(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part IV - Bariloche

We checked out of the Sheraton Iguazu yesterday morning with a pleasant surprise - they found my memory card totally unscathed!  Well, almost totally unscathed as we discovered later.  Strangely enough there was one new picture on the card and we weren't too thrilled with the location of the photo but we'll pretend it was some innocent moment that just happened to happen while viewing our memory card in someone else's camera hovering near a toilet in the Iguazu Sheraton.

Very avant-garde photography skills...

We had a connection through our favorite airport - Newberry Airport - the domestic BA airport where we spent much too much time trying to get to Iguazu.  At least on this go around we got corrent information and found wi-fi, some good wine, and a pretty solid empanada.

Our flight to Bariloche proceeded smoothly and we headed out to our hotel, The Design Suites Hotel, just outside of the city center.
 Well priced, modern and spacious (thanks to a triple upgrade when they found out we were on honeymoon), we had a suite with balcony and a lake-view jacuzzi.

We booked a white water rafting tour for the next morning and then grabbed dinner in their restaurant, paneled in windows overlooking Nahuel Huapi Lake - an enormous body of water, fed by melting Andean snow and also home to an alleged sea monster that pre-dates Nessie, named Nahuelito.  

For dinner that evening, I was moved to try something local and bold from the menu and opted for a starter that was a cocoa flavored ravioli filled with venison (although the menu opted to list the more cute and fuzzy "deer" moniker).

GG opted for a salad and then a barbeque pork dish that had nice flavor, although a bit chewy.

I went for a local fish "casserole" cooked in dende oil, coconut milk and served with black rice.  It was pretty tasty although a bit too coconutty for me.

We awoke early to grab breakfast at the hotel and await our white water rafting tour.  The weather was cloudy, rainy, and cold.  The perfect elements for a day of hardcore rafting in an andean snow fed river for our first ever rafting experience on class IV rapids.

We were accompanied by 4 other adventure seekers also with poor weather analysis skills - a couple from Germany and a couple from London.  So the 6 of us with our fearless and funny guide, Pablo, headed into the  middle of nowhere en route to the Lower Manso River which is fed by the Pacific Ocean and crosses the border into Chile (our final destination - we would be crossing the border via the river).  We traveled south on a paved road for about an hour and then turned onto a dirt road, truly into the middle of nowhere for another 45 minutes or so.  En route we all signed a waiver against any and all bodily harm and death with a full acknowledgment that there is no substantial medical care anywhere in the near proximity.  Nice.

Here is a nice little summary of what we were about to experience from the "Aguas Blanco" website.  Please note the heading - "Only for daring adventure rafting people!"  If that doesn't describe us to a "T" then I don't know what does...

We arrived at our destination and sat inside the cabin to warm by a coal oven and eat some breakfast to fortify us for the rafting exertion.  We suited up in our wetsuits and hit the river.  Moments before entering the water, i noticed a big hole in my pant leg but it was too late to change into another pair.  Onwards and upwards.

Pablo gave us a brief lesson on paddling and his commands, including many which did not make complete sense to me that he would be using in case of emergency, such as our raft flipping over which he said is "probable." I was praying that his translation of "probable" differed from our definition since the rapids were pretty serious and the water was seriously chilled (like 50 degrees fahrenheit).  

We hit our first rapids and I flew out of my seat, miraculously landing back in the boat unharmed.  After that, I learned how hard i really needed to jam my feet under the inflated seats.  So, yes, rapid set 1, i think it was called "Ozone Hole," we survived.  We continued along another 9 or so sets of rapids with names including "estasy" and "scream and cry" - not once did our raft capsize.  

We had one lazy area where Pablo informed us we could jump in and take a swim.  This was as we were all shivering with a gusty wind heading into our faces, looking down at a 50 degree swimming pool.  Without much pause, GG said she was going in if it only meant jumping in for a few seconds.  Ahh, the adventurous love of my life.  Shit.  That meant I was going in - whether my reasoning was to make sure she was safe or to not be her wussy fiancee that stayed in the boat - either way i was going.  After that, the rest of the boat fell like cards and we all jumped in.

It was freezing.  Not like, "Oooh!  Oooh! Cold but once you move around it starts to feel refreshing!"  This was like - "Hoe-Lee-Sheeet" cold that causes you pain and fear that your core body temperature may fall below the survival threshold.  And our jokester guide Pablo drifted far in front of us so a few seconds actually lasted minutes.  Minutes that felt like hours.  The only thing i could utter was "GG - that was the dumbest decision you've ever made!"  She couldn't hear me - i think it was because an ice cube formed in her ear.

We hauled each other into the boat, teeth chattering, ready for our final rapid and back to salvation.  We survived that one and disembarked off the raft.  We then hiked 300M up a hill that was almost 90degrees uphill to reach a hut, covered in horse poo that we could strip down in and change into dry clothes.  Victory. We survived.

We were driven back to the hut and fed a traditional parilla meal - an enormous serving of a bunch of red meat cooked on a grill outside.  Enormous.  This was just the first round of two that was intended to serve 6 of us.  

We were also treated to a slide show and video from our adventure which the unassuming photographer took of us from the shore along the way.  They were amazing and worth the 90 pesos he charged us for a copy of them on a DVD (which we can't access until we get home).

After consuming a small cow and a couple of bottles of malbec, it was time to head back to our hotel, our core body temperature slowly approaching 98.6 finally...

Bariloche, unbeknownst to me until doing some research, is famous for its chocolate.  Upon learning that i immediately found the best chocolate shop of the bunch, called Mamuschka (Russian for mother).  So we headed into town to load up on some sweets there and then off to dinner at a local italian restaurant called La Famiglia Bianchi.

Across the street from Mamuschka was a St. Bernard adult and a puppy with a local man luring tourists to take pictures with his brood.  Of course, that immediately tugged at GG and we ran over there, 10 pesos in hand, for the photo opp.  Here are a couple highlights.

Dinner was passable - certainly better italian than the two mistakes we made in BA.  And after that we headed home to rest up for our fly-fishing adventure the next morning!