Advertisement
Published: April 12th 2012
Edit Blog Post
We arrived in Bariloche after a mediocre 2 days worth of bus journeys from El Chalten, 12 hours each day on the bus with a stay in a hostel to break up the (expensive AR$ 720) journey. As we entered the town we noticed the lovely looking Swiss inspired log buildings everywhere, as well as many chocolate shops dotted around. We hopped in a taxi that the bus lady booked for us heading for our hostel, and within 2 minutes the taxi broke down. Luckily he just radioed another taxi to pick us up and we were on our way again. Our hostel was the Alaska Hostel which is located 7.5km away from the centre of Bariloche, in the dark we were a bit concerned with the location as it seemed off the main road and down some dirt roads. We arrived and were greeted with a lovely looking log cabin and a friendly owner who was very accomodating.
The next day the owner filled us in on the area, gave us maps and a bus card (as buses dont accept cash). We set off for the National Park as there were some nice trails dotted around. We got off
the bus at the closest point to the national park which is next to a very nice looking hotel that has an amazing golf course and overlooks a lake. We walked about 20 minutes on the main road and came to the first trail which we decided to take a look at. After around another 20 minute walk through the woods, we arrived at an amazing deserted lake which had the best views of surrounding mountains and was incredibly peaceful. That night we were recommended a steakhouse called El Beloche del Alberto about 1km from Alaska hostel, which turned out to be slghtly more, but it was definitly worth the walk! The steaks were incredible (reasonable priced), and the staff and service were the best we have had in South America! Very full, we slowly made it back to the hostel.
We enjoyed Alaska hostel, but had a friend who was at another called Penthouse 1004 (also reccomended to us), so we thought we would have a change of scenery and be in the city centre. The hostel is located on the 10th floor of an apartment block, which provides the most amazing views of the city and lake
(especially at sunset), and again we were greeted by lovely staff. We met up with our friend, and decided to go to a tourist attraction called Cerro Campinario, which is a small mountain you can get a ski lift up for 50 pesos, or walk up in around 30 mins. Being cheapskates, we decided to walk, and my was it worth it! Once at the top the views were absolutely stunning! You get a 360 degrees view of the entire lake area. We sat in the sun for ages, eating lunch and constantly saying how amazing the view was. Its definitely a must do when visiting Bariloche! The decent was a bit trickier than getting up, and somehow we managed to circle around the entire mountain and end up 1km from the entrance and bus stop area.
The next day we decided to take a bike ride around the 35km circular road which winds through the national park. We got bikes for 80 pesos each, then set off practically racing a couple which left the same time as us. As we got further along the circuit there were less and less cars which was good (safety first), and it
became very peaceful speeding down big hills and slowly riding up smaller ones. We stopped off a few times checking out the lakes and rivers, which are all beautiful, set in fantastic mountanous scenery. We stopped once more to trade in our voucher for some free beer samples which was welcomed nicely! Needless to say, we beat the other couple back to the bike rental shop, and had a fantastic day biking and seeing wonderful scenery. After the last couple of days hiking and cycling we decided to treat ourselves with some of the chocolate we heard so much about, due to Bariloche being home to many Swiss nationals and as a result being renound all over Argentina for the quality of their chocolate. The rumours were true, and it would have been rude not to have bought a cheeky 250g box for desert that night. After an all you can eat pizza dinner across the road from the hostel, we tucked in to the best chocolate in all of Argentina!
Luckily we were leaving for a sunny Mendoza just as the weather turned colder and very windy!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0409s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ian Cobb
non-member comment
Hi Hayden and Lucy, Nan really enjoyed looking at the blog and all the lovely photos Luv dad x