There’s no denying the scenic beauty of Bariloche, as we enter Argentina’s lake district the landscape changes from the vast desolate scrublands of Patagonia into a green alpine like landscape dotted with lakes and mountains with matching houses built in wooden European styles.
The town is the centre of Argentina’s chocolate industry and there are dozens of chocolate shops on the high street. It would have been a crime not try one.
Being the tourist hub of the region we thought that it would be easy to travel to the nearby sites. It turned out that we were wrong to be so optimistic.
We were advised by the staff at tourist information to take local buses around the main route, the 60km Circuito Chico. We were given a map and timetable of the buses and were told where was best to get on and off. It all sounded great except that to get on the busses you need to have a SUBE card which are impossible to get hold of and cash is not accepted.
After spending half a day trying to obtain one we finally gave in and paid a tour company a ridiculous price to take us around.
The first stop on the tour was the chair lift to the top of Cerro Campanario for spectacular views of the surrounding area.
There are many people here willing to spend a lot of money as demonstrated by our next stop on the tour, driving through the grounds of Argentina’s most famous hotel Llao Llao. An eye-watering US$1,200 will get you a room for a night.
After a short walk through the forests we follow the road round and stop for a better view. Admittedly it does look heavenly from up here.
We both agree that this place feels like the Amalfi coast except instead of the sea we have lakes.
The tour ends in a Swedish settlement village where you can grab a drink and a bite to eat or go and have a swim in the lake.
Overall it was a good day but it would have been more enjoyable and cheaper to be able to do it ourselves. Unfortunate this is once again another example of some of the inefficient systems in place in Argentina.
