4th February 2014 – Bariloche

Today is a rest day in Bariloche, which is must appreciated after our ordeal yesterday. After yesterday’s storm today we woke up to a beautiful sunny day.  Our hotel room is huge with a spa set into an area surrounded by glass with views over the lake, we’ll have to try it out later tonight. This is our view:-You’d be forgiven for thinking that you are in a European village in the alps here as Bariloche is on the edge of a lake surrounded by mountains and national park and the houses have steep roof lines and timber balconies with lots of red roses in the gardens.  It’s very pretty.  This is the centre of beer making in Argentina and there are boutique breweries everywhere.  Michael tried a scotch beer and Kay had a raspberry beer, both very nice. After a morning of checking the car after our drive through the mud yesterday all looked OK although the exhaust system has a few more dents in it.  Michael also greased the king pins again and Shiraz is running well.In the afternoon navy car, Goldie and us headed off to meet all the other cars as we are planning to drive around the lake.  On the way to our rendezvous point the police pulled us over.  This is not unusual in Argentina as the police have control points everywhere, and they randomly select cars to pull them over & check their paperwork.  To date they haven’t bothered with us I don’t think they know what to check.  So it was unusual to be pulled over, however they were only interested in Goldie, not navy car or us, but we all stayed together.  It turns out that earlier in the morning, Goldie had an accident in town, as they were turning left a car came through on their left on the wrong side of the road and hit them on the passenger side rear panel just in front of the wheel arch.  The guy who ran into them got quite agressive with John and they thought they’d be safer if they left.  Turns out the guy who ran into them was a policeman, so the police were on the lookout for Goldie. A car load of about 6 police turned up lights & sirens blaring, then a policeman with gold all over his hat & pocket turned up, so poor Goldie was surrounded by police, quite nerve wracking for John & Roz.  They were interested in the damage to the car and wanted to see the insurance papers, which were back in the hotel.  We had our papers with us and so did navy car, so the police saw them and we explained that each car had the same papers, which they were pleased about, so navy car went back to the hotel to collect Goldie’s insurance papers and we stayed put.  Once the police recorded all the insurance details for Goldie we were good to go on our way.  We drove up the road and stopped to have a breather after this encounter and taste the local chocolate which they’re famous for along with gnomes. The hot chocolates were lovely and so was the chocolate! The 3 cars continued on our drive around the lake which is beautiful and very popular with tourists.  There are quite a few beaches dotted around the lake with a lot of people swimming.  I imagine it would be beautiful here in the winter when it snows.    Tonight we self catered in our room as it’s hard to beat the views.  Chandon is produced in Mendoza in Argentina, so we bought a bottle and drank it in the spa while the sun set, most pleasant and the Chandon is as good as we get in Oz especially at AUD$13 a bottle!