Bariloche

Hello all. Writing from a very cold Patagonian town called Bariloche. We were supposed to get some snow today but all we got was very cold rain. Its not the same. Here´s an account of the past few days here.

After a tiresome 20 hours in the bus, the scenery began to get very mountainous (is that really how that word is spelt?), lakey (as in full of lakes) and autumnal. At 11:am we arrived in Bariloche, the largest (but still tiny) town of the Lake District of Patagonia. The town itself sits right on the edge of an incredibly large lake and is surrounded by mountains. In winter it fills up with ski and snowboarding types who flock here to take advantage of Argentina´s best skiing. However, we shall not be skiing as the season only begins in mid-june. Apparently the town was established by Swiss expats (who most probably remained neutral during the Falkland Island dispute), and thus there are many makro sized chocolate shops which have giant walls of every kind of chocolate you could imagine. Nadia and Esteban sat down at one of these shops for a cup of hot chocolate (heisse sjokie!!!) , which is more like melted chocolate in a cup (think Willie Wonka´s chocolate river). Although there´s no snow, the surrounding area is so staggeringly beautiful and the landscape is so mystical it does not seem like it should be on this planet.















After searching the town for a couple of hours (and witnessing Man U shamefully lifting the premier league trophy), we stumbled upon a hostel that had only been open for 4 weeks (and thus wasn´t in the Lonely (Lying) Planet). The owners are a young Irish Couple , John and Emma, who came to Bariloche for a ski season, planning to travel the rest of South America, but didn´t get any further than Bariloche. They rented a three story apartment with incredible views of the lake and have spent a year getting it ready as a hostel. They are both incredibly friendly and say things like ´one two tree´and ´are you tuursty´. Their dog, Milla, also lives in the hostel and having a big fluffy dog around makes it feel like we´re staying in their house rather than in a hostel. John and Emma live upstairs and are always happy to hang out with their guests over a pint.

And that brings me to the best part of the hostel - they have three kinds of locally brewed beer on tap. A local who lives up the road spends his time locked in his garage quietly brewing his Kölsch, Pale Ale, Stout, and his newest highly confidential brew made with a recipe from some monks in Belgium (not kidding). We know about his secret beer because yesterday the gringos went to his house and were invited to see the brewery and share a pint of the SecretBelgianMonkBeer (which is 9% alcohol) with the master brewer (the only brewer), a youngish man who could possibly be the shyest human being in the world. Makes great beer though. In the evenings, between 6 and 8pm (when its happy hour, or two hours) we often relax in the wooden bar area of the hostel and sip on these tasty full bodied beers to warm our hearts.

The day after we arrived was a fantastically clear and sunny day. The air was crisp and sharp and you could see for miles. We decided to take advantage of the weather and took a bus out of town to a nearby hill (i´d like to say mountain but it wasn´t that high), and took a steep hike to the top, from where we had a panoramic view of the many interconnected lakes and mountains surrounding Bariloche. It looked and felt like something out of Lord of the Rings, or Narnia (pick your favourite).















After chatting with a friendly Colombian on the top for a while, we clambered down and took a bus further out of town to a luxury hotel in Llao Llao (say Jao Jao). The hotel is rated as one of the best in Argentina, so we thought, to heck with it, we´ll stay a night here. particularly of the nearby volcano on the chillean border which is covered in snow and has a glacier on it. & On our way back to town we felt a bit peckish, and decided to have a bite to eat at a small unimposing cafe After realising that a few nights in this hotel would deplete our entire budget, we settled for a walk around the lawns in front of the hotel, from where we appreciated some spectacular views, called, I´m not kidding, Morfy´s. After eating the food of Morfys, we settled back at the hostel for a pint of the good stuff and warmed our bodies with a good soup that Nadia whipped up (thanks Knorr). We kept warm in the hostel and chatted to the other guests and to John and Emma.

Since that day of great weather, we´ve spent our days exploring the town and admiring the incredible views (mostly from the hostel). We had planned to rent some bicycles today and ride around the area, but we woke up to heavy rain and a significant drop in temperature, so we decided we´d rather keep warm and write a blog. Aren´t we nice? The days have been spent relaxing and recouping after a hectic time in BA. On tuesday night, John cooked an assado (meatfest) and for 30 pesos, we were entitled to literally all the meat we could eat. We ate all we could eat, and then ate some more. After fighting off the meatsweat, we enjoyed some wine and the company of the multinationals. We have also found a really good Mexican place (imagine that) where we can get huge frozen margarita´s (not that suited to cold weather, but good nonetheless) for only 4 pesos during happy hour. For some reason, there are hundreds of Irish people here, some with accents so strong you literally cannot understand what is being said. I sadly learnt last night that Limerick, the town from where my Ryan blood eminates, is affectionately known as the Stab Capital of Ireland. Lovely. We like the Irish though, lots of fun.

We´re looking forward to seeing more of the surrounding area and plan to rent a car to drive to a ´black glacier´(ooh). None of us (including the great Wikipedia) have any idea what a black glacier is, so its worth checking out. We´ll let you know.

We plan to move on to Chile on sunday, to another Lake District town of Pucon. Pucon is famous for its active volcano, which we intend to climb with icepicks and special boots.

That´s all for now, enjoy the pics and be jealous because this place is pretty special.

Besos.