Bariloche Oct 2nd – 10th


Bariloche is the Argentine gateway to their lake district and also has a very nice ski resort nearby as well as a very large lake for summer actitivies. It is pretty perfect for the outdoors sports and lifestyle, if a little far away from us Europeans. The town itself has a very clear tourist area, lovely little hotels etc, but the majority live in a fairly small, unfinished houses which is rarely seen by tourists. The roads leading into the skiing are along the lakeside and accompanied by more little hotels and self catering chalet type builds, chocolate factories and other fun nice stuff. The only point at which you might just see the rest of the town is making an effort to see it, or heading out to the lakes south of the town which requires a drive through.
We arrived as per usual, by bus, and were immediately approached by a few people in the usual south american style; relaxed and with a smile. Perhaps being out of season makes them friendlier? We couldn’t tell, but were promised some cheap accomodation near the shoreline in the centre for not all too much; ninety pesos per night. I would say there are similar places in the area which offer just as good but it seemed fine when we arrived so we stayed. The reception girl was a bit odd; clearly confusing her home and the hostel. Comments were made about our non Kosher habits when we were cooking our Carbonara, drinking fresh milk and other things like that; frankly, either put up signs in which case I would not stay there, or accept all cultures and the money they bring and shut up. Puerto Verde needs to decide who its target audience is: or not we think. It was a nice appartment though,comfortable, there are other places in town with jacussis and better views for the same money if you bother to look, same kind of pricing.
The rest of the area is lovely, with St Bernards with pups bounding around , little fluff balls following their parents around who are being used as photo props for some reason. There are a number of steak restaurants of course, all very nice and quite cheap. On recommendation by our hostel we headed to a Mexican restaurant which was very average and not very mexican flavoured. Margueritas were great, the food portions were big but that was it. Not enough mexican flavour and spice. Lesson, stick to the local food. Bariloche is also linked to Chocolate so there are shops all over which sell loads of the stuff, very tasty indeed. We had a great evening, finding a tango club with a show tucked beneath a building just out of sight of the main road. The show was very very good, with live musicians, around 80 playing the music for some dancers and singers to entertain. It felt like something out of another era and really made the week.
We hired a car to drive out to find a black glacier which provided a terrific day out. The drive out of town was a little dissapointing with the environment poorly cared for, plastic bags everywhere. The argument is not that there are too many plastic bags used, or that they might want to ban them, but that the stray dogs, also clearly no ones fault, tear them open and rummage through them, the wind does the rest. Once away from the town, there was breathtaking scenery again through some azul lakes and then down a dirt track path in a driving blizzard. The snow was great and the little GOL thing we drove handled reasonably well on the off road, taking us over and up to a glacier covered in dirt. It took a fair old while and we were the last of the cars up that day before the road was opened for cars returning. Having a look at the glacier in the driving snow was still great, the lake was full of frozen water mixed with massive chunks of glacier. Very impressive. The national park we headed to also has a waterfall in it; throughout our trip we have seen a fair number of waterfalls, but the driving was fun, so we headed off and the photos say more than words as usual. The waterfall was the most impressive we have seen so far, swollen rivers from meltwater providing an absolutely huge volume of water, clouds of spray, snow and a very scenic walk to the waterfall all made it very worthwhile. A must do if you head that way.
With the extra snow we decided to go skiing at the resort, it wouldn’t do to not do so especially as it was the last few days of open resort. The bus ride up and the ski equipment hire was cheap, less than 30 pounds each for the day inlusive of ski pass. The skiing was fun, but very limited, only a couple runs had been opened which was a pain as there were tons of great pistes to be seen nearby… so we had to contend with beginner snowboarders and skiers cutting us up and being annoying. Prices for food was reasuringly expensive and the same as Austria for a hot chocolate and chips. It was fun to ski again.
Bariloche to where next? South or not.. Off to Puerto Madyrn from where we could make a more informed decision while looking at whales, penguins and more stuff. So only an overnight bus ride and some to go. We met a couple of dutch girls and swiss guy who made the trip fun, and the next couple of days entertaining.