Our Great Adventure: San Carlos de Bariloche Day 201 07/04/2015

Another day and another bus journey! We had a good breakfast at La Chatalet before checking out and walking the short distance to the bus stop. Today's journey south to Bariloche was scheduled to take 4 hours with the route going through Argentina's Lake District passing seven of the lakes along the way. The bus was much more of a local service than the one we'd travelled across to Argentina on but was still comfortable and we listened to the drivers choice of music (everything from ACDC to Oasis) onroute. We had a short break at Villa La Angostura, long enough for a quick coffee, before continuing on to Bariloche. We joked that the shorter the bus journey, the more and longer the stops. Villa La Angostura must have had the greatest concentration of chocolate shops wand cuckoo clocks we've ever seen. Unfortunately most were just shutting for their siesta as we arrived. From here the road runs along the shoreline of Lago Nahuel Huapi with wonderful views of the mountains opposite and eventually Bariloche on the far shore. The bus terminal is 2.5km out of town and after buying tickets for our onward journey to Puerto Varras we caught the local bus into the centre. From here it was a steep walk uphill to the guesthouse where we're staying for the next 3 nights, La Barraca Suites. We checked in and dropped off our bags before walking back downhill to find somewhere for late lunch. We went to Rapa Nui (Easter Island!) cafe and treated ourselves to our first bottle of Quilmes beer and empanadas. Our first impressions of Bariloche have been a bit disappointing. It's named after Carlos Wiederhold, a german immigrant who settled here and opened a small shop. Unfortunately it has a darker history, making the headlines in 1995 as a haven for nazi war criminals. Today it attracts huge numbers of visitors in both summer and winter. The lake and surrounding mountains look appealing but the town itself seems a bit of a mismatch and soulless. Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi is suppose to be spectacular and we're hoping to get out over the next two days cycling and walking which will hopefully improve our impressions of the place. Back at the guesthouse we did a bit more planning. The ferry that we've booked from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales has been delayed by 3 days due to bad weather and now we're struggling to have time to go to Torres del Paine and get to Ushuaia in time for our flight to Buenos Aires. The downside of being here in low season is that the frequency of buses reduces which is the main challenge. The easiest although most expensive option looks to be to put our flight back which hopefully we can do. In the evening we went to one of Bariloche's famous pasta restaurants, El Boliche de Alberto. The menu is only pasta although there was an impressive choice. The portions were huge and we really should have shared a meal but instead we each left nearly half of our dishes (we were offered a doggy bag but the thought of cold pasta for lunch tomorrow didn't appeal too much at the time).