oh, and I went to Bariloche

Posted on

While I was getting wrapped up in how great the hostel was, I forgot to tell you about all the stuff there is to do in (in fact out of) the town.

Bariloche is twinned with Aspen, that should give you a good idea what kind of place it is. I think there are more big name brands there than I have seen in Buenos Aires. Anyway, after I booked into the hostel I took a walk up the side of a small mountain to take in the view. This was recommended to me as not very strenuous and wouldn´t take too long, halfway up I decided that if this had been in Europe, health and safety would have made them carve steps into the side of the mountain and clearly signpost the way. But it isn´t Europe and therefore I got lost on the way down and spent half an hour hacking my way through dense undergrowth.

The next day, in order to rest my feet, I went on a bike ride with an American girl who appeared to have a phobia of bees, although I don´t think that we met any bees on the way she managed to mistake some very big (almost the size of my thumb) flies for bees and nearly had a panic attack.

The ride didn´t get off to the best of starts, we locked the bikes up next to a tree in order to walk to a beach. After we had been chased back twice by the flies we decided to get back on the bikes. Somehow I managed to snag the brake cable on one of the bikes getting it unlocked and was forced to cycle uphill with the rear brake permanently on until someone came along and fixed it for me.

One thing I should mention is that Bariloche is a beautifull place and in spite of everything that happened above (in fact maybe because of it) I really enjoyed being there. One thing, however, doesn´t compare to Aspen and that is Bariloche´s clubs, I was told by the peop`le at the hostel that the best places to go out are the Irish bars, and so we did, twice.

After that I went trecking up to the Glacier, it was well worth it, but I would recommend that you are more organised than me and instead of wasting a day feeling sorry for yourself do the two day hike instead.