Argentina Travel

Arrival in Bariloche

We met a couple at the Aeroparque airport on their way to Bariloche for their honeymoon. Of course, we took photos of them at the gate and before getting onto the plane.

The scenery during the flight was pretty boring until we got close to Bariloche and then it turned into desert reminiscent of parts of Peru. The flight only lasted just more than two hours and Michaela slept for most of it.

The Bariloche airport is small and looks brand new - it and the Aeroparque airport were both much nicer than the Ezeiza airport that we arrived at from Miami. In fact, while we got on the plane from the tarmac at Aeroparque, we had a jetway at Bariloche. We grabbed a cheap (3 pesos per person) and quick bus from the airport to the center of town, where the driver left us at the tourist office.

Margarita immediately recognized a hotel where her mother stayed and left me and Michaela at the tourist office while she investigated hotels. Hotels seem to charge more for foreigners, so since she is Argentine, she can get a better rate. We paid more for my airfare on the national airline because I´m not Argentine.

While that hotel seemed to think that it was still the tourist high season (based on it prices), Margarita found a much cheaper room with a view of the lake for about 60 pesos per night. It´s small but nice.

The weather is a bit on the cool side, but it was comfortable enough for me (used to the SF Bay Area) to just be in a t-shirt. At about 9pm or so, it was 10.4 degrees celsius, which was a bit on the cool side, but earlier it must have been nearly 17.

The scenery here is everything that you´ve heard it is. Fabulous postcard views in nearly every direction. Reflections of snow-capped Andes in the lake and beautiful mountain views. The town itself is a tourist mecca. Lots of stores selling chocolates of all sorts while other stores cater to the moutaineers. It reminds me a lot of California gold rush towns with chocolate stores instead of the antique shops.

The town square is filled with people offering to take your photo with one of their Saint Bernard dogs. Maybe the rarity of Saint Bernards in Argentina makes this a novel thing for the locals, but my memories of Saint Bernards mainly consist of lots of slobbering and drooling. But we eventually succumbed and bought a photo of Michaela next to one of the hounds. There were also a couple of puppies, which were useful in luring some of the tourists.

We´ve planned excursions for the following two days, including one that we got for free for flying the national airline. So we´ll write all about that sometime tomorrow.

And yes, I read the comments.

¡Chau!

Posted by mike at May 7, 2003 06:32 PM