Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 22

We find ourselves staying at the Hotel Virginia, a place that happens to be right behind my Mom's sisters house, in a very lovely apartment that had recently been remodeled, beautiful tiled floors and a nice balcony. Yesterday, my uncle Beto proudly pointed to the side of the building where he had painted Hotel Virginia and Restaurant on the side of the building, he is of course...the local sign man;-) Again I find myself baffled by the art of the skeleton key;-). This time we have two skeleton keys on a very heavy key chain made of brass, so heavy in fact I find myself tightening my belt an additional notch just to keep my pants up!  It takes a good minute of pulling on the first door and jostling the key into the hole ... read more

Our next stop was San Carlos de Bariloche, or Bariloche for short, the self-proclaimed gateway to the Lake District and Patagonia, and a mere 23 hour bus ride from Cordoba. Our plan had been to take advantage of the spectacular hiking and biking opportunities available in this idyllic mountain town, which in appearance was not unlike something you might expect to encounter in Alpine Switzerland or France. Wooden chalets were the main architectural staple, and the main streets were lined with cozy restaurants in which travellers and locals alike huddled around blazing log fires to escape the icy grip of the oncoming Patagonian winter. However, as fate would have it, Katie became quite ill with a stomach bug and head cold, no doubt the result in a drop in temperature of at least 10/15 degrees between ... read more

The first photos are from our trip to Cerro Tronador which is the highest mountain in the region. It is an inactive volcano capped with numerous glaciers from which huge chunks of ice frequently break off and fall from the steep sides. When large pieces of ice crash into the rocks many hundreds of feet below, the sound is almost indistinguishable from thunder. We spent two days up on the mountain after a surprizingly tough hike up from Pampa Linda. On the way up, we met a great guy from Bariloche, Mathias, who hiked and talked with us the rest of the way up the mountain. We camped in a great spot surrounded on three sides by the glacier. The first day we spent our time taking little exploratory hikes, resting our weary bones, and marveling ... read more

2 Uhr morgens in der Pampa, kein Geld, keine Kleider, kein Handy, eigentlich gar nichts. Was nun? 4h warten bis das Büro aufmacht, neues Ticket erbetteln und dann nochmals gute 10h warten? Nö! Ich entschuldige mich bei Hichus und Heikulon und erbitte um eine neue Chance. Mit einem Kugi der alten Dame und einer Serviette aus dem Abfalleimer hinterlasse ich eine Botschaft bei der Carfirma, dass die herrenlosen Gepäckstücke in der letzten Sitzreihe und der blaue Rucksack im Gepäckraum im Bus 9206 nach Bariloche doch bitte dort deponiert werden sollen. Ich suche die Hauptstrasse und stehe unter die einzige Strassenlampe. Auf Hichhike-Aerobic verzichtend halte ich zitternd alle 20min bei der Durchfahrt eines Autos den Daumen nach oben. Scheisse isch das chalt da une. OK, 3 Uhr morgens, ich relativiere. Wer nimmt um diese Zeit einen bärtigen ... read more

Today, we decided to rent bikes and cycle to a mountain I believe is called Cerro Otto (could be wrong). It was pretty cold. And windy. So windy in fact, that the cable lift up to the mountain wouldn't go. So Marcel, Vijay and I put our bikes in a taxi and were dropped off at about ¾ the way up. Marcel cycled up while Vijay and I tried for a bit then gave in and pushed them the rest of the way. The others said they were going to cycle all the way from the bottom and meet us up there. Crazy! The idea was cycle down!! The view over Bariloche's lakes was worth being in the win and rain for. The lakes were genuinely incredible and so still despite the rain. We got to ... read more