What to find in the town and surcharges for European
We managed to get to Bariloche with surprisingly little drama. FlyBondi had a good day and were only 90 minutes late. Bariloche is the tourist capital of northern Patagonia, which is known for its massive array of lakes surrounded by mountains.
My summary of the tours is a separate post.
So, our expectations were for lots of water, and we weren’t disappointed when we found our hotel had a fantastic view of the biggest lake, Lago Nahuel Huapi. We stayed at a brand new Radisson Blu, which promised much but seemed to still be in the shake down period with lots of issues and things not working which were a bit disappointing, but hey, it had a great view.
Bariloche is a major ski centre in the winter with pistes on the mountains behind it in Cerro Catedral. The high street is full of bars and restaurants with strong Spanish and Alpine influences, however, just like most skiing resorts, if you aren’t skiing there isn’t much else to do. There are a few boat trips but with freezing cold water there aren’t many water sports going on.
A thing we had not seen before was dual pricing of tours. Basically, if the tour included an English speaking guide the costs were significantly more than for a Spanish speaking guide. In the case of Circuito Chico the Spanish tour cost £13, and the English tour cost £30, for the Tronodor Glacier the price difference was £45 for Spanish and £80 for English.
We gave it some thought and decided that we would be quite happy to forgo the tour commentary as we were going for the scenery anyway, so we went with the cheaper option with differing experiences!
On the first tour, it transpired that only 3 people spoke Spanish, so the guide received some adhoc English lessons, on the second tour nobody spoke English and on the third tour we had a personal commentary from an English speaking guide, so all in all it was money well saved.
The locals have a bit taste for chocolate. Every other street seemed to have some form of chocolate shop going on but the ultimate was the chocolate supermarket, the irony of this being that iin a 3 story department store, the ground floor was dedicated to chocolate and the other two floors were a gym.
Not only did it have a department store, it also had a museum, who on earth cares about the history of chocolate, surely you just buy it, eat it, regret it, forget it. Not in Bariloche, they just love chocolate.
There appears to be a bit of a sinister past to the town and many of the Nazis headed here after the second world war, there is even a walking tour dedicated to the memory, which in my view shoul be forgotten but that is life.
There is also a nice civic square. It is build in a European style and does not appear to be very old, but it is very pleasant and there lots of shops around there if the weather is wet.
So all in all, Bariloche is a dull place in November unless you like chocolate, but the locals are very friendly and I definately got the impression it would be a lot more fun in the ski season when all the bars are open.
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