Chocolate and Horses

We left the rain of Chile behind and crossed the border back to Argentina to Bariloche, essentially the start of Argentine Patagonia. Bariloche feels a lot like Whistler, it´s a major ski destination in winter and has a pretty spectacular setting on Nahuel Huapi Lake (massive and a bit chilly as it´s fed by glaciers). In the summer, it´s a center for hiking, horse riding and biking. Our plan before we arrive was to rent bikes but once we realized how windy the area was we modified :)

Our second wedding anniversary was Nov 2 and we celebrated by going horseback riding on an 'estancia', a farm where they breed cattle and sheep for steak and wool. The estancia owner was Carol Jones, who had lived on the farm her whole life and has been taking small groups out for over 20 years. The horses were actually quite nice, which for Megan was a surprising change from the normal type of horse that tourists are normally subjected to... these horses you got to ride, not just sit passively! So it was more of an adventure for Dave, who did great on his second time ever riding!! We had lunch of empanadas over a fire and shared mate with our hosts (who retrieved the water from the creek right next to our lunch stop. Since for mate you don´t actually bring the water to a boil, we were a bit concerned about the after-effects but our tummies seem to be South American adjusted now: ) All in all, a great anniversary experience.


Megan y David


Our Gaucho guides

Bariloche also turned out to be an awakening for us in terms of our plans to spend Nov and Dec trekking further south. Near Bariloche, we attempted to visit some of the mountain refugios (kind of like BCMC huts but bigger and with services...) that we had planned to link on multi-day treks.

As a quick sidenote, one other discovery we´ve made regarding Argentina is that camping here is VERY different than camping at home. Campgrounds usually have full services and are not in wilderness areas. In fact, in most parks you can´t camp anywhere 'wild', rather you must stay in the area where the services are and this often includes refugios with beds for up to 50 and a restaurant!!

We day tripped up to the first refugio in the mountains and discovered that we should have packed our snowshoes! Talking with people afterwards, turns out this year has been a huge one for snow and even though it´s technically spring, it´s still essentially winter camping (and in some cases skiing) conditions, which we are certainly not prepared or motivated for! One of our main goals this year is to avoid winter...

So our new plan is to extend our North American roadtrip to include give or take about a month in Baja Mexico. After all, our tour of the Americas can´t exclude Mexico!! Plus it´s warm and we can snorkel and paddle, one of Megan´s dreams. We will return to Vancouver briefly at the end of Nov to regroup, eat some veggies, pack and then get on the road to Mexico.

Another factor in our decision to change plans is that Argentine Patagonia, while gorgeous, reminds us very much of the Coast Mountain range of BC. We decided that a travel destination should not remind us so much of the area an hour from our house!

So, we are enjoying a few more weeks in Argentina, including the row upon row of chocolate shops that Bariloche is famous for...