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Published: March 30th 2015
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We drove our rental car from Fruitillar, Chile towards Villa La Angostura, Argentina. It was rainning hard so we did not stop along the way. We got to the border and the procedure is you check in with the Chile police, they stamp your passport and then go to the customs window to get permission to leave the country. No one spoke English and our Spanish was not good enough for us to understand why they would not let us leave Chile. They stamped our passport and drew lines through it meaning we did not have permission. It turns out we could not take the rental car out of the country. You need a permit and it would take eight days to get it. We decided to leave the car in Chile and we would enter Argentina without the car. The border is in the forest area so we just parked the car by the side of the road. A bus pulled up to the border going to Bariloche, I asked the driver if he could take us to Bariloche. The bus driver agreed to take us but we had to go through the police and customs line again. The bus
driver quickly added our names to his list of passengers and helped us explain to the police we were not bringing our car into Argentina. We also had to produce a paper we were given when we entered the country, we had given it to window number 5. When we went through the police line, they wanted the paper, I explained we had given it to the employee at window five but he made us complete the form again. We were happy when we finally got on the bus.
We had reservations in Villa La Angustura, we had rented a shipping container turned into an apartment located in the woods. Even thought the bus could have dropped us in the small town we could not drag our bags to the outskirts of town and down the long dirt road in the rain to the shipping container. We had paid for the room in full using Airbnb and lost the $200 we had paid for the two nights in Villa La Angustura.
We had cleared Chile customs but about 15 minutes into the bus ride the bus stopped at the Argentina border. When it was my turn to talk
to the customs agent she asked me where we were staying in Bariloche. I felt like a deer caught in headlights, we did not have a hotel. An Argentine woman behind me spoke up, we are staying at the View Hotel, it has a nice view of the lake. The answer was accepted and my passport stamped. When we arrived in Bariloche we grabbed a cab and asked him to take us to the View Hotel. We asked the cab to wait while we ran in and asked if they had a room. They had a vacant room and we liked the hotel. Mark an I were so happy to settle down for the night.
Bariloche is situated on the southeastern shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi. Picture Lake Tahoe but with more islands and larger. It was founded in 1902 and was first populated by colonies of Swiss, Italians and Germans. Their influence can seen in the architecture and in the food. Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina. Every block contains two to three large chocolate stores. We spent an afternoon buying and eating chocolate at four different stores, Mamuschka is our favorite. We have to thank the
Swiss who settled here. Bariloche is also the artisan beer capital of Argentina. We found a street with several breweries Manush, Antares, Konna and Bachman all on O Connor Street. From 6:30 to 8:00 the breweries have happy hour. This become our favorite evening activity. Antares is our favorite beer. Outdoor activities are popular all year round. In the summer (our winter) bike riding, rafting, camping, fishing, boating, rock climbing, horseback riding and water activities. During the winter (our summer) this is a snow ski destination. We rode a gondola up to the top of the mountain to hike and take pictures. The beach (rock beach) is just a block below our apartment.
Being back in Argentina means good steaks. Steak restaurants are called Parrillas, we asked our landlord for his advise and he gave us several names. Non tourist restaurants in Argentina do not open until 8:00 for dinner, we do not like to eat late so we would eat a late lunch instead. Our favorite Parrilla was Alto El Fuego at 20 de Febrero 451, you walk up a dirt driveway to find it.
The Argentine people are very nice. We took a city bus to
the bus station to buy a ticket to Chile, we did not know they do not take cash only travel cards. We did not have a travel card and two locals argued about who would pay for us. That was very nice. We ended up walking back to town from the train station.
We took a tourist bus from town to Cerro Otto. You buy your ticket at a kiosk on the Main Street. A bus comes every hour and takes you to a ski resort where you get on a gondola to the top of the mountain. There are several short hikes once you get to the top and a restaurant if you want to eat with a view. We felt like we were at the top of the world.
It surprised us that even though Bariloche is a tourist town, the shops close for siesta from 12:30 to 3:30. So don't expect to shop after lunch.
People went to the beach and some even swam and it was not that warm out. The beaches here are all rock beaches not sand. The town is gearing up for the snow season and this town has something
to offer tourists all year round. People we met on our travels all lI've Bariloche.
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Stan Skiba
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Argentina
Sorry to hear about your rental car episode. the passport situations between countries sure makes it a challenge. Europe sure has mad travel a lot easier. Great pics from the view hotel and love your lake hike pics. European influence sure makes traveling there interesting with the wines, beers and chocolates.