Bariloche - Chocolate Heaven

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What a magical place is Bariloche! It’s known as 'chocolate heaven’ but it’s not just the chocolates that are unbelievable - the scenery is out of this world. Snow covered mountains make a perfect backdrop to the blue of the huge lake with white horses dancing across its surface. Green conifers and silver birch trees loom above hundreds of brightly coloured flowers; red spidery flowers of embothrium, yellow broom, purple lupins, white daisies, pink hedge roses and the delightful long golden tresses of laburnum. Many of the houses are very Swiss in their architectural style - not surprising since many Swiss settled here years ago. In fact it was home away from home for them. The whole place has a real Swiss feel; not just the lakes and mountains but the crisp, clean feel about the place. There are Swiss styled names too, like our hotel, “Edelweiss’, a good, comfortable central hotel without the high price tag of a hotel in Switzerland.

A bus trip out into the country dropped us at a chair lift that took us up to a view point that looks out across an immense lake system - some of which we would cross on our expedition, sailing across the Andes. Spectacular! And so was the wrought iron sculpture of Our Lady of the Lake that stood overlooking the scenery of the lakes. Tearing ourselves away from this view, we visited a small wooden church. As with many of the buildings, it was made of the golden honey coloured wood of cypress pine. There were some quite unusual art works inside and interesting modern stain glass windows.

At one point, we sat to rest on a new wooden seat – it really would have been better to stand! Too late we realised that the gum was still oozing from the timber and when David arose, he had quite a patch of resin on his you-know-where! That necessitated a trip back into town to find another pair of trousers! What he got was, amazingly, actually MADE in Argentina - not China. He also added to the local economy by buying tee shirts… AND chocolates, of course! Almost half of the shops in Bariloche are devoted to chocolate – that sweet loved by so many around the world – supermarkets of chocolate! There were people filling trolleys with chocolate to take home to wherever home was.

And hundreds of them were young people. During the day and until all hours of the night, the streets of Bariloche were filled with hundreds of teenagers for this chocolate heaven is the place where the kids of wealthier Chilean families come to let their hair down after school finishes. They were noisy but otherwise well behaved – thank goodness.

One place not to miss in Bariloche is the Cathedral – the Nuestra Senora del Nahuel Huapi – or ‘Our Lady of the Lake’. The building was begun in 1946. It’s a fascinating building made of concrete with sections of rough stones in between the main framework. The stain glass windows are truly beautiful, old world in content but modern in execution and true, clear colours. The building is now owned and operated by the National Parks Administration and is classified as a National Historic Monument. Because it was just before Christmas a nativity scene had been set up - an unusual one that seemed to tryuly capture the spirit of Christmas Day.

We arrived there one evening just as preparations were being made for a classical concert to welcome home one of the town’s, and Argentina’s, best known violinists, Haydee Franci who has spent much of her life on the international stage. Many of the other performers were students at the local music academy, well known in Argentina for its excellent music tuition. They were directed by a Japanese viola player Kyoko Kurokawa. Another soloist was an internationally known oboist, Robin Wesley. We were in for a treat. It was a most enjoyable program of Handel, Bach and Vivaldi - a real bonus and a very good way to finish our time in delightful Bariloche.