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Published: January 23rd 2009
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Bariloche is a beautiful town that looks onto a big lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains and is said to look rather like the Swiss Alps. In this beautiful place we were staying in the ugliest building in town. It looked like a big council estate building that was slowly falling down. However, inside there was an incredible little Hostel on the 10th floor with panoramic views around us.
We arrived to find our Canadian friend, Tyler, there and after catching up we headed out to the supermarket to buy the biggest steaks in the World. It was Tyler´s birthday the following day but we were playing dumb and ignoring his less than subtle hints because we already had a surprise planned for him. So Tyler and I and a couple of others went to a bar whilst Cherie stayed at the Hostel to make a cake for him - with rather a lot of help from one of the girls who worked at the Hostel.
After dinner (3 huge steaks for a total price of 5 pounds) Cherie reappeared with the cake much to Tyler´s surprise!
The next day Cherie was unfortunately ill again and Nurse Andy was in charge
of looking after her whilst the lads went out hiking.
The following day Cherie was a little better so I decided some fresh air would do her some good. This didn´t go down that well and after a bus ride and a ski lift up to a view point we had a brief time to survey the scene before we took a poorly Cherie back home.
That evening we were making our dish for the Christmas party (the Argentinians have their main celebration on Christmas Eve and have a New Year-style countdown at midnight). There were 55 guests there for Xmas and we were all preparing a dish of our choice for the party. Our offering was about 5kg of potato salad!
We all sat down at 9 pm for dinner and with all this beautiful food around us Cherie managed only a couple of mouthfuls and retired to bed to leave Andy to eat and drink her share. Checking back in on Cherie at intervals the steady increase of drunkenness throughout the course of the night was noted and appreciated!
Christmas day was a rather more relaxed affair and after heads had cleared and calls home made we ventured
to the lake-beach armed with Christmas dinner leftovers and beers. Cherie, feeling a little better, coaxed Andy into the lake for a Christmas day swim in the freezing water. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach before we headed back for Xmas dinner Argentine style - we had a 1kg piece of the best beef on offer for only 4 pounds. Cherie not having fully recovered her appetite, left it to the 2 boys to finish off most of the meal!
Boxing Day we went to an area called Catedral which is a ski resort by Winter and point for walks ands panoramic views during the Summer. True to form we arrived running late for the once hourly public bus and without a map. So we befriended an english couple and headed up to the ski-lift. At the top we had a perfect day to admire the amazing views. We then set out on a 2hr hike back down the mountain towards another beach, then back to the hostel to eat more steak and drink more wine.
The next day we had to get up and say a sad farewell to Bariloche and all the
people we met there. We then had to embark on an 18 hour bus ride to take us to Puerto madryn where we to spend New Year.
After a relaxing first day enjoying the beach and checking out the local area, the following day it was decided we would rent bikes to visit the local sealion colony. Although not strictly local - being a 34km round-trip, we had been assured that it was an easy ride. This, also was not strictly true as we soon found ourselves cycling on track roads on which we sunk in the sand and had to fight against the powerful caostal winds and endure the blistering heat. We were about halfway before Cherie decided she wasn´t enjoying it but she was persuaded to push on and that it would all be worth it. The sealions when we got there were good but we saw them from quite a distance (as opposed to swimming with them at Galapagos) and there was a screaming child on the viewing platform that Cherie was close to throughing to the sealions below! So even now as we write this Cherie is still muttering to herself that it was ´less than
impressive!´
And this was all before the second 17km ride in which Cherie decided she couldn´t change gears on her bike, the sun was getting hotter, and despite nearly having run out of water Cherie decided she would rather push her bike... However, with a mixture of encouragement and threats to leave her for the circling vultures we eventually made it back to concrete roads and civilisation.
The following day we went on a tour to see a penguin colony. Cherie in her element because we were to be driven there and back. The initial part of the trip was an anticlimax as we were due to take a dinghy out to see dolphins, however after we were kitted out and ready to go the port was closed due to high winds. We were disappointed but decided that if they were closing the port then the last thing to attempt the journey in would be a small dinghy - particualrly with our track record with boats!
We got to the national park which is almost entirely there for the penguins where the total area homes up to 3 million penguins and the section we visited we saw over 150,000
penguins and their young. Once again true to form, Cherie set about getting one picture per penguin and 2 if they were doing something ´cute´...
The final part of the day was to ´Gaiman´ the former Welsh colony which was interesting but not a day out in itself!
To follow this we had a beach day as we conserved our energy for the New Years party to come. Everyone in our Hostel got together for a big BBQ cooked by the owner and it was a great evening of feasting and lots of wine. Just before midnight we went out to the street to watch the fireworks. Not a firework display in the traditional sense but more all the local families out on the street trying to outdo one another with various rockets and explosions.
Later that night we went on to a beach party where everyone was just arriving from around the town, this carried on till the early hours of the morning and I don´t think anyone made their free brekfast on New years day!
Not much else to report on Puerto Madryn and before we knew it we were on our way to Beunos Aires.
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