their hearts wearing double plastic heavy boots in 35 degree heat though. Revenge is sweet (and well deserved).

At lunch today, it was very heartwarming to see another couple of the trekkers make knobs of themselves as they made a bet with our doctor that his GoPro didn´t have a screen. “No GoPros have screens”, they shouted, “You´re so wrong it´s hilarious. Ha ha ha”. So then he went and got his GoPro, as they laughed heartily at his foolishness. Doc came back with GoPro in hand and screen on display. It was a very warm moment for the rest of us – it´s always nice when someone else plays the knob for a few minutes.Schadenfreude is sweet too.

While half of the table were comparing cameras, the other half were discussing the benefits of exporting Icelandic whale meat to Africa in an effort to end world hunger. We thank our alternative doctor for that wonderful piece of geopolitical brilliance, brought straight to Argentina via Ireland from an Icelandic furrier and whale meat specialist. We also learned that whale meat tastes more like beef that horse does – which is a very important fact to know… if you´re a whale, or a horse.

On the bus from Mendoza to Penitentes, we were treated to some beautiful music courtesy of our bus driver. I think the CD he played was called The Greatest Eighties Power Ballads, sung in Spanish. Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Maria Carey, Luther Vandros – they were all represented. I got particularly emotional when Roxette´s Must Have Been Love (in Spanish), came on – nostalgia brought me back to kids´ discos in a farmyard barn in Brittas Bay circa 1999. Oh, those were the days… I used to have so much hair, I was able to use excessive amounts of hairgel, just like a real boy!

We had a very nice last supper here in The Shining hotel. Topics discussed included:

• Is Romantica a man´s ice cream?
• How a kilogram on the feet is worth 4 kilograms on the back (courtesy of our greengrocer). (it should be noted that this point was reiterated a short time later by on of the Clare lads, but he expressed it in pounds rather than kilos.)
• The high altitude sex record (a perennial favourite)
• The size of the vet´s sausage
• The difference in medical and surgical treatment of cats versus humans
• The various merits of difficult to read classics, such as Moby Dick and Les Miserables
• Roald Dahl´s little known adult novels
• The panic created by being asked to repack 30kg of gear in as short a time as possible.

… and that was just for the part of the table I could hear. I don´t think I want to know what everyone else was talking about.

Like I said, this will probably be the last post for a while. If you want more updates, check out the Earth´s Edge facebook page. If you want a much more sophisticated, more amusing and generally better blog than this one, check out the One Wild and Precious Life blog.

I´ll try and keep notes to give anyone who is interested a blog post in a few days / weeks.

Wish us luck!

Derm