Bariloche, the Argentinean Tyrol
Friday, 8 January 1999We put our bags out at 0930, had breakfast and checked out. The flight to Bariloche left at about noon from the domestic airport alongside the river Plate, a wide muddy flow that separates Argentina from Uruguay. A company across from the hotel, Seacat, was advertising a crossing, "with your car," in 45 minutes.
1445 Friday, 8 January. San Carlos de Bariloche, S41°08" W71°09"
We have a 14km drive into town from the airport, after a 2hr 10min flight. Silvia is our new guide and Mario is our driver. After dropping our luggage at the Panamericano hotel, we set off on a 3-hour tour of Bariloche.
We drove along the lake, Lago Nahuel Huapi, which
translates as "Tiger Island." (Named for some rough locals who once inhabited an
island in the lake.) The Island is now called Isla Victoria while its erstwhile name has
been adopted by the whole lake. We took a chair lift up Campanano mountain from which
spectacular views of the lake and the surrounding region were obtained.
Dinner was a 10 minute walk into the center of town at a restaurant called La Marmite. We finished at 2315 and hit the sack as soon as we could walk back to the hotel.
Bariloche is filled with young people on school break. The night was filled with students whooping it up, cars, with horns blaring, cruising the streets and quite a bit of street theater. We passed jugglers handling flaming batons. Night fell at 2230.
Saturday, 9 January 1999
Today was devoted to a long (270km) bus tour around the lake and surrounding region. We made several stops at spectacular lookouts. A good part of the trip was on unpaved gravel roads with enormous dust clouds raised by the passing cars. Everything in the bus was infiltrated by the fine dust, actually volcanic ash from, perhaps a million years ago. Lunch was at a resort hotel on one of the lakes. We had very salty soup and very salty trout. Altogether a not very satisfactory meal. Everyone agrees we could have skipped this. We got back to Bariloche at about 5PM and walked into town to buy some tee shirts.
Silvia made a point of explaining that much of the flora and fauna in Patagonia and particularly in the Bariloche lake region is not native. For example the Ponderosa pines and other "needle trees" which cover the hills are an imported species as are the sheep and cows and other domestic animals. Upright-walking man, she explained, came late to the southern part of South America. The narrow isthmus which connects the continent to North America, inhibited both the spread of plants and animals and people. Almost in compensation, the Argentineans have imported much of their culture as well. The whole region around the lakes emulates Tyrolean architecture as well as Alpine cooking. For example, we had Swiss Rosti with our first meal. If you ignore the Spanish signage, you might believe you were in the Swiss or Austrian Alps. The imagery is clearly intentional. According to Silvia, however, there is little winter snow and a short 6-week ski season in July-August.
Sunday, 10 January 1999
Sunday was an off day. We went to a mass at the local church, and tried to check our e-mail at an internet cafe... but it was closed. Lunched in a pizzeria. We bought as a souvenir, a "mate" cup made from a gourd with silver decorations and silver straw. Mate is an Argentinean tea. drunk communally from this sort of cup. Had our accumulated laundry done nearby for 6 pesos (+ 1 peso tip) and relaxed. Late in the afternoon, we watched the beginning of the Jets vs Jaguars NFL playoff game with Spanish-language commentary on ESPN. The Jets were ahead 10 - 0 when we went down to join our group for dinner.
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