Carlos V San Carlos de Bariloche

... the scenery at Cerro Catedral far outweighs the slopes - it’s ***********centrate on what’s ahead when you’re always staring off at the amazing views in the distance! The photos just don’t come close to capturing the amazing blues of the sky and water against the white snow capped mountains.

Having been spoilt with no lift queues at Portillo, the queues at Cerro Catedral were a bit of a shock to the system, which were ...

... in Bariloche was going to be a bit more straightforward.

After a decent night's sleep the world looked brighter again so we checked out of our hostel and headed back to the bus terminal in order to get some information about camping sights in the area. Luckily, since Bariloche is right next to a beautiful National Park, there was no shortage of places for us to pitch our tent. We settled on one of the campsites that was a bit closer to town (about 5km) so ...

... and 2 lush salads...Yummy. A perfect day. Chilled out for the following day, took a chair lift up to the top of Cerro Otto to see the views. Have some pics for the wall when we get back. Apparently voted 1 of the top 10 views in the world!!! Next day hired bikes to do the Circuito Chico. A 30k very mountainous bike ride with the most stunning views. Pretty tough riding. Very hot and sweaty after but worth it for the scenery.

... withdraw local currency from a cashpoint at the first town across the border. IŽd heard rumours of people getting food confesgated at the border control, but the Chileanos put my mind at rest by saying that they crossed the day before with no such problems. Well after a 40km ride on gravel roads with gorgeous blue skies, we arrived at the border crossing. The battery went flat in my camera just after ...

... bus to the center of town where Simone reserved a Hostel in the center of town. The "Gente del Sur" is a nice hostel - very cheap at 35 pesos per night! Very Israeli dominated (besides few people from Spain we were the only "foreigners" - also the signs are in spanish/english/and at least partly in hebrew - so its a little cultural trip in its own :) First day I did some sightseeing and got to know the people ...

... but I would like to point out that the smaller of the two was mine, and I did not have two! We are now looking into some more serious walking options as we need to. We have a couple of days here, before flying down to El Calafate - it is very nice, chocolate shops aside (did I mention Mamoushkas - wow!!!). We are going to try and have dinner in a hobbit house near a park, that reminds us a little of St Andrews park...

... town and out over the lakes.



The visitors centre at the top must have looked amazing 10/15 years ago but now it looked a bit battered & bruised and was definitely showing its age. Join the club ;)



The views over the main lake were spectacular and we were lucky to have such a clear day to enjoy them.


San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina al_fey

... away. I hop on an innercity bus that ends up taking me about 3km out of the way and I jump off before I get even further out. So I just about doubled my distance to the bus stop from where I initially started. Cool. The only good thing that came from this is the fact that I got to see the poor part of the Bariloche which is the same as saying where everyone lives. I walk back to my starting point and I see another bus labeled A, which ...