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Published: April 3rd 2008
Campionata
Or called something like that.....As places go I think Bariloche is a great place to land on your first stop in Argentina. It is on the western coast in the province of Rio Negro & is a thriving tourist spot for both foreigners & Argentinians. It has it all.....a great town with chocolate shops everywhere....seriously every second shop specializes in chocolate & there are loads of ice-cream parlours too. And the displays are amazing. Food, chocolate & ice-cream presentation is an art that the Argentinians have mastered. The mouth salivates now as I think back to it.
However we trade this all for colder weather too. Gloves & hats are important if you want to defend yourself against the bitter chill once night falls....& sometimes the breeze during the day can pack a punch too. We arrived on the Tuesday & stayed until the early hours of Sunday morning. Whilst there we did the Circuto Chico which is about 25km form the town. After getting the bus there we went up Campionata.....a peak overlooking the lakes & then rented bikes for the afternoon to cycle all around the them. It was great fun, a beautiful day & even though it was only 25km, there
Down by the sea
It was as cold as it looks....needless to say the locals were giving me queer looks in my shorts! was plenty of pedalling up & down hills to warrant the quarter kilo of ice-cream at the end. Not that we need an excuse. Another day we went hiking at Catedral....another mountain that is a very well-known ski-slope. There´s no snow there yet but it makes a good day hike even if we did go up the wrong path & ended up walking the steep ski-slope..... I may not be back to ski there so at least I can say I was on the ski-slope!
The views were rewarding at the top.
We ended up eating in the same place everyday for dinner in Familia Weiss because they served the most delicious food. On our last day we tried somewhere else & were so disappointed that we´ll never make the same mistake again. It was nice being in Bariloche around the Easter. There was such a festive feel with the locals & tourists out buying chocolate boxes, Easter eggs & winter woolies & once the darkness fell, the streets were busy & the restaurants alive with cheer. It was like the Christmas we never had!! Great big Alpine style houses too. We went to a lovely vigil on Easter
Circuito Chico
Ultra-stylish.....before the hills & the panting Saturday & even though we didn´t understand it all, it was nice to celebrate Easter. In the main square there were artists making carvings from trubnks of trees. So over the course if 3 days they converted a massive tree-trunk into different pieces using chainsaws & smaller tools. The pieces were cool, all very different & showed how skilled they were with a chainsaw. And anyone looking for a photo opportunity with a St. Bernard dog would be pleased because locals go around with their dogs & puppies selling photos or else get one of the hundreds of teddies for sale in the shops.
Early the next morning, we left our comfy beds for the cold streets of Bariloche. We were taking the bus south to El Chalten in Patagonia on the bus...the infamous Route 40. It was 2 days of solid driving south.....on a tarmac road for a few hours & then the remainder on a bumpy gravel road. However we only got as far as El Bolson, about 2hours down the roads when we had trouble with our bus & were stopped for nearly 3hours. Somenthing wrong with the power steering so I guess we were lucky
it happened there & not in the middle of nowhere. Apart from that, the trip was uneventful. The first day didn´t seem so bad. Even though we left at 6.30 in the morning & arrived 10pm that night, it was the second day that was the killer. Maybe because the unchanging scenery was no longer as impressive in its bleakness as the previous day.....thankfully we could sprawl out over 2 seats but even at that I was like a jack-in-the-box......turning this way & that way trying to get comfortable.
After the few random stops in the middle of nowhere for something to stave off the hunger, we arrived at Rancho Grande to rest our heads for the night......& to explore El Chalten.
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