Pause between adventures

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We hung out in Bariloche for a night when we got back from the great cathederal of rock, then caught a bus to Puerto Varas the next day. We managed to find a hostel that was not too much of a back breaking walk from the bus station. It cost 5000 pesos a night each (about $11) just to camp in the backyard, so it was a little on the pricey side, but nice enough. I often sleep better in a tent then in a dorm, so I was looking forward to a good night. Except there happened to be a party in the backyard of the house next door. If I were not so tired I would have gone over and crashed it, but instead I tried to crash on my thermorest. We both managed to fall asleep at some point though. But Chileans know how to party. Jono commented the next day that it must have been an over 30 year old party, cause there was no trash left in the yard the next morning. Ooops, did I say trash again? I mean garbage. The first night in Puerto Varas we went out to treat ourselves to a meal out, though we could only find either dingy dirty super cheap places (one of these was called no say, which means I do not know, strange name for a cafe) or super expensive touro places. We chose a moderately super expensive tourist place as a treat. It was pretty fancy and offered top quality restaurant food for less than a pub meal in Vancouver. It is funny how your mind set adjusts to local prices in terms of deciding whether something is expensive or not. In Vancouver we would not think twice about spending $15 on a meal. Now that is way too expensive.

We met an interesting character called Ed at Puerto Varas. An American hippie in his 50s, traveling on his own. He had just walked over the Andes from Argentina to Chile via Cochamo, where we were headed, so that was pretty cool. Cochamo valley is not on the usual tourist map. Everyone we seam to make friends with at hostels seems to be over 40. Maybe because they have something else to talk about other than how drunk they got the other night etc. Anyhow, Ed introduced us to a friend of his in Porte Varas that runs a guiding business, Rodrigo. He spoke English really fluently and helped us organise horses to take all our stuff up into cochamo, which was great, because with our limited Spanish, it would have been really hard to do. He also suggested a good cheap place to camp. Love it how random strangers can help you in unexpected ways.

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Photos

Bariloche bathrooms as small as they come
Our private batyhroom in Bariloche was so small that you could shower while on the toilet.

Comments

[Howie]

Bariloche bathrooms as small as they come
Love the tiles