Barriloche

The 20 hour bus journey went much quicker than anticipated- helped by snacks, monopoly, good scenery and no snoring men! We arrived in Bariloche, at 5:30pm and were greeted by the blazing sun. This place still had its ski resort vibe despite it being the summer time of the southern hemisphere, with it's surrounding snow capped mountains, wooden chalet buildings and abundance of chocolate, cafes and ski wear shops. Periko hostel was very pretty with the cleanest kitchen and a sparkling oven and best of all we had double rooms. Having been in 4 bedded dorms often with bunk beds for nearly two weeks this was a luxury. We headed out armed with two for one beer vouchers provided by Marco (works in the hostel and apparently learnt his fluent English from you tube!) To celebrate Halloween we dressed in typical English style- as ourselves we headed to Antares bar. The boys drunk a few pints of home made Kelsh beer, Caz two halves of honey beer and myself...Sticking to what I know- A bottle of white wine. Not only was the quantity I drunk a lot more but we have recently found out that wine produced at high altitude, has a higher alcohol percentage and also is Argentian wine is often higher than it states on the bottle to avoid paying the next level of tax! we ended up eating at this bar, (good job for me) then stubbled upon the lost Vikings pub. Caz and I overly excited to find Malibu on the shelve! We met a couple of 30 year old englishmen walking for cancer research all over south America, averaging 15miles per day with their rucksacks, and camping gear on their backs for an entire year. Puts our "travelling" to shame. Now well oiled, we eventually found our way home - rich running back to give the guys 100 pesos. Telling them that even if they ended up spending it on beers they deserved it!

Our second day we awoke to find people walking the streets with face masks on when we looked out our windows. A volcano nearby had erupted in july and was still going the recent wind change had caused the ash to become much worse. Until we stepped outside we didn't realise just how dusty and painful the ash (which felt more like sand) whipping around us was, not to mention it preventing the warmth of the sun either. It did not take long before we took cover in a cafe shop, an excuse to eat again. A chilled out evening at the hostel ready for our next excursion- rafting!


mike and Caz debated with rafting, saying it would be too cold but decided to go ahead with it as not wanting to miss out. Thet were not disappointed! We were picked up and headed up into the mountains, stopping for our second free breafast of the day in a little cabin on the river. Mike was gutted as he was hoping for some eggs but once again it was bread, jam and dulce de Leche. Into our wrestler looking wet suits, making rich's legs looking skinner then ever, and my boobs popping out either side. A few body slams' a safety talk and we were in our raft, the boys at the front, Caz and I at the back. We had 10 rapids ahead of us. I was nearly was thrown out the boat down 'deep throat' and the whole boat nearly flipped down rapid 'relax'. About 1.5 hrs later we had numb feet from the splashes into the boat and only one rapid left to survive. Our guide advised us all to sit at the back of the raft while we were in calm waters. Doing some sneaky bouncing action and pulling a rope that was attached to the front he caused the entire boat to fall into the freezing water apart from Caz and I -wahooo!!! The boys were pulled back into the raft teeth chattering. We then breezed the last rapid and had a BBQ lunch back at the cabin and headed home buzzing.

The next morning we got up early and decided to rent a car for a week to explore the rest of Argentina. We booked it for 6pm that evening. So go fill our day we decided to catch a bus to Puerto Panoelos (about 45m out of town). This proved slightly difficult we first of all didnt realuse we needed a ticket before we got on then could find where to purchase it from! Eventually we got there though and took ourselves for a walk through a 'petrified' forest which seemed to be attacking us. Branches grabbing mike's hair and I managed to lodge a rather large piece of wood into my shin (no sympathy from rich). We found a beautiful clear lake, but only brave enough to paddle up to our knees as the water was sooo cold. On the way back we stopped off a a view point. Having got confidence in ourselves from walking all those steps in salta we stuck our noses up a the stair lift and decided to walk, I mean climb it! Error. Very hot and sweaty and Caz not impressed she chose to wear her Birkenstocks that day. As ways it was worth it though for the view. A noodle take away and we began our first leg of our road trip- first stop el bonson.