Lakes, Mountains and Chocolate

The bus journey from Pucon to San Carlos de Bariloche is without a doubt the most spectacular route I have ever travelled. It started by crossing the Andes mountains. On the Chilian side the snow was so thick, I´m amazed the crossing was open. Everything always looks beautiful when covered in a pure white blanket, and there were loads of green trees poking up through the snow. After we had crossed the borders and gone through the formalities (where both customs officers flirted with me, probably because I was the only foreigner there), the snowy mountains turned into green mountains covered with thick forest instead of snow, and I saw lots of cattle, sheep and horses grazing in the valley. Then the landscape changed again, as we travelled through the Argentinian lake district. There were so many lakes, surrounded by jagged mountain peaks, beautiful is the only word I can think of.

As if the scenery wasn´t good enough, Bariloche is a chocoholic´s paradise. I don´t think its an exageration to say around 1/4 of all shops were dedicated soley to chocolate. I have never seen so much chocolate in my life, in all shapes and sizes imaginable. Each shop competed with its window displays; I saw whole snowmen made out of white chocolate, massive brown chocolate bears, houses, etc. Of course, being a bit of a chocolate conniseur myself I had to test it out. I can say it is a million times better than chocolate from the USA, although less addictive than New Zealand chocolate. It is at least as good if not better than the chocolateries in France. The `chocolate callientes` were the best I have ever tasted. You can guess I was quite happy here.

The area surrounding Bariloche is probably the most beautiful I have ever seen. Lakes that shimmer in the sunlight, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and green forests. There are so many lakes, I climbed to the top of one hill and managed to spot 9 different lakes from the top.

The only down side I had in Bariloche is that I got caught up in a group of `crazy Israelis`. I made the mistake of going out to dinner with them on the first night, and since then they seemed to follow me around, annoying the hell out of me. There were about 10 of them, all in the hostel - staying in different rooms but they used my room as a meeting area. At 4am in the morning. They also smoked loads, next to my bed. After a shouting match in the middle of the night, I changed rooms, the first time I have ever had to do that in a hostel.

But, crazy Israelis aside, Bariloche is a cool place to hang out, and definitely one of the highlights of my travels.