Laura: The bus journey from Buenos Aires took about 23 hours and showed four absolutely awful rom coms (why is that blonde from Greys Anatomy always in them)!! The bus was adequate but not as comfortable as the ‘cama’ bus we took last time. We couldn’t afford that one this time around but even still, this bus cost us £75!!
We got to the bus terminal and found a very helpful young man who spoke great English. He informed us that you can get a bus from Bariloche to El Calafate directly (we were worried that this would be impossible) and directed us to the local buses that could take us to town. The bus to El Calafate will cost us £100 each which nearly gave us seizures. It’s getting toward the end of our travels and I have pretty much come to terms with the fact that I will be returning a pauper : (
Anyway, less of the mardys (I need to get a grip), we caught the bus into town and the view of the lake and the Andes was INCREDIBLE. I keep saying this about stuff but honestly, this was on another level. Some guy helpfully told us where to get off the bus and we found the hostel easily. It’s pretty cold here (not bone chilling) and it was nice to experience some central heating! The hostel was very homey with wood panelled walls and a decent living room but the beds were too soft and saggy – we miss Chinese dorms!
That night we cooked a cheap pasta meal and watched Scrubs. There are some good bars around that serve real ale but money is tight so we decided to save up and go out another night.
The next day we got up and took a bus to Llao Llao to do some walking/hiking. We got off at the wrong point but soon found the start of a well sign posted walking trail through the forest. We walked through the Bariloche Nature Reserve for about 2 hours stopping at significant points and it was beautiful. We had the entire trail and the views to ourselves which was a first for us and I have heard, it’s the same all over South America. Apparently you get to see all these epic things and there’s nobody else there!
We finished the trail and walked along the main road looking for a bus stop (the helpful tourist map said we could get the number 10 bus from just over the last bridge) but we couldn’t see anything apart from road, trees and mountains. This started to worry us slightly so we walked for another hour and still, no civilisation. At this point both of us started thinking we would be sleeping outside or might have to hitch back to Bariloche (26km away) but we were both in denial and didn’t want to admit this to each other (until we were safely on the bus that is). Finally we found civilisation in the form of a convenience store and the staff directed us to the bus stop a few minutes away. We then decided to look at the bus timetable – there was one at 3pm and one at 22.20pm! Would you believe our luck – it was 2.55pm and the bus was on time! We headed back to Bariloche and went back to the hostel.
My Spanish is ok – I can say things fine and remember useful phrases but when people speak back to me, it’s a problem. Ahmad is hilarious – he just stares at the person and smiles, forgetting to actually say he doesn’t understand or that he doesn’t speak Spanish! He is getting better though and I suppose I should do most of the talking seeing as he did it all in India. It’s quite fun to speak Spanish and I want to learn it properly when we get home. The difficulty here is that there are a lot of differences between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish so you feel like you’re learning the basics all over again.
On our second day we decided to stay in Bariloche a little longer (because it’s so awesome) and then caught the bus to the beginning of a hiking trail up a small mountain. The views were stunning but due to a volcano erupting not long back, there was loads of ash restricting the scenery.
On our third day it was absolutely freezing! We had hoped to do some more trails and see a waterfall but the bus wouldn’t accept cash, only pre paid cards. In light of this we wandered around town, ate our packed lunch and spent the afternoon in the warm hostel! We had planned to go out drinking but I had bad indigestion so we gave it a miss.
Our last day was one of relaxation and eating! We got an early night in anticipation of the 27 hour bus journey to Calafate.