From El Calafate we flew to Bariloche in Argentina’s Lake District. We checked into the International Travelers Hostel and discovered our room was actually “the cabin” a self contained, oddly shaped room and private bathroom in the backyard by the pool. It was cool to our own private bungalow for five nights (the longest we’ve spent in one place so far).
The first day we chilled and explored the city a bit. Bariloche, with about 100,000 people, felt huge after the small towns in Patagonia. It was a good place to stop before Santiago (pop 6 million).
The second day was Sunday and in Catholic countries most things are closed on Sundays which led to an hour-long adventure trying to buy a bus card (they don’t accept cash). We ended up getting the last card from a tourist office and set off for Llao Llao about an hour away.
The bus dropped us off at the Hotel Llao Llao (pronounced “schow schow”) where Obama will be staying and playing golf next week. We tried to go in and look around but were turned away for not having a reservation. So we walked down and took a few hikes through a forest, up to a viewpoint and along the shore of Lake Natuel Huapi. Back in Bariloche that night we stumbled onto an Italian place that makes their own pasta and had excellent lasagna (mine was dinner for two days).
On day three in the Lake District we went whitewater rafting. We drove two hours to the river and spent 2.5 hours rafting class “III plus” (they go to class IV when water levels are higher) rapids to the Chilean border- literally when we climbed the hill from the river, the border marker was next to us. The scenery was gorgeous and Rich and I both managed to stay inside the boat (two of our fellow rafters fell out during rapids). We were the only non-Argentinians on our trip which I found interesting.
Our last day in Bariloche, Rich stayed in town and I took a bus two hours south to El Bolson for the day. El Bolson is a hippie town in a lovely area with lots of long treks nearby. Since I only had a few hours, I just did a short hike to a few viewpoints at he top of a hill near the center of town. Then I spent some time perusing at the big crafts market in town. They had excellent and cheap empanadas (my favorite snack food in n Argentina) and all of the local breweries in the area (most Argentine hops are grown nearby) had booths- I only tried one and thought the Pale Ale on tap in our hostel was better.
The next day was a transit day. Six hours on a bus from Bariloche to Puerto Montt. A 30 minute bus ride to the airport and four hours in the airport til our flight to Santiago to meet my parents. Exhausting, but that’s travel.
