Pitstop in Bariloche

I mentioned that I am going south first, because the season is coming to a close (and Patagonian winters bring snow, impassable roads and bitter cold, which is not my idea of a good time nor is it safe to hike in those conditions.)

I won't bother to explain my route geographically; suffice it to say it has 5 legs that take 4 days (due to my belief that I was taking the least expensive flight and doing what is typically recommended to avoid the high costs in Chile, which is travel mostly through Argentina and pop into and out of Chile for specific places, such as Torres del Paine NP...of course LAN Chile just announced a big airfare sale so this convoluted route was all for naught! Grrrrrr...the joys of traveling... Well, at least it was good for a long laugh yesterday night with some fellow travelers. I would try to explain here, but really you could not understand without knowing this place as clearly I proved by making these unfortunate plans before arrival!).

Bariloche is magnificent. I hope to return to do some hiking here on my way north. In the meantime, this is what I saw while walking this morning.






(BTW, I have additional photos to upload for my last installment on Easter Island, but I moved those to DVD, and I have yet to find a computer with a DVD drive here in Argentina (granted, I haven't been here long, but still)...this gives you a sense that Brazil and Chile are far advanced in computer use and internet compared to Argentina where the machines tend to be old and slow.)