This morning we will be taking a public bus once again as Priscilla has not yet caught up with us. We have no breakfast as it is too early for the hostel to get bread for us (but we have to buy it the day before ourselves - not sure of the logic there), and head off to the bus terminal a short walk away. The bus is pretty much on time and we, along with a bunch of other people, load up and head off.
We are taking the scenic route to Bariloche - the dusty Siete Lagos route. It is a very nice drive, but the frustrating part is that we cannot stop for photos along the way. We have a quick lunch stop along the way and pull into the Bariloche bus terminal around 11:30 AM. We stay on the bus, however, as the driver has agreed to take us to our hostel, which is about 7 km outside town.
We check into the Alaska Youth Hostel just before noon, but not without a bit of controversy due to the way the people were allocated between the dorms and the cabins. After dropping off our bags, we took it easy until a bunch of taxis came to take us into town and to the chocolate factory. When we get to the chocolate factory there is further controversy - the price for the taxis has not been clearly negotiated and the factory appears to be closed.
A bunch of us head off to town with the same taxi. Once in town we wander around. It is a nice town with a great location, but it was been massively over-developed and has lost much of its charm. First we get some ice cream (we do have our priorities straight, after all), bought some snacks and then headed down to the lake to have a look a round. After that we stormed the info center and bombarded them with a series of questions. We did not have all the information on the options of what to do, so we needed as much info as we could gather. They were very friendly and helpful.
Then off to the exchange bureau, which was closed for a 4 hour lunch. Here we were able to change our dollars for 1.25 Pesos each. Everything is now starting to get a bit more reasonable as the Peso devalues. After a bit of time at the internet we walk over to the chocolate factory, but it is nothing too special. We were expecting a bit more of a boutique type place with the chocolates made by hand, but it was an industrial operation. From there we caught the bus back to the hostel. The driver was very helpful and stopped the bus right where we needed to go.
We did not do much that night. Had dinner, relaxed and watched parts of some videos. The four of us slept well in our dorm room that night other than for the loud thud when Jacqui fell out of the top bunk in the middle of the night as she went to the loo. She had forgotten that she was on the top bunk. Luckily it was only her pride that was hurt.