On the road to Patagonia!

Posted by Dave and Zephie

Having dragged our feet over leaving our new favourite place, we decided it was time to move on from Buenos Aires. We wanted to aim southwards to Patagonia, which is unique in terms of its vast landscapes, lake districts and glaciers!


We have opted for Bariloche in the Nahuel Huapi National Park, which is a stopping off point for those heading further south, but also in the heart of the lake district, surrounded by the ANDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really can’t believe I can see the ANDES from where I am now sitting in our cosy wee hostel. EEEEEEEEEEEK!


The bus we took was 22 hours, but it was fine! We took the good old over night cama bus, which means you have an extendable seat that allows you to lie out (almost) flat! Very nice. We also managed to get a vegan meal, so we were very chuffed (especially since some b**tard had stolen half the food we were going to eat on the journey in our last hostel - the flame of outrage is still burning brightly in our hearts).

Here is Dave looking whistfully out of the window....






We arrived in Bariloche and were welcomed by a stunning panorama – the lake is so vast, lined by mountains, some still with snowy peaks. We had erroneously booked ourselves into a cheaper hostel that we thought was only slightly out of town (Google Maps has a lot to answer for). We discovered it is actually 19 KILOMETRES out of town....hmmmm.


Ah well, we thought, nice bit of peace and quiet. We turned up and weren’t allowed in our room (it wasn’t ready at 2pm) and were told to take a hike – literally! BOOM BOOM! The owner said he didn’t want to waste our time because there’s so much to do and started reeling off all the things we could do, but we were like, hold on, I’ve just come off a 22 HOUR bus journey, I am having a shower! And a shower we did have, in a bathroom with broken everything and doors on the toilets that some lunatic thought up in a fit of madness because they are styled like saloon doors with a huge gap in the middle so you can see everyone doing their respective business!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha!


The town sort of freaked us both out initially because it bears a striking resemblance to Twin Peaks...we were both expecting to be sucked into some dark machinations of the black lodge, but after a while, we realised it is not a sleepy town with a seedy undercurrent of the deepest, darkest evil, but actually a really awesome place!


Here is a nice pic of the peak we can see from our hostel (and the one we would have climbed had the weather not prevented us!).