Gobsmacking beauty in Bariloche

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Arriving in Bariloche was a strange feeling as we knew that it would be our final destination in Argentina. We have truly enjoyed everywhere we have been in Argentina and wanted to finish it on a high. Where better to create some happy memories than in the chocolate capital of South America?

We chose to fly from El Calafate as a bus would take 26 hours over snowy mountaineous terrain and we couldn't afford to lose a day, as we are becoming keenly aware that our time in South America is now ticking down. After waiting around the quiet airport until security finished their lunch to let us through, we boarded a small plane. The flight was only 90 minutes long, but that didn't stop them from dishing out complementary food and soft drinks. I love flying in South America (or maybe it is just that flying in Europe pales so much in comparison). The most spectacular aspect of the flight however was the view as we flew under the clouds and over the snowy Andes for most of the journey. It made a nice change to admire the cold, bright mountains from the comfort and warmth of the plane.

Bariloche airport is a small regional airport with no local bus service. Luckily, we got chatting to Alexey, a fellow backpacker from Moscow and shared a taxi into town before making plans to meet for drinks that evening. Our Irish-Argentinian hostel had seemed promising on-line, but was primarily set up to cater for skiers and snowboarders. Given that we planned to do neither on this trip (as broken bones would hinder our onward travel!), it wasn't really our kind of place, but was fine for two nights. We dumped the bags and met Alexey in the civic centre. We quickly realised that Bariloche is about two things, winter sports and chocolate. The town has a real alpine feel - peppered with nice wooden chalets and smelling of wood fires burning. We found ourselves standing in front of "Wilkenny", and the draw of an Irish pub proved too strong. There were still enough subtle differences to know that it is a foreign Irish pub (we were seated at our table?!), but after several rounds and once the pub filled up, it was just like being out at home.

The next day we rose late and decided to tackle public transport to make our way to Cerro Campanario which we had heard was rated by National Geographic as the 7th best panoramic view in the world. As we made our way down to the bus stop there were just too many chocolate shops. We had to nip into one of them. The shop very cleverly offers you free samples as you browse the aisles. It was a chocoholics heaven! It took all of Philippes strength to get me out of the shop with only a few purchases...

We hopped on a very crowded no.20 bus and kept our eyes peeled for kilometre 17. It took about 30 minutes to reach our destination. Once there we took the lazy option and paid out 50 pesos to let the chair lifts scoop us up and bring us to the top of the steep hill. The views are sensational. I was gobsmacked. Basically you stand in silence as you try to take the image in front of you in. Every way you turn in has wonderful views of natural beauty, with rippling lakes surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We spent about two hours soaking up the views before being chair lifted back to the main road.

On our way back into town we decided that tonight would be our last night in Argentina, and as such our dinner must be an homage to this fine country. This could only mean one thing...Steak! We returned to the hostel to get some advice on the best steak restaurant in town and then had a walk around town to work up a suitable hunger.

At the El Boliche "de Alberto" we were not disappointed. I ordered a half portion of well done Bife de Lomo and Philippe tackled a full portion of Asado. We took one portion of salad and chips between us and decided that it would be rude not to have a nice bottle of red to accompany the steak. When the food turned up there was enough to feed an army and the house red was as good as any expensive bottle of plonk I've had in Europe. We soldiered on through the mountain of food and discussed the past month in Argentina. The only negative we could think of is that nobody ever has change in any of the shops. However as we gently patted our stuffed stomachs we agreed that Argentina has stolen Brazils crown as our favourite country so far.

We are taking a short bus trip to Puerto Varas tomorrow - its only 6 hours away!

Hope you are all well.

Sinead and Philippe

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