Bariloche de Argentina. Viernes, 3 de Septiembre.

19 hours in a bus wasn’t actually so bad. Amazing how tiring doing nothing is though!

Bariloche is located in the heart of the Argentine Lakes District and is nick-named the Aspen of the Andes &/or the Queenstown of the Americas.

As when travelling you are always comparing places to home, this region has so many similarities to Te Anau, Queenstown and the Tongariro National Park.

This blog entry will be mainly loaded with pictures as we are so trigger happy and they all speak for themselves.

Centro Civico Square, a borrowed vernacular from Switzerland.

 

Olaf the most photographed pooch in Patagonia (or one of, there were heaps of them). Another Swiss copy.



Bariloche National Park Office & Tourist Info Centre.

We decided to base ourselves here for 10 days to explore the National Parks and to cram in some more snowboarding.

Cerro Catedral (ski-field) was doused in over a metre of fresh snow about 10 days before we got there so we were keen as mustard to get up the hill.

First day in Bariloche was howling (130km winds) so we decided to opt for mountain biking instead. Good call as some mates from the hostel spent 3 hours on one of the chairlifts as it derailed in the wind!!

We packed our sammies and took off around the 'Circuito Chico', Llao Llao Peninsula for the afternoon, thankfully mostly shielded from the wind by the surrounding forest. 

It was hilarious as the bike hire guy told us to ride on the road with extreme caution as ' in Argentina we drive like hell'.

Exclusive hotel and golf resort on the Llao Llao Peninsula.

Ciclismo en la nieve y el bambu es muy dificil!

 

Lago Moren Oeste (hidden lake).

Argentina is renowned for its meat, so we splashed out on a juicy steak after riding for the day. Found a gorgeous steak house cornering a reserve and had quite the romantic dinner for two........and then retreated to our 6 bed dorm room after!
Matt tucked into his steak and I (C) ordered local lamb - which came out as 7 lamb chops on a plate (for the equivalent of $15). For us that was splashing out!, but more than value for money. I was also given a very hard time for being a kiwi and ordering lamb!
 

 

The wind settled and the budget stretched for a few more days on the mountain. Cerro Catedral is the biggest ski-field in SA with 39 lifts and 4500 acres of terrain. Its much lower than the fields in Chile so had a lot more trees scattered around it, which was heaps of fun and had big novelty value for us kiwis.




Lago Nahuel Huapi from Cerro Catedral summit.

Volcan Tronador, looking West from Cerro Catedral (Volcano marks Chilean border).



 



Bariloche city and Lago Nahuel Huapi (or Lake Wakatipu if you like).

For an afternoon stroll we hiked up Cerro Otto, to find knee to thigh depth snow for the last third of the walk.
No DTA's throughout the week in Bariloche but instead another BTA (brilliant tourist act)!
As we walked the 10-12km up Cerro Otto, scored a free gondola ride down. The easy-going ticket guy and our lack of spanish was fruitful.


Bariloche or Queenstown

Random picture alongside the rest, but amazing graffiti outside our hostel.