South to Patagonia
Day 182
We had one more day in Mendoza, which is a pleasant city but without much to offer a tourist in the way of sights. We were on the move south to Bariloche but our bus was not to depart till 8pm tonight. Jordana was having trouble with her infamous sensitive stomach and I was still trying to get over my cold or allergies, not sure what it is really. So as much as we wanted to at least check out a museum or something we both weren´t in the mood.
After a lazy morning at the hotel we had to check out. We finished off our included breakfast of coffee and media lunas (very sweet croissants) and headed out into the city. We did our usual lazy day in a Latin American city, which consists of walking from park to park and then from square to square. Mendoza has plenty of both so it was the relaxing day we hoped for. Not much else to write about our day. We had some fabulous food at an all vegetarian restaurant. Then parked ourselves for an hour or so on a cafe patio as we people watched. The mullet is a very popular cut amongst both female and male Argentines.
Eventually the time came to head back to the Mendoza bus a terminal. We boarded our bus for the 18 hour a trip south to Bariloche. The bus was OK, seats were good but the washroom was old and not exactly the cleanest. A rare thing in Argentina,the buses are usually great. Nonetheless it was quite a ride. Just south of San Rafael around 11pm we saw some very impressive non stop lightning in the distance, lightning like I have never seen in my life. The lightning lit up the entire sky and with complete darkness in all directions the silhouette of the Andes in the distance was a beautiful sight. Eventually we reached the storm and the rain and wind was enough to wake me from a decent sleep. Jordana, she´ll sleep though anything.
As the sun rose we had reached the northern fringes of Patagonia, a land that I always dreamed of visiting. With clear blue rushing rivers and craggy snow capped mountains Patagonia was already impressing.
Finally at 2pm we reached the lakeside city of Bariloche, a beautifully set town on Lago Nahuel Huapi surrounded with mountains covered in snow. Just outside of town are a few large ski resorts, in town the snow has just melted and the trees are filled with blossoms. We settled in at a very the comfortable Hostel Achanay and looked forward to exploring the region over the next few days.
Tags: Argentina, Bariloche, Mendoza, Patagonia, Ski
Michael Coroneos
“Somebody” said that the men in Argentina were hot. Mullets? This “somebody” has really bad taste.