Lago Nahue Huapi in Bariloche
Except for the tango show last night, where we were picked up an hour late, and we believe that is the tango show’s fault, our travel so far has gone very smoothly. This morning we expected to be picked up at 10 am to go to the airport. At 9:40 we got a phone call saying our ride was ready. Everything we have done with Say Hueque representatives has gone equally well.
We got through security with a boarding pass marked for gate 7 and 11:15 boarding. However at 11:15 there was no one at that gate, and a lot of people loading at gate 5. I checked the terminal display, and it now stated gate 5 so we went over there. However the sign at the gate did not say Bariloche, and when we asked, people said “no”. We met an American couple about our age and chatted with them for quite a while. They had actually gone through the gate before learning that it was the wrong one.
Eventually, sometime around 12 noon, they did start boarding our plane. We walked down the jetway, and then out the stairs onto a waiting bus. When the bus was full it drove, perhaps 20 metres, and let us off at the base of the stairs into the plane. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a short bus ride before.
We were airborne by about 12:30 and arrived in Bariloche about two hours later. Once again we were very pleased with Say Hueque, as our ride was waiting with a sign. Though he spoke no English he handed us a packet of information and got us to the door of Las Marianas hosteria. Not long after we’d checked in there was a knock on the door and the first Engish speaking person we met in this town told us that our Say Hueque representative was there to speak to us.
It actually was a representative from Kawen Adventure Company, who has been booked to do our tour in this area. He explained to us what we would be doing, very clearly, and gave us some options for places to eat and things to do on our free day here.
The lake and Andes mountains
After that we walked downtown, literally, since we are a hundred or so steep metres above the downtown area which is along the lakeshore. As it is Saturday there are several closed streets, and market vendors with stalls. Many of them have patagonian knitted hats, what we Canadians would call toques.
There were a lot of people swimming in the lake. It has a very stony beach. They were also setting up for a dance along the waterfront, and about a dozen people sweeping up the concrete, mostly cleaning up broken bottles.
Bariloche cathedral
We walked north along the lake to the town’s cathedral. It is a massive building built almost entirely of stone. It has at least 50 stained glass windows.
Stone altar and pulpit
We walked back along the main downtown street, looking for a restaurant to eat our evening meal. As we did so we met the same American couple. Their experience was not nearly as good as our. They’d waited for an hour, and didn’t find their driver, so took a taxi in from the airport.
We stopped to eat in a fondue restaurant. I’m sure that I haven’t had a fondue since the 70’s, and it was very rich with cheese. It is a good thing it is uphill back to our hotel, for there were doubtless a lot of calories in the meal.
As we were crossing the street we noticed that it was blocked off, and saw that they were having a road race. As we ate in the restaurant we watched the last runner go by, a bind man with two female guides. We commented that it was a pretty hot time of day to be holding a road race.