The Lake District

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Hola,

Our 17 hour bus ride became an 18 hour bus ride after bus troubles. However, we were fed and we got to watch a bunch of movies. We also go to play bingo, which as boring as it sounds was actually a nice surprise.

We arrived in Bariloche and it was beautiful. The city is in the shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi and is surrounded by snow capped mountains. Unfortunately, this means that the city is somewhat hilly so it was quite the hike up to our hostel, Tango Inn. The one perk of a hostel up a hill is that the view is spectacular!

We were planning on going hiking on our first day in town, but there are not many busses that go to the town we needed to do the hiking from so we decided to wait until the next day to hike. Instead, we decided to wander around the town. It has many beautiful buildings that are made of stone and wood and it is very reminiscant of Switzerland at times. The amount if St. Bernards around the main square add to this feeling. We visited a real estate agency, and we were able to view a couple of apartments that had beautiful views, but were somewhat small and the finishings on them were sub-standard at best. Seriously, it would be leaky condos all over again!

The next day was beautiful so we took the local bus for an hour or so until we arrived at the start of the trailhead up to Refugio Lopez which is located near the summit of the 2076 metre high Cerro Lopez. The hike started in the forest, where it was mostly loose dirt and difficult to walk up, but we did get to see a massive Magellenic Woodpecker which has a black body and a large red head. This thing was probably the size of a large sea gull! We then continued up the mountain where we encountered some snow that we had to traverse to get to the refugio. We got to the top and the views were absolutely spectacular. One could see everything in the area. There was Lago Nahuel Huapi, as well as many other smaller lakes and high, snow-covered mountain peaks. All were magestically laid out before us. We took the logging road back down, and arrived at the village of Colonia Suiza which was a small town that was colonized by the Swiss 100 years ago. Unfortunately, there was very little left that was actually Swiss and the place was dissapointing.

We caught the bus back to Bariloche and went out to dinner at a restaurant called Bistro Tinto, which was owned by the brother of one of the Dutch princesses. Needless to say, the food qas quite good.

The next morning, we had to wake up early in order to catch our bus south along the fabled Ruta 40.

Bye for now,
Peter and Valerie

Things we learned in Bariloche:
-There can never be too many ice cream or chocolate stores
-Bariloche seems like it would fit in well in Switzerland
-St. Bernards are cute wherever they are

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