Our time in Bariloche is drawing to a close as we`re heading to Puerto Madryn this afternoon to hopefully do some whale-watching and see some penguins. Although we`re really looking forward to that, we`re both going to be sad to leave Bariloche as we both really like it here. Anyway, it`s been quite a while since we last wrote so we`d better get on with it!
Last Tuesday, we didn`t have very good weather so we stayed in at Roberto & Silvia`s, and did a bit of catching up with our Spanish work etc. We`d been meaning to write some notes up to keep with us for when we eventually send books etc. back to England so it was good to get that done. Apart from that, we didn`t really do very much as we got soaked just walking out of the door!
On Wednesday, we woke up to beautiful sunshine and so decided to make good use of the day. As Bariloche is surrounded by mountains, we decided it was about time we went up a couple. Luckily for us, they have ski lifts and cable cars going up a lot of them so we didn`t have to do any 10 mile hikes up the side of a mountain (probably a slight exaggeration but I don`t think we`re fit enough even to do small ones really!). The first one we went up was called Cerro Campanario. We don`t really seem to have a translation in English for cerro as apparently, a cerro is higher than a mountain...so they`re all mountains to us. The journey up was in a ski lift type of affair, as we were in the open with legs dangling. As Chris isn`t particularly fond of heights, he was a bit nervous, especially when it wobbled a bit but we made it to the top OK. The views from the top were really beautiful and we took the first of many, many photos of mountains and lakes! (Note to everyone reading this...if we offer to show you photos when we get back, it`s probably wise to politely decline and make a hasty exit!!!)
Next we headed for Cerro Otto, which is slightly higher. This time, it was a bit more of a cable car, although Chris was still a little bit nervous. Again, the views were really nice but although you could see more from Cerro Otto than Cerro Campanario, it wasn`t quite so pretty somehow. Still very cool though and we had lunch in the restaurant at the top, which revolves so you have a 360 degree view as you`re eating, which is good.
After lunch, we decided to try to find one of the short walks signposted from the top, to get a view of another lake (short description of Patagonia = lots of water and lots of mountains!). We went a little bit wrong but had a nice walk and managed to find the viewpoint on the way back. It even snowed a little bit for us! And we saw a couple of woodpeckers that were quite cool.
We then decided to walk back into Bariloche, which was about 7 km, although all downhill. We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the road but found it after asking someone and set off. It was a really nice walk down...you`ll never guess what the views were of...yep, that`s right - more lakes and mountains! By the time we reached the bottom I was knackered although Chris didn`t seem too tired. I can`t work out why I seem to be so much more unfit than him, considering we`re eating the same things and doing the same amount of exercise. It`s just not fair!
That was enough for one day so we headed back `home´. On Thursday, we went on an excursion across lake Nahuel Huapi to Puerto Blest, which was really nice. Lots of lovely mountain views! We also passed the island that Mr. Moreno (can`t remember his whole name) is buried on. He was the founder of the national park and a great lover of Patagonia, as well as sorting out border issues with Chile. He asked to be buried on his own little private island as part of his payment for doing that.
When we got to Puerto Blest, which is pretty much a hotel, a snack bar and nothing much else, we got on a minibus to take us 5km to the Lago Frias. This lake is a beautiful green colour, due to the sulphur, or sulphates (not quite sure there) that is/are washed down from the mountains. It`s quite unusual but really pretty. We crossed the lake and got off the other side for a couple of minutes, where we were only a couple of kilometres from Chile. There is quite a famous crossing from Argentina into Chile which crosses Lago Nahuel Huapi and Lago Frias and then goes across a couple of lakes in Chile, which is supposed to be really nice. As we`re not sure where we`re going to cross into Chile, we may find ourselves doing this bit of the journey again!
When we got back to Puerto Blest, we decided to walk to the next stop point rather than go across on the boat, which was about 3km through the woods and a really nice walk. We were heading for the `Cascada de los Cantaros´, which is a waterfall. There are about 740 steps up from Puerto Alegre, where the boat went, up to the waterfalls apparently, although we didn`t have to climb all of them on the way up as the path we took joined them about half way up. The waterfall was pretty and then we headed up to the top to the Lago de los Cantaros, which was lovely as we had the place to ourselves. Just up from there is a larch tree called the `Grandfather´ as it`s 1500 years old! We started to make our way back down the steps to the boat and met all the people from the boat coming up so were very pleased that we`d done it the way we did! The boat then brought us back to Puerto Pañuelo, which is near the Llao Llao hotel and we made our way back into Bariloche.
On Friday, we did another excursion to the Cerro Tronador, roughly translated as Thunder Mountain. It`s the highest mountain in the area at about 3,500 metres. The drive took us into the national park, where there were again some beautiful lakes, rivers and mountains. There was another green river and lake, although this time it was apparently because of the copper washed down from the mountains. We went to see the glacier at the bottom of the mountain, which is very unusual as it`s black! This is because of all of the soil etc. that gets picked up by the ice as it comes down the mountain and looks very strange. It looks just like rocks. We also saw a couple of small avalanches, which were really cool and illustrated why the mountain has its name.
From there we went on to the base of the mountain where we did a short walk to a part called `Garganta del Diablo´ or `Devil´s Throat´, just like at Iguazu Falls. There were huge mountain walls on two sides, which was quite spectacular. It was then time to make our way back through the park to Bariloche.
On Saturday, we made our way to yet another mountain - Cerro Catedral. A bit of a bus story to tell as we had to wait for about an hour for the bus either way - we had a timetable but the actual time it turned up didn`t really seem to correspond to that so we figured it was either because it was Saturday or because the bus just goes when it feels like it :0)
We went up on another ski lift, although this one was a long one and in 3 parts. Cerro Catedral is the second highest mountain in the area, although we`re not quite sure how high. Again, the views from the top were really nice and it was quite strange to be up in the snow when it was actually quite a warm day at the base! There were people having snowball fights and sledging! We wandered about a bit and I managed to injure my ankle again. Ooops! Nothing too serious but after that I thought I´d better give the sledging a miss and it was a bit busy for Chris` liking so we headed back down. Cerro Catedral is the main skiing centre in the area but because it´s out of season there weren´t many people around and most of the stuff in the town was closed. We then enjoyed another hour wait for a bus before returning to Bariloche.
Yesterday, Sunday, we were taken on an outing by Roberto and Silvia out to the north of Bariloche where the scenery was a little different. Here, instead of snow capped mountains and lakes we had rusty red hills with strange rock formations on the top and beautiful clear lakes. We saw an elephant, sea-lion, C3PO, a cartoon cat and lots of people! We had a lovely picnic lunch next to the river and then Roberto invited us on a walk up the hill.
At the outset there was a proper path to follow and although it was quite steep we made good speed up the hill. We then came to a bit where there wasn´t much shrubbery but an awful lot of loose stones! Roberto was in front of us and at one bit, slipped and slid down the side of the hill for about 10 metres, scraping his arm a bit on the way down. Needless to say, we weren`t too keen to follow in his footsteps but equally didn`t really fancy going back down the way we had come as we had passed some quite slippery bits already. We managed to find a way to get across the really loose bit without too much difficulty, although there were a couple of hairy moments and I think it probably took about 10 years off both of our lives! Anyway, we eventually made it up to what we thought was the top bit, which gave us some lovely views. However, Roberto had different ideas and suggested going up a bit higher. We followed him for a little bit and then decided that we`d probably done enough for our first attempt at being mountain goats and asked if he`d mind if we went back down. We initially thought that we might have to go back down the way we`d come up anyway as there didn`t seem to be another obvious path back down but we did find one after going through a hole in the rocks and as it was a lot greener, with more shrubs, it felt slightly safer. We made it back down to the bottom without too much trauma and it was good to feel solid ground under our feet again! We got back to the car and had some pastries and tea. Mmmm. Also paddled a bit in the river (at least I did, Chris watched), which was very cold but very refreshing. It was then time to return home. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing card and dice games and I think Silvia won every game!
Today we haven`t really done much apart from pack up *sob*. Not long now until we have to set off so we bid a very fond farewell to Bariloche, and who knows, we may yet be back again in a couple of weeks to cross into Chile.
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