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Published: November 23rd 2007
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Gorgeous views while driving at dusk
This was really cool....hundreds of kilometres of road with no one else on it, car skidding all over the place, pissing ourselves cos it was getting dark, and amidst all the fear you can really see the majestic beauty of nature. Sorry thats really corny, but I really mean that.
Oh and we drove right through that little break in the mountains on the left side of the pic. The bus journey from Mendoza to San Carlos de Bariloche or Bariloche as it is more commonly called was a bit of a nightmare after our bus broke down. So a 16 hour bus ride turned into a 24 hour one, with the bus stopped in the SAME BORING PLACE IN THE ABSOLUTE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE FOR 8 HOURS. It drove us nuts. The steward on the bus was trying desperately to cheer everyone up by playing more bingo (yes bingo is very popular on buses in SA), but the idiot had only brought one dvd with him so we couldnt watch any more movies.
Anyway we finally checked into our hostel (Tango Inn) at 10pm instead of 2pm where the receptionist was quite drunk, but a very nice guy. We realised a couple of days later that he had been pulling 24 hour shifts, he was at the desk at 2AM,9AM,7PM, all day basically, so maybe thats why he was a bit nutty. Very nice though. In fact the hostel was great, nice staff, nice and cheap food etc....
We then tried to plan the next few days. The wishlist consisted of horse-riding, canopying (swinging from trees by
vines), rafting, golf and seeing the nearby glacier. Obviously we did none of the above. But we had good reasons. Horse-riding no time so decided to do it in Puerto Madryn (next stop). Canopying they couldnt guarantee they would bring us back in time for our bus on our last day, so we ditched it which was very disappointing. Rafting, it was so cold, that I think I would have died if I had fallen in so scrapped. Golf we found a crappy nine hole 3-par course, that I couldnt be bothered to play on so scratched from list. And lastly we woke up too late to see the glacier. And it was a black glacier. Which might've been cool, but again might've not been so cool.
What we did do however was rent a car, a tiny little Suzuki Fun and drive around the lake district, some of the most gorgeous, beautiful landscapes in the continent. The first day we drove south to a waterfall (on horrible dirt roads) and to a town called El Bolson, which was absolutely lovely and would have been worth staying at for a day, but unfortunately Haze had forced me to book
3 nights at our hostel at Bariloche. We also tried to drive up to the black glacier, but the roads are unpaved and narrow, and the road is a one-way at different hours. Basically you have to get there pretty early to be allowed to drive up to the glacier.
At El Bolson exists a place called Jauja. It is a restaurant and ice cream shop. They call it artesenal ice cream, basically meaning that it is an art. And believe me it was. The best ice cream in Argentina, definitely lived up to expectations, and the food was delicious as well. And they had homemade beers which were great. Hazel cut short my sampling of them since I had to drive back. She wasnt even willing to drive herself, though this actually makes sense since she doesnt know how to drive.
The second day, involved doing the fabulous and famous 7 Lakes Drive to San Martin de Los Andes a town a couple of hundred km north. We also decided to stop at a little town called Villa La Angostura where there is a tiny national park on an island within the national park (forgot to mention
the entire Bariloche area is a nation park). Obviously we did not make the boat rides to the island.
So we decided to try horse-riding and asked at the tourist centre. The girl there spoke pretty good english and gave us good info about the place, and when we asked for horse riding told us to go to the Italiano Hostel which was apparently really good for horse riding. So we went. Turns out though that she thought we said hostel when we said horse. Or maybe she doesnt know the difference. Or something. Anyway we ended up at a hostel with a guy who spoke only spanish showing us rooms, while we were confusedly trying to work out whether he kept his horses indoor or something. Its a bit shameful since both Haze and me speak ok spanish, but we had both forgotten how to say horseriding. And miming it is not a good idea. You look stupid, and people generally have no idea what you are doing.
We then continued on to San Martin on the worst road I have ever driven on in my life. (Or so I thought, until the drive back on a
Stupid bus breakdown
They even made the passengers switch the bags between buses. After we paid for the damn ride! Just kidding, that was the most entertaining part of the bus journey :-)
And the gazillion games of shithead we played.. different road!). Argentinian unpaved gravel roads are called "ripio" and they are pretty damn dangerous, because there are so many loose little stones on the road, that your car is constantly skidding even on a straight stretch. Its scary to go above 40km/h and you cant turn the wheel hard, or break hard. That means the likelihood of turning the car over is pretty high, so all car hire companies charge massive fees for this. All the mountain biking I did helped though, because you learn how to not instinctively jerk the bike (or the steering wheel) away from a big stone/pothole and to ride/drive through it, because sudden turns can make you skid and fall.
What was a bit irritating though was that the guidebook said "one little unpaved stretch of ripio road on this lovely drive" which turned out to be about 70km ofcrazy road, winding, sometimes no more than a couple of metres wide, around completely blind hairpin turns. And not along the lakes half the time. And to top it all our car was shit, the tire treads looked about 10 years old and I was shitting myself.
The drive back was even worse
This woman on the bus forced me to take this pic
...it was very sweet, she was like get your camera out, around this bend is an awesome view. So I had to oblige since I didnt want to be rude. Turns out it was alright eh on another stretch, and made all the more freaky by the fact that it was getting dark, we were driving through huge canyons (with absolutely gorgeous sunset views) on a 100km road with about 3 other vehicles on it. One of which was a group of poor French people who predictably had a flat due to the crazy road surface. Luckily our car held out.
San Martin was a lovely little town though, perched on the banks of a lovely lake. Great town to spend a day or two in, but we didnt have the time unfortunately!
Honestly though, after being attacked by a bull sea lion, riding down the worlds most dangerous road, flying in creaky Cessnas with crazy pilots and everything else on this trip, nothing scared me as much as that evening drive. If anything had happened a) I didnt have the money to pay for the car b) we would have been stranded absolutely in the middle of the middle of the middle of (not a typo) nowhere... c) we had no way of contacting or calling for help d) it was easier to skid off the road than stay on. And I was
responsible for two people not just me. Cool story no?
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