Since I got up early already, so I went for a walk to the town centro, I walked along the lakeside. On the side of the streets by the lake, every so often, you see a pair of wooden couple looking at the sea, where the sun is raising. They are all very similar but have different motions or hair styles. Kind of interestingly looking. At 9am, the streets were still pretty quiet. Got to the town centro where the plaza is. They have been constructing a stage, I believe it is for the chocolate festival. On the side of the plaza, there was a giant dome shape thingy. I didn’t find out until later that it is where the giant Easter egg is. I did go in and take some pictures. That is one huge chocolate egg!
Came back down from the hill, almost missed my bus. I chased it literally and got on it when it was at the stop sign before turning. Thanks god! It was already past 11am, finally I was able to find a phone to call Ernesto. He still thought it was too windy. He could hear my disappointment, so he agreed we will try again on the 4/20. We will reconnect on Saturday evening and see the forecast again, and then decide. He said right now, the forecast says it is going to be rainy on the 4/20 but no wind. Weather can change any second. That will be my final chance. We will see.
It is interesting that the words I have said the most today is “Habla ingles, OK?” (speak english, ok?) There are not many people speaking english here, not even in the tourist office. Very little (5% english and 95% spanish if they have tried). Definitely less people speaking english here than in Ushuaia. There are still lots of tourists around, but I think they are mostly from Argentina or Brazil, so people don’t really need to speak english. I see no Asians anywhere. Some Europeans and Canadians, I don’t even see Americans or British. Anyway, since I have the afternoon free, so I went in the tourist office and see if there is another half-day tour I could join. I decided to join the Circuito Chico tour, which included seeing going up Cerro Campanario (another mountain), and then driving along the Peninsula San Pedro to the infamous hotel Llao Llao. However, the lady at the tourist office was not very clean about where exactly I could register for the tour. After I searched around for another 15-20 mins, I ended up going back to the tourist office asking another lady for help. I specifically ask her to point out one of the many travel agency I am supposed to go to on the map for me. Got it!
Got to the travel agency, it was another woman. This one was an interesting encounter. Hable ingles, ok? She said a little bit. I said I want to join the Circuito Chico tour for the afternoon, she was like si si... explaining to me what I will see, when they are going to pick me up, asking me where I come from...etc etc. Once we started chatting, in 10% english, 20% spanish, and 70% guessing, she asked me what I will be doing tomorrow. I said I have joined a tour to go to San Martin de los Andes. She asked me if I booked already and how much I paid. I said I booked online and it is quite expensive like US$135. It is a full day tour. She asked me again if that is in Peso? I said no, it is in US dollars. She was ecstatic, what!? In dollars, that is impossible! How can it be so expensive?! She was literally like a mom who has just found out her son being tricked money from someone else. I was like, really? And then she told me the same tour they are running, it is exact same route, but cost almost 2/3 less. I said but it is an english tour. She said, si, but that is mucho mucho mas, she just couldn’t believe it. She got me all like shit, I got tricked. I did try to call the tour and see if I can make adjustment to the booking, it is too late. Oh well. I guess I will have to take this loss. Next time, if anyone will come to Bariloche, I would definitely recommand not to book any tours ahead. There are just so many availability and much cheaper to book here locally.
At 3pm, I went downstairs and waited for the pickup for the Circuito Chico tour. A white small van stopped a few minutes later. The driver gave me a signal to get on. He asked me if I am Beny (that is how she wrote it), I said Si. I was sitting next to the driver, he threw me a string of spanish, I was like huh? Just after I confirmed that I was on the right car, I shut the door next to me, and the driver responded in Spanish “Easy, Easy” or “Not so hard”. Apparently the string of spanish he had just said was to tell me not to shut the door so hard. I guess I have learned a new word for the day. Before long, I realized this is a full spanish tour, he didn’t even speak one single English word. The description part I am fine to miss, but the difficult part was when we got to the Cerro Campanario, we were sent up the mountain by the chairlift on our own. It was really really freaky to look backwards to see how far up you are going. I was with Antonio who is an older Mexican guy, traveling with his wife and daughter (or sister). He didn’t speak english neither but he seemed like a kind man. We did try to exchange a few lines, name, where you are coming, that is about it. Hehe... I had no idea when we were supposed to get back down, I don’t think he mentioned anything about time or I missed it. So, I was just pretty much trying to pay attention to other people in my tour, when they jumped on the chairlift back down, I would follow. We spent a good hour up there, much nicer view than Cerro Otto actually. Continued on with the Circuito Chico tour, we cruised along the peninsula, and stopped at a few viewpoints to take pictures. The tour was about 3 hours long.
For dinner, I have finally tried the Argentinean grilled asada, that was really good. I also ordered chorizo. At first, he brought me a chopping block with one chorizo slided in half, a piece grilled ribs (asada). I thought that was perfect size especially after I ate two piece of breads with their pesto oil thingy. How little did I know, after I just finished my food, the grilling man brought over two more piece of ribs, even bigger size than the first one. I was kind of surprised by that and said muy mucho. I didn’t even finish it, I couldn’t, I felt so bad for wasting foods, it was just way too much, my jaw felt tired just from chewing!
Other Pictures of the Day:
