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Published: July 21st 2008
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Amazing scenery
it made the walk worthwhile Bariloche May 08
We arrived in Bariloche around midday after the overnight bus from Mendoza. We had heard a lot about the buses in Argentina and this one didn´t let us down ! The food was good, there was wine, champayne and even bingo !
Sometimes a hostel makes a place, this was definitely the case with the Marco Polo hostel. As soon as we got off the bus a guy from the hostel was there to ferry us to our new home, he really surprised us when informing us not only breakfast but dinner was included as well ! Unheard of in a hostel. This turned out to be a great idea, the bar was full for the free dinner, it was happy hour and we took full advantage most nights ! The people we met there were great and we had a quality four or five days.
The only thing letting the side down was the weather, the first day was very cloudy, on the 2nd it rained all day and was really heavy. Our hostel was on a hill, I could have literally taken a dingy and gone into town on it. The town itself
was really nice, just on the side of a massive lake with great views across it. It had the feel of a Swiss or Austrian town, which made sense with it being ´The chocolate capital of South America´. When in Rome we thought, so we wandered the many chocolate shops ´to sample´. It was quality, many of the shops make the chocolate on site so you could see the ´chef´behind the glass creating , it was a bit of an art form.
In the middle of the town was a square which overlooked the lake, there were a lot of St Bernard owners looking to cash in on the tourist photo opportunities. We of course got involved ! The girls spotted a puppy and that was it ,we were straight in.
On our only sunny day around 8 of us went on a bus out of town for around 20 minutes until we reached a ski lift which was the start of our walk. It took about an hour to the top and the views of the surrounding lakes were awesome. At the top we took a few pictures including some ´group action shots´. It was a shame
The very rare Moustachio Tree
Found on our walk to the viewpoint that we were out of season and the cafe at the top wasn´t open....bugger. The day was to get worse for 3 of us ! On our way down, at the back taking it easy were me, Gill and Lara. We were just following the trail down, or so we thought, it soon became apparent that we had missed the obvious track and started to make up a new one ! 2 hours followed of going down to find a wire fence , backtracking, going a new route, bigger fence, backtracking .....etc All this in thicker and denser jungle ( slight exageration ! ) Eventually we found a way out which took us through what looked like holiday homes near the lake. Then it became call of the wild, one massive dog came charging over barking, I did what any man would do......... hid behind the girls. As the dog got closer after initially looking like he would eat us all, he started wagging his tail and wanted stroking ! A great guard dog. Then his mates came over to have a look and at one point we must have had 4 or 5 random dogs following us along the
A practice run
Some idiot went too early ! Lovely Bruce Lee impression though road.
Lara´s decent spanish came in handy when we flagged a car down to explain that we were lost. A lovely lady gave us a lift back to our starting point , no sooner had we got there and a bus came around the corner to take us back to bariloche. A comedy afternoon.
On our last day a few of us had decided to hire a car to see the surrounding lakes, the weather couldn´t have been much worse ! Gill decided that her hangover and travel sickness combined wouldn´t be good , so stayed in bed ( the 1 pound 50 wine had taken its toll the night before ! ) We drove around all day just thinking how good it would be in the summer. The highlight of the day was a visit to the 5 star Llao Llao Hotel ( I might have that wrong , I just remember it sounding like a tellytubby ) , we had a coffee in there and it felt a world away from the hostel we had to go back to. We made the coffee last as long as we could , enjoyed the log fire and then
Take two
Ian on the left concentrated on his pose rather than his leap , much to the annoyance of the group made our way back to our free dinner and 1 pound 50 Michel Torino red wine.
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