Its been over an year since I got back for my sabbatical trip to South America (Argentina, Chile, Peru ,Bolivia and half a day in Brazil). Its been slow progress but I’ve finally completed the final blog post of that trip.
The following morning started early with the typical continental breakfast seen at the other hotels consisting of eggs hams etc. The only notable exception being the local flat bread, Pan.
The original plan was to take a bus to Cuzco via the fabled Lake Titicaca.
After we picked up our bags from the hotel front desk (The manager and one and only staff member wasn’t around) we waited in the pitch dark for the shuttle to Calama airport. It arrived relatively on time much to my joy given my loss of contact with the man who arranged it. The shuttle driver then informed us that the shuttle was for Calama city and not the airport, which made our travel that night a lot easier.
I didn’t originally consider this site a must-see of Bariloche but as it was conviently located in the Civic Centre and I had some time to spare so I thought :
I had one more day to spend in bariloche before proceeding onto el calafete. I had considered the longer haul options during my planning phase of the trip. But the town of Neuquén was a few hours away by bus and I wasn’t feeling the urge to travel so far out to checkout some dinosaur bones.
I had decided to eat dinner at a restaurant in town (one which accepted credit cards), I decided on a German bistro called “La Alpine”. The exterior and interior looked Germanic-ally authentic and I hoped that the food wouldn’t disappoint. This was first proper meal of the trip (as opposed to the café snacks and biscuits of past 2 days).
My Plan for the next few days in Bariloche were centred around hiking in the great woods of this region.
As mentioned in my 1st post , I attempted to lower the money I’d need to carry with me on the trip by pre-booking almost all the hotels & internal flights for the month of travel. This meant a fairly detailed (and some might find constricting) travel itinerary. But every $100 I paid upfront meant less cash I’d need to protect and insure against on my travels. High Crime levels in some of the countries I’d be visiting provided most of the motivation to do this.
The flight from Buenos Aires to the Northern rainforests of the Misiones province look less than 2 hours and was uneventful.
After 19 hours on the plane from Dubai to Buenos Aires and the short 2 hour stop in Dubai just gave enough time to take a quick shower and change of clothes, I was looking forward to getting out of the cramped seats and lying down on a bed.
Before embarking on my South American trip (more on the reasons why South America in another post), I had to plan my entry into the continent.