Advertisement
Published: July 28th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Well as you may or may not have twigged from my title we're in Bariloche, which to be honest isn't that far from El Calafate where we last were, but for some reason we've had to go around the world to get here (or Argentina at least).
Ok let's begin at the beginning, last time I posted properly was the 19th of July, the day before my birthday. We went out that night had one or two drinks too many (I know it's becoming almost normal - I blame Gwen). Got up next day, went for lunch, then I went and bought a pair of brown leather boots, as my birthday present, on top of my Swarovski crystal ring. Then we went to a parilla for dinner (which is a place where they bbq the food on a spit and you go up and choose whatever you want to eat). Then we had to stay up for a few hours to catch a bus at 5.30am. Gwen spent ages chatting to guy at reception while I vegged on the couch reading my Evita book , which Gwen bought me for my birthday. Got ready at about 4.15am for the bus,
got a really rickety bus for 2 hours, before we had to change. Then we got a normal bus and Travis (a Canadian guy who was in Ushuaia also with us) was there. We had to get on and off the bus a few times, as we crossed the border with Chile and back again into Argentina, we got quite a few stamps on our passports.
Got to El Calafate next day and checked into America del Sur, which was a bit out of town, up a really muddy dirt track but the hostel was nice. We just took it easy for the 1st day. Then went to see Perito Moreno glacier the following day, oh my god it was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The glacier itself is in a glacier park and Perito Moreno is the size of Buenos Aires, it's absolutely unbelievable. We met a lovely Irish couple Laura and Nev. We heard huge rumblings from the glacier and twice we sxaw huge chunks fall off that was unreal. While waiting for more to fall off, Laura and I built a snowman, the snow was lovely. Then on our way back to
the bus we'd a snowball fight with some Basque girls. Will definitely post pics soon, just to show.
The next day we vegged again, but decided to try to book a way out of there. Now for anybody who can see a map of Argentina, El Calafate and Bariloche practically link up but the road is closed because of the winter. So we had to face a trip from the west coast, cross country up the east coast, cross country again and then up the west coast. So then we decided we'd do a boat trip through Chile, so our minds were made up and we'd provisionally booked it.
So we went to the Supermarket and bought a bottle of their national vodka for 7 pesos (less than €2). We had a few drinks in the hostel, shared with a Spanish couple, a French girl, a Columbian guy and a Korean guy. So then we decided we'd sample the nightlife in Calafate so we went to a pub recommended by the guy at reception. It was me and Gwen and the Columbian, who was like our very own personal translator for the night. The pub was the only
A piece falls off the galcier
This is the aftermath of a huge chip falling off, it created huge waves pub open, so we expected there to be a few people there. There were 3 otheres there. 3 old men playing a dice game, which we ended up joining in, I was having a blonde (or drunk!) moment and couldn't grasp it so I played with one of the men. The same man ended up teaching me the tango much later on, definitely don't think I'm a natural! Got back to our hostel for about 5am and sat up talking to the guy on reception for ages.
Next day we went on net and discovered that at this time of the year not many people do it and we could've been sharing the ship with cattle. So we went to bus station and booked the bus first to Rio Gallegos. Then onto Comodoro Rividavia where we planned to stay the night. So we got the bus at 4am and arrived in Comodoro at about 8am. Sat around till 10am to get our next bus, we got on the bus got our seats which were cool. Then a young Argentinean couple came up to say they had our seats also. So the bus driver came up and it turns out
The boat we travelled on
I know it's hard to see, but it's there, just to give you an indication as to how big the glaciar is our tickest were for the following day! Gwen went with driver while I waited with the bus in case it moved and she changed them.
So we arrived in Commodoro late cause we held up the bus by half an hour and cause the police got on to search the bus for half an hour. We decided we wouldn't bother staying in Comodoro and just make the trip on to Bariloche, so we acted dumb and eventually they left us on. Our bus was cama which was like a bed. So we settled down, watched a film and fell asleep. Next thing we know we are woken about 3.30am to say that the bus can't go any further, we're in a little town (Gobernador Costa I think). So we have to wait to see if the roads become more passable. So we waited and waited and waited (well truth be told I slept for most of the wait) and eventually the bus moved on at about 12.30pm. It stopped again in Esquel (about 4 hours from where we wanted to go). We were given our bags and told the bus could go no further. So we were prepared to
Laura & my creation!
While waiting for more chunks to fall off, we built a snowman to humour ourselves stay, then we met Corinne a French girl who'd we'd met in Ushuaia and El Calafate and she said her bus was leaving for Bariloche in 20 minutes. So we waited around and sure enough our bus left at about 4pm. We arrived in Bariloche just after 9 pm. (so that's 41 hours on the road).
We arrived in Bariloche and shared a cab with Corinne, we dropped her at the hostel where she wanted to stay and it was full. So we went on to where we wanted to stay and that was full too. So we walked on and tried another hostel, they had 2 beds available but there were now 3 of us. So Corinne and I went to all the hotels thinking if we spent a little more we might get somewhere, absolutely nothing. Eventually we got back to the hostel with 2 beds and asked if there was any chance they could let us all shower and Gwen and I share a bed, think they felt pity when they saw the state of us and the grease of my hair. So that's where we are now.
We went to the hostel bar for a drink which took the barman about an hour to make, then we strolled down town into the Wilkenny(!) Irish bar, was a total pick up joint full of teeny boppers so that's why I'm now sitting here catching up on my blog.
Will post pics again soon I promise!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0355s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Gwen
non-member comment
For the record, I slept on the floor last night! Also Katie forgot the part where she tried to wash her hair on the bus with my hand wash-the stuff that doesn´t need soap and water! That was definitely a blonde moment!