We flew into Buenos Aires yesterday morning — kick-starting a week in Argentina before heading to Antarctica. My flight was non-stop from London and lasted 14 hours! That’s the longest single flight I think I’ve ever taken and (other than the bickering couple sitting next to me) it was pretty smooth and uneventful.
The first day was pretty low key since everyone was jetlagged and arriving at different points in time — there are 16 of us traveling on this leg of the journey. After check-in and a bit of an orientation and greeting from our tour guide we spent a few hours wandering around Buenos Aires and checking out the Sunday markets. We had a really nice steak dinner (it is Argentina after all) and we called it an early night.
This morning we flew into the town of Bariloche in Patagonia and took a chair lift at Cerro Campanario — it’s a quick 7 minute ride to the top and shows fabulous views over the lake district. Except today it decided to show us what hard, fast, cold rain looks like at the top of a very very windy mountain. It felt like hail it was raining so hard so we escaped into the associated cafe for cappucino and tarta frambuesa (raspberry pie). The cafe is small and full of people but it was warm, reasonably priced (for what it is) and has beautiful views.
Bariloche (officially known as San Carlos de Bariloche) is known for great chocolate and beer — I don’t know the full history yet but a lot of German and other European immigrants moved here after WWII and made chocolate popular in the region. The main market areas are full of chocolate shops now and many side streets have cervecerias (breweries). We picked up some chocolate today and I see a cerveceria in my near future!
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