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Published: February 2nd 2006
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Chillin with the BIG man
Keeping an eye on things from above.... After saying chau to the family, who decided to make the drive to Bariloche, I packed up my bags and with Pepto Bismol in check set of on the 18 hour bus ride, for a much awaited family vacation. Bariloche is the kinda town where you could inspire yourself to do almost anything. Everywhere you look its a postcard view ( not a free postcard either ) and everywhere you go people are dressed in their very suave ski gear, even though its not that cold, i guess its an image thing.
The hostel that we stayed at was sensational, walked in the door to welcome beers ( at 10.30am) and many aussies and poms to crap on to about the usual dribble that people from those two countries go on about, such as beer, weather and beer. So as you can imagine it made for a few interesting nights out, they even had a irish pub (suprise suprise).
Now as most of you know when it comes to adventure my middle name is " danger ", there arent many men that can match up to my sence of adrenalin and urge for action. With that in mind the
Sundown in Bariloche
Taken by the Dirty Man from the balcony of the hotel first activity booked was a 10km Level 4 white water rapids course. Now to say that i was a little on edge for this type of adventure would be an understatement. Levels of the pepto were doubled in order to keep the big man at bay. But i was soon comforted when Bruce took up the challenge also, and there was no way i was going to show that man any fear in taking on the rapids. When we arrived we were soon kitted out with wetsuits, see pic, and the neccessary gear to take on the beast. Now the last time that I was in spandex, was the time that i guest appeared in a Freddy Mercury video, the short period in which he had his single career, and if that was anything to judge then this was going to be crazy times.
After copping a battering from the instructor for almost capsizing the boat on the first major rapid, because my paddling style was " irratic " i soon put the head down, like any aussie under pressure would do i.e shane or angel from summer bay, and paddled my little heart out. At the end of
View from the Cable Car
The cable car takes you up to the top of this sweeeet mountain for fantasmo views of the whole town it all was stoked to make it without falling out, except for the time timmy and i had a mock battle and instead of following instructions and using the paddles to push one another we both just got up and pushed with hands and it was all over red rover. So in summation the way to handle rapids is head down, eyes closed and dont piss off your instructor cause he is the one steering you into the rocks.
After a torturous and rigorous first day, the second day had even more action in store. the night before we stupidly celebrated our rapid acheivement by hitting the cans HARD, big mistake, because today was canopy zip lining, through the forest canopy about 200 metres above forest floor at mexican running across the border speeds. So rougher than camels elbows we were up at 8am to make the trek ( 4WD trek) up the mountain across rocks bigger than ayers, to the destination at the almost top of the mountain.
Words came out of my mouth that i cant even spell after taking the plunge on the first line, but after that it was smooth sailing for the newly
Australia Day
View from our perch at the back of the boat....where they kept the aussies named aussie adventurer ( replacing Russell Coight- what happened to that guy). After a few more lines we were at the end, with CD in hand of our greatest photos and faces, suprisingly they didnt want to keep on hand any of my photos to show the ease and grace that it can be done.
After this, i forgot to mention Australia Day, Mum and Bruce had a suprise in store for the boys, a nice 5 hour round the lake ferry ride to see some tree that doesnt grow anywhere else in the world. I have stuff in the fridge on leftovers that doesnt grow anywhere else in the world so you can imagine our excitment of spending australia day on a boat. To combat this however some genius installed a bar on this particular boat, and so the real aussie day began. So after two beer pyramids ( in prep for egypt) one inside the boat and one outside, we arrived safely at the dock 5 hours later and considerably more a) happy and b) sunburnt.
The last night in Bariloche was spent out on the cans with a couple of yankees and poms that i
Watch out for this man
Bugs called said he wants the teeth back....Note all the people on the boat leaning away from me in the background... Dangerous man.... met in the hostel and also an aussie that lives about 30 mins from me in Sydney. A good night had by all, and was woken up at 9 by the sweet song of my mum, with a couple of RDI's and a sore head. Then the day was spent with a nice family drive to San Martin de los Andes....
All in all a great time had in Bariloche, would recommend it to anyone keen on adventure, great pubs and great people, head there. Stay tuned for San Martin de los Andes
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ace ventura wants his wig back..
oh timmy..the hair! all looks great boys. lots of empty beer quilmers..can't go wrong. x