Bariloche

Bariloche, called formally San Carlos de Bariloche, is a city in argentinian Lake District with a gorgeous setting on the shoreline of Lago Nahuel Huapi. Some great mountains reaching 2000 m ring the town.  Bariloche is full of tourists, in summer and in winter (skiing, snowboard), too. For me it is much too touristic, I prefer much more empty and wild southern Patagonia. But Bariloche, beside being known as an argentinian Switzerland (if its good or bad), is a perfect startpoint for an exploring of Parque National Nahuel Huapi and Parque National Lanin. But you have to be prepared for driving of many many kilometers on some creppy roads...

Centro civico, the mains square looks like a village in Alps thanks (or not thanks) to architect Ezequiel Bustillo

The view from Centro civico in the direction of Lago Nahuel Huapi.

Bariloche is known for its chocolates, one of the most popular chocolate producers is Mamuschka, in russian mama.

Because it is such a touristic town,  lots of people here speaks English. However, as you can see, not everybody. Somebody should tell them how disgusting it is...

The first two days in Bariloche I was just relaxing and recovering after the New Years Eve. And eating...

Eating bloody steaks

On the

Monday, 3. January

I went with a dutch-israelian-polish team to Ruta de los Siete Lagos, the Road through the Seven Lakes, starting at the Lago Nahuel Huapi.

Here we go! all rights reserved.

For my love!!!

Another unfortunate name for lago this time... The non-polish speaking readers please google it (but not from institute computers...)

Wild wild Ruta.

How the lakes can have such an artifical  looking colour.

In the evening we arrived in San Martin de los Andes, a small alpinian-style city  at the Lago Lacar and stayed there overnight. The hostel was full of very young people and there was a small latinian rock concert in the evening.  And a dinner for free, a very rare extra Wurst. With some new argentinian friends we enjoyed the evening even more, learning about argentinian vinos, dulce de leche and mate trinking. God bless you, I am allowed to trink bitter mate with a bit of sugar...

Polish accent in San Martin! The pattern is typical for a small city nearby Warsaw, Lowicz. And Mamusia is one of the most beautiful words and means mama. En polaco.

Enjoy mate.

A survival kit for Argentina. At the right you can see a bar of a very concentrated dulce de leche, for me tasting similar to georgeous krowki (polish caramels exported to e.g. Germany and called there Kleine Muh).

Tuesday, 4. January

On the second day of our trip we went along the Ruta Provincional 63 to the south to Bariloche. Of course with several stops for miradores and lunch and lunch II and lunch III. The road was much more wild and for me more beautiful that the day before.

Our cool traveller-team.

Wednesday, 5. January

We rent a cor for three days we went  for a trip up a dusty, single lane dirt road to Pampa Linda to visit the Ventisquero Negro, the Black Glacier at the base of mountain Tronador which reaches 3554 m (Tronador, not glacier).

In my opinion the glacier is just dirty.

Dirty and kaputt.

Then we walked to some nice waterfalls. Actually, the path up was closed to the public.due to danger of  avalanches and loose stones or something. But when we saw argentinian families coming back from the trail with... maybe two months old babies on hands, we went up, too, forgetting about restrictions, which were obviously ignored by the whole folk. On the way up we were almost eaten by very aggressive horse flies which made impossible earlier enjoying the view of a black glacier, too.

 

Maybe 30, maybe 40 meters high. The waterfall.

Thursday, 6. January

Lazy day. Walks in the city, the day of lavanderia, loundry, writing, reading. Fighting with VISA which ended with a victory. A day of vacations. My last full day in Bariloche, tommorow afternoon I am taking a bus for a 19 hours ride to Mendoza, which name is synonymous with vinos. Finally I will have enough time to sleep! In my comfortable cama, with several meals and hopefully not to horrible movies. At the sunset I said goodbye (or see you again... no, goodbye most probably) to Bariloche.