With the half time oranges consumed and mid-game interviews competed, the second half has carried on where the first half left off, incredible! The first stop was the largest town in the Lake District area of Patagonia, Bariloche. After getting a local service bus from the bus terminal only to take us 5km from our hostel, from an initial 3km (don’t ask), we arrived in our lovely, small, family run hostel and proceeded to chill out after too many days hiking! This gave us time to plan two amazing days in this sunny, picturesque town with more amazing vistas than Portsmouth FC have points!
Day 1 included a nice wander around the town itself and then a hike (just can’t get enough of them) up to Cerro Otto, 3 hours walking from our hostel. This led to some unbelievable scenery and mild sunburn and was cracking fun. The evening we attempted the holy grail of cookery, the roast potato! Somehow it took nearly 3 hours to cook but with some delicious Argentine steak, was just what the doctor ordered!
Day 2 and a bus to Cerro Camapanrio for, as National Geographic put it, one of the top ten views in the world. Big statement but it did not disappoint with a 360 view of this magical area of Patagonia. After this we undertook ‘Circuito Chico’, a 24km bike ride up and down the mountains around one of the areas lakes. With perfect weather and great bikes great fun was had by all, especially the spectators to our glacier lake dip to cool/freeze vital parts off! A big BBQ, more 80p wine and party in our hostel finished off our time in Bariloche perfectly and we set off, albeit delayed and without Bingo, cheers Andersmar, to Mendoza.
With Mendoza producing 70% of Argentinain wine and us gaining ‘end-of-continentitus’ we had one thing on our mind and for once it wasn’t hiking! After of couple of chilled days trying to regain some vital energy and meeting a girl in the hostel who went to BRCC, small world? We undertook Mr Hugo’s Winery Bike Tour. Now Mr Hugo’s ‘tour’ was very different to previous tours. On meeting he gives you a bike and a map and you head off for some well deserved wine tasting and also some liquor and chocolate tasting which were delicious apart from the 75% Absinthe! When you return, slightly worse for wear and with a police escort for part of the ride he gives you a glass of Vino, very nice, then another, then another....until standing up becomes a challenge! Mr Hugo’s enthusiasm, friendly manner and unlimited supply of nice wine was a great end to a redonkulous 3 weeks in Argentina and an unbelievable 10 weeks in South America perfectly, which for me had called and raised North America.I am currently writing this on a bus to Santiago after a 5 hour delay at the Chilean border as we get ready for our flight to NZ late Thurs to embark to Continent 3 of the trip and a country that we have both dreamed of going to for years....This definatly beats working!
Day 1 included a nice wander around the town itself and then a hike (just can’t get enough of them) up to Cerro Otto, 3 hours walking from our hostel. This led to some unbelievable scenery and mild sunburn and was cracking fun. The evening we attempted the holy grail of cookery, the roast potato! Somehow it took nearly 3 hours to cook but with some delicious Argentine steak, was just what the doctor ordered!
Day 2 and a bus to Cerro Camapanrio for, as National Geographic put it, one of the top ten views in the world. Big statement but it did not disappoint with a 360 view of this magical area of Patagonia. After this we undertook ‘Circuito Chico’, a 24km bike ride up and down the mountains around one of the areas lakes. With perfect weather and great bikes great fun was had by all, especially the spectators to our glacier lake dip to cool/freeze vital parts off! A big BBQ, more 80p wine and party in our hostel finished off our time in Bariloche perfectly and we set off, albeit delayed and without Bingo, cheers Andersmar, to Mendoza.
With Mendoza producing 70% of Argentinain wine and us gaining ‘end-of-continentitus’ we had one thing on our mind and for once it wasn’t hiking! After of couple of chilled days trying to regain some vital energy and meeting a girl in the hostel who went to BRCC, small world? We undertook Mr Hugo’s Winery Bike Tour. Now Mr Hugo’s ‘tour’ was very different to previous tours. On meeting he gives you a bike and a map and you head off for some well deserved wine tasting and also some liquor and chocolate tasting which were delicious apart from the 75% Absinthe! When you return, slightly worse for wear and with a police escort for part of the ride he gives you a glass of Vino, very nice, then another, then another....until standing up becomes a challenge! Mr Hugo’s enthusiasm, friendly manner and unlimited supply of nice wine was a great end to a redonkulous 3 weeks in Argentina and an unbelievable 10 weeks in South America perfectly, which for me had called and raised North America.I am currently writing this on a bus to Santiago after a 5 hour delay at the Chilean border as we get ready for our flight to NZ late Thurs to embark to Continent 3 of the trip and a country that we have both dreamed of going to for years....This definatly beats working!
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