Our trip back to El Calafate was much longer than expected as we spent more than 3 hours at the border, and to make matters worse, the air conditioning was broken… or the driver was trying to save fuel…

We were delighted to finally arrive and headed straight to our hostel, Lago Argentino, which we’d stayed in the week before. We went shopping and invited Micha (our German friend we had met on the W) for dinner.

 

Next day, before catching our flight to Bariloche, we visited the “Glaciarium” which was a surprisingly interesting museum, dedicated to glaciers and all-things-ice. What with our cultural activity done for the day, we took a taxi to El Calafate airport and caught our flight north to Bariloche, better known as the lake district.

After spending so many days isolated in Patagonia, arriving in a big city came as a bit of a shock and weren’t terribly impressed with what we found… touts on every street corner trying to sell you something and hoards of tourists with their selfie sticks, laity ambling in and out of the many chocolate shops which lined the streets.

We had no idea that Bariloche was such a mecca for chocolate, but we later learned that many a European had emigrated here and the Swiss influence was particularly strong. Our hostel, Tierra Gaucho III was actually quite nice but our room literally backed on to the kitchen where Argentinian families (including the young kids) would socialise (loudly) over dinner until well after midnight…

The next day we had a plan: hop on a bus out of the city as quickly as possible and explore the countryside. Unfortunately, the local buses were so packed that we could not board them and all of the stores selling the bus cards were out of stock. So, after 3 buses drove past without stopping, we gave up and reluctantly booked ourselves on the “Circuito Chico” (Small Circuit) – a 3-hour tour of the immediately surrounding lakes and countryside.

The tour left at 3pm, giving us a few hours to explore a couple of city attractions, including a chairlift up Cerro Viejo, one of the small hills on the outskirts of the city. The descent was particularly fun, since we had to take individual sledges (of course, Ed won the race).

After which, we visited a chocolate museum and enjoyed a tour in Spanish, some hot chocolate and learned some interesting facts about the private members’ club scene in London. Who knew that Whites was actually established by an Italian named Francesco Bianco, as a chocolate house?

Later that afternoon, we kicked-off our tour and headed to Cerro Campanario, where we took a chairlift to 1,000 meters and were rewarded with stunning views of the lakes. Pictures really don’t do it justice – it was simply stunning!

 

Further along the tour, we stopped at a rosehip factory (the fun part of being on the tour, according to Laurence!) where she got to try all sorts of creams and perfumes, and then on to St Eduardo church, from where we got a great of view of Llao Llao hotel – THE place to stay in the area.

With a disapproving glance from the security guard, our little tour bus managed a quick circuit of the hotel’s car park. Unfortunately, any attempts to disembark for a quick gin fizz were ignored by the driver and the tour continued. Pity.

A couple of hours later we were back in Bariloche. As we were navigating a route back to our hostel we came across a wonderful grocer selling every fruit and vegetable you can think of. Having spent the last month principally living on a diet of melted cheese and beef, we weren’t about to let this opportunity pass us by and patiently joined the queue… fortunately Laurence’s command of veg-vocab stood firm and we emerged with several bags full of fresh veg, which we duly cut-up and roasted for dinner.

The next day, we boarded another tour bus for the Ruta de los Siete Lagos (the route of the 7 lakes), an incredibly picturesque 110km drive between Villa Angostura and San Martin de Los Andes, where we would spend that night.

We stopped-off in Villa Angostura (where Queen Maxima from the Netherlands is from) for a coffee and a stroll, before rejoining the procession of minivans en route to San Martin.

Upon arrival, we enjoyed one of our best lunches to date (of fresh trout and more Patagonian lamb), some bright sunshine and beautiful views over Lake Lacar. The town itself was hugely more impressive than Bariloche and Ed particularly enjoyed the double-decker London bus, which had been shipped over and was now being used as a city tour bus. He was less impressed with the Manchester Bar.

We discovered that the hotel we had booked was quite far away from the center. Ed’s cries for a ‘taxi’ were ignored by his ever-resourceful wife and we ended-up attempting the 3-mile journey by local bus, which proved to be quite an adventure, since the bus driver sped straight past our stop, resulting in a 20-minute detour via the outskirts of the city.

After a month of travelling and most of our nights-to-date spent in hostels, we had decided to splash-out and enjoyed a night in a small boutique hotel, equipped with swimming pool, our very own bathroom and as much hot water as we wanted! We arrived at Siete Flores and immediately fell in love with the place: beautiful views, a great little pool, where we wallowed for several hours, before enjoying a decent bottle of (non-Provence) rosé and a delicious diner.

It was the perfect place to draw a few conclusions about our first month on the road. Importantly, we both agreed that the pace of the last few weeks had been too intense, and that we should slow-down by freeing-up our itinerary a little and spending more time in fewer places. Unfortunately this meant scrapping our plans to visit Salta in the north of Argentina. On the flip-side, it would allow us more time to sample the wines of Mendoza!

The next day, we enjoyed a 5-star breakfast (with freshly squeezed orange juice – a rarity) and headed back in to town. Before boarding the bus to Chile, we enjoyed a hot dog picnic on the beach and the last of the peaches we’d picked-up in Bariloche – these would not be allowed across the boarder.

Next stop: Pucon, Chile, for more outdoor adventures

Highlights:

• The view from Cerro Campanario – more than made-up for Bariloche city-centre
• The sledge down Cerro Viejo – L never stood a chance
• The swimming pool at Siete Flores

Gastro Highlights:

• Fresh fruit and veg
• Lunch in San Martin de Los Andes
• The pastel de choclo we enjoyed for dinner in Siete Flores – a local dish made out of chicken, caramelised onions, sweetcorn, cream and (yet more) cheese