Edelweiss en Argentina - Bariloche and the Lake District

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Before I begin, I think it is time to say I am getting very tired of sending photos onto this blog as it is proving a nightmare, so what I will do is just use this for writing until I get back to America, using facebook (search Tom Dearden) for the photos as they seem to upload better!

Tuesday 1st April - no fool´s day tricks this year, but if I pay for a bed I expect one. Problem was I didn´t read the book properly and a cama bus is very comfortable but not a bed as such. So we had a wide leather business class airline type seat for our 18 hour (complany Feltch-a) bus ride to Mendoza, where we arrived at 11am. This nice lady accosted us at the bus station and we obligingly followed her 5 minutes up the road, our packs weighing far more than they had for the entire trip thus far for no reason whatsoever. The journey was fine, except the movies they showed were either in Spanish or English with the sound right down. Claudia took us to her house - the casa pueblo and we dumped our bags. it was a twenty minute walk from town but we fell in love with the room and the laid back atosphere in this small house. They also did a shit load of laundry for $3.50 which helped and we very informative, helping us book our wine tour and leaving us with the remote control when they left the open TV room. We walked into town determined for once not to waste the day, but in siesta time most places were shut as it hit 30 degrees and we ended up having an extended lunch (an average stewing steak,as meat is rare at the moment as the farmers are striking against the eploitation of crops for soy production which ruins the earth but gets the highest export price to USA) and a coffee and apple pie. We finally sorted our photos to CD again, which so far has proved a nightmare. We also managed to get some food shopping done at a small store (not the traffic jam packed new super Vea, you would think they had never seen a supermarket before and the queues were a horrible reminder of home!) and we were glad we did as weds was a day off in remembrance of the Falklands!

Just before dinner, we stopped in a beer house and had our first draft pint for a long time, which tasted so sweet! Its still been 9 weeks without a Guinness though, but we learned that the Wilkenny Bar here in Little Swizterland, or should I say...bariloche has it on draft so we might head there soon for a pint and to watch the Champions League (today is the 8th April) as tomorrow we are to be up at 5am to catch a bus down ruta 40 south to Perito Mereno where we spend one night, before heading down to El Chalten and a day of trekking in the foothills of Mount Fitzroy. Then its down to El Calafate, the Glaciar natinal park and back over to Chile (Torres Del Paine) for a 5 day trek. Its all a bit of a rush as we have to get to Buenos Aires on the 21st - a flight from Rio Gallegos in the far south in order to catch a Boca Juniors game. It looks like I will have my birthday in Brasil which should be sweet!!

Wed 2nd April
Slept so well last night after a bottle of wine and managing to stave off the tiredness until a reasonable hour. There will be a lot more of hostel cooking from now on as prices increase and funds run low on the trip south. Today we went on a 5 hour wine tour, where we bought two excellent bottle s of wine for $8 (export for $60) and had a few tasters after learning the processes. The their was an olive oil factory (not so fun) and a chocolate liquor shop where I stupidly had an absinthe and felt sick on the bus journey home hanging out with a strangely quiet young German named Martin, like the one out the Simpsons. We found one shop open on return with empanadas (like mini cornish pasties) and we nailed four each with a veggie soup, man veggies are so good after a diet of bread and meat and water for a few days. We drank the cheaper bottle of wine and slept graet once more, our purple mouths smiling in the dark, content, thirty degrees and not a cloud so far.

Thurs 3rd April - Today we walked about 12km to Mendoza zoo in a stonking heat and paid $2 to walk around for a few hours. Amazing! Then we bumped into Allegra and Steve (Bristol) and the Canadians at the Irish pub in town and had dinner there, with two more Canadians from vancouver Island (Derek and Nicola) and had a few beers, street dining in style until around 1am. then we went candlepin bowling for a couple of hours. It was funny as there were actual guys stood at the dnd of the lanes, replacing the pins after your go. UK and Eire beat Canada convincingly and we celebrated witha few more beers until about 4am when we caught a cab home with our last 5 pesos.

Fri 4th April - After checking out the hostel we had some lunch and then headed to the Plaza de Independcia for an awesome ice cream and a look at the work of art in the museum, contemporary students work, one of which (photos pon facebook) look a little like Banksy´s work. Quite funny and some really good stuff. We saw Stef the jew in the park sunning herself and took evasive action, ducking behind a tree. That was the last thing we needed after three weeks of it on tour and so we booked the 8pm (18 hour) Andesmar bus to bariloche, but this time semi-cama which is still quite comfy but the food wasn´t great (a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches and sugar snacks), but they showed Apollo 13 which I love as a film and I got a couple hours sleep after reading my book (halfway thru Atonement again, laura on The Commitments) which I aim to read next, going along at a fast pace. Before we left we also booked a flight for $130 from the tip of Patagonia to Buenos Aires, which means we can´t afford to miss. Its 2 days on a bus so I think we did well. We wanted to fly LADE airlines just for the name, but the military airline only flew once a week and the websirte was pretty dodgy!

Sat 5th - QPR got two 90th minute goals to draw and it´s Pompey vs Cardiff in the strangest FA Cup final for years! I hadn´t received (when checking the net) any confirmation of reservations at hostel 1004 ( a tenth floor tower block with amazing views of Lago Nahuel Huapi), so after catching a cab to avoid the rain and asking,( the view was amazing) we were forced to trudge through the rain in search of somewhere else and finally found a hostel youth international place, where (although I was initially against it) dinner and brekkie was included. It means you stay in and drink at their bar (ingeniuos really!) but fuck it we were soaked and they had one double room with private bathroom left, so after 18 hours on a no numero dos in topilet bus, it is like a small delight! We read and then slept for a while, then hit the bar where they had a nice local brew on draft (like Hoegardeen) and watched some of the masses of football they have on here, meeting some cool Americans and getting to bed after 1am.

Sun 6th - Glastonbury tickets went on sale today, but despite actually pre-applying this year, i couldn´t fork out the equivalent of $320 for a ticket. its just too much! Today the guy in the information did not tell me the cable car was not running due to wind, so after a 6km walk I was a bit pissed off to find out. luckily it wasn´t raining although the weather is so Irish and unpredictably sweeping here, it rains every 20 minutes or so for like 2 moinutes. We jumped on a bus to Km 18 and went up the chairlift there called Cerro Campanario for a 360 degree view of the lakes and mountains. They are more spectacular than the English ones as the mountains are about 3 times the height. Impressive. Then we had a massive slice of cake and a hot chocolate to die for to get out the cold before heading home. Dinner was served at 9pm, but they underestimated the numbers so we had to wait until ten and my stomach was eating itself. So in Bariloche I have eaten so much bread its untrue and definitely put on weight (damn it!) Just need a bout of beach shits to lose it all before I head home!

Mon 7th - We got a bus to KM 18.6 in the driving wind and hired Mountain bikes (these were no Canadian $5000 bikes) and by the end of a 26km ride around circuito chico my arse had had it! But the scenerey on the up (too much) and down ride around the lakes past Llao LLao (the most famous hotel in South America) was great and I was glad to get back home for a little sleep before dinner, my thighs spent. Met some Irish lads at the bar and played pool and watched basketball with them for a few hours, decidoing to chill out tomorrow as they went rafting!!

Tues 8th - Did nothing but write postcards, blog, watch football, visit the Irish pub, and wait hungrily for dinner. Tomorrow we head south at 6am, so an early night is needed tonight. Cheers until next time and sorry about the photos. Hope it doesn´t put you off, x Tom

Tues

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