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Bariloche is a town at the foothills of the Andes with a beautiful view over the clear waters of Lago Nahuel Huapi. This is still considered Patagonia, but also considered the Lake District. We were able to rent bikes here to explore the countryside and see the views, while dodging traffic due to a nonexistent shoulder on the road. Actually the traffic dodged us most of the time.

Anyway, we also got to experience the superb chocolate which is supposed to be the best in Argentina, perhaps the whole continent or more. Several shops here produce chocolate in the dark, milk, and white varieties, combined with any ingredient you can imagine (coconut, raspberries, cherries, marzipan, every kind of nut, oranges, you-name-it. We took the advice of most Argentines (and Lonely Planet) and tried Mamushka, Benroth, and Abuela Goye brands. Oops, Meghan just leaned over and told me she has already posted about this so enough about the chocolate.

One evening we went to a restaurant where I finally tried cordero patagonico (Patagonian Lamb). This is prepared by placing the entire skinned and dressed animal spread out on a metal cross, stood upright near a fire as to slow cook it. Animal lovers/vegetarians/vegans take heed traveling to Patagonia (and some places in Buenos Aires) since this sight is more or less unavoidable since the Parrilla (grill) restaurants often display the fire and cooking lamb in prominently their front windows. Meghan had a very tasty pork tenderloin with a sweet apple and onion chutney. Although tasty, I found myself wishing my lamb had come with a Greek tjatziki or Indian curry sauce.

Anyway, we almost missed our bus out of Bariloche to Mendoza. Pretty crazy. We waited for a city bus to take us to the terminal for over 20 minutes and none came. No taxis either. Finally Meghan went to call us a cab from a nearby resort and as soon as she was out of shouting distance, of course a cab shows up. At this point we were already 10 minutes late for our bus so I threw our backpacks in the cab and had the cab driver drive into the resort so we could find Meghan. Once she was in the car we asked the cab driver to call the bus company on his cell but he couldn’t for some reason so he got on the CB radio, called another taxi driver at the bus terminal to run interference for us by going to talk to the bus drivers. We then were treated to a cab ride at lunatic-speed through the streets of Bariloche. We were able to catch the bus, thanks to a cab driver whom I tipped over 10% (but he probably deserved even more).