Denouement Diaries - Week 5
Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision.
As usual, follow along at:
And...here. Anyway let's get into it:
9/3/23 - Day 29: Bariloche + Cerro Campanario
- Slept in
- Lounged and had a long breakfast
- Had a few coffees in the hostel
- Eventually formed a bit of a plan for the day
- Wandered into the centro
- Visited an outdoor store - Casey bought some new shoes
- Got some more cash out - more blue dollar discount
- Then straight into a cab
- Lovely cab driver - she is studying the physics/geology of mountains (by our translation) at university while working as a taxi driver
- To the mountain
- Got tickets for the chairlift
- And up we go
- Much nicer than Cerro Torro
- Chilled little area up the top
- Had a coffee after Casey waited in a classic 20min Argentinian line
- Then just pondered the views
- And watched the birds
- Back down
- Cab back into town
- Casey grabbed some fruit on the walk back
- Then chill for a while watching documentary on Patagonian animals
- Until we wandered back out for dinner to a Mexican place we clocked earlier
- Awesome food
- Tacos and Nachos
- Very full
- Coffee after dinner at a little cafe
- Then droppped Casey off to her pole class
- Chilled and read
- Picked up Casey
- Pack up
- Sleeps
10/3/23 - Day 30: Bariloche - Mendoza
- Up a bit earlier
- Still had a normal hostel breakfast
- Then our lovely cab driver picked us up - easily organised over Whatsapp
- To the airport
- Had already checked in and had boarding passes
- Chilled at the gate
- Easily on
- Chatted to a lovely American guy who was basically just roaming around a few Argentinian cities with the view of hunting a retirement location
- Really cool that he is doing that before retirement
- I suppose its kind of what we are doing now - he's just closer to actually retiring
- Maybe we should be looking at the places we go through that lens
- Certainly more Australian pre-retirees should...
- Anyway, landed
- Straight out the front door of the airport
- Carry-on only for the win
- Taxi to our place
- Easily found it, shown around
- We have a whole apartment!
- No more little hostel bedroom for us
- Then wandered into town
- Hadn't been here since 2017 but stil familiar
- Found a restaurant - got some meat
- Then wandered the Plaza Independencia
- Coffees and chocolates
- Home for a bit
- Via a grocery store
- Couldn't find any eggs (common theme) - had to ask for help to find eggs
- Cooled down for a bit
- Then walked down to Casey's next pole gym
- Immediately nearly hit by car after I dropped her off
- But the driver said pardona mi so that makes everything better..
- I just read with a coffee in Maccas while I waited for her
- Cab back up to our end of the Centro
- And an opportunistic awesome ice cream on the way home
- Moustaches make it extremely difficult to eat ice cream...
11/3/23 - Day 31: Mendoza
- Sleep in
- Made some (not bacon) ham and eggs on toast
- Slow wakeup
- Shaved my moustache off because I want to be able to eat ice cream
- Then wandered into the centre aimlessly
- First thing we found was an awesome cover band playing on a street corner - la banda viajera
- Coffee and pastry at a lovely little cafe that catered for staff with disabilities
- Sat in the park in the shade and read - finished 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' (Toshikazu Kawaguchi) - a lovely little story
- Then more coffees in a nice cool cafe
- Planned to go to a museum that opened at 1600
- Got to the front door and it wad closed for two weeks - very Argentinian
- Wandered the streets and had an early dinner - good mexican food
- Then back to our apartment for a bit
- Then drawn back to the ice cream place on our street
- We got bowls this time, not cones
- Awesome
- Watched Reno 911
- Washed my clothes that had been soaking in a bucket...
12/3/23 - Day 32: Mendoza
- Bit of a sleep in
- Lazy eggs on toast and some coffees
- Pretty keen to just have a wander and read a book today
- Walked in towards Plaza de Indepencia
- Coffee shop
- Actually did a bit of looking forwards around maybe doing something for Casey's birthday in October - looking at cool places in Greece
- Then wandered up to the Parque Gneral San Martin
- Everything in South America is about San Martin...
- Massive park
- Wandered around the lake
- Crepes and smoothies
- Sat and had a read for a little while in the shade
- Saw a crazy convoy of soccer lunatics arriving by car, motorbike, bus, hanging outside the bus, on the roof of the bue etc
- Apparently there is a game tonight - Godoy Cruz (from Mendoza) are playing River Plate (from Buenos Aires)
- Wandered back towards our apartment via another ice cream store
- Chilled for a while
- Did a bit of confirming that we will be able to get across the border by road into Paraguay in about a week
- Should be fine
- Eventually wandered back into the Centro to find some dinner
- Couldn't face cooking for ourselves
- Had a good steak
- Then home
- Did not get any more ice cream
- Self control
13/3/23 - Day 33: Mendoza
- Eggs on toast before we left a little earlier
- Cab down to the pole studio
- That Casey had hired out
- Sat with her for a while as she trained and did cool tricks
- Walked back stopping at 'Godoy Modesto', a cool cafe with the worlds most uncomfortable chairs
- Then continued the walk home
- Picked up some snacks from Starbucks
- Back to our place so Casey could watch a recording of a pole comp that had just run in Australia
- Chilled for a bit
- Through the afternoon
- Played card game
- Then eventually back into Centro to Bute for some snacks before a dance show we booked
- Walked through the park looking at the fountain and light show
- Got to the dance venue - very Argentinian, no indication of when the show would start for about an hour, then it suddenly started
- More food there but mostly there for the show
- Awesome music, traditional dancing, tango
- Dancing old people
- Was good
14/3/23 - Day 34: Mendoza - Salta
- Up a little bit earlier because we were checking out for a travel day
- Packed up
- And wandered into the Centro
- Made camp at Starbucks
- Got some coffees and snacks
- Casey had to line up behind an infurating - "oh no actually give me a refund for that purchase, but only partially because I actually want that coffee instead, oh where do your your sandwiches come from, Colombia?, oh excellent, yes its a lovely day' etc etc etc
- Then a cab to the airport
- Easy check in - turns out the online form that told me it hadnt worked had, in fact, worked
- Boarding passes
- Through security
- Waited
- Eventually on
- Not a full plane
- Storms as we were headed into Salta - apparently it hailed just before we landed - hielo piedra
- Taxi to where we staying - keypad entry but host lady was there to greet us anyway
- Then wander into the lovely little old town of Salta
- Very early dinner as we were hungry
- Then more wander around the old town
- Picked up some donuts
- Ate them on our rooftop terrace when we got back
- Watched 'Paddington 2'
15/3/23 - Day 35: Salta
- Bit of a asleep in
- Wandered in to town and had breakfast at a cafe on the main square
- Then wandered around looking into the cathedrals, old government buildings and governor houses (like 250 years old) old and well preserved, many of them with free entry
- Had to pay more then the ‘local rate’ at one because we were foreign…
- Then to the chairlift
- Up to the top of the mountain
- Clear and green and lovely!
- Had a snack and coffee because we’re not animals
- Back down then to a contemporary art museum on the way home about dogs with letterboxes on their heads
- Then home for a read and chill
- Walked Casey to her next Pole class, Casey decided not to do all 3 classes and instead did 2 so we had a cake and coffee before she started
- Wife at pole 7-930 - she made lots of friends and learned a new apparatus
- Stopped for dinner on the way home - still wild that toddlers are running around restaurants at 2300 at night here
- Then sleeps because early start tomorrow
Stay tuned...