For my last full day in Bariloche, with a brewing cold, I decided to take it relatively easy and climb a mountain. Now, I could have taken the chair lift like all of the old folks, but I’ve always found it hard to resist climbing a hill.
Curanto
I heard that there was some special thing that happens on Sundays in Colonia Suiza, a small community near Bariloche, so I bought a bus ticket and caught the extremely crowded bus to the small village. I was actually at the first bus stop which had an enormous line of people, and surprisingly, all of them fit on and I managed to squeeze into a 64 square centimeter plot of bus land near the rear entrance (it is always good to be near the exit in these situations; especially if you are beside the button that tells the bus driver that you want to stop).
Bicycling in Patagonia
After 6 months of not riding a bike, it was quite a shock to the system to jump on an inferior bike and climb hill after hill on a 25 km bike ride. It actually wasn’t too bad; I just walked the bike up the really steep hills and enjoyed the downhills and the scenery.
Bariloche
Apparently, my passport wasn’t too big of a problem as no one asked me about why it was wrinkly. They probably see wet passports every once in a while, lol. The only snag was my pronunciation of T in Spanish. Apparently, when I say it, it always sounds like the Spanish letter CH. After writing down what I was saying, it finally made sense to the customs official.
Should you wash your documents?
The answer is no. But I did. Had my laundry done and despite checking “all” the pockets, somehow, my passport was still in my pants. Fortunately, only Paraguay uses runny ink; everything else is quite legible although the passport itself is a little wrinkly.
Who killed the white llama?
Netflix has some interesting local content if you find yourself on the road or if you use a VPN with an IP address in another country. So, today, I was napping pretty much the whole day, but I did manage to book some airline tickets for my trip to Patagonia, get my Visa card unblocked and drop off some laundry ($6 to wash, dry and fold a load).
Montevideo, ho hum; Airline points are more exciting
I have read that there really isn’t a great deal of excitement in Montevideo and I now believe it. Unlike more touristy towns, there are no tourist operators to be found, very few tourists and life just seems to go on. I think I managed to find the one saving grace of Montevideo which is a really long ocean front boardwalk.
Making my way to Uruguay Part 2
The mission today was to get a ticket on the 3 hour ferry that goes directly from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, so I stored my luggage at the hotel and went for the pleasant walk up to the ferry terminal and bought my ticket (US$105). The ticket agent said I needed to be there 2 hours ahead of time which I thought odd, but it is an international ferry, so I guess it was similar to an airport where you had to go through migration control, etc.
Making my Way to Uruguay
Today was mostly a travel day. It started off in the wee hours of the morning with a taxi to the El Alto Airport (4000 m altitude). As you may know, the airlines like you to get to the airport very early for international flights, so you can sit in the crowded waiting room for several hours.
The Rest of the Tour
The third day of the tour was not so exciting as it really just involved driving back to Uyuni with a few brief stops including one lagoon (green lagoon) and one stop in a town for lunch and one stop in a town for a break.
Salt and Borax
I have made it back from the salt flats but I need a better internet connection and more time to make a proper post, not to mention my computer which is still in La Paz, so here is a teaser for now.
Pachamama and how my trip got even better
Tuesday, March 4 was a very early day as I had to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight to Uyuni, so I could get there in time to begin my 3 day trek through the Salt Flats, lagoons and desert of this beautiful part of Bolivia. When I got to the tour operator’s office, they told me that my tour had been cancelled due to the rest of the tour not being able to get a bus on Martes de Challa (coincides with Pancake Tuesday in Canada, I think).
How my Red Blood Cells are Cooperating and Water Fight Part 3
Today is the more traditional Carnaval parade in La Paz. From what I gather, each group that performs is a club or organization that plans and practises all year long just for this event. I bought a seat for the parade from one of the road side vendors and had a great view of the dancers and bands.
Water Fight Part II and the Case of the Missing Sock
Somehow my random walk has landed me in La Paz with immaculate timing. After a couple of days of rest, I have found myself right in the middle of the La Paz Carnaval. Yesterday seemed to be mostly about the children, but today was much different, but first the picture.
Water Fight!
The mysteries of Carnaval are only beginning to begin to unfurl for me. I gather that it is different everywhere. The main place to be for Carnaval in Bolivia is Oruro, but I still needed some acclimatization time, so I didn’t spend a rather long day going there. Instead, I just slowly walked around La Paz and enjoyed the start of their Carnaval.
Acclimatizing
I’m still acclimatizing to the elevation, so I didn’t do anything exciting today except take the elevator up to the 6th (top) floor of the hotel and take some pictures. There were some very nice views that never get captured properly on a camera, so I made a cartoon instead:
Bolivia
Today was a travel day. I had a short but good sleep and got up at 3:30 a.m. local time in Asuncion, got ready and my pre-arranged ride was already waiting. There was next to no traffic at this time, so the ride to the airport was quick. The first plane left on time and arrived early. The second plane left a little late and arrived on time.
Monsters and Art
Last night, it poured rain and it was still raining in the morning, so I’m glad that I had prearranged a vehicle, driver and guide for the day. Coincidentally, it was the same guide as my walking tour on Sunday. I think there might only be one English speaking guide in Asuncion. The driver was Carlos and was very good. He drove the speed limit, passed when safe and slowed down for the bumps.
Should I be concerned about the Ants?
In case you missed yesterday’s blog post, there wasn’t one. I didn’t do anything overly interesting other than wander around the downtown and arrange some things to do.
This morning, I had breakfast with a German couple who are spending three weeks in South America. They were very interesting, and we shared some travel tips and they taught me a couple German words.
How to Drink 3 Litres of Water and not have to pee
Direct quote from Marco, the tour guide I hired for the day: “It’s not so hot today; it’s only around 38.” For those of you who don’t like the heat, you might not want to read the rest of the horrible details, but for those of you who like the heat, well today was fantastic! And if you’re still reading despite hating the heat, the humidex was well into the 40’s.