Bariloche

17. – 20. March

On Tuesday morning we go for a walk downtown, 4km one way. The centre is rather uninteresting, but the weather is so nice that there’s nothing to complain about. We return to the hostel to make lunch and then we take another walk in the other direction, towards Cerro Otto, a hill nearby.

Below: a view on Bariloche, the city centre, swings in a sailing centre and Cerro Otto.

   

We spend the late afternoon by the lake. Books, ukulele, sunset.

      

We spend the evening talking for a long time to Anja and Wim, a Dutch couple who moved to Surinam and who have been travelling by their Lexus through South America for 1,5 years.

On Wednesday morning we take a bus 20 km outside the town no walk a bit in the forests around the lake Nahuel Huapi. Again, the weather is just perfect: there are almost no clouds, the sky is blue, it’s warm and there’s no wind.
    

We hitchhike back to the hostel (as we run out of credit on the bus-card) and in the evening we continue our conversations with Anja and Wim. We talk about serious and less serious matters and these are very inspiring moments. We also wait for Natalia, Mariusz and Maks who are travelling to Bariloche from the south. We hope our paths will cross for the third time after Cayos Cochinos, Honduras and then Leon, Nicaragua. Unfortunately, they don’t manage to join us tonight.

On Thursday morning ł. doesn’t feel very well, so he stays in bed. Wim is busy working and k. together with Anja walk to the city centre for a cup of coffee and to get some postcards. In the afternoon everybody has something to do – ł. sleeps and Wim, Anja and k. sit in the dining room with their laptops.
At last, around 5 pm. k. spots Natalia, Maks and Mariusz walking down the road. They made it!

Mariusz and k. go to the supermarket to do the shopping. We are about to cook a big dinner on Anja and Wim. We buy potatoes, vegetables, meat, wine and cakes. And we talk all the time until the dinner’s ready!

 
After the meal it’s time for dessert and even more stories, not only related to travelling. Maks plays dominoes with Alejandra and Mariano, the owners of our hostel. The atmosphere is excpetional. It feels like home, with family. It’s really touching.

We go to bed really late although we plan to set off early tomorrow.

Friday morning means packing and saying goodbye. Wim offers to give us a lift to the outskirts of Bariloche from where we will be trying to hitchhike as far south as possible. But before we get into the Lexus – we exchange hugs and best wishes: travel safely.

From the left: Natalia, k., Anja, Wim, Maks, ł. and Mariusz.

And here’s our hostel:

And a bit of publicity:

• http://www.thetravelingtree.pl  – travelling blog of Natalia, Mariusz and Maks
• http://www.losersinalexus.nl – travelling blog of Anja and Wim
• http://www.solentinamehostel.com.ar – Solentiname hostel website

Hitchhiking Patagonia

16. March

We wake up really early. It’s bright outside and we still have a couple of hours on the bus ahead. The landscape hasn’t changed much since Buenos Aires. It’s flat. Like in central Poland.
 
We get off the bus shortly after 9 am at the bus terminal in Neuquen. We have a quick breakfast and then, together with Messi, we take a local bus to Senillosa.

It’s 11:30 when we get on the road. We put some sun screen, as the sun is high, and we start thumbing. There are 397 km from here to San Carlos de Bariloche.

The first car stops just after 10 minutes, but we get a ride only to the road fork, 3 km. We’re quickly picked up by two technicians. Electricians working in a hydroelectric power plant 35 km away. The driver drives fast, we talk, it’s nice. We get to Villa el Chocon, famous for the hydroelectric plant and a dam and also for huge fossils and footmarks of dinosaurs!

It doesn’t take long for the next car to stop. We get into an old Kia belonging to a Chilean lawyer, who’s just returning to Chile from his biking holiday in Neuquen. The car is super-old and shabby. The rubber seals fall apart, the windows are impossible to close, the right side of the car dented and with no polish, speedometer and odometer – not functioning. The driver goes extremely slow. He does head towards the same city, but with this speed we will cover ne next 350 km in 7 or 8 hours…
 

ł. sits in front, k. on the back seat, fitted between both big backpacks and covered with the raincoat to hide from the sun. The conversation languished so we are all silent most of the time. After an hour the driver decides to talk: “And… changing the subject… do you believe in God? Because I do.” Somehow the attempt is unsuccessful, the conversation does not even start. Eventually, we split in Piedra del Aguila. The lawyer wants to take a rest and we want to go on.

We are being observed from the parking lot by Pablo in his dark blue Citroen. He asks us where we’re heading. We are still 200 km away from Bariloche. Pablo goes there too and then even further south. We get in.

The air conditioning works, it’s a comfortable car. Pablo drives well and sometimes even a bit too fast.

 
At times we drive through clouds of dust – that’s volcanic ash from the recent eruption in Chile.
We can see guanaco and ostriches by the road. It’s getting less and less flat. The landscapes of Patagonia are more and more beautiful.

 
On the way, the “Service” light starts to blink in the Citroen.

 

On shoulder Pablo diagnoses the problem: air filter. Using the penknife borrowed from k. he removes it from under the hood and then puts it to the trunk. Problem solved. The “service” light goes off. We go on.

 

We say goodbye to Pablo around 6 pm at the bus terminal in Bariloche. We find a fantastic hostel – Solentiname, do shopping in the supermarket nearby and then cook dinner. A really good one – it’s our first evening in Patagonia after all. We have wine and strawberries for dessert. And a wonderful view of the Nahuel Huapi lake.