The bus arrived at Neuquen at around 7am. This is the weirdest bus station so far - more like an airport! The luggage was taken off the bus and put onto a conveyor belt - usually people just wait by the bus and take it straight from there. The terminal is in the middle of nowhere and is just a row of doors leading to the rooms with the conveyor belts and then another row of doors leading to the row of bus company ticket offices and a couple of shops and then a row of doors leading out to the taxi rank and car park....most bus stations have tourist info places...I was kind of banking on this one to have one to tell me how to get to the dinosaur fossels and footprints which I read in the guidebook were nearby....the guidebook isn`t particularly helpful on this one - it just says the name of the place where they are under `Neuquen and around´ but doesn`t say how far it is or how to get there....helpful!! 
Anyway, as noone seemed to know anything in the bus station, it was looking like my dinosaur hunt wasn`t going to be as straightforward as I imagined, and it was tipping it down with rain, so I decided to just hop on a bus out of there instead. I was heading for Puerto Madryn, but I was then told that there were no buses going from Neuquen to Puerto Madryn!! Nightmare!! So, I decided to jump on a bus to Bariloche instead - I knew Noelle was in Bariloche doing her spanish course so as it was only a 5 hour bus ride, it seemed like a good idea.

I arrived in Bariloche at 2pm, jumped into a cab and went to the Marcopolo hostel - randomly picked out of the guidebook! Nice choice!! One of the best hostels I`ve stayed in so far - the rooms are really nice, the bar is really nice, and they give free breakfast and dinner! And Bariloche is one of the nicest places I`ve been so far - it`s like Switzerland - there`s a huge lake and the houses are really `Swiss` looking too - lots of wood and there`s lots of shops selling snow boards and warm clothing.
There`s skiing near here in the winter so it is a bit of a ski resort type town. The weather is a bit chilly too - I had got my fleece out for the first time this trip and I`ve abandoned sandals for shoes....and it`s quite nice!
I emailed Noelle to tell her I was here and went out for lunch.
It seems everyone in Bariloche disappears all afternoon - it was the same in San Rafael - the streets are deserted between 2pm and 5pm!
I found an Irish Pub - `Wilkenny`s' which I was hoping might have a little drop cider for me (still haven`t found any in S America) but unfortunately not, but they were still serving food, so I ate in there....and watched the footy...English footy!! It`s really funny listening to Argentinians comentating on English footy - when there`s a goal they scream Goooooooooooool and drag it out for ages, and then they play funky music to celebrate!
I went back to the hostel and met up with a few people in the bar and chatted for a while - feeling a bit vacant after the bus journeys though!

Noelle and Amy came and found me at 9.30pm and we went back to Wilkenny`s so they could eat. They had to get up early for spanish classes so we left the pub at 11ish and they went home, I met the guys from the hostel on their way out of the hostel so was dragged back to the pub for more beer.....

Thursday - woke up at noon!! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh - panic - needed to go buy a ticket for the boat trip this afternoon and then go meet Noelle and Amy before 1pm!! Quick shower, legged it across Bariloche and just made it in time!! We took the local bus to the port to get the boat trip - they really cram the buses full over here so we had to stand for half of the hour-long journey - the route was all around the edge of the lake so it was really scenic. We got the boat which took us to Aryenne forest - the trees here are a really light brown.

We only stopped there for half and hour and then went to Isla Victoria. We had an hour and a half there wandering around. They`ve introduced loads of sacoia trees here (not sure if I`ve spelt that correctly - Californian trees anyway) and other species too because the local trees don`t grow fast enough. The ones they`ve brought in can be used more quickly for wood to make stuff with!! ....Can you tell the guide was only speaking Spanish!? .....I didn`t quite get to grips with what this one was all about - can you tell? The boat trip was really cool anyway - the mountains around the lake are quite spectacular and some of them are snow-capped.

After the trip we went to Hotel Llau Llau - it`s supposed to be one of the top 10 hotels in the world....and they actually let us in!!
We did have the idea of having a cocktail there, but we discovered that we could only stay if we were eating so we just had a bit of a nose around and left! It is really quite nice - not too grand and over the top, and every room has an amazing view - there`s mountains and lakes from every aspect.
We went back to town and ate at an 'eat all you like' buffet and I went back to the hostel, had a couple of drinks in the bar and went to bed.

Friday....yes, that`s today!! .....this means I`ve finally caught up with the blog!! hoorah!!
I`ve spent most of today eating and updating the blog - it`s raining so it seemed like a good plan and I`ve found a really good internet cafe which has uploaded my photos really quickly! Still need to mess about and edit the photos, but at least they`re on - happy girl! :o)
Met Noelle and Amy and went to a few bars around town - the Map Room (nice bar, really friendly waiters), then we went to find Bardot's which was recommended by the guys in the Map room, but it was closed and then another one which was in the guide book, but that was empty and looked dull, The Roxy (really cheesy club), 2 casinos (which just appeared to really be amusement arcades - couldn't find the poker tables) & then to the old faithful, Wilkennys. We ended up dancing in Wilkenny's til around 4.30am and stumbled home....

Saturday - I had already booked a tour to go see the black glacier - leaving at 9am....how much did I not want to get on that bus!! I almost just stayed in bed, but dragged myself out just in time to grab a couple of pieces of bread on the way out and fall onto the bus. I hadn't realised when I booked it, but the tour was completely in Spanish - not that my brain was in any fit state to absorb any information - English or Spanish!! There were a couple of grumpy old men on the bus too who started the day by complaining about the fact that the tour was in Spanish and then that we had to pay an extra 12pesos (2GBP) to go into the National Park!! Of course, I ended up stuck sitting next to one of them (because they were too big to fit on the seats sitting next to each other!!) Anyway, that all calmed down quite quickly when another English girl, Diane, who was sitting next to the other one, told him that if he didn't want to pay the 12pesos he could just get off the bus!! She managed to shut him up - hoorah!!

The tour started with a couple of hours driving, so I caught up on some sleep and by the time we got to the glacier I was feeling pretty normal again :o) The glacier was pretty impressive, although I had imagined that the reason for it being black was some more interesting reason than it just being dirty - the dust / soil from the mountains around it blows onto it and makes it black!! The reason I took the tour was on recommendation from a South African guy I met in the hostel - his description didn't quite match reality!! Anyway, it was still worth a visit and we went for a bit of a hike afterwards around the mountain which was nice.

Got back at 6pm and met up with Noelle in the hostel bar, had a couple of drinks and went out for chinese food - sooo good! I haven't had proper chinese food since I was at home so it tasted really good! Then we went to the Map room for a couple and headed home.

Sunday - Had a lie in and met Noelle for lunch and then went on an afternoon tour to the cavernas.....again we hadn't realised that the tour was totally in Spanish. That wasn't a problem at all with yesterday's tour, but for this one it was a nightmare!! There are 3 caves, the first two are pretty unspectacular, but the guide talked for ages about the history and geology - we understood nothing!! The only thing that was interesting for us was a design that had been painted onto a rock - no clue who by and I guess it was centurys ago, but you could only see it when you took a photo of it with the flash on - bizarre!


The 3rd cave was a bit better, but we're not talking Kents Cavern or Wooky Hole here!! We put on hard hats and crawled through a small hole into quite a bit cave, which had a pond in it. The guide again waffled for ages - I guess talking about who used to live in there and why there's water in there, but again, we understood nothing!! Anyway, the tour ended with a walk on to the top of the mountain which was OK - there was quite a nice view from the top! Not quite the tour we thought we'd booked - not a staligmite or staligtite in sight!!

We went to a restaurant around the corner from the hostel, chosen because they had 'freedom' fries on the menu and it made Noelle laugh. There was apparently a big thing about this in America a while back - something to do with France and the US arguing about the Iraq war - some restaurants changed the name from 'French fries' to 'Freedom fries' to snub the French!!

Then we went back to the hostel and watched a really bad movie!! We wanted to watch a good one, but someone had already bagsied the TV so we watched her choice - 'El Perro' - it's an Argentine movie which was filmed around this area which was cool, but the acting was terrible and the storyline was non-existant!! I managed to stay awake til the end tho' which was an impressive feat!!

Monday - I hired a bike today and went for a long bike ride. There are a few bike routes around here which are pretty common for people to do and the bike shop gave me a map. The weather was stunning, warm, sunny and blue skies!! I ended up mixing the routes up a bit and took a wrong turning but it didn't really matter. 

I cycled around the lake and through the mountains which was so fab - the road wasn't tarmac`d for some of it so I got a numb bum, but other than that it was a great day - I cycled around 50km total - it's really handy here, the centre of town is km zero and all the roads leading away from town have the distance away from the centre marked on their signs, so as I was cycling I could see how far I was from the start.
I stopped for lunch at Colonia Suisse which is a small 'Swiss' town in the mountains and then I stopped again on the way back at the Cero Otto. I took the cable car to the top and had a drink and ice cream in the revolving restaurant at the top. The views from up here are amazing.


I met Noelle and we went to the Map Room for dinner - the best food I've had so far in South America - trout and jacket spuds!
Noelle's sister is due to give birth and Noelle is flying back to be there for it, but tonight her sister started to have some contractions so she was panicing that she was gonna have to hop straight on a bus and leave. We went for a drink and waited for news as her sister was off to see the doctor. All turned out OK, the doc said she was good for another week or so, so we decided to plan out what to do for the last few days Noelle would still be here....we decided we wanted to go on a dinosaur hunt and go on 'La Trochita' or 'The Old Patagonian Express' - a narrow gauge steam railway nearby.

Tuesday - Noelle went to her spanish lesson whilst I went to do some groudwork for the rest of the week's activities. We met up and went for lunch at a restaurant at the beach. We booked the hire car and the train ride and tried to find out about buses to Santiago for Noelle - it all seemed to take so long!! I swear time goes faster in Argentina!! The train ride wasn't definite as there may not be enough people so the woman in the agency said she'd leave a message at the hostel for us tomorrow. 
In the evening we went for drinks at the hostel bar, played some pool and then a group of us went to Wilkenny's. It ended up being a late one......4.30am again!

Wednesday - Got up at 9am (not feeling too special) and met Noelle to go pick up the car. We'd invited an English guy, Howard, to come on the trip with us, but he'd been out with us last night so when I tried to wake him at 10am he was still totally spark out, so we went and got the car and then went back to the hostel to get him. We eventually set off at around 11.30am in search of dinosaurs.....

Noelle was driving as she was feeling the fittest out of all of us and she's used to driving on the wrong side of the road - once you get out of the town the roads are just fabulous - long straight sections, then windy sections around the mountains and past lakes - the scenery was fantastic.

We stopped for lunch at the worst restaurant in the world....mainly because it was the only one we'd seen in a couple of hours!! The food was pretty bad and there was a bee infestation in the toilets and flies everywhere...but surprisingly none of us got sick from it!! The road was practically deserted all the way and the towns were few and far between. Noelle had bought 3 CDs of Argentinian music earlier in the week and these were all we had to listen to (over and over and over again!!!) as the radio wouldn't pick anything up in the middle of nowhere! They were all pretty bad - just think of the cheeziest Euro-pop you can imagine, times it by 10 and you'd be close!! ha ha - sorry Noelle, I know you love it!!

The distance to El Chocon is around 350km - slightly further than any of us had imagined, but we made it there at around 4.30pm. We passed a huge plastic dinosaur on the way in and got really excited and then came across a tourist info place by accident where we were given directions to the dinosaur footprints and the museum. We headed straight for the footprints, back along the way we'd come, down a dirt track, no signposts or bilboards advertising where they are! We got to the end of the dirt track and spotted a metal cage / fence and figured that the footprints must be in there so we got out to investigate - the gate was open and we just wandered in...and hunted for the footprints.....and found vague indentations in the ground which we assumed must be them....and we could just walk all over them!!


There were some others on the map too so we headed over to find them....again there was a metal cage / fence around them, but these ones were under water!! After a while of looking, we spotted them - much more impressive than the first ones, but still perhaps a little disappointing!!! We'd been saying in the car on the way that it's bizarre that the guide books don't have more information or make a very big deal about the dinosaur stuff and that they aren't marketed very well to tourists....now we knew why!!

Then we headed over to the museum where there were skeletons, fossels, and heaps of dinosaur info which was pretty good. After that, we headed over to the plastic dino and took photos of ourselves climbing all over it before heading back onto the long road home....


Howard drove all the way back. Just as the sun was setting there was a huge lightning storm right next to us which was really impressive, and the sunset was absolutely stunning.


We got through the last half an hour playing word games.....the CD's were in danger of being thrown out of the window by then!!
I'm not sure it was worth th 8 hours driving just for the dinosaur stuff we saw, but we had a really cool day driving through some amazing scenery and it was really good to have the freedom of having a car and going somewhere different.

When we got back, we popped back to the hostel to see if there was a message about our train ride tomorrow, and there was - cancelled due to not enough people :o( and the guy at the hostel told me I had to move rooms....again!! I really don't get why they wanna move people around sooo much - this will be the 4th time I've moved rooms....just in this hostel!! Anyway, I quickly shifted my stuff, we went and dropped the car into a car park and went to the Mexican for dinner.

Thursday - Noelle and I met at 8.30am, took the car back, got our money back for the La Trochita train ride and went to El Bolson for the day instead. The bus takes 2 hours from Bariloche and we arrived in the afternoon. El Bolson is a hippy town and on a Thursday afternoon there is a market so we spent some time looking around there. Then we bumped into Saralyn, the Canadian we were in Rio and Iguazu with - small world!! so we went for ice cream and catch-up.


Then Noelle and I went for a look around the town and got talking to an American guy who'd been on the bus with us from Bariloche and decided to go for dinner together. El Bolson isn't a very big town so we'd walked around most of it within half an hour!! We found a really good restaurant and had fabulous food for dinner.

We got the last bus back to Bariloche at 8.15 and arrived back at the hostel at around 11pm, dumped some stuff, freshened up and went to Wilkenny's for a 'quick' drink. On the way there we bumped into Jen (who I went to Ilha Grande with in Brazil) and a couple of other girls who's been in Rio too - very small world!! ....that's twice in one day!!
When we arrived, we had every intention of just staying for a couple....but there was a band on so we got sucked in and eventually made it back out of there at 4am....

Friday 16th - I finally made it out of bed at around 12.30pm.....not as bad as the Aussie girl in my dorm - she was still in bed at 2pm when I left to go and meet Noelle!! (She'd been to Wilkenny's too). We went for lunch at the Map Room and then did some chores, internet, CD burning etc, then we went to find the tobogan run - a plastic tobogan on a concrete run. We took the chair lift to the top and had a juice in the cafe at the top before taking the tobogan run down again - it was great!! We thought it'd be really slow, but it was really speedy!! Really fun!!

We had chinese for dinner - no clue when I'll get another one - chinese is apparently not very popular with Argentinians. Then we went out to the Pilgrim, Marcopolo, the Roxy and Wilkenny's for our final evening together :o( Noelle leaves for Santiago and then home in the morning....

I got up late today, would probably still be in bed if I didn't have to check out of the hostel at noon!! All these late nights are catching up with me!! I'm leaving town today though so no more Wilkenny nights......
I got the hostel to book me into the next hostel in Puerto Madryn and then went for lunch with an American guy called Kasey from the hostel....and now I'm here updating this blog - wow, totally up to date!! hoorah!!

Leaving for Puerto Madryn at 6pm.....looking forward to sleeping 13hours on the bus!!