Bariloche - capital of the Lakes District

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As the main tourist hotspot in the lakes district and northern Patagonia, Bariloche was always going to be on our list of places to visit but having the van made it a little difficult in approaching the 120,000 person town. Alas, we found the Los Coihues campsite recommended on TripAdvisor a little out of town by a river that suited us perfectly. A little Espanglish upon arrival and we were set for the night with plenty of amenities available but most importantly, dogs to play with! A leisurely afternoon ensued with planning our attack on the area as well as the remaining 3 weeks of the road trip.
The national park in which Bariloche is situated, Nahuel Huapi including a massive lake by the same name, offers many spectacular views as well as activites such as kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, rafting, horse riding, and skiing in the right season, etc to take in the scenery. However, as we are continuing further north to warmer weather in Chile with similar options, we chose to drive the scenic routes in the van and walk some short trails to viewpoints, including the municipal park Llao Llao. With beautiful pine forests amid bright blue lakes and mountains that you can imagine covered in snow, the views were jaw dropping and certainly kept us entertained.
We also visited Colonia Suiza, on the south side of Lago Perito Moreno Esta that was hosting its annual festival featuring more handicrafts, local and Swiss foods, live music and of course more microbrewery beer. We parked the van, set up the bed preempting a fun evening and followed the crowds toward the sounds of a folk band. We meandered the stalls al afternoon, chatting to the artists and sampling their fares until things were wrapping up. Then it became a bit of an after party for the locals of that town which we were lucky enough to be privy to. Various musicians sat around the main courtyard and played while anyone who knew how came up to tango. It was great for us to see a relaxed display of their national dance and to see variations in the styles of tango. We definitely out our Spanish to the tests with a few more conversations but managed to get along quite well with the locals. Feeling chuffed with our language skills and more than content from our beer, wurst and Black Forest cake combo for dinner, we headed to bed for another night "roughing it" on the side of the road.
A slow wander through the main town the following morning taking in the traditional stonework and wooden buildings on Centro Civico from the early European settlers and the famed chocolate shops that line the main streets, we stopped off for another money exchange for our remaining US dollars (not quite as good as our previous cambio in Buenos Aires but US$95 (in small denominations) = Arg$1102). Then it was time for lunch in the Lonely Planet's top recommended restaurant El Boliche de Alberto for more of Argentina's famous beef! We were blown away by the rib eye steak and provolone cheese but unfortunately about 1/4 of our tenderloin was bad meat which left a bit of a bad taste (literally) on what was otherwise a carnivore's dream. After gorging on steak we left Bariloche and drove through the picturesque lakes district to the border of Chile.

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