On my way to Bariloche, I decided to stop at Villa La Angostura, since a British/Spanish couple I met in El Chalten had recommended me the Canopy (sliding from tree to tree hooking yourself to a poley that runs on metal wires from tree to tree, at a considerable height) in that location. Although it was snowing at the border cross between Chile and Argentina, I was blessed with a wonderful sunny day the day after that enabled me to do both the Canopy (a really fun and adrenalin-boasting experience) and the visit to the Myrtles Forest, with some of the highest, oldest and certainly most spectacular myrtle trees in the world. Many guidebooks and internet sites claim that Walt Disney inspired in this forest to design the background of the Bambi movie, but our guide made our fantasies disappear by assuring us that when he visited the site the movie had already been assembled.
And the canopy was also a lot of fun. 10 runs, some 40m long and some with a height of over 20m. Incredible!
La Angostura was a beautiful (and touristry) town, all with nice small houses made of wood and streets with trees and flowers of all possible colors. It seemed a lot like Switzerland and it was exactly as I imagined Bariloche (since everybody had told me that that city also looked like a Swiss one). And that's what my first impression of Bariloche was so dissapointing, because it was like a small big city, with lots of traffic, quite high buildings and certainly none of the charm of La Angostura (except for the nice buildings on the central plaza).
I only spent one night in La Angostura, so I took a late bus after the canopy and arrived in Bariloche at night. And to make everything more exciting, it was the beginning of Easter Holidays in Argentina, so all the hostels that had been recommended to me were booked out.
So I took a bus and told the bus driver to drop me off where he thought I'd have a better chance of finding a bed, and he was quite good because I was lucky at the place he recommended me. But just when I thought I was finally going to enjoy a well earned (and long awaited, after many nights sleeping less than 6 hours) night rest, I met this French guy who insisted on going out. Well, to make the story short, we had dinner at a cheap place with a local hair-dresser, then we bought beer at an illegal shop that was supposed to be a sport clothing store and drank it while playing "yaniv" (an Israeli card game) with two very fun Israeli girls while Stephan, a German guy who seemed desperate to meet girls, was having his dreadlocks made. Then we went to, as one person brilliantly described it, "the-least-Irish Irish bar in the world", only to be kidnapped afterwards by the Hebrew-speaking hostel's manager, an Uruguayan, who took me with his friends to this underground bar, revealingly called "Clandestino", who seemed one of those places you could only find in Madrid or Buenos Aires. The 60-year old owner was singing tangos to a devoted crowd in one room, while in others you could listen to electronic music, hear the lastest hits of Argentinian rock groups or simply sit down and share one-litter beers with your friends. I finish that unusual night by eating a delicious hamburger I bought in the street and sleeping in a sheetless bed (I didn't get enough courage to check the condition of the mattress). So, what was meant to be a quiet and repairing night, ended up being the craziest one since I'm here.
The next day didn't rain, so although I had only had 5 hours of sleep (and could still hear the tangos in my head), I decided to head for Cerro López, one trekking the hostel owner had asured me, quite rightly, that was certainly worth it. Beginning the trek, I met a quite nice group and we spent all day together: Salome, a cute British girl of Indian origin (who ended up being my companion for the 6 days I spent in Bariloche), Jan and Virginia (a nice couple from Germany) and Matt (an American who was studying music in Mendoza).
The trek was really spectacular, with a view of both Lake Nahuel Huapi (The Island of the Tiger, in Mapuche language) and Lake Moreno (one on each side of the luxurious Llao Llao hotel), and many peninsulas and islands. One of the most spectacular views I've seen so far, and it the day was quite cloudy, so it must even better on a sunny day.
Unfortunatelly, that was the only decent day I had in Bariloche, so all my plans there (2-day treks, paraglyding and kitesurfing on Nahuel Huapi, fishing, rafting,...) had to be cancelled. It was very frustrating, because this was the place where I had planned more things to do, but the weather was terrible and it was impossible to make (or at least enjoy) something outdoors. So, I used the time to catch up on my email, have some interesting conversations with Salome and other people (including an interesting guy who had done his 3-year military service at the Israel Army's Secret Service), try my luck at the casino (with a good and a bad experience), enjoy the excellent chocolate made in Bariloche and go out a few more nights to this "non-Irish" Irish bar.
And to keep up with coincidences, one day that I went to buy my lunch at this cheap place I had discovered with the French guy the first night, I ran into Geri, the Austrian guy who I had met in Comodoro Rivadavia and who I had spent my week in Ushuaia with. Truly incredible!
I decided to stay one more day in Bariloche because the forecast for the next day was sunshine, and I didn't want to spend the only sunny day in a week travelling on a bus. So I stayed, it was finally sunny, and I enjoyed a nice day at the Ventisquero Negro (an unusual black glacier, due to its ice being mixed with mud) and Monte Tronador (Thundering Mountain), called that way because of the sounds made by ice falling from the two glaciers that it has on each side.
And despite the next day, unlike what was forcasted, was again sunny, I decided to leave for San Martin de los Andes, where I would spend one day before going back to Chile.
No comments:
Post a Comment