Argentina - the last leg

20 November

Bariloche is a really beautiful, cutesy little ski resort on a massive lake and surrounded by snow capped mountains. And I was staying in a hostel at the top of an apartment block in the middle of town so had some fantastic views.

Bariloche - view from the hostel

Ruling out the idea of a 40km cycle along the lake I got a bus instead and went for a wee wander where I got dropped off. The sun was really lovely and hot but the air and the water were really cold so no swimming!

Bariloche town centre - cutesy!

After a couple of days hanging out there, avoiding the St Bernards posing in the square and buying plenty chocolate for xmas I got another night bus up to Mendoza.

Mendoza is a really lovely town, with a great climate (at this time of year - it gets up to 45C in the summer) and is famous for its vineyards. However, being lazy, knowing nothing about wine and having been to a few vineyards on this trip already, I spent my time in Mendoza eating, drinking, sunbathing by the hostel's pool (small and definitely harbouring alien lifeforms) and going paragliding which was just amazing.

I went with this Scottish/Chilean bloke Mo I met in the hostel. We were picked up in the late afternoon and driven about halfway up one of the mountains just outside of town. Where we waited. And waited. Turns out the wind was too gusty or something. Just as I was about to give up and suggest trying in the morning instead, we were loaded back up into the jeep and driven to the top of the hill.

My feet, another paraglider, the ground!

We were doing tandem gliding which means that, once you've run off the edge of a mountain, all you have to do is sit in your little seat, try not to puke (apparently about 10% of people do, but not me!) and admire the views. It was really amazing up there, kind of like hot air ballooning in that it was really quiet and peaceful and amazing. We were probably up there for about 1/2 an hour or so before being dropped in for a really gentle landing. It was fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone and would absolutely go again.

(I don't have great photos as Mo has all the ones of me and my hard drive failed so I don't have copies of them sadly.)

And from there it was one last night bus back to Buenos Aires, where you'll be pleased to hear, I bought all
my (your) xmas presents in the really amazing Sunday markets they have here. Which meant I then had to go through my bags throwing away almost all my possessions! Such a great excuse to chuck out all the clothes I never want to see again!

So, for one last big night out I went, with a bunch of other people from the hostel, to a great drumming show called La Bomba. It's drumming like I've never heard drumming before and was truly fantastic. A great end to the trip.

I write this sitting in the sun at my hostel in BA, thinking about what to have for lunch (probably cheese & onion empanadas and perhaps some dulce de leche icecream) and dreading coming back to the snow. Whilst it'll be nice to see everyone, the thought of the real world scares me a little.

Luckily I've already got next year's trip booked.....