San Carlos de Bariloche

Now that we’re more than two weeks into the New Year, it’s past time to officially wrap up 2007’s events. The last months of the year brought on a flurry of visitors, with Shannon visiting in late October, my parents visiting over Thanksgiving, and Jason’s visiting over Christmas.

We like to get in at least one trip with each visitor, but deciding where to go can be a challenge. We’d heard a lot of positive things about the Argentinean lake district from people who had visited both the Chilean and Argentine sides, so Shannon, Jason and I took a plane/bus journey to Puerto Montt then on to San Carlos de Bariloche. Puerto Montt was reconfirmed as a somewhat decaying port town (albeit with an excellent fresh seafood market), and it was also where Shannon started feeling the first symptoms of a stomach bug that would follow her for the rest of the trip.

Bariloche is beautiful, with architecture that clearly harkens back to its days as a German and Swiss settlement. If the building style didn’t give it away its international influences, the prevalence of chocolate and fondue probably would. Shannon had never tried fondue before, so tracking down an appropriate restaurant was one of our first priorities.

Our second priority was finding a place to stay. After leaving the expensive, no-working toilet hostal we originally chose, we stayed on the penthouse floor of an apartment building with peaceful views of mountain-ringed Lake Nahuel Huapi. The glacier lake is massive (roughly 1,400 feet deep and 210 mi²), bitter cold (we decided against any kayaking trips) and home to several varieties of trout (which show up grilled or smoked on every menu and most grocery store shelves in town). The prime location of our hostal was especially fortunate given the amount of time Shannon spent in the hostel, reading by herself or being roped into yet another round of Bananas.

While Shannon was recovering from her lingering illness, Jason and I took a short day hike to a municipal park alongside Lake Llao-Llao where they have a small grove of Arrayanes trees. Their twisting, knotted shape and soft cinnamon color give them a whimsical appearance, and it felt a bit like walking through the set of some epic fantasy movie. One of Argentina’s best hotels and golf courses is also located here. My students told me that luxury Hotel Llao-Llao had been severely damaged by a fire in the 1930s, and was only recently restored and reopened. Of course, they also told me that beach volleyball was invented by Tom Selleck…

On our last day we went up to Cerro Otto. We took the cable car up, which had Shannon a little nervous – her mom has a fear of heights and she’d never tested herself – but the ride was pleasant and she didn’t have an problems. As with the hostal, the views were lovely. It was easier to judge just how big the lake is when looking at it from above, and the mountains facing the water are beautiful.

The primary activities in Bariloche seem to be hiking and eating. The city is known for its excellent chocolate, and every word is truth. They even had something that was amazingly close to Lebanon County’s opera fudge. I think we bought from 3 different shops while we were there. I was worried about having trouble crossing the border back into Chile (we had been advised that only unopened packages could make the trip), so most of the chocolate we bought stayed untried until our arrival back in Santiago. Of course, we couldn’t go without eating any chocolate, so we opened one box shortly before leaving Bariloche and then had to cram ourselves with the remainder of the ¼ kilo box as we approached customs.

We returned to Santiago slightly fatter and significantly poorer, with enough chocolate to see us through the next few weeks in manjar-drenched Santiago. Shannon took a day to relax, then headed home to PA, where 10 hour workdays, cold weather and sometimes cranky patients awaited her. It was wonderful to share part of our time in the Southern hemisphere with her, and we were sorry to see her go.