Down and Up again in Bariloche

A los Andes de los Beatles, guy on the left looks shockingly familiar...
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Hello !

Our last week in Argentina has been spent in the town of Bariloche, located in the Lake District of Patagonia, very close to Chile.  A town of about 85,000, Bariloche thrives upon tourism due to its proximity to one of the country´s largest ski hills, Cerro Catedral, in the winter, as well as being a center for numerous outdoors activities in the summer.  The first thing that both of us thought when we rolled into town was just how similar the landscape was to home back in BC, with huge mountains looming over azure lakes of all shapes and sizes.

Playing many of the Beatles´classics on traditional Argentinian pipes, flutes and drums sounded like a good idea

Hotel Llao Llao, Argentinas finest hotel
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The lake district is known for being a hub for outdoor activities such as trekking, camping, fishing, horseback riding and rafting in Argentina.  We originally planned to engage in as many of these activities as possible, but alas, our plans were foiled by the flu, and between the two of us we spent the better part of six days lying in bed.  While being sick on the road is pretty lame no matter where you are, we´re convinced that we picked the right point in our trip to do so.  We happened to be staying in a hostel occupying the tenth-floor penthouse suite of Bariloche´s tallest building, with a view overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi as well as the city´s main square, which never failed to be full of entertainers, protests, photogenic brandy-toting St. Bernards, kung-fu schools, and musicians of all types.

View from our hostel, great place to be sick!
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The town of Bariloche is very oriented towards tourists, and this was apparent in the vast numbers of chocolate and ice cream shops lining the streets.  Some of the chocolate shops were actually full sized grocery stores selling only treats staffed by girls dressed like Swiss milkmaids.  Very curious.  The best one was Mamushka´s where we enjoyed a lovely dinner of rasberry chocolate mousse, apple pie, and incredibly rich hot chocolate.  Perhaps not the best dinner for improving our health but it certainly picked up Sabrina´s spirits.

Probably the cheesiest picture yet!
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When we were finally both returned to our natural healthy states we managed to get out and check out a few interesting highlights:

Hotel Llao Llao:  Located about 20 km west of Bariloche, this is Argentina´s classiest hotel, with rooms starting at a whopping $320 US or so.  The landscape around the hotel was unbelievable, we´ll get pictures sometime in the relatively near future.

¨From the Andes to the Beatles¨: This beatles cover band put on an interesting show.  Playing many of the Beatles´classics on traditional Argentinian pipes, flutes and drums sounded like a good idea - until we heard it.  The cacophany this band produced rates among the worst sounds that have assaulted our ears thus far on this trip.

Wilkenny:  An awesome Irish pub.  We went out with a solid mix of foreigners and Argentines from our hostel on Valentine´s day, communicating in an interesting mix of English and Spanish to accomodate everyone.  We had a good time dancing to a bizarre mix of Latin American songs and hits from 2-5 years ago in North America.  We managed to last until about 4 am (most locals stay out till at least 6am) when we trudged back up the hill to our hostel followed through the rain by a pack of stray dogs. This was followed by a gruelling next day as we had to check out of our hostel early and find a bus to Mendoza which we managed to do and even had time for a super pancho (i.e. hot dog) at the bus terminal before enduring a 20 hour bus ride on the dirtiest, hottest bus either of us has experienced yet.

We´re now in Mendoza and are trying to make up for the time we lost being sick in Bariloche by doing lots here.  Check for another update soon!

Eub n Sab