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Published: March 13th 2013
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Home Hostel
Bruno, Mike, Gaby, Neil, Jo & Emiliano After a 2 hour delay getting out of Buenos Aires we arrived in Bariloche, and we were greeted with a Patagonian cold front. The wind was howling, and the mountains had been recently dusted with the first snowfall of the season. Spectacular, but bloody cold and a shock to our system after coming from summer in Sydney and similar weather in B.A. Bariloche is famous for its skiing in winter, and trekking in summer. It is also well known for its chocolate and micro-breweries. So it has Jo's and my name written all over it for respective reasons.
Got to our hostel, Home Hostel, and were taken in with open arms by the owners (Gaby and Santiago). We were starving after foregoing breakfast and only getting a pack of chips and a chocolate bar on the plane. We were recommended to go to Alto del Fuego for a great steak, and so ventured off. However, as the Argentinians eat dinner after 9pm, we had to kill some time and thus went and had a few beers in a local tap house. Got chatting with the bargirl and she gave us a whole bunch of tips on what walks and places
to see. By this stage we were ready to eat our hands and decided to see if we could get in early for the restaurant. The kitchen was not open, as the fire to cook on was still building, but we could have some drinks, so i tried a locally brewed Patagonian red ale, which was tasty. The kitchen opened, and we ordered some steaks, not knowing how big they would be, and a Malbec from Mendoza. The steaks came, and mine a (Ojo de Bife) rib eye, was 2in high, 6in wide and 3in deep. Jo had Bife de Chorizo (Sirloin) and was almost as big. We realised too late that the steaks are designed to be shared... Wish we had a camera to take a picture of it, as it was the most amazing steak we have ever had, and the wine was delicious. We stumbled home drunk on meat and wine. I went to the bathroom to do my teeth and came back to find Jo passed out like a log.
Next day we met some of the other travellers staying at the hostel, Emiliano (from Argentina), Mike (from France) and Bruno (from Brazil) and they
invited us out to go trekking with them to Cerro Catedral, which is the main ski resort in winter. As i mentioned we were in a Patagonian cold front and it was bloody freezing, with fresh snow dotting the mountain. We got a gondala, and then a chairlift up to 2100 metres. We had on thermals, fleece and rain jackets and still froze on the chairlift, getting pelted with sleet and snow. We had some Mate (Argentinian tea) and warmed ourselves up in a restaurant. Due to the weather they shut the mountain down and we had to head back down. From where we trekked to Lago Gutierrez. Managed to get a bus back to town, and was treated to risotto cookedby Mike for everyone.
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