Mate and a hike to Chile leads to further wanderlust

In my 'Che Boludo' book, the explanation of Argentinian mate culture is two pages long. In my Lonely Planet book it's only one. It's hard to capture all the subtleties and nuances of this daily ritual that is a fundamental part of an Argentine's day in any number of pages in a book.

Today Zach got a crash course from Guille as he christened his new mate gourd. He'd been curing it for a couple of days in preparation for its first cuppa!

She covered the preparation of the yerba herb including the shaking of the yerba in the gourd to get the powder to the top. There was mention of the ideal temperature of the water (apparently 82'C is best). The straw is not to be moved nor held. There is an ideal amount of water to pour and a deisred 'frothiness' to the wet yerba. Then there is the cebador. This person serves all those partaking in the mate ritual. S/he serves her/himself first to make sure it's okay for others, before serving to others. Those being served are not to take too long with it (or else they're reminded it's not a microphone!!!). People are served in a clockwise fashion. You only say 'gracias' once you've had your last round. Phew...lots to think about! But that's how we started our day. It's all very fascinating!!!

Following mate and a slow, lazy breakfast, we set out from the campground for a hike. The four of us, Zach, Ann, Guille and I headed for the pier to arrange for a boat ride across Lago Puelo to start our hike on the Los Hitos trail. The trail goes all the way to Chile but we stopped about 5km from where we got dropped off at the park ranger's residence at Arroyo Las Lagrimas.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we all walked and talked and got to know each other better. Zach told us a bit more about the charity he cofounded. He's doing his drive across South America to raise more money for it. We also started to figure out how Guille and I might be able to join Zach as co-pilots for his end-Match leg up through Chile. We also were eager to tag along for the early April Bolivia stretch. Plans are vague at this stage but we're both eager to make it work. What fun it would be!!!