Week 2 - Bilbo Baggins House

What a day, stopped off in Bilbo Baggins for dumplings & tea, he´s a bit of a head case if you ask me but he makes a fine cup of tea and keeps a nice home!

Week 2 - Bariloche & The Andes

We arrived in the city of Bariloche on Saturady last after the most comfortable 12 hour bus journey EVER!! We went by what over here is called "Coche cama" which literally means bed-car, you get these massive seats that recline 170 degrees, they give you a blanket serve two meals .......with wine and give you champagne before you go to sleep to help!! There was even a little waiter on board to serve your every need!! Class!!!
Part of our journey involved a changing buses in Neuquem, of course when we arrived there our bus was not there and nobody at the office knew if it was coming, had come or was gonna come!!
Eventually we realised it was late, when the wanted to check our bags on board, they didnt tell when it was due but said it was on the way. So i went off to get one of those lovely crustless sandwiches they have over here and Neal went to wash his teeth in the jacks - unfortunatley when we were doing tis all the other passengers AND our luggage had boarded and was pulling out.............. we had run after and bag until it stopped even though the driver saw and ignored us!!! Fortunatley the little waite guy opened the door and we hopped in!! Very close!!

Bariloche was cool, a city located in the Andes surrounded by snow capped mountains and lakes!! We rented bikes and did a 60km trek around the mountains and lakes!!
Took some pictures too!!

Week 2 - Rafting

It was an early start as we were being picked up at our hostel at 9am. Grandma rustled up a nice little breakfast for us and then we were picked up in a 4x4 minibus by the legends who were running the show. We collected a few more rafters and then we headed south for about an hour before leaving the main road for a bumpy little dirt track. To say it was fairly rough in the back of the minibus would be an understatement. To be honest this was far from ideal for the two of us as we were quite tender after a 60km cycle the previous day. We made it to base camp after what seemed like an eternity and we were soon on the raft and on our way. All soreness from Monday was quickly forgotten. It was an absolutely brilliant experience and probably the best thing we've done so far. We'll definitely be doing it again as apparently there are world class rapids all over the place in South America. Probably the only person I've ever met who wouldn't enjoy the buzz of it would be Kiely who'd be well on for it but bail at the last minute. His fear of anything extreme is legendary. The river we did yesterday is called the Rio Manso and runs to the Chilean border. It had rapids that were category III plus so it got fairly hairy at times as Roy can certainly testify. We came through one particularly rough bit of water and I just about managed to stay on the boat. I looked back to see how Roy was getting on (he had been one place behind me to the right) but there was no sign of Roy. I had a look in the river and we had 3 rafters overboard including Roy. The look on his face was worth the price of the excursion on its own - you can see for yourself as it was captured by a photographer on the river in one of the truly great photos in the history of da lads.



My concern for my travel companion is all too apparent with the look on my own face.



Roy says that the Jewish guy sitting behind him started to fall out and decided that if he was going he was taking Roy with him. A shaft that Leary himself would be proud of. That incident was the highlight of the rafting itself, although it was also brilliant when our guide - a legend called Colo - told us we could jump out of the boat and have a swim. We didn't so much swim as float quickly down the river and through a couple more small rapids. Absolutely class. We eventually disembarked at the Chilean border (which consisted of a small wire fence in a field and an open gate with no sign of authorities of any kind). We picked up a couple of quick beers in a little hut next to the river and then headed back to base camp in the minibus where a huge barbecue with lots of wine was waiting for us. After dinner we took part in what must be one of the great games of 5 a side in history. 10 players from numerous nations came together to play barefoot on a small bobbly pitch with a soft football and brilliant little goals made of logs. A couple of the South Americans on our team tended to take a bit too much out of the ball at times (Mickey Mogs would do well over here I reckon) but we managed to win with the golden goal in the end. After that it was back on the 4x4 and back to civilisation. What a belter of a day and Roy has the bruises to prove it after crashing into a nice big rock when he fell overboard. Can't wait for the level IVs and Vs in Chile and Peru...

Week 2 - Villa Gesell - We´re Back!!!

Hi All, sorry for not updating for a while but we didnt want to add anything until we were able to upload a few photos.
To bring you up to date, last week was a fairly quiet week in Villa Gesell, we took it easy going to the beach everyday, the beach was very nice full of Argentinians who were on their summer holidays so it really felt like we were in Argentina rather than a tourist hotspot.
Our first day at the beach was quite funny, two of us arriving at the beach - massive smiles, a gleam in our eyes arriving at the beach full of Argentians who were all tanned from had to toe from months of exposure to the sun. Needless to say we stood out like two milkbottles!!But that was all to change afte a days sunbathing , soon we were to become two bottles of strawberry milk!!
Fortunatley the redness has now turned to tan, a real tan not the one the farmers get!!
Life was pretty laid back in Vill Gesell, eating out rally cheaply in good restaurants (all the restaurants here are good), we had steak every night, costs less than 3Euro and is way bigger than cow i´ve ever seen in my life, i´m exaggerating a little but u get the picture.Our favourite restaurant had to be Sancho´s, great steak and even Sancho himself managed to give us a great handshake on the way out!!!
Another restaurant we went to was an open buffet,serving every part of a cow, salads, meats everything, quality was okay!They had a massive fruit selection as well with one of the strangelst colured looking fruits i´ve ever seen. I took a picture, i think it was some sort of kryptonite based fruit..............this was confirmed when a Clark Kent lookalike at the table next to us fell over when i came back to my table with the fruit!

Our accomodation was ok, except i woke up one morning covered in ants, walking around my body,nibbling on me like i was some sort of ant hors'deurve!
Strangley Neal didnt have a single ant on him!!! Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!