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We had decided to pay a little extra for a cama bus for the 17hour journey from Mendoza to Bariloche. We arrived at the coach station as the sun was setting and we were seated by 8pm in our huge leather seats right at the front of the bus. The seats were so big that there were only 3 seats wide. We were served steak and red wine as the sun set and we started making our way south following the line of the Andes. It was a lot esaier sleeping with the comfort of these seats, but the usual irritation of other passengers remained. We slept well and were woken for breakfast at 6am by our host, still wearing his serving white gloves which were the first things that you saw everytime he came to check everything was ok. Lunch, consisting of a sandwich was served at 11:30 which was served alongside a game of bingo, a bus activity we had only been told about but had not had the pleasure of thus far. The amazing scenery of crystal clear lakes and forests all to the backdrop of the Andes was spectacular as we wound our way through the Argentinian
'lake district'.
We arrived in Bariloche around 2pm only a little wounded from the long bus journey but certainly glad we paid the extra. We stumbled on to a bus to town and with a rough map of the centre and our hostel location we fround our hostel and checked in. Our hostel was a ski chateaux style building, as is a lot of the buildings in the area, all inkeeping with the swiss alps feel. The main street in Bariloche is a swathe of travel/trip agencies, car hire companies and chocolate cafes and shops. All by the side of huge lake and to the backdrop of the Andes. It was Autumn so it was low season before things would get busier again during the ski season. Our mission for the afternoon was to investigate car hire options for our possible road trip through patagonia. It was all very confusing probably made worse due to the lack of sleep.
The next day I wasnt feeling very well so spent much of the afternoon sleeping off a sore stomach. Sam made a concerted effort to investigate more car hire options. Our problem was we werent even so sure that
our route was viable and would be able to be covered in the number days that we wanted to do it in. Sam got some help from the person at reception at our hostel who helped him map out the route, workng out driving distance/times and petrol costs for the route. We were then pointed in the direction of a company close to our hostel who could give us a good rate for a larger car than we thought we could afford. We would be driving along the feard rute 40, Argetnina's answer to route 66. Much of which is unpaved and is advised for only 4x4 travel. We however, were not going to be able to afford a 4x4 but we were quoted a reasonable price for a 430quid without too big an excess. That was my biggest worry the damage that we would do to the car going over this unpaved route.
This was after a trip to Argentina's most famous ski resort at Villa Catedral about a 30minute bus journey from Bariloche centre. This is the biggest ski-resort in Argentina, but as it was Autumn there were very few people around and only a few of
the normal Germand and Swiss style cafes open. We were to take the ski lift up the deserted out-of-season mountains, however, we arrived at the bottom and it soon came apparent that the lifts werent working. So we looked up at the steep cliff and were told that to get to the top it would take 3 hours of pretty hard slog, something which we certainly not dressed for, being in jeans! So instead we decided to take a walk up so we could get a good view of the surrounding lakes and hills. After about an hour of uphill we stopped and took some photos then came back down to get the bus back into Bariloche. The afternoon was spent going to the chocolate museum, where we had some free samples and then once we had had the taste for that we continued to a cafe which we had been recommended to go to for their esteemed hot chocolate. It had started raining by this point and it seemed like everyone had the same idea as we fought for a table and then fought to get served by the rather unresponsive waitress. Despite the lack of service the drinks
Bariloche Town
The Slopping Street of Bariloche were good and the desired sickly feeling was achieved. We headed back, closed the deal on the car, after a bit of umming and erring, handed over the money and by the following evening we had signed all the papers for our car to be delivered the next day.
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