Again, a bad night’s sleep. What am I worrying about now? Maybe too much to eat too late last night. Anyway, Bariloche must be the night club capital of the Andes. Thousands of students pile into the town at the end of term for Christmas to explore the beauty of the area, make use of the romantic views no doubt, and go to the clubs. It is a pretty city, again very touristy and developed. It has a Swiss/Bavarian feel which is not surprising as it was founded over 100 years ago by those of that decent and the buildings were designed in the 1930s to reflect the city’s origins.

One thing to remember about much of South America is that the native inhabitants were pretty much wiped out by the conquering nations and throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s Argentine, Brazilian, Paraguayan and Chilean governments put out the call across the world for settlers to colonise these vast areas of land, under their flag, and so secure their sovereignty. That is why there are still German speaking areas, Welsh speaking areas, Italian pride in Brazil and so on. That is why the remaining roots of these regions belong to those settlers that first formally colonised the area.

By the way, total mileage to date 4,400.

Today we needed to spend time on the cars. The Westland had sprung a water leak in the last few minutes of yesterday (a simple heater hose repair – if you can call it a heater), Julian’s needed fuel pump work and Ivor needed a fan, overdrive checking and pedal checking. Basically we took from 9 to 3 checking, greasing, occasionally swearing, tightening loose bits and mending things until we were happy. Chris went off in a taxi with Ivor’s fan, and amazingly got it repaired at the first shop he went into.

The Westland needed its air cleaners cleaning, this takes some time as the instructions say they have to dry naturally after washing. So the others went on a drive round to test the cars and I used the time for a much needed web session!

The web is slow in Bariloche, listening to someone complaining to the manger he explained that the whole bandwith for the city is a fraction of that elsewhere. Consequently I had quite a few problems sending files, and after an hour only managed to send the last 3 days.

I guess I have now reached the age and level of fearsome appearance that the street hawkers shy away. People on street corners were busy pushing pamphlets into hands or trying to sell goods. I came along and they visibly backed away. I used to hate those pamphlets, but now I am not being offered them I wonder what I am missing!

There was time before meeting up for supper to browse around town for an hour. A stop in an artesian workshop produced some nice trinkets for my daughters and a couple of leather belts for the Westland (the one that is on is wearing out fast).

Then a visit to the Cathedral. Very traditional European in shape it was completed as late as 1945, and is the ‘Catedral Nuestra Sra. del Nahuel Huapi’. It is dedicated to the Jesuit missions in the area of 1670. The stained glass pictures tell a bloody story, but at some points and in some places the Jesuit missions become very large and powerful.