Tasty stop in Bariloche
After hiking over 100 miles in 10 days, we sadly have to say goodbye to Gui and Steve. Of course we couldn’t say goodbye without a proper happy hour and a nice meal, that we shared with Sophie, Roman, Juliette, Max, Josephine and Scarlett (the family of 6 traveling around the world). Another beautiful evening before flying to Bariloche, also called “Little Switzerland” , because of its beautiful mountain landscapes with many lakes.
Bariloche is located on the coast of the Nahuel Huapi lake, and welcomes many tourists in winter to ski, and in summer to hike.
We will spend only 2 and a half days, and will try to get some rest. After all the hiking we have been doing these past couple of weeks, we both have soar knees and want to take it easy. Especially since we have some more hiking planned when we get to Chile. And we fall in the perfect week, since it is the Restaurant Week in Bariloche, called “Bariloche a la Carta”.
We arrive in Bariloche just before the weekend, just in time to take advantage of the Feria. This Feria, organized during restaurant week, is a market where local products and producers are put forward. The idea is for people to learn more about their local products and advertise Patagonian food specialties. Knowing our love for food, you can imagine that we were thrilled to arrive during such an event.
After we arrive, in the early afternoon, we decide to go stroll down the streets of the historical center. The architecture is pretty particular, resembles the German or Swiss Alps. Indeed, a lot of people from Europe came to this town back in the days.
We can quickly see that we are in the middle of a ski town. Absolutely every shop sells ski and snow gear. And the shops that don’t, sell chocolate. Yes, Bariloche is also known for its chocolate. The city is even considered Argentina’s chocolate capital.
And Maider takes great pleasure in reminding Matt that we should absolutely try the chocolate each time we get the opportunity. So of course we stop in a famous chocolate shop, Rapa Nui, where we sit down to enjoy a nice waffle topped with plenty of homemade chocolate. Delicious! That’s it, that is all Maider needed to fall in love with the town.
We stroll along the lake, and enjoy a nice view on the mountains. The atmosphere is very relaxing.
In the early evening, we go to check out the Feria of Bariloche a la Carta, and are surprised to see over 70 stands with local products : beer, chocolate, wine, charcuterie, cheese, olive oil and much more.
After chocolate, beer is also a big part of the city. There are many breweries on every block. This city really has everything to please us both. Chocolate for Maider and beer for Matt! Perfect.
So we take advantage of the Feria to have a nice local craft beer outside with a view on the lake. It is very hard to say no to charcuterie right there, but we figure we will come back within the next couple of days !
Llao Llao park
For our second day, we go to walk through the Llao Llao park (pronounced Chao Chao by the Argentinians), located at less than 15 miles from the center of Bariloche. We will spend 4 hours in this park walking along the multiple trails.
The first trail brings us to the Cerro Llao Llao. From up there we are above the forest and can get a very nice view on the nearby lakes and mountains.
Beautiful! We will stay a while to simply admire the landscape.
We continue our visit by going to a mirador and a small beach right by the lake.
In some areas the lake’s water almost looks turquoise blue. Magnificent!
We then continue, and the trail leads us in a forest with huge trees. With the wind, some of these big trees start to move and make a lot of noise. It also sounds as if they are going to break and fall on us. Pretty amazing.
We then pass by another lake, the cute little Escondido lake. And after that, head out to the last trail, the Arrayanes trail. From this trail, a few miradors offer a very nice view on the Moreno lake and the beautiful nearby mountains.
Once again the water is turquoise blue.
This little hike is very nice and we don’t see many people.
We have walked about 7.5 miles in this park (I guess we still don’t really know what a rest day should look like…).
Cerro Campanario
We end the day by visiting the Cerro Campanario. At the top of this hill, we have a nice 360 view on the surroundings and on the city of Bariloche.
You can either take a ski lift or hike up to the top. You can imagine we decided to hike up!
But we didn’t imagine the hike would be that steep. It didn’t take long, about 20 minutes, but boy is was really steep the entire way. The view at the top is totally worth it.
The wind blows very strong, and there are a lot of people coming up in the ski lifts, so we don’t stay too long. The hike down will be pretty quick but also very hard on our knees. Not sure it was a great idea to hike this much again after only resting for 2 days, our knees still feel very sore. So we promise ourselves that we won’t be doing anymore hiking during our stay in Bariloche.
And as a reward, after a day well spent, we decide to go back to the Rapa Nui chocolate shop to taste their brownie and their sundae (both were excellent).
And after that we head out to try a local beer in a well known local craft brewery : Manush.
Feria Bariloche a la Carta
The next day we really rest. We spend the day working on our blog and organizing the next couple of weeks of our trip in Chile. We then go to spend the afternoon at the Bariloche a la Carte Feria and taste plenty of delicious things : charcuterie, cheese and of course local beer and chocolate! We sit down on the main Plaza, in the sun, and enjoy these delicious treats with the rest of the population. This event is really nice and well done, and brings together a lot of people. It was nice to be able to be a part of it.
It is official, our journey in Argentina is definitely over. We won’t try to hide that we do feel a little sad. This country was our favorite so far. It is also the country we have spent the most time in. We met incredible people, ate our best meals in 4 months, did a lot of hiking and saw many many different landscapes, realized a couple dreams (the Iguazu falls and Patagonia) and Maider was able to walk in the steps of her mother who lived in Argentina a few years… So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to Argentina before going to Chile to spend our last days in South America.