Bariloche

Thursday 31st March 2011 - James's Birthday
After a small lie in we grabbed lunch and headed on the bus to Lake Gutierrez for a short walk, to see a waterfall and more impressively to get to our first viewpoint of the area. As you'd imagine, it's pretty stunning.

James and the waterfall.

For dinner we went to Tarquino, a steak house that looks like a hobbit's house with a huge door. It also has a tree growing inside and up through a hole in the roof to the outside. James had a rather ridiculously big piece of Bife de Chorizo (sirloin to the rest of us), whilst Emma had trout, all washed down with a lovely Malbec. For dessert Emma managed to get a candle organised and James got to make the customary (in Argentina) three wishes.

Friday 1st April 2011
There's a viewpoint 17km from the centre of Bariloche (Cerro Campanario) that's on National Geographic's top ten in the world. Obviously we felt it deserved a look.

Top 10?

We decided to take a 40 minute hike to the summit rather than the chair lift, mainly as there was no chance of Emma getting on it willingly.

We have to agree that the view is absolutely stunning with lakes everywhere. It looks more like a painting than something real. Whether it's the best of the holiday, we're not exactly sure how you tell! We'll perhaps use National Geographic's criteria.

Safe?

We then made our way to Cerro Otto. This time James convinced Emma onto the cable car and we made our way to the revolving cafe at the top. It takes 20mins to cover 360 degrees and it was a pleasant way to enjoy a drink. We would have liked to have done the short walk around the surrounding area but the paths were closed due to some work that was going on.

Apparently maintenance work such as repainting the roof and railings is done every year. We guessed that this time of year is best as it's the end of the season with fewer crowds but the weather is still good.

Shop opening times in Argentina are slightly random, with the period between 1pm and 5pm often being shut. We'd hoped to buy our bus tickets onwards to San Rafael (another 15 hours) but had to wait so we grabbed a drink. James had a Submarino which is basically a glass of hot milk with a bar of chocolate chucked in. The fun part here was the chocolate bar being in the shape of a submarine!

More meat than you can shake a large stick at.

In the evening we went to a typical Parilla and were able to watch the chefs cook several animals on their big BBQ. We were glad we decided against ordering chips as the plate was enormous. Self control is definitely needed when ordering here!

Saturday 2nd April 2011

More amazing views.

Today we headed out to Llao Llao, 25m from the city. This involved more walking and loads more amazing sights from the viewpoint at the top. The walk continued to a lovely pebble beach. It was so peaceful that people were doing yoga and we decided to have our packed lunch and watch the wind sailors on the lake. As we walked away some locals were setting up a BBQ on one of the permanent stone BBQs provided. It would be lovely if we had these in the UK.

Bariloche is famous for its chocolate so we felt it would be rude not to partake in some. After a home cooked dinner we headed to Mamushka, ignoring the chain shops, and shared their signature cake. Devoured is probably a better word. Definitely one of the best cakes ever and Emma has promised to attempt to recreate it in the UK.

Finally we went to the lovely Malabar, making it in for happy hour. The place really filled up around 11 but we soon retired so can only imagine what it's like at peak time after midnight.

Sunday 3rd April 2011
We packed, paid, grabbed lunch and caught our next big bus. This time the bus trip was around 15 hours to San Rafael where we planned to start some wine tasting. On the map it looks further than our last trip, but it takes half the time so we guess the roads are better.

What is certainly better is the bus. We decided on full cama which means the seat reclines a lot, it's wider and you get a blanket and pillow. We would have gone suite but sadly all these were booked out. The journey felt like a real luxury after all our other bus trips with cooked meals, hot drinks and a game of bingo provided. We did not win the bottle of wine going, but luckily we prepared and brought our own.

Night buses are definitely the way to go here. Unlike Ecuador and Colombia, there's very little to see outside, with long straight roads and flat countryside being the norm. It does make it easy to concentrate on the films. This time we had the old favourite The Wedding Crashers, followed by 300, all about Spartans and similar to Gladiator. Finally we had the film 7 Pounds, with Will Smith. This really isn't the light hearted entertainment one needs on these trips.