Leaving the hotel.
Left our friendly hotel and cycled down the the lake shore to watch an international open water swimming competition. The local police were there in force to welcome the competitors home with a blast of their car and quad bike sirens and a presentation of medals. Had our last Argentinean empanadas and cycled to the bus station where we unpacked our lightweight holdalls and packed our panniers inside. As the bus arrived we got to the front of the queue to make sure our bikes went on. The bus driver dismissed the bikes immediately saying there was no room, even though everyone's bags had yet to be loaded. We tried to stand our ground having previously asked, when we booked the tickets, whether we needed to book the bikes or do anything special with them. The time came for the bus to leave and we were still arguing with driver who was not listening to us or his co driver and other officials in uniform that had arrived and seemed to siding with us. Eventually, another official turned up and assured us ,that if we got on the bus now, our bikes would follow 4 hours behind on the next bus. We relented, to the relief of the passengers whose frowning faces glowered down at us through the bus windows, and got on the bus. We watched our bikes being wheeled back to the terminal building and crossed our fingers. At least our seat was far from a toilet, didn't have a leaking air conditioning unit directly above our heads or cupboards opposite which exploded their contents over us. Always look on the bright side! The views along the road north west out of Bariloche on the Ruta 237 was beautiful, especially the spectacular Valle Encantado (Enchanted Valley) which immediately dispelled any bike worries. Why didn't we read about this place.....it was a stunning landscape of rocky towers, forest and lakes which would have been amazing to cycle through. It looked like a climbers paradise too. We settled back for the usual selection of action movies which freezed just before the end and smells and sounds of 'Mate' being brewed and surreptitiously slurped. We opened our last bag of facturas (sweet pastries) and savoured the delicious fillings for the last time- dulce de leche, custard, glazed apple....mmmm. Replenished and replete we tilted back our seats and watched a dusky landscape of flat pampas pass for the last time. We were looking forward to returning to Teresita in Adrogue where we spent our first 3 days in Argentina.
http://www.try2cook.com/Meet-Teresita.html

Open water swim medals being presented in Bariloche
Bus Station before the bike unfriendly bus arived.