Farewell Argentina.

19th April 2012 Buenos Aires to London

Well the end is insight and after 6 months we are heading back home. The trip has been amazing with many ups and many down and all taken in our stride, but nothing could prepare us for the taxi trip to the airport!
Before this though we had a number of hours to sit around and wait. Sarah became over come by a bout of gastric irritation without being to descriptive. This was ill time seeing we were going to spend a long period of time on a plane.

The time does give us chance to read and do a little surfing on the internet. Our taxi arrives with a short slightly mad Argentinian taxi driver, the slightly mad part would turn into completely crazy by the time we got onto the highway. We have in the past mentioned the driving skills of the locals and that there seems to be very little in the way of road rules. This journey was to confirm it.
Sarah skillfully convinced me to sit in the front, now this was either because of  the smell of our vertically challenged driver or the fact she knew that the journey would appear more acceptable in the backseat. she was right! I've never seen so many cars flying around in all directions. It became obvious that I was wrong about the rules in South America, there are rules and the first is, if the isn't a space make one. second rule; if the first rule doesn't work try again. Lights on the car are generally use for entertainment purposes and gesturing with both hands at the same time is the norm. I would of preferred it if he hadn't been doing it a 70, whilst looking at me and laugh like a mad man.
Once we got to the airport I staggered out of the car and around to the back to get our luggage, Sarah said it hadn't been a bad journey, amazing what a headrest can obscure. With bags loaded on to a trolley we made our way to check-in, this didn't take long and once we had clear security we headed for our departure gate.
The flight it self was pretty uninspiring, films were poor and the food was OK,  I did get extra as Sarah was still feeling pretty unwell. We had a stop over in Rio and sat in the same area as we had sat in on the way over, just like groundhog day. Soon though we were on the next plane.
As we made the final decent into London our trip came to an end. We made our way through customers only to be stopped and ask "whats in the bike boxes?" I had to bite my tough and thankfully Sarah piped up "we had bikes in them". He then proceeded to tell us that we needed to pay the VAT on these two items as they may not have been purchased in this country and that the VAT may not have been paid. Yet again a rule that is conveniently forgotten when you leave the country, only to be present to you on your return. Well I had no intentions for handing over money to anyone and neither did Sarah, so we dug our heals in and he gave way before us. We did make a hasty getaway though just in case he changed his mind.
Nick had very nicely laid on a car for us and we were whisked away in a  very nice chauffeur driven car and with a driver who was not at all crazy.
And that is were our journey ends. Where to next?

Madness and Mayhem

18th April. Buenos Aires.

Slept really well after the flight and the madness of getting from the airport to the hostel. After we had had breakfast we chatted with Natalia to find out what she would recommend we did with our final day in Buenos Aires and also to organised the transfer for tomorrow. She recommended we take the bus over to Boca Bairro this area has many gift shops and markets, but it is best known for the brightly coloured houses that line the streets and the Tango dancers that entertain passers by. The decision was made.

Now as it has become apparent though this trip and my life (meaning Gareth) I have very little ability to both navigate or read a bus time table especially when it's in Spanish. However, Sarah has this superpower were it all makes sense and she guided us safely through the madness on one bus after another and soon we found ourselves in Boca Bairro. It was bustling with fellow tourist, for that is all we are now, gone are the days of adventure. We strolled around enjoying the sights and sounds, wondering in and out of gift shops. Some were full of what can only be referred to as crap other however had beautiful leather goods and others local art and handmade products.

The original plan was to do our gift shopping, but the fact that even though we had slept well the night before the fatigue of the past 24 hours soon took over and the need to shop vanished. We found a little cafe and sat and had a coffee in the hope that this would inspire the senses. It didn't have the desired effects and the decision was made to head back with the meager purchases we had made. With the ever increasing tiredness came the "didn't care attitude" and this meant deciding where to eat became a heated debate and after some very tiring bickering we ended up in the same restaurant that we had eaten in on our first day here and what did we order? Pizza! With food in our bellies and a feeling of sadness at the fact that we would be soon saying farewell to this country we headed back to the hostel.

Big city bound

17th April, Flight Bariloche to Buenos Aires


Travel day today and thankfully everything went relatively smoothly. I got up early for a run and dashed back inside within minutes to pick up the camera as the sunrise was spectacular.

Running through my last Argentine Sunrise

After breakfast we got a shuttle bus to the airport pre-booked for us by the hostel. No problems at check in or on the flight and again we were lucky as we didn't get charged for the bikes or excess baggage.
Back in Buenos Aires, we got a relatively expensive taxi to Natalia's hostel where we'd stayed before, but it saved us a lot of hassle messing around with our bikes trying to get across town any other way. It was good to be back at Natalia's, it was as nice as before, just a bit quieter as I think we were right at the end of the season.
Buenos Aires was hotter and more humid than before but otherwise much the same, busy and mad and very very BIG!

An amble in the mountains, just before we leave.

16th April, Cerro Catedral, Bariloche


Really neither of us wants to come home, but tomorrow we fly. So today we decided to go for a nice walk in the surrounding mountains. Sarah had spotted a walk in the pages she had brutally torn from a helpless book, good call though as they have come in handy for this last part of the trip.














It was going to be a fairly long day with a bus journey first up to a ski resort. The journey was quite nice and as we wound our way towards the peaks we got an idea of what lay ahead and it excited the both of. The resort was a weird ghost town of a place, but I sure it isn't at all like this in the winter. We strolled up to the cable car as this is how we were to get to the start of the walk. According to the pages Sarah had from the lonely planet we could walk from the resort to the cable car station. However it sad that "The only reason for doing this was to save money or build character"! We had the money and at this point plenty of character, this did fade a little when we saw how much it was for the ride up, but it soon recovered when we found we could purchase a single which was half the price.
Now I have a fear of height as some of you know, but cable car never really bother me. This one however looked like cold war surplus and I was pleased when we got to the top! At the top was an obligatory over priced restaurant, we used the very nice facilities then headed off.
The walk was over mainly loose rock and scree, but with some very beautiful view. According to the book we just needed to follow the red dots, and although in some places they were a little hard to find it was very well marked. Mountains above and valleys below, it was yet again another beautiful part of this beautiful country. It was made even more spectacular by the turning of the trees as autumn gained a grip in the valleys below us. The walking wasn't at all technical and I had to go out of my way to find some sort of scrabbling to make me happy. On reaching the highest point we were greeted by some amazing views of some very strange rock formations, the action of wind and rain creates some of the most strange and weird structures. Some even look as if the challenge the laws of physics. All though do one thing and that is, they take your breath away.
Up here we found the Catedral, it had the feel of an abandoned castle cliffs looked like battlements and turrets, an eerie place. The presents of condor made the place more moody and for me a final glimpse of this majestic bird  felt a exciting as the first time I saw one. One the decent down towards the refugio I was given one last view and then they were gone. This walk was a little more harder going as the path was covered with large stones and made for slow going. We did stop for a nice break over looking a tarn which was above the refugio and fed it with water.


The walk from here was all down through forest and through ever changing colours. We didn't have a care in the world and we savoured this last day until the end. The end unfortunately came in the form of a full on sprint to catch the bus. For my talented partner Sarah no trouble, for me however it stung. It felt like when your a kid running down a hill and feeling out of control. The big difference between me and  the kid, is I know what it feels like to fall and you don't find to many kids wearing thermals either. Sweat was pouring off me by the time we got to the bus. The good thing that did come from my excursion was we would of had to wait an hour for the next one. 

Another celebratory Beer!

15th April, Bariloche

What 3400miles does to your tyres!

Today began with a lie in and then a good hostel breakfast of homemade jams and bread, cereal and coffee, importantly for a change it didn't involve porridge. All good things to set us up for a day of packing up the bikes and going through our kit ready for our flight home.
We'd bought some cardboard bike boxes from a shop the night before. It was the first time we'd had to pay for   the cardboard boxes that the bike shops get new bikes delivered in but apparently they are in short supply and at a premium in Bariloche. Once found though it certainly saved us a lot of hassle of looking for more cardboard so we had parted with our 30 pesos (£5) each without too much hesitation. We now spent today fitting our bikes into them. Admittedly Gareth did most of the fitting, whilst I sorted through the rest of our kit.
Bikes packed away and stored in the corner of our room we know knew that we had tomorrow to enjoy.
Time in the afternoon then to wander around tacky souvenir and many chocolate shops in town but it was too cold to linger for long.
Finally with out too much persuasion we made our way back to the small bar we'd found in time for happy hour. 2 pints each for 40 pesos. Justified as another celebratory beer or two!!

Full Circle (x two)!!

14th April, Camping Ser to Hostel Achlay, Bariloche (28.5M)

Except for the loud Argentine music that started up as soon as I returned to the tent last night and the thin tent walls that don't keep sound out we had a good nights sleep. Gareth was feeling better and we had a leisurely rise being in no hurry today. We had plenty of time to eat breakfast and pack away the tent for the last time in the sun, which was out again today!
We decided to take the longer route back to Bariloche via 'circuito chico' (small circuit) a recommended road route for cyclists around the Llao llao peninsula with good views. We both had tired legs but enjoyed the days cycle around the peninsula with views across this side of  Lago Nahuel Huapi.
There were a few random tourist attractions on the circuit which were mainly closed for the season but we managed a quick photo stop at the dinosaur park!

On  the northern side of the peninsula we passed through the tiny port of Puerto Panuelo, where we'd boarded the ferry about 3 months ago to cross into Chile for the first time. It really felt like we'd done full circle. We then only had about 20km to cycle back to Bariloche and another 'full circle' feel. We stocked up at one of the best panadarias we'd been to on route with tasty bread, croissants and other pastries before finding our hostel which we'd booked into for the next 3 nights. They were incredibly friendly and we soon had our bikes unloaded and locked away, a double room to ourselves and dinner cooked in the kitchen by Gareth.

 About 3400 miles completed in total we felt a well deserved celebratory beer was in order!

Sanity restored

13th April, Camping Don Horacio to Camping Ser, Colonia Suiza (49.5M)


During the night the run of good weather we'd been having broke as the rain started, initially just gently but with increasing ferocity throughout the night. Thankfully except the lack of sleep worrying about the rain and our leaky tent by the morning there was only the occasional shower and with a strong westerly wind our tent was soon dry. Luckily as well there were no major holes in the flysheet as the little tortie kitten we'd been playing with last night decided to curl up on top of the tent when it couldn't find its way inside. Very cute and thankfully no harm done.
Onwards and eastwards at least we had a good tailwind despite having to wear more layers of clothing than we had for a long time. We had a small climb leaving the lakeside for a while and up there we had our first views of Bariloche across the lake. Not far as the crow flies, we just had to cycle around the edge of the lake to get there.
Reaching the eastern edge of the lake we experienced deja vu from our journey to El Calafate as again we turned right onto Ruta 40 and straight into a head wind. Thankfully it wasn't as severe as on the previous occasion but it was still hard work. A rest and lunch stop in yet another newly built bus shelter gave us the energy to continue on to Bariloche. The traffic was getting busier, but this wasn't what caused Gareth to come sliding off his bike as he slipped on some gravel on the side of the road. He quickly managed to pull himself out of the way of the oncoming lorry and escape with only a couple of grazes and a hole in one pannier bag.
It was hard work cycling the final stretch into Bariloche, battling wind and traffic and I was annoyed when a guy in a 2CV travelling in the opposite direction pulled over and signalled us to stop. It was unjustified as he turned out to be  a nice Argentinian, offering us accommodation in his farm house a little further back down the road. He appeared and I think he was really genuine, saying that he was a cyclist himself and a few years previously he'd cycled Alaska to Ushuaia. At the time I was feeling a bit apprehensive and we made our excuses and continued onwards. I felt a bit guilty afterwards as I think Gareth would have stopped for the night and I think he was genuine.
Anyway decision made we continued on to Bariloche and the tourist office for a map of roads and campsites on the Llao Llao peninsula. A stop for a coffee was needed to give us the motivation to leave the town and cycle a bit further onwards. We were really glad that we made the effort as when we got out of Bariloche and turned off to quieter ripio roads and it renewed our sanity after all the busy roads we'd been cycling on recently. We found a beautiful 'back road' to Colonia Suiza, officially shut to transit traffic due to rock falls but perfectly suitable for bikes with lovely views.
Arriving at the tiny hamlet of Colonia Suiza we found our way to Camping Ser, recommended to us by Alex and Julie. It lived up to recommendations with lovely huge warm showers, apple trees in the grounds and  a warm kitchen to use and sit in during the evening. Gareth had an upset stomach and went to bed early but I made full use of the dinning area to sit, eat and read in the warm.