I awoke on the bus to the sound of the conductor giving out our morning coffee and alfajores. I glanced out of the window and had to rub my eyes; in front of me was the most magnificent scenery I'd seen so far. Absolutely gorgeous!! I listened to my ipod and gaped out of the window for the rest of the journey, perfect crystal blue lakes and striking mountains whizzed past us. San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche, is a "city" situated in the foothills of the Andes, surrounded by lakes and mountains. I arrived at the bus station that was a few kilometres out of town, made my way into the centre on another bus and looked for the hostel that would be my home for one night. I had a pretty terrible night's sleep, but I left my stuff at the hostel, wrote an itinerary for the next few days and so after preparing a picnic I headed to Cerro Campenario, a nearby hill with the most stunning views imaginable! It was a half hour walk up, but there were people who took the cable car, the lazy so and so's. There was a restaurant up the top and a view point. I read my book, ate my lunch and admired the views. I had sent out a Couchsurfing message to ask if some people wanted to hike with me during my stay here, as there were so many hikes and they would be pretty boring to do alone. A German guy got back to me and we arranged a CS pub meeting that evening in a gorgeous pub with artisan beer (yummy!) to discuss hikes and rock climbing. Lots of people came that evening including 4 girls I met in the hostel, 2 girls from Bariloche, the German guy and my CS host for tomorrow, Iñaki. I chatted to everyone and it was a really nice evening. Iñaki seemed really cool, but also a bit crazy! I decided it was a good crazy. He gave me the keys to his house so that I could let myself in the next morning when he was at work, so I was obviously not too crazy for him either! The girls from my room at the hostel were really cool too. Deirdre from Ireland, two dutch girls travelling together and another dutch girl called Roos that Deirdre had met further south in El Calafate and that had just arrived in Bariloche. Deirdre was leaving the next day, but we exchanged details because we are headed in the same direction so we figured we could mayve meet each other a bit later down the line. Roos and I decided to do the Circuito Chico, a cool circuit by bike to see lots of wonderful sights, the day after tomorrow. The German guy Flo said he hadn't found anyone to rock climb with or even had some rope so the rock climbing idea was basically out of the window.
In the morning I chatted to a couple of english girls about Bolivia and then set off to find Iñaki's house. It happened to be at the top of a huge hill and his street was so crazy: It was winding and extremely steep!!! He was at work, his apartment seemed nice and the couch was more like a bed with cushions and seemed comfortable enough. I set off to Llao Llao, a peninsula with really nice walks I was told. I wandered around the hotel Llao Llao grounds for a while looking for the walks, but couldn't find them anywhere. I was thinking of giving up when I saw the two 19 year old dutch girls from the hostel! They were also looking for the walk so I went with them. We found it after a while, Municipal Parque Llao Llao, and decided to do it together. It was really beautiful and the girls were really nice. They spoke perfect english and were very mature for their age, it was really fun. We walked through a forest to get to a beach and then a viewpoint. It was just such a magical place. Afterwards I went back to Iñaki's and we had a nice chat. We went to a cool bar and drank Fernet. I love his sense of humour, he is really witty! On the way home we were followed by about 10 stray dogs! It was kind of creepy, but they were very friendly.
The next day I got up really early to meet Roos so we could rent the bikes to do the circuit. She was there at the bus stop at 9am on the dot like she had said she would two days before. We got to the place just in time to get the early morning discount. We were given a map and some very attractive helmets (ha!) and sent on our way. It was absolutely freezing, it is getting into winter and the morning's are really cold. We soon thawed and it was just so much fun! It was extremely hilly and the uphills were a bit much for us, we had to walk on many occasions. The downhills were great though! I felt like I was flying through the lakes and the mountains with the wind in my hair. We stopped off at many scenic view points along the way, including beaches where Argentines go for their lazy summer days to have asados and enjoy the sunshine. We had lunch in the very underwhelming Colonia Suiza, a Swiss colonial "town". The restaurant we had lunch was really nice though and the hot chocolate we had was well deserved by that point! All in all we cycled over 40km and had many laughs and photo opportunities along the way. When we got back I thought I was going to collapse with exhaustion. Iñaki was asking me lots of questions and giving me beer and wine. I ended up falling asleep around midnight, I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer! The next day he was going to Buenos Aires to get a visa and visit his parents for 4 days. He said I was welcome to stay but I didn't want to be there on my own, it would get pretty lonely so I found myself another hostel. This one was at the top of a big hill too, unfortunatley not the same one! It had spectacular views of the Nahuel Huapi lake. It was cheaper than the one I stayed in on the first night AND it came with a HUGE breakfast (that I would also steal rolls and jam from for my lunch every day!) and a FREE dinner!! That day I just looked for couches and was pretty lazy. After my yummy free dinner, chatting to a cool Aussie woman (she was in her 40s) and a CRAZY (bad crazy) Belgian woman, I went with Roos to a cocktail bar and got a free cocktail through her hostel. We waited ages for it, but my Margarita was worth it. Whilst we were chatting, a guy came up to me and said "Are you Gemma?". I was flabbergasted, I am in Argentina and someone comes up to ask if I am Gemma! It turned out he was a couchsurfer and had seen my post about climbing and recognised me from my picture! I love Couchsurfing! Roos was leaving the next night so that was the last time I would probably see her. She was cool!
The next day I went on an organised tour to the BLACK GLACIER,(!!!! OOOHHH!!!!) Ventisquero Negro, situated at the foot of Cerro Tronador (translation: Thunderer, named by locals in reference of the sound of falling seracs.) We were on a bus with lots of people from the hostel. I chatted mainly to a Scottish girl (Elizabeth) Amelia (the Aussie woman) and an English girl (Hannah). It was fun, but I wished we could have gotten a bit closer to the glacier. We also saw a cool waterfall and got to go a bit up Tronador to see the white glacier at the top. They were really easy hikes and it would have been good to have more of a challenge, but a tour is the only real way to see the black glacier so there wasn't really any choice unfortunately. It was a really great though and I am glad I got to see something so unique! At free dinner that night I chatted lots to Hannah and Elizabeth for ages, it was really nice.
The next day I went with Amelia to Refugio Frey, a mountain in Cerro Catedral, the world-famous ski resort. It was extremely off season so it was completely dead! We ended up walking up the wrong way and not being able to make it all the way to the lake at the top. I walked most of it by myself because she was faster than me, so much for having youth on my side! Paolo Nutini's album helped me! Near the top she waited for me and we did the last bit together because there was snow on the ground, it was freezing and windy! When we lost the path we just gave up and came back down. It was a really nice day all the same. I think from the cold near the top of the moutain, I was feeling really rundown and the next day I felt a cold coming on. The next morning I was getting a bus to Mendoza - wine country! I was woken up by the crazy old (50) Beligian woman. She was shaking me and shouting "Hola!" I turned over from my top bunk and looked at her thinking what is this woman on?! She started to accuse me of stealing her "thing for her mouth and teeth". I thought she was talking about her toothbrush. I told her I didn't have it and refused to check my things like she was demanding I did. She had turned the light on even though it was 7.30am! I got my eyemask from under my pillow and told her not politely to leave me alone. My earplugs fell onto the floor, but there was no way I was going to get them when she was having a hissy fit so I left them and ignored her threats to tell reception that I have stolen the thing for her mouth! An hour later I got up and went to the toilet. In the bin was a bottle of mouthwash, the cryptic thing she was talking about and accusing me of stealing! I told the really kind Marco at reception and he said not to worry, she is annoyed at me because I am younger than her, apparently! This theory of course, I just think she is a wacko! She stole my earplugs as revenge, how weird?! I got on the bus with 2 other english girls from the hostel and set off to Mendoza at 1pm! The girls were nice, but we didn't really click or talk that much. In the bus, they showed the "Italian job" in spanish and then later on, "You've got mail" in english with spanish subtitles. It was good to follow the spanish on the screen with the english audio. Apart from that, it was a very boring bus journey, but tomorrow I would wake up in Mendoza! :)
