Let Us Introduce Corbin

Without further ado, let us introduce to you our stalwart companion for the rest of our time in the Lake District: Corbin! In the last post, I mentioned that Bariloche is not very pedestrian friendly. Things are a little too spread out, and the roads are a little too sidewalk-less for us. Good thing we had planned ahead and rented a car!

Corbin, so aptly named because he is a Chevy Corsa (yeah, we'd never heard of it either), is a lovely shade of grey with just enough bumps and bruises on his exterior to make him feel well-loved. Justin is the only one allowed to drive Corbin (mainly because I can't drive a manual. I know, I'm lame), but I like to think that I navigated us through thick and thin. I really wish we had a before and after picture, because he was so nice and clean when we got him…

Anyway, the aftermath of getting Corbin is worth telling. Well maybe not, but you're going to be subjected to it anyway. Corbin was dropped off at our apartment at 8 pm, so we took him for a spin into town. After finding a suitable parking place (this involved more than one u-turn), we walked through downtown Bariloche. Let me just say this: You should definitely come to Bariloche. You should NOT come to town in Bariloche.

Downtown Bariloche is a sad remnant of what I'm sure used to be a great downtown. Due to local unrest, political riots, and depression, all monuments in downtown Bariloche have been defaced. There is spray paint everywhere. You can't walk more than ten steps without be hassled by someone for your money, your pity, or your stupidity. Also, it is painfully obvious that the tourism business grew a lot faster than town was prepared for: there are hostels, internet cafes, and El Touristo Chocolaterias (no joke) on every corner. Long story short, our trip to downtown Bariloche was so stressful and unpleasant, we didn't even take any pictures!

The goal of our trip to town was to buy bus tickets to Mendoza (our next stop) and to change in some U.S. dollars for Argentine pesos. Both failed miserably. All of the banks and cambios were closed, and the only way to buy a bus ticket to Mendoza was to go to the terminal (also closed by this point). So we left town, and tried to find somewhere to eat dinner. However, it was Friday night at 10 p.m.; prime eating hours. Everywhere we went had over an hour wait, if they would be able to seat us at all. So we went home, ordered take out empanadas again, and booked our bus tickets online.

Getting Corbin = awesome. The aftermath = not so awesome. But we survived!!

Pictures to come later. Like I said, downtown was too stressful, and Corbin's pictures fit better elsewhere. Sorry for the long rant without any pictures!

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