Day 75: Travel Day - Santiago to Bariloche

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We woke up this morning after an amazing sleep in our super comfy bed! Our lil apartment here is really cute with a kitchen and everything! Would be great if we were here more than one night so we could actually cook ourselves a meal instead of going out! It feels like coming home is getting closer! And it is! Unfortunately I was disappointed as I stepped into the shower as it was tepid at best! Grr cold showers in a cold place is not ideal! Anyway enough moaning, we got changed into our travel attire for yet another full day of travelling and got out packs to head downstairs and pay our bill. <br style="color:񮾑 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;" /><br style="color:񮾑 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;" />I opened the door to find a lady waiting outside our door. She started speaking really fast in Spanish to us and we had no idea what she was saying or who she was. She bought up google translate on her phone and typed something in and showed me. It said 'travel and go!' Hmmm no idea! So she typed something else in and it came up as 'removed' - gah! Just when we thought we were pretty much fluent Spanish we could not communicate at all!! We went downstairs and tried a few other ppl who also had no idea!! Then thankfully there was a man who knew a few words and said 'no problem' to us! Wierd! So we paid our nights accommodation and headed in the direction (hopefully) of coffee and breakfast!

We didnt really know where we were going but stumbled across a street with plenty of coffee shops to choose from. We headed into one called Vanilla Cafe. And ordered ham and cheese croissants each, a latte for ben and a butterscotch latte for me! It was delicious! Full and happy our next mission was to find an internet printer place and what do you know?! Across the road in this alley there was seriously 8 shops all lined next to each other called photocopy/scanner/internet! The reason we needed this place is cos after last night when ben was horrified that being Australian meant that he had to pay $95US to get into Chile, He'd best check if it cost to get into Argentina for him. And thankfully he checked cos not only does he have to pay $100 to enter Argentina, it has to be paid online before getting to the country!! And if not they could deny his entry! Whew, so we had to find a place where we could print off his now printed VISA. Easy. The final stop before the airport was finding a cash machine that can give us cash. We have plenty on our card but the last few machines we have tried said either our balance was $0 or that the amount exceeded our daily limit, even if we chose the smallest amount. So we decided to go into a back that said it didn money exchange and change some US dollars jst so we had enough to pay the taxi to the airport. We went inside and they said they didnt do exchanges! Even though there was a big sign saying they did! But luckily for both parties a guy yelled out that he could help us cos he was flying to the US that night and needed $3000, which we didnt have but at least we could help. So we changed $100 with him into Chiliean Pesos and we were set.

We flagged a taxi and made our way into the airport but once again having so understanding between the driver at all of how much it was going to be. After a lot of confusion at the airport I made out that he was meaning it was the amount on the meter plus 2000 pesos for airport entrance or something like that. Meh we had made it!

We checked in no problem being told it was running half an hour late and then went through to the other side. Thankfully we eventually found a starbucks that not only did a good chai latte but also had internet, as we were early AND the plane ended up being about an hour and a half late! We watched a group of teenage Aussie boys try and order subway with absolutely not a word of spanish and it was hilarious! We eventually got on the plane and flew to Buenos Aires. We were meant to have almost a 3 hour wait there but cos our plane was so delayed we didnt have much time at all. Just enough to get dinner at a random burger place and then board the plane.

The plane ride was painful! It was only an hour 50 but there was about a 4 year old boy on the plane who wasnt crying but just shrieked and growled almost stomping and throwing a paddy in the aisle for over an hour of the journey. Everyone was getting so annoyed cos it was such a horrible noise and his mum was doing absolutely nothing about it! Not even telling the little shit off! We read the whole flight and tried to tune him out before a particularly bumpy landing.

We had a taxi man waiting for us when we arrived in bariloche and he had the firmest/hardest handshake I have ever experienced! He was lovely - the friendly giant! He was massive! He insisted on opening my door for me and carrying my bags. It was very sweet. It was a pretty clear night but pitch black. But even so we could see how stunning this place would be in day light. We were totally surrounded by snowcapped mountains and a giant lake. We got dropped off at our hotel - La Cascada and it is gorgeous. It has a super homely feel and our room is stunning overlooking the lake, a spa bath and a giant king size super comfy bed! We splashed out a little for this hotel at the end of our trip so we could finish with a bit of luxury and we are so pleased we did. We cant wait to see the place in the ght tomorrow morning!l

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