A Long Ride to Bariloche

On Friday night we boarded the AndesMar bus to Bariloche. This was our first experience with really long-distance buses (16 hours), but long bus rides are very common in Argentina and significantly cheaper than airplanes. We got first class bus tickets which put is in a section on the first floor of the bus with only 6 seats. The seats are extremely comfortable and they recline flat for sleeping. The only disadvantage is that they are exactly 6 feet long, just a little short for Jake. They feed you on the bus. First a hot chicken dinner and a plate of ham and cheese followed by a glass of champagne. Breakfast was skimpy but then around noon we were each served 2 ham and cheese sandwiches on crustless white bread and a cup of Fanta orange. Entertainment was provided in the form of 2 movies and an hour of 80s pop music videos at the end of the trip. We managed to mostly sleep through the night, and by morning we were in Neuquen, at the north end of the Lake district. The scenery got better and better as we neared Bariloche. At first it looked a lot like the drier parts of NM (see photo of a reservoir), but trees finally began appearing.

Once in Bariloche in our rental car we settled into our nice hosteria, Pajaro Azul, about 10 km from downtown. We drove back into town for a lunch of fresh grilled trout for me and goulash for Jake. Then we found the park information office and the Mamuschka chocolate store, supposedly one of Bariloche's best (and indeed, quite good! Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina). Note the photo of Jake sipping his $6 (US!) cup of tea with a Salomon store behind him. Is this the US or Argentina?! Bariloche is a very touristy, but pleasant, town located on Lago Nahuel Huapi.

We watched the sun set over the Lake with the stray dog of the evening. The dog jointed us on the rocky beach and then followed us back to our hosteria. It waited until we came back out to go to dinner, but was then politely chased away by some seemingly locally owned dogs. We had dinner at a nice pizza place between our place and town. As seems to be typical here, the restaurant is timber frame with golden beams and supporting posts.