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26th and 27th January.
Things best to avoid in Argentina:
Mentioning the Isla Malvinas, Falklands
Mentioning the Hand of God
Singing songs form the musical Evita constantly
Leaving Pucon was sad it was a beautiful town with an outdoors sporty feel, we could have stayed there for a week. It also had a German bar serving currywurst. But we were off to Bariloche in Argentina. The drive down to Bariloche was spectacular, gorgeous scenery. In Peggy we passed through an area of seven lakes it was truly awe inspiring. We stopped off for a picnic lunch by a lake, if this wasn't the life then I didn't know what was.
In Bariloche we were joined by five more people, 3 Irish people, a guy from Bolton, and a wild haired lady called Sue. The already high average age had risen.
Bariloche was bigger than Pucon, much more touristy and didn't have the same feel. Based on a Swiss alpine town parts of it looked great, other parts a bit shabby. If we had had longer there and we had done some activities it might have been more enjoyable. But our free day there was cold and windy.
The first evening was an amazing night. We started in a micro brewery where Lisa and I sampled all seven of the local beers (see sampling picture) including an amazing honey beer at 7.5% and a barley wine at 10%, it would be a late night. We sat down to tea at about nine thirty in a fabulous restaurant called El Boliche de Alberto. This is no place for the faint hearted, luckily there were no vegetarians or they would have gone hungry. Meat in Argentina is like no meat I have ever tried anywhere else (hard not to make this sound a bit gay). It is well hung, succulent and extremely tasty. We started off with a black sausage, and then moved on to a lamb for me and a slab of thick steak for Lisa. All this was cooked in the middle of the restaurant by a Parrillero on an open grill. After grilling the meat it was brought to us on a board and slapped down in front of us. My lamb was incredible, I had half a bread board of meat in front of me to enjoy. Apparently we had a salad with it. It was all washed down with beer and a lovely Malbec.
Then back to the micro brewery.
I don't know when the idea of drinking three pints of honey beer became a good idea, but I know that somewhere after three I wish it hadn't. The microbrewery was followed by an 'Irish night club', which was strange as I didn't know you could have an Irish themed night club and because it appeared that the owners had never been to Ireland, or even an Irish bar. There were seven of us, Lisa and I, Anje (younger German), Mike (guy from Hull), Vicky (fanatical hiker from the midlands) Andy (the driver and absolute filth) and Barry (60+ guy who was getting some peace from his wife). That Barry was getting peace from his wife in a micro brewery and night club, well....... Most nights out it would generally be the 6/7 of us, depending on whether Barry had a pass out.
I had high hopes of a romance between Mike and Anje, they would be cruelly dashed that day, apparently there was no spark, unlucky Mike. I am guessing the no spark was more on her side than his.
Sore heads the next morning. But we were up for breakfast and out for a walk all before 10am. We were back in bed by 12 noon. But by then we had brought chocolates, and well it was a drizzly day and windy and cold, not much to do after buying the chocolates and seeing the St. Bernard dogs. After our siesta it was off for a walk, but after the Inca trail and the volcano out hearts weren't in it. There would be plenty of opportunity for walking in the coming weeks. Bed earlyish, obviously after the micro brewery, but not the Irish night club.
Tomorrow we were heading off on the legendary Route Forty.
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