Loosing a day in Barlioche

  Bariloche, Argentina
Thursday, July 1, 2010

Arrived in Bariloche Thursday night after a 27 hour bus journey from El Calafate, again not too bad I managed to sleep quite well, we traveled with John and Gabby and all checked into our hostel which is a penthouse hostel in an apartment block called 1004, large hostel with loads of living space. when we got up in the morning it was easy to see why itīs there, the views over Largo Nahuel Huapi were spectacular the mountains are snow capped and at every turn.  It is the lake District of Argentina but on a much bigger scale.  When we checked into our dorm there was a false leg in the corner of the room which freaked me  out a bit, but when we went into the kitchen to make tea I found out it belonged to a guy called Bambi...yes that's right! (cool guy. We did talk about taking some funny pic wit it as a prop, but was scared he might catch us and beat me round the head with it in my sleep.

We headed out to climb cirri Otto the following day which was highly recommended for great views and skiing, it was mainly on a winding road and the higher we got the more the snow we came across and the colder it got, it was good to get exercising again when we got to the top the snow was up to our knees in some places, .  The views from the top were awesome but it was freezing. For our hard work we all went out for a few drinks on the night, when I say a few I actually mean a few bottles of wine, and before we knew it it was 3.30am and we were staggering back to the hostel.  The following morning I nursed my bad head by drinking boat loads of tea watching the Argentina - Germany game, needless to say to mood dipped in the place after Argentina was kicked out.  We headed out to look round the shops and the celebrations were still going on in the square.....why!  If you love chocolate then Bariloche is the place for you it is full of chocolate shops, really tasty and cheap.

4th Julio Independence Day and we planned to visit a National Park to trek but the weather was horrible, raining, snowing, and windy.  We hung around to see if it stopped and it didn't so we headed out anyway, we only got half way there on the bus and as we were waiting to change busses we realised how cold it actually was, through the trees we saw a log cabin with turned out to be a restaurant so we headed in for some tea tasting and to dry out.  Feeling really defeated we headed back to the hostel to prepare for our night out (first one in ages).   

Recommended by Lonely Planet was El Boliche De Alberto steak house, so we headed off to check it out, we got there about 7.55 and there was a que outside which kept growing to about 10 deep....always a good sign!  The place was full in about 15minutes of opening all locals, and it was plain to see why when our massive steak and chips came.  By far the best I have ever tasted and for both of us came to about 15 pounds...still talking about it now!  Back at the hostel the staff had arranged wine tasting for us all, everyone brought a bottle $15pesos and we all try them, its a great way to try some different wines and to get chatting with everyone in the hostel.  18 hour bus journey to Mendoza in the morning perfect way to get rid of a fuzzy head.

I love Bariloche the people are really friendly and there is plenty to do from skiing to trecking on foot or horseback. This place would be spectacular in the Summer, a definate re-visit for the future.