The Best Laid Plans....

Not Bariloche-the bus journey after. Patagonia through a window
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The bus arrived about on time, and we piled on. The seats were big and comfy, and it was a cool cloudy day. We arrived at border control Chile after a scenic 4 hrs, and were stamped out of Chile. As we set off we were in limbo for ten mins not stamped into any country, and it was tempting to get off the bus and head off into the countryside like a fugitive, but then I (Joe) came back into the real world and got off the bus to get stamped into Argentina. There are lots of stray dogs in South America, as it turns out, and even 4 hours into the Andes, miles from anywhere on the border posts, stray dogs roam around sniffing out tidbits.

Cards at Rio Gallegos with Liz and Dave
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We carried on for another couple of hours before getting to a small town on Lake Nahuel Huapi. It all looked very beautiful, as it did in Chile, the lake district, as we followed the Lakes shores round to Bariloche. We had already booked a room and so, along with Dave and Liz got a taxi the 2kms into town and all got out by our Hospedaje. We checked in and they went off searching for a hostel, having agreed to meet up in a pub later on. We had a couple of hours chilling, then went to get some money changed before going into the Map Room Pub and meeting Dave and Liz. we ended up having dinner and a few drinks, and were last to leave, and I (Joe) wanted to carry on at a club, which was Vitoed by the others.

The next day we went for some food and as we were finishing saw D&L walk by, so Tracey knocked on the window and they came in for a drink. D&L had invited us to come to there hostel for dinner that night, and we again checked what we should bring, just wine they said. And mushrooms if you can find them.

We took said wine (2bottles) and the mushrooms to their hostel and had another night at a´meeting´ with D&L. They cooked spag bol and we chatted more about plans. D&L were planning to go to El Calafate, the bus route taking them to Comodoro and then Rio Gallegos in the East before crossing back West, total time on bus 28 hrs, with a day in Comodoro. They invited us to go with them, and we accepted, despite initial plans to head to Buenos Aires from Bariloche.

The next day we met up to buy our bus tickets at eleven, and purchased our round Argentina bus tickets shortly after. The bus left that night, and so we checked out of the Hospedaje a day early, meeting D&L outside and taxiing to the bus station. Our first bus was to take us South East, to Comodoro Rivadavia where we would experience our first South American bus mix up.....