Bariloche - a 28hr bus ride, a tiny room, and waiting for the weather

We booked a cama (bed) seat for our incredibly long journey from El Calafate to Bariloche.  The seat isn't a bed, but you get a wider seat than normal and quite a bit of room to stretch out - the only problem that the seats recline so much that you almost have someone in your lap!!!  Fine for someone short like me, but not so good for tall people, like Bernard.  Of course flying would have been much easier, but for three times the cost and a further eight months backpacking, we acknowledged that long arduous journeys like these are going to become par for the course over the next few months.  I slept for at least 5-6 hours, but the journey was long, despite the provision of lots of movies.  We arrived at Bariloche tired and ready for a comfortable night's sleep. Bariloche was extremely busy, full of backpackers looking for accommodation. A good thing we booked our hostel in advance. In this instance you get what you paid for.  Our bargain twin room was a bargain for a reason - a bunkbed in a room so narrow that Bernard could stretch his arms and touch (palm's flat) both walls.  Ironically, it was because the room was so narrow that I could easily get up and down the top bunk!!!

But the place was comfortable enough and in a very good location. The next day I spent on the phone to UK banks yet again - in a desperate attempt to get a straight answer as to how I can resolve my situation.  Two hours later, tired and extremely emotional, we give up our plans for going outside Bariloche to explore the mountains because the weather turns bad.  Bad = wet, extremely windy and cold.  Its another one of those places where Bernard has mistakenly said, "You know that beer garden would be great in the summer" only to remember that we ARE visiting in the summer.  Bariloche really is more impressive as a winter resort. 

On our final day in Bariloche the weather is bad.  I feel extremely disappointed and eager to move onto our next destination.  But the weather clears around lunch time  so we decide to hire some mountain bikes and enjoy the outdoors.  We do exactly that, except that this little body of mine detests bikes - after half an hour my butt aching from the seat, my thighs aching from climbing the hills (or pushing the bike up some v long hills) and I'm wanting to enjoy it so much because I know how much Bernard loves bike riding.  I start to feel bad because I'm so slow and my body is starting to fatigue. But then we emerge out over a gorgeous view, make our way to a superb little "swiss-style" village for fantastic hot chocolate, herbal tea and chocolate cake, and we take a short cut back and I realise that I didn't do too badly at riding in the end. Sure I'm very slow up hills, but I'm fairly fearless doing down hills, so we made pretty good time in the end.

The nice part was that our Australian friends were driving past in their hire car just as we were finishing our ride, and we ended up getting a lift back to town with them, and then enjoyed a fantastic meal with them later that night (and a few bottles of vino tinto as well).