It felt so good to wake up in a real bed at a time when it wasn’t dark outside. We took our time updating social media and writing posts at the hostel. Los Troncos Hostel was a very nice place, very clean and had a great location (just 1 km from downtown) but I was very disappointed because the website is misleading. Los Troncos had a very nice view of the lake, but we never saw it. On the site they showed very nice pictures of the lake from a room in the hostel, however they never said that it was just for the private rooms. We paid AR$352 for 2 nights [AR$88/person/night] for a 12 person dorm. It was a pretty good deal, it even included breakfast, but we were put in the basement of the hostel and the one window in the room looked out towards the courtyard. So even though we paid to be on the lake we never saw it from our hostel. The service, however, was great. Everyone spoke English and were very helpful.
Since we were only spending one full day in Bariloche, it was recommended to us that we go to Llao Llao because it was a very nice place and you could drive through it. Everything else in Bariloche is either very outdoorsy treks/excursions, that take all day or even longer, or very consumeristic such as stores, restaurants, and gift shops. So we walked around downtown to buy some chocolate, because it was very famous in Bariloche. The most recommended place was Mamuschka and it was so beautiful and delicious. It was very overwhelming because there is a lot of chocolate to choose from. You can also try any piece of chocolate for free so you can eat a lot and then buy some chocolate. The packages they had were also expensive and not so diverse so we decided to pay by kilo, which was still expensive but we couldn’t buy a lot because we were driving and afraid that it would all melt.
Then we decided to go to Rapa Nui, the second best chocolate shop in Bariloche. I was very excited because it was a bit cheaper and they had a variety of packages to choose from. Dani also found a deal on Foursquare for 20% off when you check-in for the first time so we were ready to buy some chocolate! However, when we asked the manager if it was just for chocolate or for everything in the store she seemed to come up with this story that the discount was only for people from Bariloche and tourists with plane tickets from certain airlines (though it didn’t say anything like that in the fine print of the discount). So we decided to leave and be on our way to Llao Llao.
This small city was about 30 km from Bariloche and is very famous for the Hotel Llao Llao (a very nice resort). There are many small areas to get out and explore (beaches, forests, etc.) along the way but every time we got out of the car we were attacked by massive horseflies so we gave up and just drove around. There is only one road into and out of the city and it goes in a circle so you can’t get lost.
On the way back we stopped at a very cute café with an amazing view of the lake and mountains. It was a very beautiful and quaint place to enjoy a coffee or even some waffles. Also on the way back to Bariloche we found a local brewery/bar called Berlina and Dani wanted to buy some beer to take home. Instead, we stumbled upon a very good happy hour that had just started. They had many artisanal beers and they were buy one get one free so we stayed and had a couple of beers and enjoyed yet another panoramic view of Patagonia. It was a very relaxing day which we were very thankful for after a hard week of driving and sightseeing.
###Map:
###Numbers:
- AR$40 = Patches
- AR$36 = Mamushka chocolate
- AR$14 = Del Turista
- AR$30 = Snack @ Panorama
- AR$143 = Market
- AR$52 = Happy hour
- AR$330 = Gas [AR$8.49/L]
- Total = AR$645