Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 15

¨Casa completo!" All the passengers on our bus are playing a random game of bingo. Neither of us come close to a full house, so don´t get to test whether the victory cry translates literally. But the game´s a fun way of trying to perfect our spanish numbers, and a welcome distraction on our latest epic journey. We also get through 5 or 6 movies which, for a change, are all in English with Spanish subtitles. Bonus. It takes us 36 hours to travel North from from Patagonia up to the Lake District of Argentina, and we arrive at our destination of San Carlos de Bariloche at 10.30pm. Bariloche is a ski resort town that sits among the beautiful lagos of the Lake District, and we´re here primarily for the snowboarding. Travellers and guide books have ... read more

Bariloche is a wonderful area with huge lakes, mountains and forests! Unfortunately I experienced the puyehue vulcano break out. Scary moments, but I am fine now.... read more

Ok, so we left El Calafate and 29 hours later (yes, 29!!!) we arrived in Bariloche! We have decided that is too long to be on a bus and will try to keep our journeys slightly shorter if we can! Once again we arrived in the dark but awoke to stunning views over lake and snow capped mountains! We are in a shared dorm again but had it to ourselves the first two nights (now have an English guy and an Argentinian chap in with us. The English guy is the same one that we shared a dorm with in El Calafate....small world with us travellers!) We had arranged to meet Claudia (our school mate from BA who is now studying here) so had a wander beforehand - it was VERY windy, so we both bought ... read more

The first thing I noticed in Argentina was how much of the language I could understand. Here the accents are one hundred times better than in Chile. Seemingly overnight I have become nearly fluent. Yes, I am still far from mastering the verbal part of the language, but now I can understand almost everything that is directed my way. This only boosts my confidence. In putting a new langauge to practice confidence is often half the struggle. The bus ride over the Andes Mountains to Bariloche was not what I had expected. We did not go on any trechorous switch backs through snow covered mountains. Regardless, it was still a good ride. Most people would dread the fact that nearly every other day they have to get on a bus ride ranging from three to twenty ... read more

Our journey into Argentina began much as any other (journey, that is, neither of us having been there before) – a long walk to a quiet bus stop in the cold grey light of a Chilean dawn. Even I was cold, but not as cold, perhaps, as the shivering puppy curled up in a plant pot at the terminal. I suspect the drive up through the Lakes District to the border was beautiful. Not sure though – we were both asleep for a lot of it. Once we started to hit the mountains though, we were wide awake. The landscape changed as the rolling hills of Los Lagos started to give way to more mountainous terrain. We were once again crossing the Andes, and it was spectacular. Glistening blue lakes flanked by wooded slopes, leaves turning ... read more