After an amazing 3 weeks in Chile, I decided it was time to cross the border into Argentina to visit the extremely popular town of Bariloche. I set off from Ancud, Chiloe at 6:40 am in order to arrive early to the Puerto Montt bus terminal and ensure that there would be at least one departure for Bariloche that day. I made a reasonably quick connection and was off into the Andes for about a 7 hour bus ride (which is NOTHING!). It was a pretty noneventful bus ride, and we quickly went from sunshine and warm weather to windy and gray weather throughout the Andes. There were a number of alpine lakes and reservoirs, but I spent the bulk of my time updating the blog (you're welcome :), reading "Treasure Island" (in case you were wondering who Ben Gunn was from my last post, and also observing fanatic tourists snapping hundreds of photos out of the windows, rather than enjoying the views.
The border crossing was pretty uneventful, with the exception of the photo-opportunistic Chinese tourist we left behind at the Chilean exit point, and I made it to Bariloche by around 7pm. The hostel I had booked in Bariloche, called Penthouse 1004, was a spectacle in itself. I had schlepped all of my stuff about 3km to reach the hostel from the bus terminal, and had barely escaped the rain and wind that persisted for the rest of my trip by Lago Nahuel Huapi. From the top floor of the tallest building in the city, the wind, rain and whitecaps were quite a spectacle. Check out the photos below from the corner of the penthouse!!
The vibe of the hostel was very friendly and I immediately made friends with some folks from the States, and I went with my new amigo Matt Kolb (from Bend, Oregon) to the store to buy some Argentine steak to cook back at the hostel. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with some Malbec and local beer, had an awesome chat with a new friend from Lodi, California named Sorel Roget, and then we all set off to bed at curfew time hoping for an improvement in the weather the following day.
After a great breakfast of locally made bread and jam and real coffee, my Oregonian friend Matt and I set off to catch a local bus and go for a little hike along the "circuito chico" along Lago Perito Moreno in the Llao Llao region. After being denied entrance to the fancy-schmancy Llao Llao hotel, we walked more or less aimlessly until we found a trailhead leading to the lake, called Sendera Los Arrayanes. We met an Argentine couple along the path who explained to us that the Arrayanes are tress that grow in only a few places in the world (this being one of them), since they require cold temperatures and wet weather almost year round. If ever there was a place, this was it! According to our new friends, the arrayanes trees, pictured below, grow only about one centimeter per year and we were standing amongst a grove of trees several centuries old, though their size was not staggering. The wind was blasting through the forest and a lot of the taller trees had fallen and were knocking up against each other, but we were enjoying mild weather under protection from the forest. When we did get to the lake, we found some great views of the surrounding hills and some lakeside willows, and decided we were hungry enough to call it good and head back to the hostel to observe the weather from the penthouse.
That night, Sorel and Matt and I decided it was time for a full fledged Argentina Parilla - steak in its finest form. We had heard recommendations from others in the hostel who said they enjoyed a meal eating the best steak and ordering anything they wanted, all for a reasonable price. And so it was - we met up with two other friends and after a bit of a wait and a 45 minute bar detour, we were seated for dinner at El Boliche de Alberto. If you google it you will find the best picture of Alberto holding up some HUGE steak (in this case Lomo). Our dinner there was epic. We enjoyed a great bottle of Malbec, four filets of Lomo, two larger cuts of "Chorizo" (not to be confused with mexican sausage), salad, french fries, and local beer. Man oh man was that steak epic!! The filet was like butter, and we were ogling over it the whole time. The steaks were cut and prepared right by our table and cooked on a huge grill over red hot coals - it was quite an experience - and it cost us like $16 US each.
Speaking of money, the exchange rate fiasco is quite the topic of conversation in Argentina. If you use the ATM or charge to credit cards, you will be hard pressed to get a rate any better than 5 or 5.5 pesos to the dollar. In contrast, using black market "cambios," which are often solicited in the streets, or using a service like XOOM.com, you can get a rate as good as 7.2 pesos to the dollar. All the stores accept numerous forms of cash and it seems that everyone from tourists to locals to businesses are constantly working to stretch the value of a peso.
After dinner, the five of us went to an awesome local brewery and enjoyed a wide variety of beers, shared stories about our travels and rasped the Australian for her enjoyment of vegemite. We had a very succesful night out and we were all happy with the way we finished our time spent in Bariloche. The next day, after stocking up on local chocolates inspired by the swiss / alpine heritage of the city, we all parted ways and headed in all sorts of different directions. For me, it was time to say goodbye to northern Patagonia and head back to a warmer climate. Mendoza was only a twenty hour bus ride away!! Back to wine country!!!!
One interesting side note is that the flags all around Argentina were flying at half mast to mourn the passing of their fellow south american leader Hugo "Huge Chach" Chavez
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