Bariloche, A Chocolate Lover's Dream

Welcome to Bariloche, land of amazing Argentine chocolate!! I never thought about going to this place, but I had heard so many people talk about it that I finally asked a guy I met a guy in my spanish school who mentioned it what there was to do there.  He listed some stuff like biking and hiking, and then he said it had amazing chocolate, and I basically cut him off right there and told him he didn't need to tell me anymore because I was completely sold on the place.

The four of us got a bus over to Bariloche from Puerto Monte, and unfortunately, since me and the boys hadn't booked a hostel before jumping onto the Navimag, we had to stay in a different hostel than Candace.  We met up the next day and went on a fantastic hike up a huge mountain, that someone told us would only take 1 hour, but took us 2 hours.  It was completely up hill--just a winding road around a mountain--but since I didn't have a humongous bag on my back, it was no problem at all, and I definitely got a bit of a self-esteem boost since I basically lost all of it during Torres. haha. Towards the end of the hike we were starting to get tired and annoyed since it had started to rain and was cold, and our only rewward was basically grabbing a beer at the top of the mountain at the refugio (basically a hostel in random places) but we got to the top and found out it would cost $25 pesos per person just to enter the refugio and on top of that we would have to pay for whatever we ate or drank inside. What the shit? No thanks.  We descended the mountain a different way which basically entailed walking straight down the mountain in the dirt and rain which was getting progressively worse as the hike went on. Woo hoo. By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain, we were pretty soaked and lucky enough to catch a bus most of the way back to the hostel. But my day got so much better because we grabbed dinner at this AMAZING mexican restaurant where I basically inhaled my dinner. And I met a Canadian guy at Candace's hostel, who was half Bengali, but looked nothing close to it. So we had loads to talk about since we could reminice about indian food. yum.

Next day, we did a bike circuit outside of Bariloche, and it was yet another reminder of how unfit I really am.  We donned some ridiculous orange vest things and helments and set off for a 4 hour bike ride after hiking up ANOTHER mountain for 40 minutes which was literally a vertical climb up a hill with no set path. The bike ride was fantastic and full of some great scenery, it just stunk that I was wayyyy in the back of everyone. haha. We had 3 boys who could speed up hills that basically once again made my thighs scream ¨WE HATE YOU!!!!¨ and I just kinda ambled along up the hills and even stopped to walk up the hills with my bike a few times.  Stopped at a microbrewery along the way too, and that was pretty cool. 

Spent my last day eating empanadas and chocolate samples and ice cream before hopping on a bus to Mendoza.  It was heavenly.  I bought a box and cannot wait to devour each piece!!!

Next stop is wine country.