One of my favourite sounds during travel is that of the
landing gear compartments opening up during the approach of the
destination. I’ve flown a lot over the
last decade and although I love travelling, the long flights tend to wear me
down a bit these days. Not sure if it’s
the ingestion of the shitty airplane food or the stuffy air in the cabin after
12 hours in the sky but I’m all for the next generation of passenger
carriers. The Venus Project talks about
the possibility of creating tube trains that run on frictionless, magnetic
energy that could take you from LA to Shanghai in a matter of hours. This technology exists today but building the
infrastructure to house such a train would be an epic undertaking….but we as
humans have conquered some amazing things in a short amount of time.
Upon landing, Spencer and I collected our luggage, all but
one bag…my bag full of clothing. My fly
fishing gear made it, but my bag of clothing and toiletries was somewhere out
there. We filled out a lost baggage form
and hopped in a cab and headed into Hollywood Palermo district of Buenos Aires
where we would spend the next three days waiting for my baggage, eating and
drinking latte’s before heading into the Patagonia’s to stalk the Argentine
trout.
Upon arrival we were given a smaller room than what we had
booked….the front desk staff basically bullshitted us on the rooms being of equal
value. After a period of runaround from
the front desk I contacted the travel agency that booked the room and they were
able to get us into our booked room and added a free night which we later used
on the return to the city. Slick rooms
and an amazing location but the front desk staff was so inept and
uninterested that for $200/night I am
confident I could find a better deal in the Palermo area of the city.
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| The Streets of Palermo Hollywood |
Palermo is a really cool neighbourhood. Lined with trees (jacarandas, tipas and
sycamores) the streets of Palermo are well shaded and cozy due to the canopy of
bright green leaves and the purple flowers of the jacandas. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes
who’s tables spill out onto to the streets and Spencer and I spent a lot of
time enjoying food, coffee and drink while watching people stroll by. No shortage of gorgeous woman here that’s for
sure. It’s somewhat legendary for that
and I’ve been to a lot of cities in my life, but BA certainly has it’s fair
share of babes. WOW!!!
After my bag’s arrival we hopped on overnight bus and
travelled 20 hours to Bariloche which was perhaps a bit off the path but I was
needing a back molar pulled and was unsure
as to whether or not a dentist would be available in San Martin de Los
Andes. Turns out that would have been
fine but the dentist in Bariloche did an amazing job and was freakin’
hilarious. He didn’t speak much English
and our Spanish sucks so through google translate and hand gestures we defined
the procedure and got the tooth yanked and hand some great laughs.
I had my I phone unlocked before I arrived so we spent the
rest of the’ tooth day’ trying to get a sim card and number for that
phone. After several frustrating hours
the phone activated and I was now in ownership of an Argentinian phone number. We strolled around Bariloche which is like an old beaten down ski town and looked at
various restaurants before deciding on this one little hole in the wall which
by appearances did not look like much.
If I hadn’t looked through the window the previous evening and seen one
of the patrons getting down on a thick sirloin I never would have thought to go
in there but the eyes were right and we had two amazing chorizo steaks that
were done to perfection.
A bunch of beers later Spencer and I returned to our hostel
passed out and woke up the next morning to board the bus to San Martin and onto
the angling.
