Abandoned in Bariloche

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3/2/09

The hostel that we¨re staying at in Puerto Natales is right opposite a casino. Very dangerous. Jude and I go 4 times in two days. On one such adventure, played Roulette on a Spanish machine. Don¨t understand a word of what¨s being said on the screen and end up accidently putting $5 US on one number having frantically tried to cancel it. It almost came up as well. Have a cracking night playing Ring of Fire with the lads and John in our hostel room in the evening. John spends most of the evening putting on London and then Scouse accents. We do our best to sound like we¨re from the deep south of America. Go to the casino again afterwards. I told you it¨s location was dangerous.

4/2/09

Get the bus to Punta Arenas and then a flight from there to Puerto Montt. That place is an absolute dive. Adam quite likes it, but he lives in Pensilvania so doesn¨t have the highest of standards. Almost have a bit of a disaster booking the bus to Bariloche - for a while none of us can find our immigration papers. Finally we find them and book the bus for 0830 the next day. I don¨t know what would have happened if we¨d lost them. Stay in Chile forever?

5/2/09

Shren and I both set our alarms for 0715, but inexplicably neither goes off. End up waking up 20 minutes before the bus is about to leave and frantically head off to the station. Bus journey is looooooooong. 8 hours or so. On arriving in Bariloche we can¨t find anywhere to stay for ages. Everywhere is full. Finally settle down in a hostel but have to pay a bit extra for a triple room. On going to the cashpoint I realise I¨ve spent half my allotted money in 3 weeks. Whoops. 7 weeks to go. Maybe I'll have to cut back on alcohol or something. Or sleep on the streets in La Paz. I'm sure that would be really safe. Or spend 50 pesos on a lavish all-you-can-eat-and-drink barbeque. I decide to go for the latter option. Have a discussion with an American doctor about healthcare in his country where we all learn that Adam is a hammer and sickle away from being a fully blown communist. Adam Smith - hiding under a bed near you soon. End up going to a club in Bariloche with Adam and a few others we met at the BBQ. After a couple of hours or so, I realise that Adam has gone, that I¨m all alone in a club I don¨t know which is full of Argentinians and that I can¨t remember where our hostel is or even it¨s name. Where could Adam have gone? A kind Argentinian called "Guillermo" walks me back to the hostel. Get back to the room where I find Adam in bed with with a skantily clad Dutch lady. That¨s where he went. Cheeky sod.

Forgot to mention that the beard-off is now over, but I was convinced by the others to leave a handlebar moustache for a little bit. So this afternoon we walked around Bariloche, had some lunch, ordered some ice cream, and I had a handlebar moustache. The handles have now gone but as I sit here, writing this, I still have a 2-week old, bushy, caterpillar moustache. Nice.

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Comments

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woooop
Hi James, You lucky bugger don't enjoy yourself too much it makes the rest of your life boring. lol