Mullet Fever
Day 185
Since it took us nearly 20 hours to reach Bariloche and knowing that our next destination was at least 12 hours away we figured we would spend a few days relaxing here. So today was to be a day of planning, relaxing and a lot of nothing.
We started off with our regular breakfast at the hostel. Today they had something other than media lunas. I’m not sure what they are called but even though these sweets look different they taste just like a media luna. I’m beginning to think that Argentine cuisine is just about the most simple and boring on the planet.
First off we wanted to figure out how and where to go next. We had talked about going back into Chile and taking a 4 day ferry ride south to Puerto Natales, near the end of South America. However as spectacular as the trip is said to be the price is way out of our budget. Next idea was ruta 40, a legendary road that cuts through the wilds of Patagonia right down to the end of the continent. We asked around and apparently there isn’t much, if any transportation on Ruta 40 at this time of year. South of here the snow has yet to melt. So with all that are decision was easy, a bus south to Comodoro. A boring oil town on the Patagonia coast but an important transit city for points further south. We bought are ticket and depart Wednesday night.
Next up a trip to a fabulous chocolate store, Bariloche is famous for the stuff. Mamushka, the store we entered had all kinds of chocolate. We left with white chocolate, tiramasu, brownie, cinnamon and a few others. I’m not sure of the translations. We walked down to the waterfront a found a beautiful spot on a stone wall. We gorged ourselves on chocolate while looking our at the lake and mountains.
On our way back to the hostel we stopped at a supermarket to pickup some things to make dinner. Walking back through Bariloche I thought to myself, “Wow, this all looks like a bad ’80’s movie sometimes.” Ski School, I think that’s the one I’m thinking of. The whole scene in Bariloche I mean. You have young Argentine students mostly here to party, sometimes ski or snowboard. Oh and mostly sporting mullets. Then you have the slightly older crew, maybe 30 to 40. They are well off, here for the skiing but dress hilariously. Women walking around with there puffy winter jackets and huge leather boots. The mullet doesn’t seem as popular with this generation. When you tire of looking at mountains and lakes, this scene makes for some great people watching.
Jordana whipped up some fried rice for dinner, which was a welcome change from pizza and pasta. We enjoyed a bottle of Don Arturo’s finest syrah and then watched a dvd, “The Interpreter”. It almost felt like we lived here, the only other guest around was a quiet American named Derek who also watched the movie with us. By the way its a horrible film. Tomorrow we plan on getting back outdoors, this time out of the town and do a boat trip and some more walks. Looking forward to it but I can’t lie, I’ll miss the mullets.
Tags: Argentina, Bariloche, Chocolate, Mullets
Michael Coroneos
Argentinian food is actually quite good, but there is only one issue……you have to eat meat, yummy, yummy meat.
Oh and speaking of meat, guess what I am storing in your cooler….yup lots of raw meat.
HEY thats MY cooler!!!!