Hola todos! After we left off with waiting for the bus out of Puerto Varas it soon pulled up and we were on our way back to Argentina, I am going to skip over that Journey as it was pretty uneventful save the border crossing which again nothing to note came up there. You have some nice mountain views crossing over from Chile then some nice views of the lakes when back into Argentina.
Around late afternoon we pull into Bariloche and it’s the usual thing of sort an Uber find the gaff and check in and now thats sorted time to get the lay of the land. I take a walk down to the waterfront last the Civic centre which looks rather Nordic.
I get down to the lakeside and have little look around you have the typical city letters here and a little bit of a beach. The water here is so clear and unspoiled but too cold for swimming this time of the year.
Having a little look round something else catches my eye, there’s a Mirage Jet fighter and some military vehicles and guns here, turns out I’ve stumbled upon a museum about the war over las Islas Malvinas, so naturally I took a look inside, it’s actually free to get in as well.
Inside this museum there are various items from the war and articles about the geopolitics of the time. To skip over the details of the Falklands War in short the Military Junta that ruled Argentina at the time invaded the UK overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands (Las Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia in 1982 gambling that the UK did not care enough to send a force to take them back, that gamble did not pay off and the UK sent a task force to retake the Islands which they Successfully did, the aftermath of this lead to the collapse of the Junta and democracy returning to Argentina.
To this day Argentina still has a claim to the islands and a such you’ll often see “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas” in various places such as on city buses, in public gathering places and in graffiti or street art etc. though relations between the UK and Argentina have improved since then it’s still a big point of contention to this day.
It is interesting to visit this place to get a perspective of this war from the Argentinan side of things. Basically to Argentina it is seen as a national trauma event not just to patriots but more or less everyone and you have to remember a lot of the people who died were conscripts who didn’t want to even be there. Obviously the families and those themselves who were there that are still alive today still have strong feelings about it to say the least
Today the issue of Las Malvinas is something that while people don’t hate you for it if your from the UK it’s definitely something you don’t want to be casually bringing up here. Every now and then the pot does get stirred by Presidents here as it can rally everyone up to distract from another problem they have for a short while it would seem.
The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. The next day I would do the usual thing of getting on a walking tour and explore the city properly…..
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