Bariloche & It’s Lakes
For me leaving Patagonia was like a breath of fresh air! Although Patagonia was incredible, it was also extremely full on and expensive. I was looking forward to Bariloche for the lakes, mountains, and some unwinding.
We ended up spending about 6 days in Bariloche. The town was packed with Argentinians on their summer holiday break, most from Buenos Aires. It seems to be the holiday destination. Think of Queenstown vibe with the lake, nice shops, and multiple chocolate shops. It ended up being almost just as expensive as Patagonia because of this.
The first day I ended up walking up Cerro Otto, the mountain just behind the town. This had a 360 degree view from the top of Bariloche and its surrounding lakes and mountains. The mountain is also a ski field in winter. The walk to the summit was straight up, literally. But I ended up walking back down the access road, which someone ended up giving me a lift to the bottom once I was about halfway down.
On my walk back to the hostal (Niña Hostal) I passed by a wild raspberry bush, which of course I had to indulge in. Raspberries grow wild here, kind of like Blackberries in NZ. I knew this handful I was holding would have cost about $5 back in NZ, so I savoured every one. The hostal also had a raspberry bush, so of course I had more there.
The next day Lucas and I set out for a couple days of Camping. Our initial plan was to camp near Perito Moreno Lake in Colonia Suiza so we could explore the markets there. However, after a crammed and uncomfortable bus ride with our packs, and upon arriving to a dirty, dusty and not very nice campsite we decided to abort that plan and head to Nahuel Huapi Lake to a new campsite. This campsite was a lot more pleasant so we pitched the tent. The campsite was nice, however, it was a very windy day, and the dirt roads meant dust was flying everywhere. Our moods were quite low after the day we had, though we managed to find ourselves a nice burger and beer for dinner (inside & out of the dust) which brought the spirits back.
The next days after that were a lot more pleasant as the wind had died down. We ventured up Cerro Campanario, a small peak in the area, for more 360 degree views. We spent the rest of the afternoon sunbathing on the beach, braving the cold waters of the lake every so often.
We cooked a cheap meal for dinner that night which had a bunch of random stuff like gnocchi, bolognese sauce, tomatoes, cheese, olives, and salami. Our plan was to cook on one of the BBQ’s at the campsite, however, we struggled to find wood to fuel it. Nonetheless, we were satisfied with the dish.
On our final day we caught a bus to Llao Llao where we then walked around the Circuito Chico until we found a nice beach to park up at. It was a lot harder than expected to find a nice beach to lounge on, so we walked a lot further than expected. We ended up at Troncos Bay which was busy, but we found a nice patch of sand to lie on. The water temperature was much warmer here, and the views of the surrounding mountains were breathtaking. I didn’t end up getting a photo of it, mostly because of all the people around. We had to hitchhike back halfway to where we could then get onto a crammed bus back to Bariloche.
The next morning we had an 8 hour bus ride to Puerto Montt in Chile, where our next adventures awaited us.
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