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For the last bit of our winter adventure we headed to Bariloche, a famous ski resort. The welcome to the town wasn't that great as we managed to get in a slight shouty row with a restaurant manager - ops! I ordered steak and it was bloody - yuck so asked NICELY if they would mind cooking it a little more , waiter said no probs in good old english and off my steak went. Suprisingly a new one came after a while interestingly a little rarer than the first! Being tired and not really in the mood I left it to the side and shared Lisas. We explained to the waiter the problem and how the rest of the food had got cold and I didn't want to eat on my own and he smiled said no probs. Wife then bought it out in a doggy bag and we said didn't have anywhere to eat it as in a hostel! Oh que scary shouting owner who left with a polite 'It's so difficult with you people' shouted across the restauant at us - oh the fun of language barriers! But don't worry Dad we didn't pay for it!!
Anyhow after that rant will tell you about the actual baording! Although nearing the end of the season we were lucky that the snow this year has been good so the season has been extended to mid October. This meant lots of snow still around along with hot sunny weather - not so good when you're on malaria tabets making you sensitive to the sun! The locals google marks were not exactly the look I wanted especially when coupled with blistered lips - oh yeah I'm looking good!
Anyhow having found a random bus to take us to the ski resort we spotted a guy that worked at the hostel with a board so asked him where we could get lessons for Lisa and Tom. An hour later following a random phone call to a mate of a mate up rocks Ariel (not the little mermaid!) the snowboarding legend! Ariel simply rocks - he spends half the year teaching in Bariloche and the other half in Aspen - interesting American accent going on! He took Lisa and Tom off to the nursery slope having checked with me several times I'd be ok on my own - such little faith in the English girl! He may however had had a small point - it was all fine until I ran out on snow. Basically got slightly lost and had to climb down the muddy side of the mountain carrying by board-good thing it was all hire stuff!! Think I amused the people learning on the nursery slope below though.
Second day I braved heading out with Ariel in the afternoon. I'd followed him and Tom around that morning in Tom's lesson and apparently not pushed myself - safe to say he took care of that. Over the afternoon and the next afternoon he taught me to pirouette on a snow board and do a jump!! It took quite a while for me to get any air - he was seriously impressed I managed to go down a ramp and come up the other side without going in the air! Also came down black runs and learnt to do jumps - oh yeah what a star! Did feel a bit better about my slight detour the day before when the same thing happened to the instructor - apparently he knew we were going to run out of snow! Def wore me out though as could hardly walk after the afternoon!
Lisa and Tom did really well too - Tom managed to be the quickest snowboard learner in history linking turns down the slopes on his first day! Lisa progressed much quicker on the second day when she had a decent board which actually slid - slight problem when you point it down a slope and nothing happens!
Oh and the other highlight of Bariloche found something other than Pasta or Steak to eat - never thought would be so excited to see a Mexican restaurant in my life! Next stop 19 hour us ride to Mendoza - sure we'll need a glass of thier famous wine after that!
PS Sorry about the lack of photos for Bariloche - couldn't carry a camera in my not so waterproof trouser pockets! Oh and on that note this is the closest photo in the library I could find to snowboarding - bit of a wrong surface going on!
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