So we travelled for 30 odd hours, the bus broke down a few times, and finally got to Bariloche and did nothing for a week and it was fucking sweet!
ok so there's slightly more to it than that but we were pretty fucking lazy however after our 5 day trek i feel that we earnt it.
We stayed in a hostel that had been recommended to us by a girl in El Calafate (thank you freakishly blonde belgian girl) and it was really cool. stayed in dorms again since there was only one double room and it was a bit pricey but we were really glad we stuck around. the first night we went out for dinner and came back and chatted to a couple of english sisters but pretty standard evening really. Until bed time when flo and older sister Imogen had gone to bed and I was still chatting to younger sister Alannah and a few other guys who were trying to persuade Alannah to go out with them for the evening but she said that her sister had gone to bed and that she wouldnt go out without her, the guys took this as a sign to go collect the sister from bed, but allanah pointed them in the direction of our room so whilst she made a bid for freedom, the guys had collected flo and carried her up the stairs despite her protests that she didnt even have a sister.
Middle of our first proper day and a crazy looking long-haired ginger swiss girl came up to us and asked us if we fancied making pizza that night since a load of them were planning on making some. slightly scared, and since we had no plans, we said yes and flo went off with a few of them to collect ingredients from the supermarket.
So that afternoon was spent sorting out all the pizza things (basically chopping shit for us and making proper pizza bases for marco, the swiss ex-baker) and also getting to know all the other guys in the hostel, and finally realising that the girl strutting around in a bikini on a cloudy day was not doing so because she was a little bit too obsessed with getting a tan but because she had a number of insects burrowed into her skin (mmmmmmmm, nice) and the combination of salt and sun would kill the evil little fuckers.
So everyone in the hostel was really nice and the pizzas were really tasty, a bonus.The next day was the most active we got for the whole week, we rented a car and took a drive around the '7 lakes'. The views from the roads were beautiful, you'll have to look at the photos, and we even got an opportunity to stop at a very remote point for a bit of cheeky skinnydipping!
the rest of the time was spent lazily wandering around the town and eating the tasty chocolate bumping randomly into amanda's ex boyfriends, ok that only happened once but still very random. dave is cycling from tierre del fuego in the south to venezuela in the north the crazy fucker.
we also managed to fit in a couple more communal eating nights with a big barbeque, although i dont think ours was as impressive as the guys who cooked a whole goat before we arrived, and a mexican food night with homemade tortillas, guacamole and salsas (thanks tashina et al.) and a couple of nights out at the bars of bariloche drinking tasty local beers and some dirty quilmes as well (its like an argentinian carling but actually drinkable!)
oh, and flo loved the dog a little bit too much, i think it reminded her of herself (in a good way! before i get hit)
peace out
nick
