At the end of October we decided to spend one of our 5 weekends in Buenos Aires on a four night trip to the city of Bariloche instead. Nestled in the mountains of Northern Patagonia, Bariloche is Argentina’s premiere ski location in the Winter but has plenty of beauty to enjoy in the Summer as well.
Bariloche is actually a larger city than we were expecting and we were glad to not be staying in the city proper. There is a pretty bustling downtown with a lot of restaurants, craft beer places, and Swiss style buildings/chocolate stores (that is randomly their thing). The downtown overlooks a giant lake called Nahuel Huapi, which makes it quite scenic. We had a lovely guesthouse a 30 minute drive away on another lake called Lake Gutierrez that was extremely remote, quiet, and beautiful.
View from our Airbnb door 
Front of our airbnb 
Ayyyy! 
Shari is elated by the lovely lake front seats
Our first night in Bariloche we had an amazing dinner (Amazing dinners are definitely a theme for Argentina) at a small restaurant called Alto El Fuego in downtown Bariloche. It was a stand-out meal from our whole trip, and (big surprise here) the steak was awesome. The next day we spent most of the morning getting our bearings and preparing for a mondo hike, eventually finding a place to rent some sweet gear (Snowshoes, pants, jackets, boots, and gloves. Sadly the fashionable jackets in our pictures are not ours to keep). We were expecting the top of the mountain to be snowy enough to require snowshoes.
After we sorted that out, we went on a few hikes. First we hiked to the top of Cerro Campanario, which is a short but steep hike that has amazing views at the top. It also has a cable car that can take you to the top so it’s pretty crowded at the top, but the views were top notch. We then did a more relaxed and less popular hike called Cerro Llao Llao. It was also really beautiful but more importantly, a kind Australian tourist informed us that Obama did the hike when he came to Bariloche (miss you Obama).
Cerro Campanario 
Cerro Campanario 
Cerro Campanario 
A big thumbs up for this tasty sandwich 
Llao Llao 
Llao Llao 
President Obama wuz here
The following day we woke up at 6am for our big hike to Refugio Frey. Turns out we were wildly over-prepared for the hike and soon started sweating in the snow pants that we really didn’t end up needing. Despite this, the hike was wonderful. The beginning was pretty gentle and took us on the side of a mountain and then through a forest. The last hour of the hike was definitely the hardest, since it was steeper and in the snow. When we got to the top, we enjoyed some gourmet sandwiches we made while enjoying the beautiful views and resting a little. There is a small “refugio” at the top where we sadly learned that the circle loop path we wanted to do with the snowshoes was closed. We instead snowshoed around the snow covered lake a bit and then headed back the way we came. We recorded hike GPS details here for anybody curious. After the hike we rewarded ourselves by getting some craft beers at the Patagonia brewery, which quickly became one of our favorite spots in Bariloche. Tough to get better than brews with a view, am I right?!?!?
Nearing the top 
The top! Snow covered lake in back. 
Thumbs up for victory sandwich 
Putting the snowshoes to work 
Patagonia Brewery Lawn 
Playing The Grizzled at the Patagonia Brewery
The following day was unfortunately somewhat rainy off and on. We drove a little over an hour away to an area called Villa la Angostura and went on a short but beautiful hike right before it started raining again.
On our last day, it was also somewhat rainy in the morning, but it fortunately cleared up in the afternoon. Once the weather got better, we went for a short hike called Bahia Serena, which was flat and led us through a nice forest by a lake. We then made another stop to the Patagonia brewery and headed for our flight!
All in all, Bariloche was a great getaway, and we easily could have spent more time there. Having a car was pretty crucial, although driving there was somewhat lawless. It seemed like everyone was taught that the appropriate way to drive is to tail two feet behind someone, even when that person cannot go any faster. In the downtown area there were no stop signs at four way intersections and no clear way of knowing who had the right of way, so that also made things fun. While the downtown area is nice, we weren’t as excited by it as we were by the hiking given that we were staying in Buenos Aires and had plenty of access to big downtown areas. Still, it was nice to have food and drink options for after hiking. Bariloche was definitely a great intro to Patagonia, and we’re looking forward to our longer Patagonia exploration in January!
What is “The Grizzled”? Driving sounds exciting! Hiking sounds awesome. Views are certainly awesome. You guys and Obama rock! It all seems pretty magical to me. Glad you are doing all of this!! When do you work?