Day 26 - 29: Bariloche - Our Sweet Surprise

September 8 – 11, 2015

Bariloche is known as the Switzerland of Argentina: famed for its snow capped peaks, ski resorts, beautiful lakes, and chocolate. They even had a Swiss village (which we didn’t care about)! And chocolate.. mmmm.. good ol gorgeous awesome euphoric chocolate. We didn’t even know about until we arrived, which goes to show how much effort we put into reading up about it. In our minds, we were just passing through, it really didn’t make it into our highlights list because you were either there to ski, or there on a long holiday, which costs both time and money, and which we didn’t have. Like I said, it was meant to be a stopover, only because it was along the way, and we were sure we needed some well deserved rest after some 36 hours of bus rides (including the cross border from Puerto Natales) across 1000km or so.

So, before we move on, the bus ride from Puerto Natales was at 7am. 6 hours later we arrived at the El Calafate bus terminal and bought our 30 hour bus ride on "cama" to Bariloche from the friendly uncle from the last ticket counter (Red Patagonia) again for AR$1740/pax (~SG$174).

Back to the story: so 2 weeks before, while in El Calafate, Leann raised the possibility of couchsurfing with the idea that we needed some rest in Bariloche after our torturous trek and long bus rides. Since we had nothing booked for Mendoza yet, Vik sent out a couple of requests to stay for 2 days. Unexpectedly, we received a ping in Puerto Natales after our trek and were pleasantly surprised by an acceptance from another Natalia. Crossing our fingers that not all Argentinian Natalias are the same (Read our Buenos Aires Post here), we replied immediately, asked for directions and told her roughly what time we would arrive.

After crossing the border back into Argentina and getting our tickets, we roamed around El Calafate again in search of lunch. Mi Rancho wasn’t open so we just popped into a good looking restaurant with our big bags. Satisfied and an ice cream cone later, we stocked up at a nearby supermarket and boarded the ultra long bus ride.

We MUST eat ice cream even when we're carrying all our bags

30 hours of motion sickness on the TAQSA bus later, we arrived at Bariloche bus station 1 hour later than expected. We followed Naty’s directions and were supposed to take the public bus to her place but the local buses only accepted a specific bus card and the counter selling the card had already closed for the day. We only found out later through Natalia that it was common to ask someone to use their card and repay them in cash. So we took a cab (AR$215) instead, and guided him with GPS (so glad we loaded the google map beforehand).

We definitely did not expect the icy weather, and were hence glad when we finally made it into the beautiful home of our host. Quaint, cosy, and full of love this home was, and straight after introductions, we were treated to Manuel’s tasty home-cooked traditional stew. While gobbling down the delicious food, Naty gave us the basic house rules, detailed tips on Bariloche (She is one awesome tour guide), and told us their couchsurfing love story, which culminated into the cutest baby Alma, now a year old. We headed off to sleep in their attic which was really comfortable for us both.

Our room for 3 nights :))

DAY 1

The view we woke up to

We awoke to a stunning sheet of white outside the cottage thanks to the snowfall during the night. Map in hand, Naty’s extra bus card in pocket, we took a lift from Manuel to the bus stop hoping to check out the Circuito Chico and maybe take a short hike. 2.5 hours waiting pointlessly in the cold later, we managed to hitch hike our way to the city centre instead. The bus is a loop service and since there were no buses coming from the city thanks to some stupid strike, there were also none going the other way.

Centro Civico was indeed pretty small and very doable in less than half a day. Not much of a huge history to talk about but that’s not what this city is famous for anyway. However, the architecture was really European (alpine-swiss look) and thus unique for an Argentinian city. Still weary from our hike and long bus ride, and pissed about the morning bus situation, we craved good hot chocolate. There were many names but Mamuschka stood out as the best name in town so we wasted no time popping into the café. Some desserts and a hot chocolate later, we were finally happy people.

Mamuschka's hot choc is to die for!

Who says men don't like sweets?

So happy that we decided that they tasted better than the ones we had in Switzerland, and dropped by Chocolate Shop number 2: Rapa Nui. Also because we had a 15% discount coupon in the tourist map Naty gave us. Not that the chocolates were even expensive at all; AR$115 for a pretty decent bag of artesanal chocolates.

Chocolate Wonderland - Rapa Nui

We headed back early as we were told that there would be a BBQ with Manuel’s friends. When he said that it would be a BBQ in the snow, we expected that there would be a pit in his friend’s backyard, with all the standard BBQ equipment and foods we were all used to back in Singapore. We totally didn’t expect it to be a DIY campfire style pit. It was pretty much a small area at the back of the house where they cleared some snow and put together a few loose bricks and rocks with the grill! It was really a BBQ in the snow!

Woohoo! BBQ in the snow.

Despite the dampness from the snow, Vik managed to help Manuel start the fire with some dry leaves, twigs, and his friend’s final physics thesis paper (it was on structural change on submarines to improve dynamics). But what was even more impressive was how Manuel managed to perfectly cook and serve a HUGE slab of bife chorizo in 2 servings, medium and medium rare. Even expert chefs have trouble with doneness on a modern stove.

Chef of the night, and every night actually

Leann says it was the 2nd best steak she has ever had (the best was the AR$180 tenderloin from Don Julio in Buenos Aires). Nothing more could be said about how delicious that meal was, and how interesting the experience was, listening to their explanations on Argentinian culture, and other lifestyle topics like education and costs of living. It felt really good to speak English and hang out with intelligent people.

medium rare, just the way beef should be cooked!

chorizo that tasted better than it looked

FYI, Manuel was a Nuclear Engineering graduate and his friends were all Physics graduates with different specializations (One was doing his masters in Quantum Physics). Vik too participated in a lot of the sharing as they were really interested in Singapore. In the end we learnt more in that one sitting than any other night before. But that also meant that poor Alma had to sleep late. At this point in time, we also decided that we should stay one more day with this awesome family. Leann also really loved cutie pie Alma.

DAY 2

We headed out slightly later this time round, after the trio had already left the house. We weren’t that interested to head out for another hike and thus headed to Cerro Campanario, which according to Naty and Manuel, should be our number 1 priority. Boy, were we glad to see the buses working! Less than an hour later, we were on Leann’s first ski lift experience up the mountain!

Beautiful view from Cerro Campanario

and then we photobombed the beautiful view

It was a rather small peak with limited road access, which was why the ski lift was necessary. Although it was rather pricey at AR$140 pp, it was worth it. The excellent location and height of the mountain gave it stupendous views. We both agreed that it was much better than the views we had in Switzerland: By far the best viewpoint we have had so far; also thanks to the awesome weather and the fact that there weren’t a lot of people yet.

We headed down and hopped onto the bus to the city to look for Naty at her workplace (Carlos V hotel). She highly recommended the train bus tour to learn about Bariloche, so we had a less than satisfying lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and tried to catch the tour bus. Sadly, it never came and we cursed our bad luck with buses, so we took the public bus once again, this time to try to reach Llao Llao (a famous 5 star hotel which only guests can go in), a really bad choice considering the limited time we had.

Llao Llao Hotel

After agreeing to cook an Asian meal for them to repay their kindness, Naty offered to give us a lift to the supermarket, partly also to practice her driving. She also drove us to the beautiful Lago Gutierrez behind her house, while Vik gave her additional driving tips. We cooked Hainanese chicken rice, paired it with some cucumber and tomatoes, and fried an omelette with Bak Kwa. We then called it a night after a quick gift exchange: chocolates for them, a Gringo’s Guide to Argentina for us.

Us and the awesome hosts Naty, Manuel and Alma

DAY 3

With some time to spare, nothing could stop us from stopping by Rapa Nui again. Not only to get chocolates, but also a jar of chocolate spread in case we came across any more crappy Chilean bread. After dropping by the hotel, where Naty works in, to bid our final farewell, we set off earlier than the norm, in fear of our recent bad luck with buses, to reach the station early and bought our 18hr bus tickets to Mendoza for AR$1375 each. Moving on to our next destination normally holds much excitement for us, but we were really sad this time round to say goodbye to this unexpectedly wonderful experience!

Tips:

Bariloche deserves a few more days even if you aren’t here for skiing. Checkout this blog for some ideas of how else you could enjoy Bariloche: http://rebeccasinternationalkitchen.com/top-6-things-san-carlos-de-bariloche-argentina/
Rapa Nui and Mamuschka are the best chocolates in town, and prices are testament to its popularity, so feel free to try the other brands.
If you are feeling in the holiday mood and rich, you could stay at Hotel Carlos V, and get the map that has a 15% discount on everything in Rapa Nui. Or you could be thick skinned like us and ask for a map. Save the trees by returning it after use because Rapa Nui just photocopies the coupon during your purchase.
You definitely need a card for the public buses. It’s a non-refundable deposit of 2 or 3 pesos, but it can be shared, and sold off at some shops at a lower price after use. When boarding, you have to tell the bus driver your destination and then he will tell you to tap your card on the reader. Prices range between AR$6 – 12.
There are many well-known microbreweries for beer lovers though we didn’t try one.
For more tips, be sure to bring a really good book that you love and bring it to look for Naty, whom at this present moment still works at Hotel Carlos V (she’s a voracious reader, and an established tour guide). or you can just check out her blog: http://shshpipistrela.blogspot.com.ar/