Los Wiscaminantes: Bariloche

After an exhausting hike through the mountains, we initially intended to move north through Chile; however, an enormous earthquake has a way of changing your plans.

So, instead, we decided to venture back into Argentina and head to the city of Bariloche, which is known for production of fine chocolates.

Bariloche is 1,159 miles from Puerto Natales by road. As the only reasonable option to get there is by a bus, we prepared for some long stretches of open road. Luckily the buses are quite comfortable, and many offer seats that recline to 160 degrees, which helps because we would be spending a total of 20 hours on the bus to reach our destination. For the trip, we chose seats that were at the front of the bus, on the second level, which gave us a really cool view of the open road.

On the right of the road is a pack of animals called guanacos, which are similar to llamas and very abundant down here. I was very impressed by the herds of them that grazed so close to the road, yet, for the most part, did not run across the road in front of a speeding bus. Important, because it doesn't seem like the bus driver ever intended to slow down even with large herds looming on both sides.

Anyway, 20 hours later, we arrived in a nice little lakeside mountain town. Below is a view of the backdrop that you would see in just about any direction. Mountains all around.

Laura is sitting on a wall that we visited a few times during our stay. It was a nice place to sit down, relax, and read a book, or just enjoy the views.

As I mentioned, Bariloche is known for its chocolate, and boasts a number of chocolate shops on the main street of the city. Since many shops have the custom of offering a free sample to anyone who walks in, especially tourists, Laura and I made a point of visiting each and every one of them. Our routine was pretty simple, walk into a store, enjoy a sample, and buy about 1 or 2 bucks worth of chocolate. It was a nice little system that garnered us a fair amount of free chocolate!

Our first visit to the main square was interesting. The building in the background is a government building, and the people huddled around are city workers. They are staging some sort of demonstration by beating a drum and chanting this and that. They wanted more money. They're not striking- just making a public scene about the fact that they don't think they get paid enough. They'll be back at work the next day regardless.

After 5 months of travelling, some things just don't have the same surprise factor anymore. For instance, a vehicle that appears to be a larger version of the train that rides around the mall during Christmas time, only, it serves as an actual form of public transportation here. Can you imagine yourself getting on this baby for the morning commute?

It's always fun to see different flowers that I never knew existed. This particular flower(no clue on the name) was just outside the national park Llao Llao, and caught my eye. It's a pretty cool picture, though I didn't necessarily plan for that.

Llao Llao(think jow-jow) national park is a peninsula that has many hiking trails that we, of course, stomped around on. Here's Laura, part of the way up to the top of the hill.

We spent some time just gazing one way, then another. It was peaceful.

And the views only got better the higher up we went.

Many of the surrounding lakes were so calm that they produced a near perfect reflection.

Other than that hike, we visited another nearby lake, hiked a bit more, visited more chocolate shops, and just had a nice relaxing time in the city. I wish I could say more about Bariloche, but I just don't have anything to complain/rant about. It was almost too nice. Our hostel was good. The city was good. The chocolate was very good. The setting was good. The weather was good. The food was good.

Oh, but speaking of food. We did enjoy one particularly important meal.

Cheese Fondue!!

This meal is important because for more than 20 years, Laura's family, together with another family of close friends, has celebrated what is known as Fondue Day. It's pretty self explanatory, a day full of fondue in three courses. Cheese course. Meat course. Chocolate course. Because Fondue Day is celebrated in late January every year, we missed it. And we were totally bummed about that. Soooo, to make up for it in a very small way, we tried the local flavor.

Although it was definitely not the same without the good company of friends and family, the meal tasted pretty darn good. We were provided with some tasty appetizers.

We had a bottle of wine. (Which was actually our second of the day!)

Our spread of foods was interesting. Sauteed zucchinis, sauteed sweet potatoes, bread, ham, potatoes, and hot dogs. We were a little hesitant about the hot dogs, but they did they trick.

We had an excellent time trying to replicate Fondue Day, and though it was a lot of fun, it will never compare to the real thing.

I shall include no explanation with the remaining photos as the visuals say plenty. Never mind that things got a little hazy halfway into the dinner! That tends to happen on the real Fondue Day too.