Bariloche

We roll the dice one more time with the unpredictable Aerolinas Argentina, and... we come up sevens. Our flight from El Calafate, Patagonia to Bariloche departs and arrives on time and without incident. Bags come off intact, we reach our apartment contact via phone and snag a taxi into the city along with Fabio from Italy, who we first meet in our hostel in El Calafate and is also on our flight to Bariloche. In fact, our flight seems to be full of people from our hostel or folks we met on our trip to the glacier which makes for a very sociable time in the airport waiting lounge.

On our flight, we sit next to Wade, an environmental consultant from Vancouver, who works for a Canadian silver mining corporation with mines all over South America. We grill him about his travels, about mining practices in the various countries, about learning to speak Spanish, about his life back in Canada. He probably wishes he'd been assigned another seat and looks mildly relieved when we disembark in Bariloche.

Often referred to as the Switzerland of Argentina, Bariloche and the lake district offers some pristine mountain, lake and forest landscapes and is the entry point to the humongous Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. Located on beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi, the somewhat touristy city (much more so during the winter and summer) is surrounded by snow capped mountains that create impressive and calming views. The main reason to come to Bariloche is to visit the park which offers the famous 7 lakes circuit, mountain treks, volcanos and more.







We find our apartment on TripAdvisor. Bariloche packs in the crowds during the summer and winter — summer for the lakes and hikes; winter for the powder skiing at Cerro Catedral nearby. Autumn is a great time to visit as there are bargains to be found with accommodation. We rent a self catering apartment complete with kitchen and living room, free wifi and satellite TV, for half the regular fee. The apartment has two bedrooms each with a private bath and then a large communal kitchen and living space. But as it is the off season, we have the whole place to ourselves!












Plus, the view is pretty sweet.




We spend our time walking around town and along the lake. We are happy to shop for our groceries, check out the sights, practice our Spanish and do little else.




We make our own meals which is also a nice change again — we can be in charge of the salt, wheat and sweet content. There's laundry to be done and we investigate the prospect of renting a car and driving through the park and the 7 lakes district up to San Martin de Los Andes. There are also a number of short hikes we would like to do to lookout points on the top of some of the surrounding mountains.

We recognize that we are getting to a point where we are tired of planning what comes next, always scouting where to go and how to get there. A few days of keeping it simple and just being still is much needed.