These are a few of my favorite things....Dogs and Chocolate

So, there are several reasons why Bariloche will remain one of our favorite places we visited.
Here are some of the most important:
*We were out of Osorno

*It has snow-covered peaks good for skiing and a big lake good for lookin' at or boating
it's town square is the day-home to saint bernards and saint bernard puppies ripe for petting and pictures

*The hostels are actually clean with heating systems and water whose hotness can be controlled by the slight turn of the knob

*It had an authentic mexican restaurant...so good we ate there 5 nights out of the 7 there
the empanadas at our favorite lunch place were cheap and still remain our favorites to this date...we ate there 4 times

*They have grocery stores only for chocolate

*They have museums about chocolate

*Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

*You can walk to the numerous chocolate stores, act innocent and interested in buying, and escape with all your money but full of free samples

*If you buy the chocolate...it is damn good

*The chocolate is sooo damn good that we both left Bariloche a little pudgy around the middle

*Also, how could we forget the ice cream was great as wellIn short, Bariloche was a wonderful little town and a warm (not climate-wise) introduction into Argentina.

Border crossing into Argentina.

     Unfortunately, Argentina is the most expensive of the countries we have been to, so it was a struggle to find a place for a decent price.  However, we stumbled upon a hosteria very close to the square but on the less visited side and we stayed there for the duration of our trip.  It had TVs, beds that Bobby almost fit on (an improvement and a good breakfast (no eggs though).  We had almost hit the jackpot with the exception of our shower.  It was broken leaving the bathroom floor covered wtih water everytime one of us showered. Bobby even patched it up wtih some tape...sooo manly.

        The staff was great and we caught up on weeks worth of laundry.  We bought a foldable bucket and biodegradable soap at REI...so every now and then we put our hands to use and wash our clothes.

Not our hotel-we wish, but this is the famous Hotel LLAO LLAO.  So grand that you are not really even allowed to walk around the hotel grounds unless you are a hotel guest-well we sneaked around the property.

     Bariloche is a gift-givers dream.  Yes, family, that means the majority of anything you get, only if you were good of course, probably was bought in Bariloche.  The streets are lined with terrifically tacky gift stores: saint bernard stuffed animals, pins, shot glasses, and anything else you can stamp 'Bariloche' on.  Luckily, there are also some special antique stores filled with traditional 'gaucho' items and the indigenous peoples, the Mapuche, crafts.

    Each day we visited the Saint Bernards at the town square...Bobby just couldn't keep his hands off the them. They are pretty awesome, pretty huge, and pretty lazy.

Town Square

     We also went skiing for a day at the famous Cerro Cathedral slopes.  Natalie was sick (she is a total pain) so she went one day while Bobby went for a second.  The mountain was a cheap 30 minute bus ride from town costing all of 6 pesos ($1.50).  We got fitted with boots, were first in line to buy lift tickets, and were off to show Cerro Cathedral, the mountain, and Argentinians what REAL skiers look like.  Alright, that is a lie.  Bobby hadn't skiied in 8 years and although Natalie has had some recent trial sessions with snowboarding, she had put on skies only once before, when she was 15...this could be ugly.  It was only ugly on Natalie's part a few times.  She took some pretty gnarly falls but held her own (so she would like to think).  Bobby on the other hand was a total show-off.  Natalie was more in love with him than ever after watching his skills on the slopes: total stud.

Nat eating Bobby's sandwich.

Insert yourself here.

     However, the best part of Bariloche was the Mexican food and chocolate...yummmm.....
There was a coupon at our hostel for a free tiny margarita at a mexican restaurant.  Though we have been constantly dissapointed with the imposter mexican food while traveling, we gave it one more try.  We got nachos and fajitas....and then we got nachos and fajitas for the next four nights.  We received a personal hello and goodbye from all the staff because we were there so much.  It was almost embarrassing.  But when you constantly try to venture out like we had for over a month to almost always be disappointed in the food, when we found good stuff, we had no shame about sticking with it.

    As if our stomachs weren't satisfied wtih good mexican food, we ate enough chocolate to feed...well, the two of us!

    They take their chocolate very seriously down here.  They even have a museum dedicated to the history of chocolate-Amazing!! We both are ready to move here.



Outside of the chocolate museum

      Chocolate is not a novelty item in Argentina, it is an everyday item.  One of their main roads is lined with tons of large chocolate stores.  The best part, free samples!  Everyday, and at least once, we walked into each one, scratched our chins in an "i'm-interested-in-spending-money kind of way", and walked out with as much free stuff we could get.  But that was not enough for us and we also left with a few boxes of assorted chocolates.  When we found out that we had to stay another day in Bariloche becuase the bus to El Calafate did not leave on Sundays, we treated our sadness with even more chocolate.