Bariloche-Parte Tres

Bariloche has several walking paths to lakes and lookouts just outside the town. The trails can be reached by taking one of the local buses. At the very end of the number twenty bus route is the Hotel Llao Llao and its golf course. Apparently, Einstein and some other famous people once stayed at the hotel. There isn't much to do on the hill where the Hotel is located but we were lucky to run into a nice old couple at the bottom of it. The maps we had from the tourist office and hostel left us wondering where we should go. The old couple however, had a map from the Hotel Llao Llao that was much clearer and had the exact times and lengths for each path. We figured that part of what you were paying for at the hotel was the better maps.


Many people bike on a road called the Circuito Chico and all the walking paths can be reached from this road. We could not figure out why people were interested in biking because none of the scenery was visible from this road. Not to mention, the road was gravel with cars whizzing past and kicking up clouds of dust. We just stuck to the trails which could be traversed with a minimal amount of time on the road.

Our favorite spot was the Villa Traful. We ended up going to this lake beach twice because we overslept one morning and missed our bus. Once you reach the end of the path to the lake, one of three ways takes you to different lake beaches separated by rocks. This gives each of them a private and exclusive feeling.

A new British friend from the hostel accompanied us one day and we were also visited by others from the hostel doing the bike tour. It felt like a real beach day, hanging out, eating and getting some sun. James jumped off some of the rocks with the other guys and I once again watched. Jumping off rocks and angling your trajectory in just the right way so you don't hit the rocks at the bottom, did not appeal to me. I was happy to be the photographer.
I'm pretty sure that the guy with the beard is Ryan Gosling and he was just using a fake name and staying at a hostel just to throw everyone off.

The lake water is beautiful and clear and absolutely freezing. When I slid into the water from a rock, I was shocked by the cold and I felt my lungs begin to tighten. I actually started to panic for a minute that I wouldn't be able to get enough air in to be able to swim and I scurried back up onto one of the rocks. For some reason though, each time that I got into the water it became more bearable and I was able to swim more. In between dips, I spent my time sunning myself on a rock like a lizard. I was going to spare everyone from the bathing suit shots but this sums up my feelings about the water.