Wet n' Wild in Bariloche

Trip Start Sep 04, 2008
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Trip End Jan 11, 2009


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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Iīve ended up spending quite a few days in San Carlos de Bariloche.  I kind of sped through Bolvia and so have arrived in Patagonia well ahead of schedule.  I would like to travel further south towards the South Pole, see the glaciers.  It isnīt quite summer here yet so Route 40, down the left hand side of the country, is still closed.  I could take the plane but for 250 quid that is a bit beyond my budget.  Someone in the hostel suggested the 4 day trip on the cargo boat from Peurto Montt in Chile; that is nearly 400 pounds and the Iīve also heard reports of vile sea sickness and the weather being so bad you canīt actually see anything.  So Iīve stuck with the bus: 30 hours across and down the east side of Argentina, leaving this afternoon...  

Bariloche is a lovely skiing town, pretty chilled out.  There are lots of excursions to do here like kayaking, treking, cable car trips, but the weather has been really bad - very windy and at times the rain has been really heavy (should have stayed another day in sunny Mendoza!)  Having said that Giselle, a South African living in London, and I did take the bus into Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi and walked a little of the Circuito Chico to Villa Tacul on the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi.  It was a lovely day outside of Bariloche, the scenery was just beautiful.   I wanted to see Cerro Otto, there is a cable car that goes up to great heights, but Friday was too windy and it was closed.  Instead I decided to check out the local museums.  The Museo de la Patagonia was a really old-fashioned place with lots of overly-stuffed animals, and lots of stuff about the Mapuche resistance toward the European conquest.  I then walked to the other end of town to the Museo de la Asociacion Paleontologica.  It is only open for 3 hours a day, it is literally a tin shed!  It had a large complete fossil of some dolphin-type dinosaur and a megaladon jaw which was pretty impressive.  But that only took about 5 mins.  Then I had to battle what was now horizontal ice shower back to the hostel.  

Thankfully yesterday was much better, took a two-hour bus to El Bolson, a liberal and artsy town south of Bariloche.  The main attraction is the Saturday craft market featuring lots of food and wood crafts.  El Bolson means Bag, it is a pocket in the middle of some mountains; it has itīs own microclimate that provides good farming soil and weather that is 4 degrees warmer than anwywhere else in the region.  It was a good day to just hang out, read and soak up the warmth (not hot enough to remove any clothing though).  Bought some sweet and savoury waffles from a guy from Guildford - small world.  

Back at Bariloche, Giselle and I went out for some Argentine steak and chips.  It was great, the food is just so good here.  The Argentineīs love steak and ice cream and every other shop in Bariloche is a chocolate shop.  Iīm am just piling on the pounds!  Someone told me whilst travelling here they have put on a kilo a month - eeek!  

The hostel is extremely warm, even in this weather weīve had to sleep with the windows wide open.  It has a great kitchen and itīs been good to have the time to food shop and cook my own meals (getting v tired of resturant food).  Has the UEFA Cup also started?  Planned to watch Celtic v Man U with Gareth, but some Spanish kids got to the TV first so we ended up watching Juventus v Real Madrid.  Argentinian ESPN really is like watching an episode of The Fast Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctaszjeaDK0

Although connected, the Internet is as slow moving as the glaciers... Itīs taken me an age to get this entry finished and I donīt have a hope of getting any photos online yet.  Keep your messages coming, itīs always great to hear how things are back home.   xx
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