What have we left behind now? - Days 449-450
We have flown 888 miles north to San Carlos Bariloche. But when we arrived - Oh no! What have we left behind now?
No dramas at the Airport this time, thank goodness. We were flying north to San Carlos Bariloche, the area is known as the Lake District, so you can imagine it has a very different landscape to El Calafate.
During our flight, Tim and I had such an enriching conversation. We realised that we can both criticise each other a bit too much. I may write more about this for Glows Coaching as there was some great learning here for us both. How are we giving feedback? Is the timing right? Are we coming from a place of love or annoyance? And what if we can be curious when receiving feedback? Why make it personal? We both really appreciate these discussions, it’s not something that we did much before our travels. We both have a deeper understanding of one another and perhaps are a bit wiser.
We arrived at our Airbnb, a brand new Apartment, in a very modern and stylish building, with views between the pines of Nahuel Huapi Lake. After settling in and buying some provisions, I got down to some writing. I was three days behind. Our procedure for these muses is that I write, read it aloud to Tim, (I can hear where my writing sounds clunky), make some adjustments, and then Tim creates the collages of photos. Sometimes he has to look at both of our mobiles and our camera to find the best pictures to use so it can take a while.
“Where’s the camera?” Tim asked. I looked in my small rucksack. No, not there. I then realised that I hadn’t seen it since the day before. We looked everywhere; not that there are too many places to look!
It is strange how we react to situations, all depending on what’s going through our minds at that moment in time. I was very calm, despite discovering that we had lost our (not cheap) camera. A contrast to the morning when I got flustered pressing the wrong buttons on the Airbnb alarm just as we were departing!
We realised that the camera was either left at the Airbnb or on the tour bus. We are fairly stringent checking our accommodation when going these days after a number of hats have been forgotten around the globe. The camera must have been left on the bus. Tim checked with Teresa, our host’s sister, who had been looking after us and I checked with the Tour Operator.
We had to wait until the next day to find out that we had, indeed, left the camera on the bus. Doh! We are now 1,429 km (888 miles) away. What to do?
Luckily, there are many kind people around the world and here in Argentina. Both the tour operator and Teresa offered to organise getting the camera to us. Amazingly, Teresa’s sister Joselina, our host, is visiting her daughter here in Bariloche (what are the chances of that!) so Teresa arranged a courier to get it there. The cost? Just £6 by express delivery at the weekend!
The rest of Day 450 was walking around the town of Bariloche, known as “Little Switzerland” which doesn’t surprise me. It has many alpine characteristics, both in climate, vista and style with many picture postcard views of lakes and pine-clad mountains, and pretty Swiss-style architecture with gabled roofs, wide eaves and wooden beams. It was an enjoyable day listening to a few street musicians, walking along a great craft market, visiting the town museum, going on a 30-minute walking tour and eating a sample of ice cream – all in the name of research. The town is famous for its ice cream and chocolate. Perhaps chocolate will be sampled on another day.
The museum was quite sweet, with information about various wildlife. I was shocked to read that the one snake they have here is 60m long until I read the Spanish version which read 60cm! There was also a display about Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno (remember him? See Day 448) and about various tribes of Indigenous people (similar to what we learn in Ushuaia - See Day 442).
On our walking tour, we were the only people! I was expecting to walk around part of the town, but we just went around the town square looking at the buildings, finding out about the vision of Ezequiel Bustillo to create the town, the architect Ernesto de Estrada who designed the Civic Centre and what happens in all the buildings around the square. Our guide also listed the many festivals that the town has, including Chocolate, chopping logs, snow queens and music festivals. I was surprised when our 30 minutes was up. It flew by!
And the pièce de résistance for the day was having a lovely chat over the internet with Eve and Diane who we met on our Safari in Africa. It was as if they were in the room with us rather than Seattle where they were speaking from with thick snow outside. Much hilarity, much laughter, and we hope to see Eve in the next four months in Nicaragua. Fingers crossed.
