In all seriousness, many Swiss immigrants came to Bariloche and helped to develop it, influencing the architecture and its growth as the country's chocolate capital. As a result, the city is about half ski town/ half Willy Wonka reality, except the buildings themselves aren't made out of chocolate.
Anyway, I met my friend Sam in the city and didn't have a problem finding a hostel because it's currently the offseason, post high summer season and pre-winter ski season. After getting settled, we walked down to the lake and began what was to be the first of many walks/hikes during the trip. Wandering along the lake without any worries, almost immediately, 4 stray dogs started following us. I usually don't like petting stray dogs but these guys were very cute and simply wanted some company. Sam and I even named them, which was easy because of their outgoing personalities. We walked along the lake's edge for a couple hours, until our hunger drove us to a supermarket. Upon exiting the supermarket, the dogs rejoined us, demonstrating their loyalty. After picking some blackberries from numerous bushes overlooking the street, we began ascending, with the goal of reaching the top of the hill. We passed by some beautiful houses, many of which had apple trees and nice yards, and of course, dogs. At some point, we came out of the forest and seemed to hit a dead end. I was convinced of this one because of the sign that told us that the above trail was private property, and two because of the pack of dogs that surrounded us, barking in that unfriendly kind of way. Unwilling to let our dogs get into a fight, we retreated and decided to make our way back down towards the center of the city. We picked a couple of apples and wandered aimlessly through the outskirts of town, hoping to get to the lake at some point. After walking a couple more miles, Sam and I hopped on a bus to the center, leaving our new friends behind. (If you've ever had a dog, you could imagine that look they gave us as we left, that look of sadness, pleading with us not to leave). Those dogs actually spent the whole day with us, so we were a bit sad leaving them.
We found a vegan restaurant right near our hostel (convenient for me that Sam's a vegetarian) and followed that up with ice cream, some of the best I've had in Argentina.
On Friday morning, Sam and I got up early and took a bus with an Israeli that we had met in the hostel towards another lake outside the city. Once we got off the bus, we took a hike alongside the lake and made our way to a nice waterfall, not quite as big as Iguazu but pretty nonetheless. With our new set of dog friends for the day, we hiked up the mountain until we got to a beautiful lookout of the lake. After obsessively debating whether to go kayaking, we made our way down the mountain and found a restaurant on the lake that rented out kayaks. They were very willing to take us out on to the lake, but the woman was quite anal about letting me eat my own food on her property (it's not like other people were waiting to sit at the restaurant- we were the only people there). I hurriedly finished my sandwich so as not to jeopardize our chance to go kayaking. After a painful walk through the water into the kayak, I got settled. Not wanting to test the current, we paddled close to the coast. It was quite a relaxing hour. When we weren't paddling, we were sitting still, listening to the silence of the surrounding mountains and trees. Being away from the big city, I really appreciated the quiet. The water was a pure green, reminiscent of the Caribbean. It was also quite cold, I know because my legs somehow got pretty wet. I'm just glad I didn't fall in.
After kayaking, we took a bus back to town, where we bought some fruits, vegetables, bread, and some more chocolate for shabbat. (The purchase of chocolate was a common theme during our trip). I had hoped to go to Chabad for shabbos but they were on vacation. But it turned out that everyone in the hostel was Jewish, including the manager, with 4 Israelis, Sam, and me. So it was very conducive for having a small little shabbat meal, which consisted of rice, bread, and salad.
The following day, while Sam went on a long bike ride, I took a nice walk along the lake, exploring a bit, had lunch, and spent most of the afternoon reading on the hostel's top floor, which offered great views of the lake. Saturday night, we all went to get ice cream and buy more chocolate. The ice cream stores in Bariloche make flavors from fruits indigenous to the region, and you can't seem to find them anywhere else. One flavor is based from mosqueto, a fruit, used also to make oil and tea. Regarding the chocolate, there exists anything imaginable- dark chocolate, milk, white, different types of nuts, dulce de leche, fruit creams, honey filling, mint, mousses- just unreal. After the dessert outing, we went back to the hostel, watched a movie, and went to sleep, needing some good rest for the following day.
Although we were there during the low season, it was really nice how quiet the city was: very simple and we pretty much had the hostel to ourselves. Plus, I didn't exactly want to stay out late in that we were so busy during the day.
I'll continue with the rest of my trip tomorrow.
Here are some pics from the first 2 days:
No comments:
Post a Comment