Advertisement
Published: March 25th 2013
Edit Blog Post
We arrived in Bariloche around 8am after the most hellish bus journey yet! 30 hours on a squashed bus with minimal legroom and arctic temperatures. We got off the bus and headed straight to the taxi rank, there was no way we wanted to get another bus to the hostel even if it was only 10 or so minutes away. Our hostel (Tango Inn Downtown) was pretty nice and we had our own room again with a view of the lake and a BATH!!! I was sooooo excited, the first bath I'd had since leaving in February. The hostel also had a jacuzzi which we could use for free as we had a double room which was a real luxury. The breakfasts were also incredible; pancakes, scrambled eggs, toasts and cereals. Nice change from just bread, butter and jam.
It was a good job the room and hostel were so nice as that is where we ended up spending most our time the whole four days in Bariloche. You might remember in my previous blog on El Calafate about me having suspicious insect bites. Well the bites were still appearing and I was so itchy that I knew they weren't
mosquito bites. Me and Jon went to the chemist to see if they had any idea where the bites were from but they didn't so told us to head to the doctors. After paying around £50 and a half hour wait I eventually got to see the doctor. She checked out the bites and told me I had flea bites. Brilliant! You would think only animals get flea bites but this apparently isn't the case. I asked if she meant bed bugs but no, she meant flea bites. I thought that this could explain why all these stray dogs had been following me.
She explained to me and Jon that we had to wash all our clothes and my rucksack, gave me some medication and we left to go and spend a small fortune to de-flea myself. As the doctor said I had to wash everything that meant all the clothes I was wearing as well. This resulted in me having to borrow clothes off Jon and wear no underwear which he found the most hilarious thing in the world and proceeded to take pictures of me looking mental. Walking around Bariloche I got lots of unusual and suspicious
looks - it was safe to say I was not having the best time! At around 7.30pm I got to fetch my washing back from the laundrette which I was really pleased about.
To try and cheer ourselves up that night we decided to book in for the jacuzzi and head out to this steak restaurant called "Alberto's" that so many people had raved about. We were not disappointed. Jon had 500g of "Bife de Lomo" which is fillet back in the UK and I had 350g of "Bife de Chorizo" which is a sirloin. We also ordered chips and a salad to share which was a big mistake. The steaks came out on a wooden bored and our jaws dropped to the table - the biggest amount of meat we had ever seen! We were definitely going to struggle. Then the chips came out - even though the chips were thin - they were piled so high, there was no way we were going to be able to eat them. (Matt Whitbrook if you read this you would of been in food heaven). We eventually managed to get our way through all the meat and it was the
best steak we ever had. Jon couldn't get over how good it was and repeatedly kept saying "Oh my god" "This is so good" "This is amazing" until the food was demolished. Even though we were crazily full Jon decided he wanted an ice cream which consisted of chocolate and dulce de leche flavours. This was also incredible which made Jon not so good at sharing it with me! All of the food, wine, soft drinks and ice cream came to just under £40. That definitely managed to cheer us up.
The next morning we got up and Jon had woken up with a cold. We still decided we needed to get out and do something for a few hours so we went to get the ski lift to see the views of the lakes. We made a packed lunch, grabbed our bags and headed to the bus station. We were on the bus for about 40 minutes taking in the views and it was time to get off. As I got up out of my seat I felt like I was missing something. I soon realised it was the camera bag with both our cameras in. I went
into a panic mode and felt so stupid I almost slapped myself round the face! Jon kept trying to reassure me that it was fine but I could tell he was just trying to make me feel better. We jumped off the bus and jumped on another coming in the opposite direction. I kept thinking I had left it at the bus stop, that there was no way would it still be there and of course, how much of an idiot I was. We were 10 minutes away from the bus station when it dawned on me I might not of even took the camera bag out of the hostel. We both jumped off the bus I ran back to the hostel and Jon went to the station. I got to the hostel dripping in sweat and out of breath - the camera was there and I'd left it in the kitchen. I was relieved but still felt like the biggest idiot ever. We ended up making it to the lakes just a little later than planned.
We took the open air ski lift to the top of Cerro Campanario which was quite scary, especially when it kept stopping.
We got off the lift and took pictures of all the incredible views of the numerous lakes and mountains around. They were all different shades of blue and green. Then we sat and ate our packed lunch enjoying the beautiful views and finally began to relax after our hectic few days. We finished lunch and made our way back down in the ski lift - this time a lot more relaxed.
The next day we were supposed to be going Kayaking but Jons cold (due to the lack of warm clothes i reckon) was worse and only continued to get worse throughout the morning. We decided it probably wasn't the best idea for Jon to be outside in the cold weather and freezing lake with no coat still and my medication for the fleas was making me really drowsy so this never happened. Instead we ate Bariloche's famous chocolate by the lake and I stalked the Beethoven puppies in the square, you could have pictures with them but i refused to pay 40 pesos. Jon said I was getting out of control with the stalking so we headed back to the hostel.
Our time in Bariloche was a
very itchy and snotty one. Jokes aside we had unfortunate circumstances and didn't really get to do what we had hoped. Saying that though we actually had a nice time not doing a lot and we did get to see a few of the pretty lakes. Next stop Mendoza for a bit of warmth and wine tasting!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.043s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0221s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb