Apologies for the delay in blogging...I am now in El Calafate and have internet again! During my stay in Bariloche, there was a charge for internet, both wifi in the room and also the public PC's in the hotel, as I was only there for a couple of days, I declined! Although saying that to get the free wifi here in El Calafate I have to head anywhere beyond 5ft of my room to get a signal It's like my room is the only one isolated from it :( booo
So, time for a quick catch up since my last post!
My stay in Bariloche was only a short one, and for that I'm glad. Not that there was anything wrong with the place, just I was very unfortunate to be there during really bad weather. I arrived and it was raining, the whole day after it rained, and even yesterday morning when I left it was still raining!
It's a strange little town, in the Rio Negro region of Argentina and sitting on the foothills of the Andes, it's located on the edge of Nahuel Huapi Lake and is part of Nahuel Huapi National Park. This towns main activity picks up during the Winter seasons as it is a key spot for the ski season, it's also a very popular stop for anyone into fly fishing - I didn't see J R Hartley though...the town itself was originally inhabited by Swiss, Italian and French and the whole feel of the town is more Alps than Andes with all the buildings like chalets.
The other main industry appears to be chocolate - literally almost every other shop on the main street sold chocolate, ice cream, or a combination of the two. Apparently it's some unique type of chocolate to this region of Patagonia, needless to say I have sampled plenty. I swear I do not for the life of me understand why Argentinians are not all over weight with heart problems with the amount of sweet food - and don't get me started on Dolche de Leche - if they could put it in every dish, I'm sure they would!
So what did I do...well, Once I had found my bearings I tried to find a tour for the following day, all the excursion companies tried to put me off doing something because of the weather quoting "Ooohhh no, tomorrow rain rain all day", I couldn't bare to be stuck doing nothing, it would have felt like such a waste of a visit. I eventually found one place that would happily take me on the "San Martin and the 7 Lakes" trip - a full day trip, covering 360km to a small town called San Martin de Los Andes, part of the Lanin National Park. The only problem was the tour was in Spanish and she wasn't 100% certain the guide could speak English. I accepted anyway, just to get away and see something, figuring I would be occupied with my camera anyway.
I'm glad I did, it was really interesting - true I couldn't understand a word of what was being said and the drivers English was pretty non existent so I missed everything about what I was seeing and how it came to be, but the views were still pretty cool. The weather forecasts got it right, it rained non stop. It was actually quite a pleasant change and has given my photos a different edge from lots of blue sky!
One of the roads we traveled along was called the road of the 7 lakes and passed by many of the lakes in the area (7 surprisingly!) - I can't remember all their names but they were all equally impressive and a beautiful blue colour reflecting the gloomy skies. About 7 months ago, a volcano in Chile erupted, spewing volcanic ash all over the region, what at first looked like sand and dust soon became apparent, that it was actually volcanic ash. It was everywhere, mounds at the sides of the roads, anything that could be covered was, set against the striking colours of the flora breaking through, it was really quite creepy at times, once we came of the windy, rough, bumpy terrain of the 7 lake road, the ash also cleared as did the weather - for a short while.
We arrived in San Martin de Los Andes and had 2 hours to spare for lunch. A very quaint little town with the same feel as Bariloche, and the same quantity of chocolate shops! There wasn't a great deal to do so I found myself a nice Parilla and had more beef! We then headed further north to begin the loop back down towards Bariloche. It was a long day, but I still managed to get some cool pics!
Once I returned to the hotel, I decided to shelter form more rain and use the spa facilities - a nice swim and relax in the sauna and then pack my bags before heading out for some dinner. The day after, I was on the move again, further south to El Calafate!
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