Day 80: Bye Bye Bariloche

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We got up for the last time in our lake-side paradise and trundled off to breakie. The sun was streaming through and it was another perfect day in Bariloche. It was kind of bitter-sweet; knowing we would enjoy a nice morning however annoyed that it couldn't be like this for our first couple of days here.

We packed up our bags (and collected all the hand-washing that we'd done and hung up on any available space around our hotel room) and checked-out. Our flight back to Santiago wasn't leaving until 4pm so we had quite a bit of the day to fill in. We decided that given the nice morning, we would walk the 6km into town for lunch and do a spot of souvenir shopping.

We walked along the main road and took in the sight of lake with the sun streaming down. We looked up behind us and were amazed at how quickly the snow was melting on Cerro Otto, where we went up to on our second day here. It was practically just a green mountain now with a couple of specks of white stuff glittered about.

It took us just over an hour to get into town and we quickly scouted the main street for gift shops, finding a postcard however no shot glass, here's hoping there's one out at the airport. Rach had researched a good spot for lunch, a cafe called Holly that sat right on the waters edge and we got a lovely table in the sunshine (well, it was more like a glass house and the sun was really warm compared to the freezing cold outside). Rach skipped straight to the dessert section and ordered a apple crumble for lunch and I went for the caesar salad, the volume of beef still circulating through my system will last me for at least 3 weeks.

We checked the time and it was approaching 2pm so we got the cafe to call us a cab back to La Cascada. As soon as we got there, our lovely driver, Ernesto was diligently waiting with his car door open, our bags already packed into the boot. Rach 'complained' all the way to the airport not wanting to leave this place and she also wanted to adopt Ernesto into her family.

We got to the airport, checked ourselves in and bummed the time away, finding a shot glass and buying a couple of very expensive chocolates for the plane trip. We took off out of Bariloche and fly directly over the city and then further north-east watching the beautiful snow Andes below us; a few volcanoes sticking out like giant white cones above the cloud line. Unfortunately we were in an exit row and my bag with the camera in it was stowed safely away above us. Oh well, its in the memory bank.

We landed in BA a couple of hours later and after waiting 25 mins for our bags to never arive, we asked Aerolinas Argentinas help desk who kindly advised our bags had been checked all the way through to Santiago. This was slightly different from our flight to Bariloche where we had to pick them up half way. Oh well, only time will tell if they reach the other side with us!!

We ventured through the terminal and decided that being an international flight, BA International Terminal would offer far better restaurant options than the domestic section's food court. We went through security and immigration only to find the 'International Terminal' consisted of 2 gates and 1 cafe!! We sat down and ordered a 'Lomo Completo' (steak sandwich) which was actually pretty good for airport food. We were soon boarding our next flight onwards to Santiago.



After catching up further on our kindles, we landed in Santiago and were thankful when our bags appeared after we got off the plane. We had quite an eventual taxi ride into Santiago city, our taxi driver an absolute maniac and were thankful when he found Nativa Apartment Suites to drop us off. We again had a bit of trouble translating the fact that we wanted to check-in, the only person in the lobby being this poor security guy who spoke no word of English. Eventually he managed to find a little envelope with Rach's name on it and we crashed into our apartment on the 8^th floor – time to get some sleep before our next big travel day back over the Andres into Argentina (this time by bus) to Mendoza.

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