Bariloche

After a six hour bus back to El Calafate to find we couldn't get on the route 40 bus (very scenic byway) any earlier than 5 day's time, we ended up catching a bus at 2am to Rio Gallegos, followed by another to some place just North of Puerto Madryn and then a further one on to Bariloche! A real effort totalling something like 30 hours in addition to the 6 hours we'd already spent travelling. We were shattered when we arrived and I was particularly pleased to find we were on the top floor of the hostel as I was still having trouble walking down steps after Torres! Not to worry though - we thought we'd go hang-gliding. We actually got as far as the beautiful view back over the lake and the town before the guys we were supposed to be jumping with were sure it was going to be too unsafe for us to fly. A real shame.

We spent a little time looking around the square, though didn't really see much of the St Bernard's dogs which were supposed to be everywhere. Hardly a disappointment though considering that Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina - and also a close second to Buenos Aires for ice cream and steak! Legendary.

So our lunch consisted of a main course of a selection of the most amazing chocolate slices ever, followed by a desert of ice-cream cones top heavy with 3 huge scoops of awesome ice-cream flavours...including chocolate again! Start as you mean to go on...Mum would be proud of my healthy eating!

Being supposedly a bit of a party town we went to check out the local Irish bar that evening - the most happening bar in Bariloche, but were sadly disappointed - you can see from the glum faces!

Day 2 we tried, once again unsuccessfully to go Hang Gliding. This time we were lucky enough to see a different viewpoint, this time part of the recommended "short circuit", but that was all we got again - a lift there and a lift back! Not to worry though - solutions to the disappointment were plentiful, once again in the form of chocolate and ice cream. Well there were so very many shops and they each deserved our attention!

Day 3 we finally got to do something - Canyoning! As everything in South America it was a little non safety conscious, but doesn't that just make it even more of a thrill?! Following our childish amusement with our equipment we went for a good walk straight up a steep mountainside, then plummeted into the canyon, by way of a free-hand abseil - well the first drop was only 5 or so metres. Once safely slipping and sliding about on the rocks of the streambed we advanced to the edge of other precipices from which we had to "take a big jump, don't slip and make sure you miss the rock" into pools which were just deep enough to slow the impact! That, some rides down natural slides and we were ready to do some pretty mental abseiling - down a waterfall! Even our guide must have considered this to be pretty mental as this time we had a safety rope!

***video - waterfall abseiling 1***

***video - waterfall abseiling 2***





At least dinner was more nutritionally rich with probably the best steak ever and a huge serving of potatoes!

...to be finished...