Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 13

I start with an apology for the delay since my last post. The reason, for those who don't know will be revealed in the next few posts, but as I have been encouraged to continue with my blog up until the fateful day, I shall. San Carlos de Bariloche was not in fact closed at all. Come the late afternoon when I decided to go for a walk it was open for business. Being a Sunday this was perhaps unusual but San Carlos de Bariloche was a tourist town and they were clearly out for your dollar. The Swiss influence did not extend just to chocolate but to skiing and San Carlos de Bariloche is a popular destination for the Argentines. One of out group thought Prince Charles had visited many moons ago - PD - ... read more

San Martin is a lovely little town a couple of hours North of Bariloche. I booked some nice private accommodation for 3 nights and went a day trip on the Ruta de los siete Lagos (route of the 7 lakes) through a local company. On the other days I hired a bike and explored the local area including a nice beach and forest areas. The town was great to cycle through and there were plenty of restaurants to visit on each night. After a few days it was time to move on once again and cross the border into Pucon Chile......... read more

We arrived in El Bolson around noon Wednesday (March 14th) to clear skies and beautiful temperatures (I´d guess high 70´s to low 80´s). By this point, we´ve established a routine. Try to get information from the bus terminal. If information isn´t available there, find out where the tourist information office is and head there. The information we typically look for is: 1) Where are the campsites and which are the cheapest (or hostels, but lately we´ve just been camping), 2) What are some of the recommended things to do around town or nearby - we typically know what we want to do, but it is always good to get more input, 3) How do we get to the next town we want to go to - sometimes the bus terminals aren´t easy to come back to, ... read more

After finishing the second leg of our 42 hour bus journey from Iguassu, we were happy to have our feet on solid ground again. We had a hell of a time understanding how to ride the local bus. You had to buy tickets or charge a card since they were privately owned rather than the state-run buses we´d been used to. Over the course of a half hour I ran around the small terminal trying to comprehend how and where to buy a ticket. My proficiency in Spanish did not help this time, either because people were not specific or helpful, or perhaps because I was still very tired. In any case, we made it to the center of Bariloche and searched for a hostel recommended by a friend, Steve Mcgill, by the name of Penthouse ... read more

Aanschouw het vervolg op het verhaal van gisteren :) De dag voor we naar 'Petrohue' zijn geweest, heb ik een feestje gebouwd met een hele groep Chilenen uit de hoofdstad Santiago. Aangezien we maar 1 auto hadden en veel gezelschap, zaten we met 12 (oh jawel) in 1 auto!! Wanneer we terug wouden vertrekken vanuit de discotheek, stond de politie buiten als controle.. Was dat ff spannend haha :D Wij als echte professionelen opgesplitst zodat een heel deel van de groep te voet verder ging en later door ons werden opgepikt (totaaaal niet opvallend hahaha maar goed dat de politie hier niet veel voorstelt :P). Na ons bezoek aan de 'saltos del Petrohue' hebben we ook nog 'lago Llanquihue' bezocht wat maar een paar uurtjes verder wandelen ligt. Maar na de (zoveelste!!) insectenplaag waren we blij ... read more