Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 84

These snowy pics are of the trek on Monday to the summit of Cerro Catedral. It was a tough climb, especially when we hit snow half way up. Luckily I was wearing my hiking boots that day ( I only joined the guys hiking when I met them at the bus stop). Two of the other guys were only weraing sneakers, so they would have had freezing feet! I stopped about 500m short of the summit, where the other guys continued to a rocky outsrop to check out the view. The view was pretty amazing from where I was, though, so I didn't mind staying behind (that, and I was completely stuffed..).... read more

Bariloche is full of chocolate shops and fancy-pants ski clothing places, with a handful of touristy t-shirt places thrown in for good measure. The mountains around Bariloche have a lot of the 'Sound of Music'feel about them, which explains the major Swiss influence throughout the area. The people are very friendly here, much more so than in Chile, which is the opposite of what most publicaTions say about the Argentines. There's plenty to do around here when the weather is behaving itself - hiking, rafting, kayaking, boating, mountain biking (was going to happen today but the rain is coming in, so I'll have to do it elsewhere). Even when it's raining there's a lot of window shopping and chocolate-sampling to be done. The shopping is pretty good in Argentina, with the Argentine peso being so low ... read more

Ok time to leave....flight home was in two days... first problem: I´m in Bariloche, Argentina, Flight is from santiago, chile second problem: never checked out tickets so.... after arriving in bariloche bus station at 1320, we found much to our mirth that my bus was actually at 1315....luckily the bag on bus process was heartwarmingly slow, so we made the bus intact physically but unravelled mentally! the ride through the andes was spectacular but both dave and i were incapable of appreciation...incapable of reading, and not even able to listen to music.....i spent the 5 hour journey with my forehead banging off the headrest in front while dave starred at the ceiling.... not including the hour it took to cross into chile...fucking bureaucracy meant all bags had to be removed and searched, some even had to ... read more

well i know what that means and so might one other of my precocious readers, although confusion reigns supreme in that wee head! and the minimal understanding is quite frankly all that matters....this is a church that offers my kind of religion...and the hymn sheet is packed full of sensational suprises ...so the check out capers struck again......and when the dust settled we found ourselves back in bariloche.....somehow hull integrity must be maintained to ensure safe and timely arrival in santiago for my flight abhaile on the 14th...but this shock return south has rattled the defences in that respect...the gang of wonders that we played with in san martin all headed here and we would be remiss to part from they{re kindly ways! could we drink anymore...i sure as hell don{t know, but we are learning ... read more

definitely off piste....after some sociable hoots in the gondelas and ski lifts we were in fine form on the slopes especially after the monsterous dump of snow over the last few days....post hot boxing, its what yellow lensed googles were made for...i´m gradually improving, having lost all sense off fear, and proving quite willing to "give ´er..." well there is, afterall, just one speed! ...if only dave wasn´t so alarmed! so after a morning of spped, we decided to head off piste....god only knows why I was leading that crazy expedition....we found out shortly after....mindless, reckless adventure was the answer, I managed to lead us off-off piste and into a ravine, of which down, far down, was the only means of escape....look at the map....far right, two black dashed lines, notice the tree filled gourge between ... read more