Final preparations...

Message received from the guys in South America - they will be at Cochamó on 15th Feb and I should hike  into meet them at the crag when I get there.  So - how to get from Cochamó to the campsite? There's no way I can carry the 30 kgs or so that my kit weighs so I expect I'll have to arrange the services of some chap with mules once I get to Cochamó itself.  Some research to do methinks.

Departure looms - slightly

Departure for Cochamó, Chile, in 38 days.  This will be the first stop of the South American journey I am taking with HotRock in 2011, a journey that will pass through Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, a journey that will  last 117 days, a journey that has been designed to take us to some of the best South American climbing venues, a journey that will combine the three interests of travel, climbing and Spanish.

I look at the large pile of kit, I recall the swinging extra baggage charges I experienced on a previous trip to South America, and I wonder how to avoid a repeat of that frankly painful experience.  I obsess about dengue fever and I worry about the possibility that I will be the expedition climbing numpty.