Bariloche...Part 1

view from the hostel
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We left Chile the following morning to visit our 2nd coutnry in South America - Argentina!  It was a quick journey of 6 hours (we got another snack and a cup ot hot, very sweet tea, which i couldnt drink!)  The road into Barioche, Argentina goes through Nahuel Huapi National Park which very much reminded me of New Zealand - snow capped mountains, clear lakes - beautiful!

Bariloche is a very pretty town, also situated on a lake, backed by snow capped mountains (i can see a trend here!)  The population is about 90.000 people.  When we arrived i dont think for one second we thought we´d be in Bariloche for 3 weeks!  We arrived at Hostel 1004, a penthouse suite at the top of a very ugly apartment building in the center of Bariloche.  This was going to be our home for the next 3 weeks!  The view from the hostel was something else.  It looked out over the lake and snow capped mountains.  The view never got tiresome.  Our scottish friends had enrolled in the spanish school, la Montana for a couple of weeks, which made us think of doing our spanish lessons there as well.  We had originally planned to do them in Mendoza but after a little research we found out that the cheapest lessons were in Bariloche so we paid La Montana a little visit, to see about enrolling at the school.  As we had arrived in town on a Monday, we were too late to start the weekly group classes so we decided to do 3 days of semi-private lessons (just Rob and I) and start the group classes the following Monday for one week.  So we paid $11 an hour for 2 hours each afternoon on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  It was quite strange to be studying again but i liked it.  Rob and I both studied spanish in uni so we knew the basics, although they were a little forgotten!

Uncle Albert...with his hand down the top of another girl!!!!

Our dutch friends
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During our first week in Bariloche, we experienced our 1st of 3 wine tasting parties put on in our hostel.  Basically everyone had to buy a bottle of wine and some nibbles, which were always a lot of fun, but the highlight of the nights was watching a man we nicknamed Uncle Albert.  For those of you who have seen ´Only Fools and Horses´, this guy looked a lot like Uncle Albert, Del and Rodneys uncle on the series.  He must have been in his 60s and we later found out he owned the hostel and a few others in town.  The odd things however, was the fact that he fondled a different member of staff every hour!  there were a lot of pretty, young girls working in the hsotel and they all seemed to be vying for this attention.  He´d be holding the hand of one girl, with his hand down

On the road from Chile
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the top of another girl!  We thought he was a little Hugh Heffner-esque!

We then joked that it was all part of a cult, as we watched him sat on the couch, legs crossed and all the staff sat in a semi-circle on the floor in front of him, listening intently to every word he was saying!  Each week it came round to the wine-tasting party, we were always hoping Uncle Albert was going to be there, to provide us with entertainment!  During our 2nd weeks party, one of the girls we got friendly with, asked one of the staff what was going on, to which she replied they were just good friends!

The best steak yet!
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Bariloche is situated within the national park Nahuel Huapi and its said to be the only city in the world inside a national park. Naturally, this makes it a very pretty area with many nearby mountains offering spectacular views.  In the time we were in Bariloche, we did a lot of walking.  We walked to the top of Cerro Campanarilo (cerro means mount) which has the most amazing view at the top.  You can see all the 7 lakes of the region and the Andes in the distance.  The view came in the top 10 views in the world in National Geographic magazine.  Another walk was up Cerro Otto, which was a good 3 hour walk up and down, but again, we were met with aweinspiring views.