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Published: October 29th 2007
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Bariloche
Gimme a kiss! I´m back... Eddie is busy watching Liverpool and Arsenal so I get to write this blog. I can´t believe the last time we wrote one was in Puerto Madryn- it seems like ages ago since we were diving. So anyway, our open water diving courses successfully completed, we took an overnight bus (18 hours) to Bariloche in Argentinas lake district. The buses here are great- (comfy, spacious, air conditioning, food, pillows & blankets) so the long journeys are not too bad. However I do have a small problem with the time they serve dinner at- anytime after 11pm! Although this is normal dinner time for Argentinians - I´m struggling to get used to it. It´s particularly annoying when you are on a bus and have settled down to sleep for the night only to be woken for dinner at some unearthly hour.
I think it would take me a long time to get used to the lifestyle in Argentina- the day starts pretty much as we are used to with breakfast between 7 and 9am- the working day seems to start around 9, lunch is at 12 or 1 pm and this is followed by a siesta which can last
for 4 or five hours. (Siesta doesn´t seem to be that common in Buenos Aires, but everwhere else we´ve been in Argentina things shut down for the afternoon). After siesta, there tends to be tea- which is just a snack really - a pastry or croissant or something and everyone goes back to work until 8 or 9pm. Then dinner is anytime after 10.30/11pm. If you go out for dinner any earlier you will be in the restaurant on your own. Pubs don´t really get busy till after 12am and nightclubs start to fill up around 3am!! Its all a bit crazy...
Bariloche lies on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi and is surrounded by mountains. The place is full of both backpackers and Argentinian tourists. Its a ski resort in winter and mountain biking/hiking resort in summer. We arrived just at the end of ski season and although there was some snow about we decided to give the skiing a miss as a lot of the lifts were closed. Instead we did some mountain biking and trekking. We hired bikes one of the days and cycled the "Circuito Chico", a 33km circuit which takes in some of the
best views around Bariloche. There were no flat parts on the circuit (why does amazing scenery always seem to involve mountains?), so needless to say we were a little bit sore afterwards. The next day we took a cable car to the top of one of the peaks and had lunch in a revolving restaurant at the top. I know these things are supposed to be great but to be honest I think this one was moving a bit fast and it made me feel a little queasy. Another cool thing about Bariloche is the fact that it´s the chocolate capital of Argentina- I have never seen so many chocolate shops or so many different types of chocolate. Some of the shops were as big as supermarkets - and yes they stocked nothing but chocolate! I can´t write about Bariloche without mentioning our hostel there- it was by far the best hostel of our trip so far. "Hostel 1004" is in the penthouse apartment of the tallest building in Bariloche. The common area had floor to ceiling windows and the views were absolutely amazing. And no it wasn´t expensive- in fact it was the cheapest accomodation we´ve had in Argentina
so far. The day we checked in, the hostel hosted a wine tasting evening which quickly became a wine drinking evening and was quite a lot of fun. (ps. I love the wine here)
So having sampled all there was to sample in Bariloche we caught another bus (21 hours this time) to Buenos Aires. This is a great city with more than a touch of Europe about it. Walking around different parts of the city its easy to imagine yourself in Paris, London or Barcelona. We´ve been here for the last 5 days or so and have checked out most of the sights. Recoleta cemetry is apparently one of the "must sees" in Buenos Aires but I actually found it a little bit weird. There is something strange about hordes of tourist wandering around a cemetry taking photographs of graves. The graves are actually little houses, most with glass doors, in which the coffins are placed on shelves. While we were there a funeral procession came into the cemetry - I was amazed that the place hadn´t been closed to tourists while a funeral was taking place. The city is full of monuments and plazas which are all
very pretty. We took a trip to La Boca where naturally we had to go and see the Boca Juniors stadium. Maradona is worshipped around here. Unfortunately there is a Presidential election here today and there is no soccer on this weekend at all so we wont get to see a match. We went to see a Tango show the other night which was pretty cool (couldn´t convince Eddie to take a Tango lesson!) We´ve spent some time window shopping (I could spend a fortune here if I didn´t have a backpack that is already stuffed to capacity). We are staying in Palermo, which is defintely my favourite part of the city- its full of parks that I´ve spent alot of time strolling around. The food here is really good and we´ve treated ourselves to a few nice meals. Eddie had the best steak I have ever tasted last night (apologies to Irish beef).
Anyway I´m off- have one more night in Buenos Aires before heading for Uruguay so we better make the most of it.
Ciao!
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Clare
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How would a Cavan woman know what Croke Park is like!!!