Bariloche II
Trip Start
Aug 19, 2008
1
7
15
Trip End
Oct 04, 2008
Bariloche,
Argentina
Sunday, September 7, 2008
On Friday we had quite a lazy day, recovering from our epic bike ride. We sorted out some things, like downloading our growing video library onto a DVD disc to free up some space. We celebrated that achievement by cooking for ourselves in the evening, a nice lentil and chorizo risotto, and then going out to the second cheap night of the week at the cinema.
On Saturday we set off hiking out of town. We had to turn back after about ten minutes when we realised we had both forgotten to put on our hiking boots, but that was soon remedied, and we set out again to climb up Cerro Otto, a nearby mountain. As it turned out we couldnīt get right to the top, due to the snow blocking the paths, but two hours of climbing through snowy paths and then winding roads took us pretty high above the town and we saw some great views. At the top we had a rather large piece of cake in the cafe of the Nordic ski centre.
In the evening we went to a takeaway parrilla, where you could buy barbecued steaks, ribs, sausages, et cetera, to eat in the comfort of your own home or, in our case, hostel. The evening improved further when a man came to fix the heater in our room so that we were no longer freezing in the morning.
On Sunday, encouraged by our success of the previous day, we decided to climb another mountain, and took a bus to a ski resort called Catedral. We set off on a track up the side, but when Paul ended up to his waist in a snow drift we decided it wasnīt such a good idea. The resort was just full of posing skiiers, and no information about hiking, so we left in disgust.
We took a bus to Cerro Campanario instead. We went there three years ago and took a chair lift to the top. This time we decided to walk. It took about 45 minutes, climbing through mud and snow and rocks and tree roots. We reached the top just in time, as it started to rain, and throroughly deserved the large slice of cake waiting for us up there. Paul was quite keen on climbing down, but I refused to brave the slippery icy track, so we took the chair lift down.
We spent our last evening in Bariloche at El Boliche de Alberto, enjoying another mammoth steak. It could well have come from a mammoth, judging from the size of it.
