We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Villa Angostura, having just spent another night camping for free in a residential zone under construction, where no one was working. Villa Angostura is a touristy town by the lakeside of the immense Nahuel Huapi lake, surrounded by mountains offering skiing with incredible views. The flora is also interesting as this is where the Arrayanes National Park is and you can take a one way 14km trail to walk the peninsula (optionally walk back or take a ferry), but we didn’t go as a $150 pesos pp per day entrance put us off. Later, we enjoyed a brief breakfast comprising bread, pâté and marmelade completed with quality wifi time in front of the supermarket, after which it was time to start hitchhiking to Bariloche because it was already past 10am.
Hitchhiking to Bariloche
We were first taken by a woman with two kids and she took us to the next village characterized by its opulent vacation houses (or rather mansions?), hotel resorts and Argentinians on vacation. The sceneries were beautiful and somewhat reminded us of home when we walked under pines breathing fresh air from the mountains.
It wasn’t long until we were picked up again. We were lucky to share the ride along the Nahuel Huapi lake with a happy man from a hippie city El Bolsón situated 100km south of Bariloche - we listened to great instrumental music from a talented guitarist from his city, he called this the “musica de viaje”. He told us about some trekking in Bariloche and heartily recommended to hike up to 5 refugios that are above the Nahuel Huapi lake and offer breathtaking views plus good food/beer/sleep. Tempting. Continuing our way along the lake and behind mountains, we finally drove over a horizon opening up to the cityscape of San Carlos Bariloche.
When we got off the car, it was very windy! We went to ask about the trail over to Chile, but it was closed due to severe wind. The lady was hoping for better weather in 2 days and so we decided to go anyway, we bought food for 5 days, sent home postcards and took a bus to the south of Bariloche to get to the next lake, where we wanted to camp and grill our chorizos. There were no public buses so we had to hitchhike.
Unfortunately for us, it was raining and very few cars were stopping. We were strategically at a roundabout where cars were going quite slowly, but that didn’t help much - we were wet and cold. A beaten up red VW Polo stopped for us finally, one gaucho guy (cowboy) and he said he can take us along but that he’s not going far.. His car was really in a desolated state, the doors weren’t working and the motor was working so so. We stopped at the end of a city district with poorer houses, still unassuming that could be dangerous as the Swiss-like countryside left us thinking we were in a relatively safe region.
The assault
A few minutes after this guy dropped us off, a black Chevy Corsa pulled over with three guys inside (two of them in their 20s and one 30 years old) who told us they were going to El Bolsón. We told them we’re not gonna fit in the car, we were 6, but to that they said it’s not gonna be a problem and started moving the baby seat from the back seat to the trunk along with our backpacks.. When everyone was in, the driver took off. A few minutes went by, the guys asked us where we were from, we told them from Republica Checa / Checoslovakia, then the older guy in the passenger seat called someone, all of them putting on their caps, seatbelts and closing the doors right after. This was weird, but I thought ok, they were a leading example in safety on Argentinian roads. I couldn’t be more wrong. Just when we had the Lago Guttierez in our sight, the older guy in the front passenger seat turned to us with a revolver in his hands, shouting something, which Simon couldn’t understand and I couldn’t hear. Karolina later told us he yelled “close your eyes and put your hands up”. So I was sitting there with my hands up, my eyes wide open, staring at the robber’s face, trying to ignore the revolver in between my eyes. I really couldn’t believe this was happening, ok we were stupid to go with 3 guys but we were 3 too and the baby seat + the Winnie Pu toy hanging from the passenger seatbelt left us unsuspecting. The guy with the gun was crazy, he went on hitting both Simon and I with the gun, emptying our pockets and taking everything we had in the meantime. When we had nothing but our clothes on, we were really glad when the driver stopped and we could finally leave the car with the robber still pointing his revolver at us. Wheels spinning, the car took a U-turn and headed back to Bariloche! Simon had blood on his face from the revolver hit, the rain washing it away. We all stood in the middle of the road and at the same time, we all said “We have nothing. We have absolutely nothing.” The second car passing by stopped and the couple were so kind to take us to the police immediately. They asked us some questions, but we couldn’t remember the plates on the car only the car model, but still they alerted everyone on the radio. Then we were taken to a bigger police station, where we waited and waited. With a borrowed cell phone, we messaged our families about what happened. I went to the tourist information to block my credit cards. The police took us in one by one and we co-authored our longest essay in Spanish, I think our teachers would be proud. We were done at midnight, it was heavily raining outside, but the police was so nice that they arranged for us to sleep in a gymnasium in bunk beds. We couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened, we could not believe it though it felt like a bad dream. I had a light sleep, playing the scene with the robber turning around and pointing at me with the gun in my head on repeat.
One week with the police
We were woken up to go to the police to do a photo recognition of the robbers. We were really quick to get up as we had nothing to pack or leave behind, we felt so free! The recognition was hard as we were shown more than 100 bandito photos some of which were 20 years old. Each of us identified different persons, not sure we helped the police much. After that, we drove to the crime scene and in Argentina, the police has to find witnesses. So they block the road, stop each car and ask people if they’d like to witness the crime - after 5min, the police found two guys signing the paper.
The criminal police were so nice that they paid us a night at a hotel and gave us vouchers to eat at restaurant. The hotel was nice, but the restaurant.. they picked a really expensive one and we ordered delicious food from the local specialities like the Bife de Lomo or Cordero Patagonico with red wine and tiramisu for dessert. We liked this very much. In the mean time, the local media spread the news that we were robbed, we were in the newspapers and TV, local superstars, people in the street stopped us and asked if we need help, money that they are so sorry for what happened. When we went food shopping, an older smiling man who was stockist at the supermarket insisted he absolutely has to buy us our shopping. We were really amazed by people’s reactions, we didn’t expect it at all and are very very thankful for their preoccupation and help. In the afternoon, Cesar (English-Spanish translator) stopped at our hotel to tell us the police managed to find some of our things!!! We were so happy and cheered up by this positive news :)
The next day, we woke up and went to the police station to identify the robber behind the mirror glass just like in a movie. We were waiting for ages, the police kept on telling us it’s gonna be 5 more minutes, but we waited for at least 3 hours. Karolina with Simon couldn’t hold their addiction and went for a smoke and if I knew what happened next, I would have gone with them. The police completely fucked up, they brought the robber with the gun to the wrong floor to where I was waiting. My heart started beating, my body was shivering for I recognized that fucker immediately. Some higher-ranked police officer saw what just happened, told the escort to take the robber somewhere else.. I was then taken to a separate room because I couldn’t communicate with Karolina and Simon. Terrible feeling. After some more waiting, I was asked to go downstairs, where the judge told me I must say only truth and if not I could go to jail for 10 years. They also asked me to describe the robbers and if I saw the robber between the crime scene and now. I told them that yes and signed some paperwork. I went behind the mirror glass, pointed at the guy I saw in the hallway before, I saw him already 3 times! I was so glad this awful day was over. Then the police got us some stuff back, they left us most of our camping stuff, no clothes and none of my electronics, but I got my Kamasutra playing cards back. Karolina was the luckiest! The robbers were so stupid they took a selfie on Karolina’s phone so police actually has evidence about the remaining robbers. However, they seemed done with the case and calmly said that mañana (tomorrow), they’re going to continue the investigation. When we got to the El Ñire hotel, we learned that we were robbed for a second time, Karolina’s favourite sombrero, new toothbrushes, toothpaste and desinfection disappeared from our room - stay away from that hotel while in Bariloche! We then went to do some shopping, we really needed fresh clothes at this point, but we were in the worst place to buy them because only premium boutiques were there and the prices were like in St. Moritz, Switzerland.. Plus they had no loose boxers and only the tight ones :(
Better days
The kind people of Achalay hostel offered us to stay for free, a lot of clothes and a very warm welcome. We were telling our story over and over again late, that made us really tired and we were really happy to finally get some good sleep.
In the morning, we had the best breakfast ever - homemade bread, jam and dulce de leche. Some coffee etc. We all skyped our parents to discuss what we’re gonna do next. We called Mrs. Sykorova from the Czech embassy in Buenos Aires, who really did her best to help us. She told us we have to go to Buenos Aires to get emergency passports first and apply for regular passports, which will arrive in 6 weeks time, but she also told us to enjoy the weekend in Bariloche, hike some mountains and forget about what happened. Thank you so much Mrs. Sykorova! With Pablo from Achalay, we hiked the Cerro Campanario, which is said to have the most beautiful 360° view on Earth according to National Geographic and I have to say it really was magnificent.
Since then, we were spending time with people from Achalay everyday. We spent unforgettable evenings with them. Our best ever hostel stay. As a thank you, we called for a Bramboráky night and we spent the entire evening frying bramboráky served with roasted veggies and beer for the house. Everyone was so happy.
All in all, the robbery aside, we had a wonderful time in Bariloche and would recommend anyone to visit it! You can hike up the many cerros that are around, ride the bike, kitesurf or windsurf on the lake… The options are endless. And in the evening grab artesanal beer during happy hours with your friends. Also, we didn’t come to the conclusion you shouldn’t hitchhike in South America. We met incredible people on the road, hitchhiking is very popular in Argentina/Chile and it would be unfair to condemn all these good people because of one bad experience. Thank you everyone for the good times in Bariloche :)
