October 16, 2008
Bariloche
written by Spencer Alexander on October 16, 2008 at 09:00PM in Traveling
Bariloche was our first stop in the long trip to the Patagonia. Located an unpleasant 17 hours south of Mendoza, we arrived in the early afternoon, and were scheduled (read: forced) to leave the following morning in order to catch our flight out of Puerto Montt.
The city of Bariloche was gorgeous, almost as though it had been designed from it’s founding by a renown architect; we quickly found out that the city had in fact been planned by a renown architect, NAME. The city was located on the edge of a large, intensely blue lake, with the ground gently sloping upwards, away from the lake. The avenues filled with chocolate shops gave tribute to the influence of an old Scottish immigrant that gave the city, and the trees and flowers around all shouted “SPRING!”. While walking through the city, I couldn’t help but to notice the incredible resemblance to Queenstown, NZ, and an aura that echoed that of Breckenridge. In fact, the whole lake district area reminded me a lot of the south island of New Zealand.
But the real treat of Bariloche wasn’t the actual city, it was the surrounding area. Shortly after arriving into town, we took a bus to Cerro Companero, a large hill, serviced by a ski-lift, that gave an incredible 360 degree view of it’s surroundings. We opted to walk up the hill – it was only a 20 minute walk – and pleasantly found ourselves slightly overheated when we arrived at the top; Bariloche, for the most part, was a very cold place.
The view from the top was incredible. It is hard to express in words, and equally hard to show in photographs, how beautiful the panoramic view was. It truly was an experience that, given the opportunity, everyone must experience for themselves. The hill we were standing upon hardly felt like a hill at all; it felt much more like an isolated island, surrounded by dozens of other isolated islands, floating in a majestic lake. On the hill, while I should have been pondering the raw, natural beauty of the surrounding lakes, I couldn’t help but wonder what route the numerous roads took through this area; I knew that we were leaving to the southwest, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find a connecting string of islands headed in that direction, nor bridges connecting them together.
After leaving the hill, we headed back into town to taste the extraordinary chocolate, converse with the locals, and have a glass of wine with a few of the many gringos housed in our hostel.
Yum, yum, yum.
leave a comment
2 comments | show comments
2 comments | hide comments
xop4o5l0v54xk66d