The trouble with expectations, especially in regards to accomodation, is that they are often too high and can lead to disappointment that bleeds unnecessarily into the remaining aspects of a particular trip. The trouble with finding out that you have a totally inaccurate itinerary is that no matter how low your expectations were for a place, they go through the roof as soon as you find out there has been a change.
Imagine this scenario: you are supposed to arrive at a small fishing lodge on the banks of a beautiful river beneath gorgeous snow covered peaks and upon landing you are taken to a large hotel 3 kilometers outside of the city which is not on a river and not beneath snow covered peaks. This is pretty much what happened to us when we got to Bariloche. The four of us were met by a guide and a driver fully expecting a long drive but soon found out that the hotel was close and right along the route for our half day area tour (also not on the itenerary). We checked in and dropped off our bags - the hotel was very nice, and under any other circumstances we would have been impressed by the place, but those darn expectations were getting in the way. We piled back into the van and our guide, Paula, proceeded to show us around. She was as confused as were were - originally she was supposed to take us 90 kilometers north of town to a small fishing lodge and now she was supposed to provide some sort of half day tour of Briloche and the surrounds. We drove along the shore of the lake, took a chair lift up to the top of a hill, and drove around the most expensive hotel in the area. She did a wonderful job and told us as lot about the area, but there just wasn't much to see aside from a couple of nice viewpoints.
Paula didn't know anything about our plans for the next few days (we were staying at the hotel for four nights) so we sent the travel agent an email and went into town to explore and look for some of the places she recommended we eat. They happened to be building a giant Easter egg out of chocolate in the town square, and we got to catch a glimpse or two of the construction. Chocolate is a big industry in Bariloche and apparently Easter is when they really show off. We learned that soon the town would be flooded with people from all around Argentina and nearby South American countries who chose to spend their vacations coming to see the chocolate festival. There would even be a chocolate bar that extended 5 city blocks along the main shopping street and at some point they would break the egg and cut up the chocolate bar and share free chocolate with all the locals and visitors. Unfortunately, we would be leaving before the festival got started, but it was fun to watch the town get ready - we checked on the progress of the egg nearly every day.
We got back to the hotel and had a message that our fishing guides would pick us up at 8:30 the next morning - at least fishing was still part of the trip, even if we weren't staying at a fishing lodge. After breakfast we met our guides Eugene and Nico before heading out of town. We had to stop to buy fishing licenses (not part of the original itinerary, which said everything was included) before we got to the launch point for the boats on the banks of the Limay River. They provided us with waders and fly rods and we split up - Julie and I on one boat with Eugene, and Pam and Bryant on the other. As we got used to casting fly rods again Eugene gave us a few pointers and we floated along, me standing in the front of the boat and Julie sitting in the back. After floating for a while and not catching anything (not even a nibble) we pulled the raft over and tried our luck wading along an island in the river. I caught three "fish", each about 3 inches long, before we had to get back in the boat. The only other action we got all day was Julie catching a nice fish on a spinning rig. Bryant caught a couple of fish from the other boat and when we pulled ashore for the ride back into town we stood at a total of six fish (including the 4 minnows) between the four of us.
We left again the next day hoping for better luck, but we were floating another section of the same river so none of us were holding our breath. We switched it up and the boys loaded up with Eugene while the girls went with Nico. It was a slow start but eventually we stopped the boat in front of a run and Bryant and I each caught several minnows as the girls floated past. It wasn't the big fish we had been imagining for the past year, but at least it was already more action than the previous day! In the next run Bryant caught a nice fish and I reeled in one that Eugene hooked. When we stopped for lunch the girls were still sitting at 0 fish. After lunch we caught a couple more fish when we stopped to wade at another run, with mine being the biggest of the trip. We continued to get bites in the boys boat but only landed one more before the day came to an end. The consolation prize for our fishing outing is that we had an outstanding home cooked lunch each day and also got to drink some more great Argentina wine. As for fishing, we got that down we'll have to come back some time and try catching instead.
Or last activity in Bariloche was a day trip to go rafting. We weren't quite prepared for the 5 hours we spent in a van to get there and back, or the fact we were made to pay for lunch even through our itenerary said it was included, but the river was a lot of fun. It was the narrowest river I have ever rafted and the rapids came quickly - there were nine over the course of 7 kilometers - and all were of the class 2 to class 3 variety. We lost Bryant on the very first one (I might have helped him fall out when I was thrown into him from my side of the raft) but the rest of only went swimming voluntarily near the end of the trip. We ended up stopping right at the border with Chile and got pictures next to a sign marking the division of the two countries.
We returned to the hotel excited to hear about Pam's hike, only to learn that no one ever came to pick her up. The next morning we were all more then happy to leave Bariloche and head to Buenos Aires.
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