Just on the outskirts of Patagonia proper, Bariloche sits on the shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi in the Argentine lake district - although it is impossible to buy mint cake here. Curious. Snowcapped mountains and log cabins give the town a really alpine feel, and the cold sunny mornings make it more like maybe Switzerland or Italy. It is the most idyllic and tranquil setting, especially after last week's drama.
Waking up to the amazing green scenery and enticing mountains made us thirsty to get into the wild and see what we could find. Cerro Lopez (2076m) - a beast of a walk up sandy path, stony track and finally through snow to the peak. Richly rewarded with 360 degree views of the huge number of lakes glistening in the sun, snow-topped volcanoes against a cloudless azure sky. the day was so clear we could see all the way over the border into Chile and beyond. Quite incredible. And we also saw a snake.
The next challenge - how can we get as many samples of chocolate as possible without having to pay for anything? Walking around town we popped into chocolate shops here and there, browsed and made very good 'I-take-my-chocolate-very-seriously' faces and before we knew it we were being given the most delicious samples - tiramisu, macadamia nut and Patagonian honey, passion fruit, strawberry cream... Be cool though, can't look too excited. Mull it over, wait a respectable time (90 seconds seems about right), then move to the door. Then giggle and skip away like a couple of pixies. Be cool. Really I think that our eyes give us away - they're so hungry for luxury like that. We visited one shop with a factory in the back and watched as expert chocolatiers rolled chocolate into these flake-like designs called 'rama'. Like a pair of street urchins we waited patiently with wide eyes until they noticed us. One pointed us to a side door and came round with a plate of fresh rama for us. Absolutely insane how good this chocolate is - rich, soft, sweet. Everything you could possibly want from a chocolate. Indescribable, really, in taste and goodness. Sorry.
Our first week in Argentina has been filled with high quality flavour like that. Back where the supermarkets have fresh meat, cheese, bread, fruit, vegetables... in fact having a supermarket with a fridge is a good enough start. In fact, having a supermarket at all is a great start. We've been able to eat proper meals again, and enjoy them on the peaceful streets of town. Argentinians are attractive people. The women are beautiful - dark hair, olive skin and gorgeous in their sundresses. Stark contrast to the Bolivian women who I'm sorry to say (and this is only my opinion - and Woody's although she'll not admit it) smell like eggs and urine. And not in a good way. The men are stereotypically Latin American - red-blooded and dark, but warm and friendly. they are very tactile people, affectionate and smiley - in every way enhancing our Argentine experience whether it's buying a mince empanada or asking the time...
At the same time, Argentinians are as difficult to understand as they are attractive. I suppose if you imagine a Spanish speaker learning how to speak English from an Oxford professor, then trying to get directions from a Glaswegian bus driver. The words are mostly the same, but it's the pronunciation that's throwing us for a loop. For example the word for chicken - 'pollo', pronounced 'po-yo' everywhere else, in Argentina is pronounced 'po-Jo'. And every other time where there's a sound like that - when a double 'l' sounds like a 'y' it now sounds like a really big 'J'. I think it might take a little extra practice to grasp it but based on events in Chile it looks like we'll have plenty opportunity...
The earthquake has been huge news here. The light fittings and chairs were shaking in our hostel when it hit Chile probably 1000 miles away. We're counting ourselves lucky that we found the country too expensive and jetted off a little early. For the moment we seem blessed anyway. The day of the earthquake we were swimming in crystal clear lakes and jumping off bridges into even clearer rivers. Hardly seems fair but if anything it puts a lot into perspective and it reinforces the need for us to appreciate what we're doing at any given moment. Looks like we're skipping through avoiding these natural disasters as we go. Hopeful that it stays that way.
Latest address reads 'somewhere in Welsh Patagonia'. Quite like Wales in that it's cold, but unlike Wales in that it's not a craphole. Although a guy yesterday wondered what we were doing here in the 'asshole of the world' all the way from beautiful Scotland. It's great fun telling people where we come from, seriously, their faces change, they're more interested in what we're up to and even happier to see us. So it seems the status quo remains the same all over the world: everybody loves the Scottish....
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