Bariloche

Bariloche

We arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche Thursday morning, 3/29/07, after leaving El Bolson. When we first visited Bariloche last week to check out various lodging options we were very disappointed in what we saw. Why? From the information we had read, ie. Blogs and guide books, we expected Bariloche to resemble Lake Tahoe. Well it doesn't. It’s a little run down, there is graffiti on popular monuments, and there is a glorified outside shopping mall. In addition the cabanas that we looked at were significantly overpriced. Therefore, we were a little frustrated and disappointed. Bike trails were limited (minimal single track) and lots of fire roads. The biking options are similar to Tahoe. I’m not a big fan of Tahoe’s restrictions in terms of mountain biking. Futhermore, Bariloche is really touristy.

When we arrived in Bariloche, to stay for 2 weeks, we went directly to our cabana. After some internet time we came across Plaza Patagonia. Plaza Patagonia was exactly what we needed. A break from our dreary, dark and old cabana in El Bolson. This cabana, Plaza Patagonia, was constructed only 2 months ago. Everything is brand new and clean. Let me clarify, most places are clean, but they are old. Once again, Argentines work very well with what they have, however, they do minimal improvement or work when it comes to maintenance or improvements on properties. Nidia, the owner of Plaza Patagonia, is so personable and friendly. She makes us feel like we are at home and she speaks very good English. It has been a pleasure to talk with her and to stay at her cabana.

We decided while we were in Bariloche that we would act like tourists and do the excursions that typical tourists do. We were going to do the ski lift rides to the top of the mountains, boat trips and go out to dinner more. We knew that we had to visit a few of the breweries we have been reading about. One of the first things we did was to eat at the first and only Mexican restaurant we have found in Argentina. Let’s say the steak fajitas were great. However, the beans and rice need a little help. Unlike restaurants in the states or Mexico, we were served bread with salsa, instead of chips with salsa. Who would have thought of bread with salsa.
In the afternoon we went to take a gondola to Cerro Otto. On top of the mountain is a revolving restaurant. Apparently it’s the only one in the world on top of a mountain. In addition, it had an exact replica of Michelangelo’s David. Payton definitely had some questions regarding David’s penis. I believe even the Spanish speaking Argentine’s around us understood what Payton was asking. There sure were a lot of people laughing and giggling when we were having our picture taken and Payton was staring at David, or rather, David's penis. With all of the images of Disney characters down here, one would have thought Disney was an Argentine company. Oh yeah, I forgot, Walt Disney visited Argentina back in the early 1950's and ever since then, Argentine's believe that Walt Disney has based Disneyland from Republica de los Ninos and used the Arranyano forest(in the Lake District) as the basis for the "Enchanted Forest" in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

During our reading, we discovered that there are a lot of hiking trails around the top of Cerro Otto, and that you could walk down the mountain to the gondola station. After spending significant time on top of the mountain and having a little snack, we followed a German group down the road of the mountain. The dirt road headed down the north section of the mountain. Jen and I kept talking about the fact that we should be heading the other direction, but figured that the road would end down at the base of the gondola where we viewed the road from our ride to the summit. We questioned our present course, but decided that if we were to turn around and go back to the summit that it would have been too late to take the gondola down. More than an hour later, we landed at the base of the hill more than 4 km from the base of the gondola. It was getting dark and we had limited choices. (We were actually in an area I was told previously not to be in after dark). I flagged a remise (taxi) down and paid the 5 pesos to get back to our car. We thought it was comical that the remise driver didn’t tell us the gondola was closed until we got to the gondola station. Luckily, it didn't matter since all we wanted to get was our car.

The following day during Payton’s nap I rode part of the Circuito Chico. It’s approximately a 35km loop from Bariloche to LLAO LLAO and back. I wanted to visit a few sites I had read about in an Aventura magazine (Argentine version of National Geographic’s Adventure Magazine.) Aventura is actually a pretty nice magazine with lots of activity information. We will buy the next few months editions to help us with additional activities in the areas we will be visiting. The loop was pretty uneventful, found some single track and there were a few creek crossings and dog encounters. The trail actually terminated on Military property which is Argentina’s Mountain Army training facility. It looks a little outdated. In front of the facility there is a mono-snomobile and an old snow cat. I was very hopeful after riding, finding out that there is actually single track in Argentina. Later in the day we drove out to Llao Llao and went on a nice hike. The worst part, Payton took a bad fall half way down the hill. Initially after the fall she wanted to go back to the car and end the hike, however, after a few minutes she asked, “where we going?” We told her and she said "no" and let us know that she wanted to go back down the trail. We ended up at Lago Moreno which is a very pretty lake with minimal boats. The lake seems to be used mainly by fisherman.

The following day I went on a bike ride to Lago Guetierrez, specifically, Cascada de los Duendes. There was some great single track around here. Multiple uphill climbs and amazing downhill. I ran out of time and went back to the cabana to tell Jen and Payton about the waterfalls. We decided to drive out to the waterfalls so that they could see them too and we went on a short hike and took some photos. The cascades are pretty, however, with the end of summer the flow is sluggish.

We have been enjoying our mornings at the cabana and we are back to our own Buenos Aires ways. We are eating lemon bread and drinking coffee late into the morning. Of note, we found the best lemon bread that we have ever had. It is a couple blocks from our cabana in a small mini-market. Apparently, the lady that makes the bread only makes it for this store. So I guess we are lucky to have found the bread.

The next day we drove to Cerro Camperando. Apparently, it is rated the 8^th best view in the world by National Geographic. Basically, it’s a ski lift up to the top of a mountain near Llao Llao. It truly is beautiful. We took many photos. Unfortunately, we had the big lens on the Canon camera. We met some people from Vancouver, Canada and they liked the fact that we were wearing our Arcteryx jackets since Arcteryx is made in Canada. Once again, Payton LOVES ski lifts. We will be buying a ski pass when we get back to Bend, Oregon.

The following day, I went on one of the best bike rides I have ever had. I only wish I could have ridden this with some friends. I
started at Cerro Catedral, the largest ski resort in South America
. The trail was awesome! If you’re a mountain biker, you will appreciate the pics. If not, well, you’ll you probably could stop reading the remainder of this blog entry. There were plenty of technical options ie. Rocks, hills, ladders, mud…My goal was to reach Refugio Frey. Approximately 1 mile from the refuge I hit a point in the trip where I couldn’t ride the bike anymore. It was a hike-bike section. I made it to the top with a lot of peculiar looks on everybody’s faces. A few people tried talking to me, however, language barrier! I spoke to one person who was amazed that I was up there. I must have been one of the few bikers to go to the top. The refuge was very nice and impressive. I might have to come back during the winter season to check it out. On my way down I met a girl from Corvallis, Oregon. Her name was Meg, and her sister was the owner of Cup of Magic in Bend, Oregon. We had a good conversation. I could tell she was home sick when she looked at my Deschutes Brewery biking jersey and said Aah, Mirror pond! It felt good to talk to someone from home…The ride down was amazing. Going to fast to stop and take pictures. Trust me, plenty of technical options with a little too much speed. It doesn’t get much better!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 we performed our morning routine and went to a local park where Payton played. It was nice, walking around town and enjoying the scenery. Afterwards, we went to a local bar, The Map Room, and had our first Argentine Nacho experience since arriving in Argentina. I guess I got caught up in the moment (I love Nachos) because I over did it on the picante sauce.

Thursday, we left our cabana (rented out for Easter weekend) and drove south to Nidia's (owner of Plaza Patagonia) friend Sylvia's cottage. It was older and nice with a good size back yard. The only thing wrong with it, it smelled like cigarette smoke. Oh no! The more we looked at it, the more we realized that it was superficially clean, but not clean. The bottom of our socks would be brown from walking around in the cabana with no shoes on. Jen appeared to like the cabana at first, but I think the more time she spent there the less she liked it. I left for a bike ride during Payton’s nap before all of Jen’s true feelings/thoughts were revealed. Needless to say, my bike ride ended short, I was stopped by two gaucho men, 45 minutes in my ride, taking supplies up to the refugio jakob. I wasn’t going to argue with them (a local guide (Nidia’s son) informed me of this trail on the map I had and told me it was o.k. to ride it). What it comes down to is that you need to be able to speak the language to defend yourself and not play out the American way of charging through things blindfolded…

Friday we decided to spend the whole day away from our cabana. After Payton’s nap, we went out to Cerro Llao Llao and climbed the mountain. We met a few Americans at the summit. It was nice to talk to people from the States. The views from the top were amazing. The hike wasn’t bad, a few hundred meter elevation gain. Once again, Payton was amazing. She walked up almost the entire hill. She is becoming quite an outdoor enthusiast and hiker. We ended the day eating at some wannabe brewery in downtown Bariloche. This restaurant actually advertised itself as a brewery, but didn’t produce any of its own beers. After eating our meals, we didn’t think they made their food at the restaurant either.

Saturday morning Payton had Easter egg hunt. We decided on Saturday, because it had more opportunities to hide the eggs. we experienced our first guided tour in 3 months. We toured some lava caves outside of Bariloche. Its hard to be nice here. Bend, Oregon has many lava tubes (one lava tube measuring nearly 300+ feet in length) therefore; it was hard for me to be enlightened by a cave that is merely 20 feet in depth and 30 feet wide. There was one lava tube that I wasn’t able to see because Payton had her first breakdown climbing through this narrow entry to a lava tube in the side of this mountain. It was the first time we couldn’t complete our initial goal since we started our trip (not bad!!!!) Jen was able to go inside and took some photos. Apparently, there was a water source at the end of the tube. We finished the day climbing the rest of the mountain and having fun. We (Jen,Payton and I) are always the loudest in the area. I guess it's not only us because everytime someone asks us where we are from, they immediately respond before we can answer USA. My conclusion, Americans are just loud, period.