Bariloche

After Mendoza, I headed down to Bariloche which is the outdoors capital of Argentina, situated in the beautiful Lake District. Quite luckily I managed to get a room in one of the best hostels going. Suitably called the Penthouse, it has a stunning view out over the town and lake:

There I met the lovely Amanda:

and we spent the next few days enjoying what Bariloche has to offer. First off was obviously a night out in the local Irish bar which oddly was the least touristy bar in town and the place were all the Argentinians went to.

Argentinians don't go out until about 1am and then stay out until dawn. This obviously dented our attempts to be up and out early the next morning but we managed in the end to head off for the the Circuito Chico; a 30k bike ride through some stunning lakes stopping off for small walks and swims along the way.  

 

 

 

Very highly recommended but make sure you have plenty of time – we finished in about 7 hours as there is so much to see along the way.

Next we went for a bit of a hike. The most famous walk in the region is the Refugio Frey walk but I would highly recommend doing the Frey por el Filo trek instead. These both start from the Cerro Cathedral ski resort. The first is a return walk to the Refugio Frey – a mountain hut – but there has been quite a bit of damage to the trees along the way and much of the beauty has gone. The Frey por el Filo trek is long enough to give you a bit of a work out but short enough to comforatbly get done in a day – about 6 hours in all with a few stops included. It takes you up to the ridge above the ski area

 

and then an excellent, not too challenging scramble along the back of it

with superb views off to the side

from which you drop down to a small lake and then drop down again into the valley with the Refugio in it and from there back to the resort.

 

Final day was a frustrating one trying to find the 6 Nations on anywhere. Despite Argentina being a rugby country, they are keener on their siestas and none of the traditional bars seemed at all keen on opening up mid afternoon for us. We found it on ESPN but rugby is not the same without Eddie, Brian, Jonathan or any of the other usual suspects so we ended up watching it over the internet - or at least as much of the games as wasn't being skipped given the poor internet feed!