Made it to Bariloche

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After 43 hours on the road, we have made it to Bariloche and the Hostel Patanuk. I have attached a photo to this post that is taken from the common/dining room of the hostel...you can see it was worth the journey.

We landed at Buneos Aires around 7:15 this morning and, after it took a pretty easy hour to clear immigration and customs we were me by Maurio who was to drive us from the international airport to the domestic airport for our next flight. I can see why they recommed 4 hours for this transfer of airports as the road from one to the other goes right through the middle of this giant city of over 7 million. John kept up a friendly banter with Maurio IN SPANISH. Who knew? Maurio was very encouraging of John and their conversation took some of the edge off what was a pretty hair raising ride through the jammed streets. Fascinating, a city where slums and half completed houses (inflation is so high here no one can borrow money for large purchases) are up against modern buildings and luxury apartments. The main city boulevard is wide, eight lanes with bus and train line in the center, but all of the side streets are one or at best one and one half lanes.

We made the plane to Bariloche with plenty of time to spare and again a driver arranged by John's friend Lucila, met us. She was at the hostel, along with Vicki (see photo) who is our friendly host. We have wandered the town and made plans for tommorrow. Luckily, Wednesday night is one of the three nights a week the restaurant /bar is opened at the hostel because we may not have the energy to hit the town. We did walk through and picked up a few gifts and an empenada or two.

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