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Living The Dream
Life is good right now. Having spent 13 hours on an overnight bus from Mar del Plata to Neuquen, I had an early morning decision to make. Do I stay in Neuquen or head straight to Bariloche? I acted on the advice given to me by a friendly Argentinian guy who lives in Neuquen. He advised me to head straight to Bariloche as there is apparently not much to do in his city. Besides, I only went to Neuquen because I heard that STA are paying commission for anyone who can find reason to use the word 'palindrome' in their online journal!
After an hour of waiting at Neuquen bus station, I boarded a bus for what turned out to be the most scenic 6 hour journey a man could ever wish to be subjected to. I passed the whole journey by looking out of the window to see vast landscapes of uninhabited terrain which were only interupted by the occasional crystal blue lake or Andean mountain.
On arrival in Bariloche, I checked into a very nice hostel where I am the only guy in a dorm full of hot women! Later, I went into town for a bearings tour. before sampling my first Argentine 'Truncha' (Trout).
On my first full day I headed south in a minibus to the River Manso where, along with some other travellers, I went white-water rafting. Having negotiated 'Vaselina', 'Grande Intestino', 'Ecstacy' and countless other poo-seducing rapids, our raft of eight people paused to make a decision...should we take the grade 4 'Relax' on the easy line or the hard line? Our guide, Guillermo, decided to mimmck me sh*tting myself on previous rapids to encourage the group to decide on the hard line, which we did. About halfway through the rapid something happened that I will never forget. One minute I was sitting on the raft, the next I was fighting for my life under a rapid. After what seemed like about 3 hours of underwater madness, I regained my composure to find myself drifting rapidly downsteam towards the other raft. I have genuinely never been so scared in my life. The current was so strong that it had carried me about 300 meters downstream from my raft. People from the other raft were screaming at me to swim out of the current which I did after relocating my shoes and oar which had both been sucked away from my person during the ironically named 'Relax' rapid. Eventually I managed to grab hold of the rescue rope that Simon, the guide from the other raft, had thrown to me. I achieved hero status among the other rafters who wanted to know what it was like to be wrestling with the rapids! That night, I went to out on the town with a group of English, American and Assie lads. Only three of us were still on the dancefloor when the sun came up at 7am!
The following day was the anniversary of Bariloche's birthday so I went to a concert in the main square. After this I went shopping and bought some new clothes which were cheap. Later that night, I went to a restaurant where I was to be the victim of a delightfully spontaneous stitch-up. Picture the scene if you will... having eaten the main course my dessert arrived. It was a small cup cake with a cherry on the top! Just as the waiter was bringing it to the table, three amigos arrived at the restaurant. Seeing the cake, they broke into (drunken) song. They started singing happy birthday to ME! Before long the whole restaurant was clapping and singing along whilst I fell to the floor in a fit of laughter. It was the best stitch-up I have ever been dealt and this was only the start of what would turn out to be a 5am close! Now I am like the queen, I have two birthdays. The actual birthday (11th September) and the Bariloche birthday (3rd May)! We settled the bill and went to a late bar where we practically smashed the place up with our drunken antics. At one point my bottle was 'topped'leaving a pool of cerveza all over the floor. The barman just came over and said "don't worry, sh*t happens"! After a few more jovialities, we took it in turns to go behind the bar for a picture with the legendary barman.
Yesterday I walked down to the town and got on a bus to somewhere. I was told that if you go about 17.5 km's out of town you get to somewhere (aka a nice lookout point). Having got off at 18.5 km's, I started walking back to where I was supposed to be. After about a minute I was chased by three barking dogs so I did an about turn back to the 18.5 km bus stop (So glad I spent 120 pounds on those rabies jabs)! I waited there for 20 minutes to get a bus which took me past the dogs and dropped me off at the chairlift to the lookout. I had trouble convincing the bus driver that it was a good idea to let me have the 30 second journey for free but eventually he agreed! After the chairlift I spent 3 hours at the lookout. During that time I enjoyed sensational views of northern Patagonia and helped myself to an ice cream and jugo de naranja.
After getting in at 6am, today I went job hunting. I managed to get to three schools and set up meetings with two principles. I wasn't offered a job as the term has already started and there is fierce competition for work here in Bariloche. One of the principles studied in Guildford so he made time to advise me on where to look for work.
Bariloche is a beautifully set small city surrounded by what will soon be snow-capped mountains and beautiful lakes. I would have loved to stay here until the snow came down but my services are not required. The dice have been rolled and fate has decided to direct me further north towards Chile.
Having been unsuccesful in the job market here, tomorrow I am heading to a small town called Villa La Angostura which is about an hour north of Bariloche. I have a deadline to be in Santiago, Chile next weekend to meet with Tomas and Chris (friends from Cuba holiday).
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