We awoke to a beautiful blue sky and overlooking the lake from our very nice room but did notice that it was a bit windy.
The Hotel phoned the travel agent who confirmed that Jennifer’s binoculars had arrived safely in Bariloche, thank heavans, and so we caught a cab to collect them and also have some time looking around the town. This whole area is driven to try and replicate the Swiss housing designs and it is everywhere with wooden houses and hotels and this is because there is a strong Swiss and German influence from immigrants many years ago. We walked through town and there are many shops selling chocolate, and these are large shops and one the side of Waitrose in Weybridge, just selling chocolate and ice cream. We found the Church and took some photos and then had a coffee and said let’s go to the Bank to exchange some Chilean money and USD to enable us to have enough Argentine cash for the rest of our holiday. The Bank was packed, and I mean really packed, and so we wandered around inside for about ten minutes looking for signs that may say exchange but no and then eventually what seemed like a very nice man asked if he could assist, I explained the matter and he said join this queue here which I did for about twenty five minutes and finally it was my turn. It is strange that you stand in queues and ahead of you are solid barriers 7 feet high and when you are called you go round the barriers to the desk where a very polite young man said, sorry we don’t do exchange in this bank and after enrolling several of his colleagues he explained that I should go four blocks down the road and there would be an exchange office. And so after about thirty five minutes in the Bank and a waste of time we headed down the road and eventually found the exchange place and it was empty and so in a few minutes the money transaction was complete.
For lunch we found a very busy typical small café where we ordered Empanadas (a bit like a Cornish pasty only smaller) whilst watching the TV which was showing Liverpool vs Tottenham on repeat..
We returned to the chocolate shop and had a brilliant ice cream and as the wind was now quite strong and the dust everywhere, particularly the remains of the Chilean Volcano dust which obliterated much of this town just over a year ago.
Back in the Hotel by mid-afternoon and Noel checked on flight departure times as it would appear that Aerolineas Argentinas has changed all the flight departure and arrival times of our flights since we booked them with no notification whatsoever and so our 10.15 flight tomorrow is now leaving at 0905, damn that means another early morning.
The internet at the Hotel has slowed with technical problems, oh dear here we again.
For dinner we decided to use the Hotel restaurant again as its good food and near at hand and easy to get back to the room without taxis. Tomorrow we hire a car for the day and tour around the area.
In our earlier visit to Argentina and in the last few days I have spoken about what the locals thinks of the Falkland Island issue and all have said it’s a ploy to divert attention away from the real problems at home. Others have said if the lady in charge cannot control Argentina why should she get worried about a few small island and most Argentinian don’t care where the island are British or another nationality and where are they anyway.
