BARILOCHE AND EL CALAFATE, ARGENTINA. 22nd-30th OCT 2014.

Time to head south, so we hopped on a bus to Bariloche and met Toby, a nurse from the Ne Netherlands.  We shared some vino that I had bought along (of course), heard Toby’s stories about the death bus (a Via Bariloche service he was on that ran someone over and didn’t stop) and horrendous tales of being held by the police as he was on the bus at the time...

Luxury transport - well done CATA Internacional!

We arrived in Bariloche mid morning the next day after food and drink on the bus and a very generous and friendly at seat waitress service J.  We ordered our onward tickets straight away – on a schedule now as we have booked flights that we need to meet up with in El Calafate.

We hopped into a cab with Toby to our hostel And experienced his ‘I don’t really speak Spanish’ fluent jabbering away with the cabbie!

A beautiful sunny morning and dropped off at by far the ugliest building in Bariloche. A 1960s council flat block style surrounded by the most beautiful lakes and quaint village feel small town with beautiful chocolate box and ski lodge style buildings.

What I think a swiss ski town looks like... stone and wood

Dodgey council flats? No - our accommodation for the next few days!

The benefit of this is that it is also one of the tallest buildings in Bariloche and Hostel Penthouse 1001 takes up the whole of the 10^th (top) floor offering unparalleled views of the whole surroundings and a veranda. All of the rooms have the most spectacular views over the cool town and best of all – the massive lakes and mountainscapes with uninterrupted views of sunrise and sunset.

View from our bedroom window - not too shabby :)

Beautiful lake view - all of the rooms in this hostel have a similar view - a good selling point!

Oh, also Penthouse 1001 was reasonably priced and had great facilities with huge common areas, a small (for the number of people) kitchen and they baked their own bread every morning as part of breakfast – highly recommended, if you stay here.

Hmmm...freshly baked bread, yes, I took the photo, why not?

We had a bit of a nap to recharge the batteries and then headed out  with Toby to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies.  When in Bariloche, the thing to do is walk, the surroundings are incredible! Even I didn’t mind the extended days of wandering and obviously Ana loved every second.  After a fairly chilled out day recovering from the bus ride and a little explore of town, we settled in for the evening, cooked dinner and had a bit of a socialise. We were also introduced the the local custom of ‘yerba mate’ (pronounced mar-tay). It is raw leaf tea which is continuously topped up with water and drunk as a round where many people share the same cup.

The cup is a traditionally hollowed out nut shell bound in leather filled with the mate and then topped up with water. The tea is drunk through a metal ‘spoon/straw hybrid’ which has an in built sieve to make sure you don’t swallow any of the herb. Mate is also supposed to be a stimulant which is good for helping the body adjust to high altitude and is supposed to have a bit of an associated high a little like a proper caffeine rush.

So we drank the mate, shot the breeze and learned some of the intricacies of Mate culture. When you have the cup, you can drink as much as you like and then pass the cup on to your right – never touch the spoon, this is supposed to be very bad form. If the cup is passed with the spoon pointing at you it’s supposed to be bad too and if someone puts lemon in your mate – I think it means they hate you – the intricacies of the cultural foibles get a little confusing after that, there are lots of rules and conventions and it’s all a little much to take in. Oh – if you say ‘gracias’ it means that you don’t want any more and you get missed out of the remaining rounds. So if you want to drink, be rude and keep schtum! Good fun and enjoyed the company.

Mate is ingrained in the Argentinian and Chilean cultures and you will typically see a family out and about with one of them carrying a huge flask under their arm to keep them going whilst they are out – a great idea!

Off to bed for some well earned rest and up for freshly baked bread and freshly brewed coffee the next morning – hmmm.

Well fuelled , the 3 of us hopped on a local bus out to the national park and climbed Cerro Campanario. It was beautiful countryside and stunning views of snow capped mountains and calm, mirror flat lakes in the blazing sunshine. We made it to the top of the hill and took in the surrounding and headed back down the way we came. Oh, no – wait, we got a little lost! After some aimless wandering we got our bearings and explored a little further around Llao Llao national park and found ourselves right next to a beautiful glacial lake. 

Toby and Ana posing at the top of Cerro Campanario

The views were great in the sun

More good views!

group shot at the top

had enough yet? There's plenty more, I can e-mail them if you'd like?

Looks like a good stop for lunch!

It was blisteringly hot and after wandering through the woods for 4 hours or so, the water looked incredibly inviting. So Toby and I stripped down to our boxers and went for a swim, Ana declined to join us so it was just me and Toby. There is a word in the preceding sentences that I sort of glossed over – it was the word glacial i.e. bloody freezing. After maybe 8-10 mins of an unbelievably refreshing (and entirely numbing) swim, we retreated back to sure to regain feeling and clothes before hypothermia set in!

The water looks inviting doesn't it? 

Toby and I caught in a rather comic - "jeez, this is freezing" pose

After a pretty full day of hiking, sun and amazing scenery, we retreated back on the bus to the hostel for another slap up dinner and a game of cards before flaking out in the evening. Over cards I cracked open some of the local tipple – Fernet. Essentially an aniseedy liquorice spirit. It was pretty gross and I ended up leaving the bottle! A couple of locals did come over and suggest that no-one would drink it neat so maybe that was part of the problem!

Toby - apparently a bit of a card sharp and impatient with slow learners!

A lazy day for us the next day. Toby headed off to go walking on some local trails – some of the few trails that had opened up for the season as there was still a lot of snow lying making some of the others pretty impassable.

Ana and I mooched around town in the morning, Bariloche really does feel like a ski resort with shops and lodges lining the road in a Swiss chalet style, very odd feeling and totally different to anywhere else we have seen in Argentina so far (it may be worth noting at this point, I have never been skiing in Switzerland so my comparisons may be a little suspect!).

I had one or 2 admin jobs to complete during the day, one of which was to post my Mum her birthday card and gift. That turned into a bit of a mission with very little Spanish at my command, I confidently walked up to the counter and asked for a box to post things in. It was around then that things started to go a little awry and with both Ana and I on the case we figured out that we were being told to go to a supermarket and get on of their boxes!

This we duly did and arrived back at the post office for another long wait in the queue followed by some further dialogue which didn’t help either us or the poor postal clerk behind the desk! After maybe 2 hours from our original request – we had finally posted the parcel, although I had little hope it would arrive! (N.B I was doing the Argentinean post service a disservice. It all arrived fine!)

There was a large festival in the main town square in the evening where we grabbed some food and listened to the Argentinean Beatles tribute band the BeetUps! They were fantastic and the locals loved them. For us, the experience was great and made all the more special when they starting singing vaby instead of baby during their songs.

After our evening in the square we made for the hostel to catch our last Barloche sunset as the next morning we were off again. This time on the Marga bus we had booked on our arrival. This bus journey was to be our longest yet with 28 solid hours of travelling to get us all the way down to El Calafate much further South, and over some of the worst roads in the country, taking in part (but not all) the infamous Ruta 40 – essentially this is a stretch of gravel that is called a road and has a maximum speed of what feel like 4 miles per hour to prevent the buses crashing off the track.

Still, by no means our worst Journey to date and even though it was pretty hard going by Argentinean standards, we had front row seats on the top deck and room to spread out. I’m not complaining (although, obviously I did – and quite a lot at the time :-/)

Our last Bariloche sunset - for now at least ;)

Last breakfast, decided to take it out on the balcony...

2 days later the dusty and our battered and dusty Marga bus lurched into El Calafate and was subject to our 3^rd passport check (we never left the country – why?) some Spanish was spoken and passports shown coupled with our blank and uncomprehending looks. These credentials were apparently sufficient to remain on the bus and continue on our way!

The bus pulled up in a chilly and slightly rainy El Calafate in the early afternoon. From the bus station, it looked like a short hike to the hostel and after being cooped up for 28 hours we donned our packs and stretched our legs walking to ‘Las Cabanitas’ where we had booked in for 4 nights. We checked into our quaint little cabin which had a bathroom and small lounge space downstairs and in the steeply pitched roof a mezzanine accessed by a cross between a ladder and a staircase to a tiny floor occupied by a double bed. Perfect! We were greeted by Marcus who was very friendly and shown around the place and we spoke about how to get to the main attraction in the area the El Calafate Glacier.

Our little 'cabinita' for the week!

Lunch in our lounge! Yes, thats a box 'o' vino for just over a pound (an experiment) even that's drinkable here! 

Ana slaving away making dinner - probably ham and cheese!

That afternoon, we headed into the small town centre and picked up some supplies for lunch and dinner (primarily, ham, cheese and wine obviously) and strolled out to Lago Argentino, very large lake with a large bird reserve on its shore.

Where are we again?

The following morning we headed back to the bus station and identified the best deal for a trip out to the Famed Perito Moreno glacier. Found a good deal (the cheaper of the 2 services that run!) and hopped onto our minibus, an hour or so later, we pulled up to the entrance to the reserve and coughed up our entrance fees.

We had an amazing day with full sunshine and bright blue skies, very lucky not to have had the dull, rainy day like the day before.

We spent the next several hours wandering around the walkways and pathways that have been built along the lakeside that offer amazing views of different aspects of the glacier. The park and paths are all manmade metal walkways and are a little commercial, however the stunning views and proximity to one of the most amazing glaciers in the world is a real privilege. The glacier is around 14Km long and advances at up to 2m per day. Every now and again you will hear the thunderous cracks as the glacier carves its way down to the lake and every so often you will see a small slide of ice pouring over the edge and into the water. A few times through the day we did see huge chunks, 10’s of tonnes of the beautiful deep blue glacial ice calve off the face of the glacier and crash into the water – an incredible sight and sound to behold. In the bright sunshine the ice was so bright and colourful, see the pics below!

Thats 14Km of glacier, right there

So close to capturing it, a bit just dropped of!

Who's cooler? Ana or the glacier

Another angle!

Amazing shapes

We arrived back in the early evening and had dinner cooked by the hostel – a local speciality Pastel  (stew) with potato and beef mince. Very tasty and hearty!

The following day we headed back to the nature reserve we had seen when we arrived near to the lake. We had a quick chat with the young lady on reception who was studying for her university course, very friendly and she told us a little about the reserve. We went off and wandered around seeing all sort of interesting birds including more flamingos – last time they were in the baking hot in the desert and now in the colder swampy lakeside – it seems that they will live anywhere! Half way around the reserve- after learning that El Calafate is actually a type of bush and you can make preserve form the berries- the heavens opened so we took shelter in one of the bird hides to let it ease off a little. We quickly finished a lap of the reserve and headed back to town the hostel pretty damp and soggy, dried off by having lunch and coffee in a nice warm bar in town and then headed back to the ranch to recuperate.

A cool bird in the reserve...

The lesser known Argentinian monoped bird

I'm no expert (can you tell) but I think this ones a goose

Posing for a portrait

It's cold and rainy and there are flamingo's I dont know if thats weird or not - they were in the desert too.

That evening we headed out for a run up to the edge of town and around part of the lake. It was a pretty long run and we were both bushed by the time we had got back. I managed to twist my ankle with a sickening crunch en route and for a split second thought I might be heading to hospital but after a few seconds the sickening throbbing dies down and a realised I was just being a jessie! Hobbled back to the hostel and headed to town for dinner at ‘Pura Vida’ recommended on tripadvisor. Not much to write home about sadly and quite pricey.

Ana tucking into a pumpkin with something growing out of it by the looks of things.

A local lamb pie - looks good, was a bit dry, hence the vino to wash things down.

Next day was our last in El Calafate and really, we had seen pretty much all there was to see here, however a luck would have it Toby had just arrived in town so we met up , headed into town and had a coffee, we were entertained in a libro bar (yes – a bar with books!) by a magician, he was very good at the close up magic and I have no idea how he did what he did... Maybe magic is real?

Next day we were up early and checked out of the hostel and caught a cab to the airport – no more uber long buses for us (for just now anyway) we hopped on a tiny local flight the 2.5 hours or so from El Calafate to Ushuaia, El fin de la Mundo or the end of the world. It is Ushuaia that the large ships leave from to take explorers to the Antarctic, it is cold and snowy and quite an exciting windy landing in a small aircraft! Hello Ushuaia, hello snow!

More of the Swiss vibe - chocolate in a wooden lodge!

Our chariot awaits, i'm so happy its not a bus! Next stop -  the end of the world!