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Published: April 26th 2010
jueves, 15 de abril Our bus arrived at San Carlos de Bariloche at just before 2 in the afternoon. Despite not being geographically different to Madryn the weather was freezing, it definitely feels like the other side of the world now. An old lady who smelled of p*ss shouted at us as we waited for a bus into town.
Bariloche is right in the heart of the Lake District on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi and sits in the middle of a National Park. The journey into town was flanked by gayly coloured wooden houses with oversized rooves. I hoped all this colour wasn´t the same as the favelas of Rio which is used to hide the fact you´re walking over dead bodies and human excrement in your flip-flops. Such fear was short lived.
Our hostel (El Gaucho) sits at the top of a hill; a 3-storey wooden building, well brick but with that wooden feel, of which our room sits on top. We were welcomed by the multi-lingual owner of German descent with such exaggerated expression you couldn´t help but wish he had lederhosen on to completely authenticate the effect. He set the tone for our venture
out into the town.
You would almost certainly think this town was not in Argentina but for all the Argentines walking around. It kind of looks like Switzerland vomited. All of the buildings are either uneven stone or log-cabin effect, designed to reassure you that although you´re in Argentina you can still go skiing (if you want). Perhaps even more strange are the shops here - literally if it´s not an outdoors equipment shop then it´s chocolate. Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery.
With just an afternoon to play with we headed into the Centro Civico (can you guess what that means?). There isn´t much there aside a large statue of Roca (presumably some sort of town-founder). Classically Argentine it´s covered in graffiti, a great big GENOCIDA showing that not everybody wants to celebrate men who order the dismemberment of indigenous tribes. Might mean more if it wasn´t written in Spanish.
A German whet our appetite for the days ahead with photos of his hikes. He even argued that it was better then New Zealand. Competition on. Think he might just hate people though, he used the word "isolation" enough to change its meaning.
The
f**king stray dog problem continues. Our necks are sore from looking downwards.
viernes, 16 de abril Herman, for we assume that must be his name, told us there is a great climb up Cerro Lopez which not that many people do but is supposed to be sweet. He told us to catch the number 10 bus and it would be obvious where to go. So we caught the number 10 bus.....and ended up 3km away in Colonial Suiza because we both bottled asking the driver to stop!
Colonia Suiza is a one road town so it wasn´t difficult to retrace our path to at least a road-sign with the word Lopez on it. A kilometre along the gravelled walk we happily chatted;
"Woof woof woof woof"
2 huge dogs are going mental at us in their deepest voices. All of a sudden a much littler one squeezes under the fence and comes barking and snarling straight for us. The little ones are always the b*st*rds; I ran. Chivalry and heroism are well and truly dead. Hayley, left stranded in the eyeline of the bigger dogs, hid in a bush. Turned out the little doggie just wanted attention, pair
Lago Moreno
Are all these lakes named after Spanish footballers?of tits we are. They should learn to ask nicer.
At 2km the first sign of life we spotted did not speak English. In our broken Spanish we managed to get directions......and walk right past the hike path. We continued down the main road thinking it was the walk and ended up a further 3km away in Bahia Lopez. Fortunately Lake Moreno was here, a beautifully quiet place where I could fart without recrimination. We managed to spot the walk on the return, but it was too late by then to do anything about it. The bus stop seemed like it was on the wrong side of the road (the one we should have got off at) and with time we thought it was just a short walk to the next. Nope. 2.5km!
We made it though. We made it in time to see our thrice daily bus wasn´t running, and the next one was two hours later. By the time it arrived 2 of our fingers had frozen and cracked off.
A testament to our general sh*tness!! 11.5km walked, 0% where we meant to. I lost my masculinity, Hayley lost all her faith in me.
Tomorrow will be better.
sabado, 17 de abril Tomorrow will be better. Well, today, for the first time since arriving the heavens opened. And I don´t own a raincoat.
Tomorrow will be better. Today it took 4 bus rides to get a ticket to our next destination (Pucon) because the stupid bus station doesn´t take card and there´s no ATMs.
Tomorrow will be better. Just like yesterday except on the line 20 we went a full 6km past our stop and end up at some swanky hotel in Llao Llao. It wasn´t open. We sheepishly sat at the bus stop for 20 minutes until the bus was ready to turn around.
Our destination today was Cerro Campanario, a 1km high mount with chair lift jutting out of it like those moles you wished you didn´t have. We decided to climb rather than take the chair because:
a) we can, stairlifts are for the elderly
b) we p*ssed away so much money on buses we didn´t need
c) why do something in 7 mins when you can do it in 40? (the reverse of my usual rule)
Campanario isn´t especially wide which meant the hike was
way steeper than we realised. Our legs burned, the fat on our asses creating a pleasant English breakfast smell. The view at the top was completely worth it. Unbelievable Geoff. A full 360 degree panoramic view of the park taking in all of the lakes, peaks and towns for miles around. Somebody must have sensed our bus-ridden pain as the weather cleared long enough to take enough pictures to fry a memory card. Joke´s on you, you have to look at them when we´re back.
For dinner we splurged a bit on Mexican. Still ridiculously cheap. An American asked for a doggie bag for his Chili con Carne. His wife also said "well I work for you so I am chargeable." Romantic meal at the taxpayers expense. Is staff entertainment even covered?
domingo, 18 de abril Cerro Lopez, attempt number 2. We shall not be defeated. Again the weatherman laughed in our faces as he pronounced rain but the day started off sunny. We took the bus (to the correct place) and began our ascent. There are two routes to the top; a longer winding but steady walk and one a much steeper hike. We chose the more
difficult, still time to get those butts in shape before the beaches of Vietnam and Thailand.
It took all of about 15 minutes to completely walk off of the trail, our path blocked like Gandalf by a 50m waterfall. Our only conceivable route from there was a ridiculously steep climb adjacent to the route we had already taken. 10 minutes up we started to see red dots painted on the rocks - back on track. We turned around as we sat down. Wow!!!!!!! Lake Huapi, Brazo Campanario and Bahia Lopez all shimmering underneath forest covered peaks. Another, better probably, Fujifilm moment.
The acne´d rocks led us after an hour to a wood cabin lodge complete with fireplace and several beers on tap. It was closed. We continued onwards crossing the easier path but Hayley was determined to keep things difficult, difficult, lemon difficult up the steep route which was at this point largely overgrown and became slippery as the angels began to spit on the living.
We spotted a pink house way up the mountain, just where the vegetation began to finish and the snow caps started. Who the hell could live up there we thought. Whoever
it was would have legs like Robocop. Anywho, 2 hours in the paths converged and our steep walk was mercifully more leisurely. We daintily crossed over a river when all of a sudden the house which seemed miles away was right upon us. We climbed a bit more to be met with snow, hugely underdressed like 15 year old girls trying to get into pubs. Absolutely knackered but a cracking achievement.
We took the windy path down since our route up had become like a log flume. We hadn´t realised since we had trekked through the forest but it was mentally windy. We tied rocks to Hayley´s shoes to stop her blowing away. We had one last little gem of the day in a few parakeets perching nearby, there was more life in Madryn beach than we had seen today.
Back to that same bus stop on the wrong side of the road. We´re screwed if it doesn´t pick us up. We jogged the full 3km back to Colinia Suiza to make the bus by 1 minute. I was done. Hayley truly the Queen of the Hike!
Oh hang on. The bus does pick up where we
were. That's annoying.
Oh. It picks up anyone, anywhere on any road. Pointless walk 2 days ago as well then. F**k you world!!
After that walk we more or less went into hibernation.
lunes, 19 de abril We were well and truly walked out. We decided against hiking and got involved in the chocolate industry. It was awesome. Aside from that we chilled out.
Hayley has cracked lips and it hurts her to smile. I spent the day making up words to make her laugh.
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Carole Bull
non-member comment
It didnt take long
Hello you two, well it didnt take long for Hayley to realise that you are not able to wear your pants over your tights and that as far as you are concerned its everyman for himself!!! Still sounds like you are having fun, keep up the blogs, the pair of you, we are enjoying them. Much love to you both