Denise and Harry's Blog: Barilouche

Barilouche was our first stop in Argentina. We had got through Customs reasonably ok (thankfully none of us had lost our PDI docket (personal identification) - the threat of not being able to leave Chile without it had worked.

The public bus took us through the Argentinian countryside - a tad difficult to see as it was so cold the condensation ran down the windows in a constant stream. We did manage to get glimpses of pretty countryside, trees bereft of leaves and covered in ice and a few monkey puzzle trees. A winter wonderland which I would have loved to explore - white lichen dropping from branches with snow and ice. Then as we dropped altitude the landscape turned from the magical white to the light brown of dead grass and then to the eerie pinks and oranges as dusk turned into night.

Here the European influence could be seen. As we drove through villages, the shops were closed, but looked less of the market type and more of the city retailers familiar to us kiwis. The restaurants were lit up like a Christmas tree inviting the hungry to come in and enjoy the warmth and the food (pasta, pizza or beef seems to be the main Argentinian dishes) with ice cream for dessert.

The next day we drove into the plateau for a visit to a working cattle ranch. We decided not to spoil a good walk by sitting on a horse and ventured along a path up into the hills. Surprisingly, this was a highlight of our holiday. Silence - just the scrunching of the snow underfoot and a flock of quail - not a cow in sight.

The plants were covered in frost which slowly melted as the sun came over the mountains.

We came back to a lunch of salads, barbequed meat and fried bread.

Bariloche is a pretty little town of about 150,000 but severely swollen due to the winter school break and schoolies week (that was this week!).

Snow apparently isn't as good as hoped but still people seem to be enjoying the scenery, chocolate shops and icecream. Our tour guide took us to the "best" icecream shop in town. You had to queue to order, then queue again for the icecream - it took over 30 minutes - and we decided not to stay but headed to the lakeside which had a pebble beach and looked across to the mountains. Later on we found a non-crowded icecream shop - and with nothing to compare - it tasted pretty good.

The next day we ordered some taxis and took a trip around the lake and into the countryside. We queued (yes me too) for the chair lift and arrived at the top just as the clouds began to roll up the valley. We forgot our coffee in the haste of trying to get some photos of the 360 degree view. It was bitterly cold but the view was worth it.