Bariloche is a swiss inspired town, beautiful wooden lodges, ski resorts in winter, bike riding around lakes, and mountain hiking in summer, littered with chocolate shops and good restaurants. It's a place the Argentines like to spends their vacations. You can even get your photo with a Saint Bernard "Beethoven movie dog" at every scenic point, or tourist landmark...
The best part of Bariloche is the surrounding Nahuel Huapi National Park. Here we did an overnight trek up into the Arroyo Goye valley to Refugio Italia on Laguna Negra. The walk followed the river upstream until hitting this massive waterfall which is fed by Laguna Negra above. We really didn't know what to expect on this walk, we just new there was a Refugio you could stay at overnight, but the walk was stunning. The Refugio was smallish compared to the ones in Torres del Paine, but slept about 30 people comfortably. We had bought food to cook, but you really didn't need to bring anything as a couple of Argentines cooked a gourmet meal for those who paid for it. We spent the night cozy and warm between the wood oven, and bar heater (behind the resident cat) and drank a bottle of delicious Malbec we bought at the Refugio for ~$12 AUD. Bliss.
Before catching an afternoon bus to Mendoza, we headed out to the Llao Llao Peninsula and hired some bikes to ride the circuit, which weaves through huge pine forests, beaches and mountains, very scenic, even Beethoven seemed to be enjoying the views. Nice to be riding a bike again, I quite enjoyed pushing Ally up the Hills.
The lakes district is a place that we will have to return to, especially the Chilean side, could happily spend a month or two here.
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