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Published: April 11th 2006
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Bariloche
The lake upon which Bariloche sits! Bariloche is the place we are now. We took some buses north through Rio Gallegos and Commodore Ridavavia (finally escaping Tiera Del Fuego). Rio Gallegos still sucks, even after our second visit, however Ryan and I did find an actual restaurant there, only about 9km from the bus station (a bland mixture of stubborness and hunger drove us onward). Commodore was boring as well, we had some good pizza and convinced this women to actually let us have a beer, as long as it was only one (apparently she has been fighting of drunks for months now). After all that, we arrived in Bariloche, which is a nice place, most people who have heard of it or have been here know that already. It has a ski resort, and I suppose could be compared to Whistler, however I have not had a really good view of the ski mountains here (cloudiness, and, well I am not sure where they are specifically anyways) but unlike Whistler it does reside on a beautiful lake.
Bariloche is also known for their chocolate and jams, we didn´t get a chance to try the jams, mainly due to lack of interest (however I might buy
Bikers
Mountain biking in Bariloche, only a few near deaths. a jar we´ll see) however the chocolate is a whole ´nother story (sorry, been reading Mark Twain). We had Mamushka chocolate recommended to us, which was really quite something, simply upon entering the store we were spoiled with samples beyond our wildest dreams, chocolate that unquestionably very delicious. We figured we ought to take it one step forward and prove that Mamushka was the best, so we had a judging competition between the top 8 (well the closest 8) different shops where we laid out, and with a secret ballot system and thoroughly judged all their milk chocolates. The process was intense, to picture what went on during the judging I would think you need to visualize an extremely cold and edgy United Nations conference with pressure so overwhelming an outcome so volatile, that really I can hardly stand to recollect just what took place. In the end, we opted for a ranking system where each chocolate would be judged between 1 and 10, then all ballots added, averaged, and a winner declared. All taste tests, were done after cleansing our mouths with our personal liquid of choice as needed.
Rankings: *1) Rapa Nui
*2) Tie - Benroth
Ferry Crossing
So much wind, soaked everyone good! Trip North from Ushuiai to Bariloche. & Frantom
*4) Tie - Feroglio & Mamushka
*6) Bonifacio
*7) Turista
*8) Abuela Goye
Scores:
- Feroglio My Score = 7.00 Average Score = 6.00
- Mamushka My Score = 5.00 Average Score = 6.00
- Frantom My Score = 7.00 Average Score = 6.33
- Abuela Goye My Score = 5.00 Average Score = 4.66
- Rapa Nui My Score = 8.00 Average Score = 8.33
- Turista My Score = 4.00 Average Score = 5.00
- Benroth My Score = 5.00 Average Score = 6.33
- Bonifacio My Score = 6.00 Average Score = 5.66
We tried our hand in steak preparation, I guess we were a bit tired of having steakmasters prepare flawless pieces of flesh for our enjoyment and ended up at the butcher shop where we bought delicious tenderloin (Lomo) and made, well, I fried them so I was at a bit of a disadvantage, but arguably the best steak I have ever cooked (aside from the T-bones on fathers day). Anyhow, I think I have mastered now a simple dish of steak, carrots and garlic in one pan with a touch of olive oil and fresh bread. One serving, for one grown man costs about $1.25 USD,
Crappy Weather
Good bike ride, nobody died, but crappy weather. the steak down here is both delicious and cheap. Alternatives, at least in restaurants because I don´t know how to prepare them from scratch, are the Milenesa´s, which is a thin, tender, breaded steak, typically served with fries (plain Jane style) or with some different cheeses, ham and tomato sauce, clearly combining the Italian influences down here with good old fashioned slabs of Argentinian beef.
We did some bike riding to nowhere in particular because it didn´t seem prudent climbing this giant mountain to get a view of the town and lake in its blanket of clouds, but we got much exercise nonetheless, which felt great after a night of drinking Quilmes draft with Carl from Minneapolis.
Anyways, we plan to hike, we plan to possibly river raft (weather dependant, its a bit expensive) or maybe I will just sit in bed and read Dune (Science Fictions Supreme Masterpiece) The Hostel has the Godfather as well, I am trying to convince Jord to read some Puzo, we have little to trade for the book and the one on their shelf is almost fallen apart.
In other news, I weigh 85kg, yesterday I bought three new shirts a
Fruit Loops
Enough said! hat, and a tuque, Ryan and I might buy our ticket to Africa today, Jord has a Fruit Loop addiction, we went bowling the other night here as well which was great, they alley had no automatic score keeping and pin placers, so these crazy squirrel like adolescent Argentinian boys hopped up and down, all around, clearing pins, setting them up and throwing the balls back at us. Was the first time any of us had to keep score manually, and in the end our scores were 360 to 510 to 480 (don´t remember whose was whose but I think I won) clearly we had no clue how in gods name to score in bowling, plus we had a few chardonnays (or what have you) and everything was so smoky we could hardly see.
On a side note, those with questions (about whatever) please send me private messages or emails, if you post comments I cannot get back to you unless it is over my blog posts and I would rather not answer things other people might not have an interest in. Also, I will add photos later, can't seem to get my camera working here at the moment. Those of you who were getting lots of emails saying my blog was updated (multiple emails that is) I believe to have found the cause of that problem and it should not happen any longer!
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Kay & Denny
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Penguins
Jason - we got your penguin postcard - many thanks. Now of course, you know you've made Jacky jealous!! Sounds like you're having a great exciting adventure. Guess next stop Africa? Capetown/Jo'berg?