Bariloche, Argentina

Greg, Tiff, Andrew, & Emily from Ottawa @ Steak Dinner

Our first night in Bariloche we invited Emily, who sat 19hrs next to Andrew from Mendoza, to dinner.  Her hostel recommended a place for us, and what a recommendation it was!  The beef here was amazing.  Again, they used a bed of coals beneath a grill to cook the meat, just like Oscar did when he prepared Asado for us.

Unpacking & Rebuilding Bicycles

The next morning I was too excited to sleep, so I got up early and put the bikes together.  Took about 2hrs to do, and everything came together in working order!

Riding the Circuito Chico in the Llao-Llao Municipal Park

To test-ride the bikes, at our hostel´s recommendation, we rode the Circuito Chico in Llao-Llao Municipal Park, not far from where we´re staying to the West.  We rode 50km, from 11am to 6pm, and also hiked about 4 miles round trip to a beach at Villa Tacul.  No ash for most of the day, and just gorgeous weather!

Hiking to Villa Tacul in the Llao-Llao Municipal Park

Hiking to Villa Tacul took us up and over a hill, and I was a bit amazed at the size of the trees considering how dry it is here.  This place is one match away from a huge forest fire.

Lunch on the Beach at Villa Tacul

We brought wine, cheese, crackers, and olives to the beach for our lunch.  Went swimming in the lake.  This break was kind of a ´Zen´ moment for Tiff.

Villa Tacul, nice view!

The water is very clear, not too cold (this is Lago Nahuel Huapi), but when we swam we stirred up the volcanic ash sediment off the bottom.  The ash has gotten everywhere!

Andrew riding the Circuito Chico

The Circuito Chico is a loop between lakes, up and down to whereever the best views of the adjacent mountains can be found.  Here, you can see the volcanic ash haze has moved in, about 3pm I´d guess, and it started to get too hot.  I think Andrew loaded a map of the circuit on his blog, apriha.com.

Volcanic Ash collects on everything

Anything that sits still outside eventually gets covered with ash.  We really do not like breathing the ash; gets gritty in your mouth.  Not good when biking, it also gets in your eyes.  This is why we´ve decided not to stay here longer.  We bought bus tickets from Bariloche to Puerto Varas, leaving Monday 1/9 morning at 8am.

Bife de Lomo... soo delicious!

Dinner last night was so good we decided to go back and get the same thing.  We were very hungry after riding bikes all day.  Emily joined us again, too, and afterwards we enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and olives back at her hostel before heading home.

So tomorrow we´ll be on the road most of the day, but we´re leaving the bikes here in Bariloche.  We plan to return in about a week to officially begin our ride South.  In Puerto Varas we hope to find many of the same activities as are available here, but without the volcanic ash clouds.  Before returning to Bariloche we also plan to visit Pucon, Chile, another outdoorsy-adventure tourist destination.

In other news, Happy Birthday to Rachel Sheldahl (30!!!), and tomorrow its Doug Houghton (also 30!).  Another decade rolls in!