Patagonia pt 3: Bariloche y Villa la Angostura

Bariloche is known for its delicious chocolate, especially at a little place called Mamuschka´s. We headed off after dinner to get a taste of her famous chocolate and enjoyed hot chocolate which was literally a melted down chocolate bar, and chocolate truffle cake between the three of us. It was fantastic…but so filling that we pledged we’d never return. The next day we headed off for a beautiful, two hour horse riding tour up into the mountains which was fun for me because my horse had quite the ego and loved to gallop - a little scary when going down the mountain… however, the views at the top were gorgeous with the mountains the Nahuel Huapi Lake below. Katie had trouble fully enjoying the experience because she officially doesn’t like big animals and or course was the one to actually get kicked in the foot by one too. And, when we returned to the pasture, her horse actually laid down with here on it before she could get off. Our guide was hilarious and yelled ¨danger, danger, danger¨ a million times in his broken English as Katie struggled to get off the horse. At the end of the trip I decided the guide either didn’t really understand what he was saying in English or didn’t like the fact that he had to lead a tour of all girls because he kept yelling at us the whole way to hurry up (except at me because my horse was crazy)…but you know, sometimes the horses really just don’t want to go. After our tour we treated ourselves to a lunch at a restaurant the Lonely Planet Guide says is the best and cheapest in Bariloche. We enjoyed Milanesa Napolitana as big as our heads (Argentina’s staple breaded beef with ham and lots and lots of mozzarella). We spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and watched the sunset on the mountains before heading back for dinner at our hostel.
The next day we took the bus for 1.5 hours to Villa La Angostura, which is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. We began the day with getting lost while trying to find our hostel and then hit up the grocery store to get our food for the next few days. In the afternoon we took a hike down to the lake which is the same lake that is seen from Bariloche, its just that big! We spend the rest of the afternoon walking along the beach and enjoying being in a quiet piece of heaven. To top our walk off, we stopped at a café for a snack on our way home which turned into me eating an entire piece of cake that consisted of about two inches of brownie, an inch of dulce de leche and then cream, and chocolate mouse all topped off with chocolate sauce and shavings. It was divine, probably the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. It reminded me of when my Roommate and I would go to Cold Stone before Grey´s Anatomy (since I’ve been back working out has become a daily habit). During dinner we met a Kiwi (New Zealander) who was a great companion for the rest of the night because he always seemed a little tipsy-like, but turns out that’s how he always is… it made for a comedic night in our cozy hostel in the woods.
The following morning we headed out for what we though would be a 12k hike around the Peninsula but when we arrived at the trail head it was closed. We thought that was a little strange because our hostel recommended it and we felt they would know if it was closed so we hung around for a few minutes and a huge group of elderly people arrived with a tour guide which we though was pretty funny because they were such loud, picture perfect tourists as they videotaped everything including the guides speech and the map. We decided to hang back and walk around the other side of the lake for a while as they went up what was labeled a 1.5 hour hike. We wanted to enjoy the quite nature. After about an hour of walking around the area and enjoying the views we decided to at least go on the 1.5 hour hike but after about 20 minutes we came across the crazy group of tourists who stopped after getting to the top. Turns out that the 12k hike has two entrances and because of a mud slide the other entrance was closed--so we were actually on our original hike. I forgot to mention that a stray dog who we named Frank started following us when we first arrived at the trail head and stayed with us all the way until we arrived back at our hostel later that evening. He did the whole hike with us and we fed him some of our crackers. He was such a cute adventure dog who loved to run up ahead and then run back to us the whole way on our hike. Come to think of it, I don´t think dogs were allowed on the trail but hey its Argentina so the rules are more like guidelines anyways. On the trail we even encountered wild cows….well to me they were wild, to my friends from Texas they were just a few more cows. Frank chased them off the trail to keep us out of danger, great dog. Also, on this peninsula is the only place in the world that you can find these white and tan spotted trees that actually inspired Walt Disney to create Bambi. They are quite beautiful and really do look like Bambi! Our hike exhausted us and by the time we finished we had hiked 18k. We were so hungry when we got back we cooked our dinner immediately and relaxed the rest of the night in our hostel hanging out with other travelers and our Kiwi friend. Later that night the hostel threw a birthday party for one of their friends for which another one of their friends cooked amazing, homemade pizzas for everyone. It was a wonderful night of the best pizza I have ever had and great company. The hostel is called Hostel La Angostura if any of you make it to Argentina; I strongly recommend enjoying a few nights in its cozy, family-like atmosphere.
The next morning we kissed our hostel friends goodbye and took the bus back to Bariloche before we had to be on our plane back to Buenos Aires. To make going back seem better we decided to treat ourselves to Mamuschka´s again but this time we ate lunch and picked out chocolates to bring back to Buenos Aires.
I feel really lucky that I had the opportunity to travel through one of the greatest treasures of untouched land in the world. We had a wonderful time traveling together through breathtaking scenery, whale adventures, glaciers, and hiking, and the people are among the friendliest in the world. We didn’t want to leave! We had to celebrate on the plane and toasted to the perfect spring break trip and to the farthest south we have ever been. After seeing the glacier in El Calafate I would love to make it to Antarctica some day…

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