Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 11

Are we in Slovenia, Swiss Alps or Lake Tahoe? I am hearing more German being spoken and there are chocolate shops on every other block. The homes are made of logs or have split timber siding. However, lots of Spanish is being spoken and there are plenty of parillas to get your carne fix. Must be Bariloche! The ride here from Mendoza was overnight, 17 hours and tiring. Most of it was high altiplano and desolate. Then, miracously in the last 50 miles, the lakes and snow capped mountains appeared. This is the beginning of the Patagonia region. We are staying in a little hotel about a 10 minute walk to the civic center. The hotel sits right on the lake with a view of the snow capped mountains on the other side of the lake. ... read more

Fiona was overly excited today as we were taking our first trip on an overnight bus. There wasn't any real reason for her excitement but she was like a kid in a Bariloche chocolate store. We had bought the tickets a couple of days ago down at the bus terminal so we knew exactly where we were going. We also knew exactly which seats we were in, the front row on the upper deck. We had seats known as cama, which meant they reclined but not flat. Unfortunately there were no flat seats on this route. We left the apartment mid afternoon and the landlady was pleasantly surprised at how clean we had left it. She hadn't realised that neat freak Toby was staying! Toby and Harriet dropped Fiona at the bus stop with the bags ... read more

On the circuito chico yesterday we passed a sign to the colonial suiza. This is a small village that was established by swiss immigrants. We didn't stop at it yesterday because we wanted to visit on a Sunday. On a Sunday and on a Wednesday there is a market and food for sale that is cooked underground. This sounded very similar to a hangi in New Zealand and we were curious to see more. Harriet was desperate for another long sleep in and so we left her in bed and went to mass at the cathedral. It was obviously all in Spanish, but there was a lovely atmosphere. We were pleased to see that there were lots of people attending and that they weren't all from the older generation. The cathedral itself was very beautiful and ... read more

We bought a three day pass for skiing and so unless there is a massive dump of snow in the next few days, today will be our last one skiing. We got up in time for the gondola opening at 9.30amonly to be told they had opened early today and would be closing early too. As we weren't the only ones who didn't know this was happening there was still hardly anyone up the mountain this early. The first couple of runs we did were a bit icy but there wasn't anyone else on them which made up for it. We did the same run a couple of times over and the conditions improved every time, until we were actually really enjoying it. Then we stopped for a coffee. The cafe had fabulous views and yummy ... read more

As a family with children whose ages are wide spread, the sports we have enjoyed the most are those which are individual but can be done together. This includes scuba diving and also skiing. We were really looking forward to skiing in Argentina and had really only come to Bariloche for the snow. We were expecting spring conditions, but Barliloche has a reputation for lots of snow and lots of snow for a long time. This was to be our second ski trip this year as we skied in Vermont, USA at the start of the year. Unfortunately when we were in Vermont they had the worst season for many years and there was practically no snow. We felt like history was repeating itself as there was hardly any snow in Bariloche and we were told ... read more