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Published: October 29th 2007
We stepped off the bus in Bariloche not quite prepared for the 13 windy degrees that greeted us. We left a lovely 30 degrees in Mendoza and I´ve realised that my practically see through jeans (as a result of wearing them almost every day for 15 months) are not really up to the job of keeping me warm any longer! Sam was lucky enough to have already traded his in back in Bolivia when they had involuntarily become a pair of shorts, might be time for me to do the same.
Apart from being a bit chilly, and even that is a welcome change - Bariloche is absolutely beautiful. It immediately reminds of the south island of New Zealand - snow capped mountains surrounding lakes which ever direction you look in. We were really lucky to have three great days of sunshine, as it´s only spring time the weather here is really changeable.
We did a rafting trip out on the Rio Manso - which was a good day taking us right up to the Chilean border, although it was pretty calm compared to our last rafting expedition, however that was the Zambezi river i suppose! The
Picnic spot
A nice lunchtime viewscenery was great and the water surprisingly not too cold (we know this because our lovely guide decided to flip the raft). The only down side was that we had to wear trainers in the raft which was a pain seeing as we only have the one pair, so that´s another thing ruined and another item on the "things to buy list" for when to get to Buenos Aires - I have to say, that the list is getting pretty long already!
It was fantastic to be out walking in the hills - all the spring time colours and birds. We walked out to the Llao Llao peninsula and up to the top of Cerro Otto which gives you great views over the lakes and the mountains in the distance. There was still some snow on the way up and at the top - unfortunately we missed the ski season by just a couple of weeks, so we had to compensate ourselves with snowball fights instead. On the way back down the weather really changed and we just made it back to the hostel in time before the storm clouds rolled in - that´s how it stayed for
the next few days and this time it reminded us of Scotland! Unfortunately we had no choice but to look around all the nice shops and sample all of the locally made chocolate to keep out of the rain.
We are in El Bolson just now where we leave tonight to venture further down into Patagonia (yet another 24 hour bus journey). It´s apparently a bit of a hippie hangout here (Gina you´d love it!) - the only evidence we saw of this is when we arrived on Saturday for the weekend crafts fair - lots of stalls selling "alternative clothing", herbal remedies and such like. It was a really nice sunny day and it seemed that everyone was hanging out in the park, if not actually selling something just spending the afternoon chatting and catching up with everyone. A lovely friendly atmosphere, although this may have had something to do with the quantity of local ale that was being sold from the numerous stands - of course we helped out the local economy..just a little bit!
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jody
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from mars?
Was that a hairband you were wearing or are you officially a Martian?? We can't wait to see you two in December (what date will you be in the Strath?) Jody and Jonno xx