Bariloche
By Jaimy de Vries
A common stop for travelers after El Chalten is a visit to the north site of Patagonia: the lake district Bariloche. It’s a beautiful place with lots of amazing sceneries over lakes, forests and mountains. Lots of people compare it to Switzerland and it does have some similarities. Another one is that, LIKE Switzerland, Bariloche is famous for…. its Chocolate! Of course I tried some hehe. This all sounds like a good recipe for success, and it was!
The city of Bariloche arises at the shore of the Nahuel Huapi Lake in the Argentine province of Río Negro, neighboring the Andes Mountain Range. The city is entirely located inside Nahuel Huapi National Park, famous for its stunning lakes and mountains. In 1903, Francisco Moreno (best known as the “Perito Moreno”, yes, like the famous glacier in El Calafate), an intrepid explorer and scientist donated these lands in order to create the Nahuel Huapi National Park, the first in Argentina, and thus, Bariloche starts to flourish. Today, Bariloche is one of the most populated cities in Patagonia, the base for numerous hiking and skiing slopes, an artisanal chocolate and craft beer hub.
Arrival in Swiss Argentina
After a long bus ride of 26 hours I arrived at the bus stop on 9 p.m. It was already dark, but the last two hours of the bus ride I enjoyed the beautiful scenery’s. I heard other travelers saying before that Bariloche is like Switzerland and I can understand why. When I arrived at the bus station I shared a taxi to the hostel. I booked my stay in Jazz Hostel. I loved this place, it had a good vibe, nice music in the common area, good WIFI and an amazing breakfast with fresh fruit, home-made bread and marmalade. When I arrived in Bariloche I said goodbye to my travel buddy Maarten and just short after that I met some great people from Israel, England and France. We shared dinner and went to some great excursions together.
Circuito Chico
The second day the weather was nice, but I read that the weather forecast will be bad the next few days, so I decided to go on a bike and kayak tour on the Circuito Chico. Another guy at the hostel wanted to join. Great, with company it’s always much nicer! We shared a cab and went to the bike company. They were really nice and explained the whole route with lots of details, but in Spanish haha. So I could only understand 20% of it. To rent a bike it was only 2300 pesos for a full day, that’s around 11 U.S. dollars. The trip started with an amazing view over laguna Trebol and then Lago Moreno. “The views here are like the ones you get on the 7 lakes district”, said my fellow traveler, so its a good alternative if you can’t do the 7 lakes. And besides that, it’s even more rewarding because you need to work (climb up many hills) to get a nice panoramic view.
View over Laguna Trebol
It was even more fun going down. We went really fast, faster than the cars on the road!! At two points on the trail we had company of a cow and a group of running horses that surrounded us. We felt one with nature.
On the bike trail it’s possible to make some detours to Colonia Suiza or Villa Tacul (+1 hour). I went to Colonia Suiza and it was a very nice place with lots of cute little buildings, food stains and a market. You can also do some hikes along the way, I took a hike to the hidden lake but that was it. I was quite tired and wanted to look for a kayak tour. But I found out that they were only available at the beginning of the tour and they’re only open in the afternoon. I was there in the morning but then it was closed. So if you want to kayak I recommend to take the bike trail the other way around.
Meat meat meat!
In the evening I met an Israeli girl and she invited me to join her and her friends to a good restaurant: El Boliche de Alberto, translated it means the bowling Alberto. Till this day I have no idea why it’s called like that. But this was a typical Argentinean restaurant where lots of locals come. There is a queue to go inside, mostly of 30-60 minutes. But its worth the wait. It’s quite cheap and you get so much food and a lot of meat! Warning! It’s not a place for vegetarians.
Chocolat chocolat chocolat!
On my second day the weather was quite bad. So I decided to use this day to plan my next destination, book my flight tickets at a travel agency (then I could pay in cash), walking downtown and I went to the chocolate museum. Bariloche is famous for its chocolate. Downtown you can see lots of chocolate shops. At one of them I ate a waffle with chocolate sauce and strawberries. Yummy!!!
The chocolate museum is a short walk from downtown. The ticket is very cheap, just 300 pesos (1,50 euro) and you’ll get a nice cup of hot chocolate while you’re on the history lane to learn more about chocolate. I learned that chocolate founds its origin in the maya culture. It was called kakawa that meant food of the gods. The cacao plant grew naturally in the warm valleys where the Mayans lived. They inherited the custom of drinking chocolat. With the seeds of the cacao tree they prepared a drink that was used to give solemnity to certain sacred rituals and was only prosumed by kings, priests and members of the nobility. Pretty cool to know right!? At the museum they also gave a lot of information how chocolate is produced and when the first chocolate bar was made (first it was only hot chocolate).
Lago Gutiérrez
The third day the weather prediction was quite bad: lots of wind and rain. But I didn’t want to stay inside so I decided to go for a simple half day hike. I asked the hostel and tourist office for a recommendation: Lago Gutiérrez! My new French friend joined me. We took the local bus (first time with public transport in Argentina!) to reach the lake. When we arrived we already had an amazing view over the lake. Because it was raining that morning and the day before it meant that it was snowing on the top of the mountains. So we had a very nice Swiss like view. We started to walk to a picnic side on another beach and have lunch. It was sunny with a little breeze, the beach was quiet with dogs playing and walking, Banderias birds looking for food and the sun created a crystal light on the lake making it the best lunch spot ever. I felt blessed. After that we took a simple hike to a cascade and after that a little steep hike of half an hour to a panoramic viewpoint over the lake and its surrounding mountains. We stayed there for a while. After that we walked back, picked up our rental car for the next day. I was very proud that I parked the car on a slope with just centimeters between the other cars – and with success! I learn so much while I’m traveling, but mostly to celebrate the little things and be more proud of myself. That was something I was quite bad at back home.
Later in the evening we made a nice pasta dinner with red wine and went to bed early. A big day ahead of us!
De los Siete lagos
The big day! Our road trip to the Siete lagos, means the seven lakes. This is one of the top things to do here in Bariloche. You can go on a 1 day or 2 day road trip. I did it in one day and didn’t feel like I was in a rush. I rented a car at Hertz for 9700 pesos including insurance. We picked it up the night before so we could leave early the next morning. The night before we made some sandwiches to bring along. But there are some food stops along the way. The seven lakes starts from Villa Angustura (1,5 hour away from Bariloche) and ends in San Martin (2 hours from Villa Angustura). There are not 7 but actually 12 lakes to see on your way with lots of stops and waterfalls. Before we set off I bookmarked the best spots on my app maps.me (offline navigation app). Here are my recommendations to make your road trip tot he seven lakes a care-free and amazing trip:
1. Lake Nahuel Huapi
- Villa la Angustura. Take a stroll downtown to grab some coffee and nice pastries at the lavanderia.
- Mirrador Inalco. A nice viewpoint
2. Lake Espejo
- Lago Espejo. There are two beaches. We went to the first one and it was my favorite stop of the trip.
3. Lake Correntoso
- Mirador lago correntoso. There are two miradors, both nice
- Cascade. Just less than 5 minute detour on a dirt road you can find a lovely river and cascade.
4. Lake Villarino
- Mirador lago Villarino. There are two miradors, both nice. You can walk to two stops from the next stop
5. Lake Falkner
- Mirador lago falkner. This was my second favorite stop. You have a beautiful long beach with a great view and you can walk to lake Villarino.
- Cascada Vulliñanco. Also a great stop with a good view over a big waterfall.
6. Lake Machoninco
- Mirador lago Machoninco. Beautiful panoramic view.
7. Lake Lácar
- San Martin. When you reach San Martin you're at the end, but no sorrow, this a lovely town and a great stop to enjoy the view on the beach, go kayaking, or grab something to eat at one of the many food trucks (or restaurants).
Recommendations
Bariloche is a cool place, but on my opinion a little bit overrated and I wasn’t the only one. It’s a very nice place, but if the weather is bad (and that can happen) then there is not much to do rather than eating your sorrow with chocolate at the museum. It looks like Switzerland, but still Switzerland wins and if you’re from Europa it’s not that special. But still I recommend other travelers to go here and who know I might come back over a couple of years.
Here are my recommendations for you trip in Bariloche.
- The seven lakes (Los Sietes Lagos): The first must-thing to do is going on a trip to the seven lakes with a rented car. But I also heard people talking about doing this tour by bike
- Circuito Chico: Take a bike tour on the Circuito Chico, you get to see amazing views – maybe even more beautiful than the seven lakes.
- Chocolate museum: Very cheap, educational and you get some nice chocolate for just 300 pesos. A fun thing to do if the weather is bad.
- Lago Gutiérrez: A simple hike where you get to see gorgeous views and a serene setting. My trip at Lago Gutiérrez was so relaxt. You can even make it a longer trip to go kayaking for 1-2 hours.
- Llao Llao: Go hiking at Llao Llao. It's located in the national park.
- Trekking: Plan a multiday hike from refuge to refuge. One of the best hikes to a refuge is refugio Frey. I didn’t got to do this, but I maybe come back to Bariloche just to do this. This websites shows all the hiking trails in this area:
- Climb on one of the mountains: The first one I recommend is Campenierio, but you also have Cerro Otto and mount Tronador that are great.
- Boat trip: Take a boat tour from Puerto Blest
- Day trip to El Bolson: Take a daytrip to el bolson or stay there for an extended time. This place has a very chill and relax hippy vibe. You can do yoga classes and there are lots of nice hiking trails.
- Skiing: Bariloche is a Walhalla for skiing. The season starts in June. One of the best spots for skiing is Cerro Cathadral