San Carlos de Bariloche Hotels
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a group of lakes is a ...
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A group of lions is a pride, a group of geese is a gaggle, and a group of ships is a fleet, but what is a group of lakes? A cluster? A bunch? A smattering? If anyone knows, email me, because I clearly have no idea, so I'm going to go with ´district´ - a group of lakes is a district. This answer is surely as good as any other because that's where I am now - The Lake District. This ain't no small district either. It's split between Argentina and Chile, and from what I have been able to deduce from maps, there is roughly a million lakes. Or close to it. The centre of the Argentinian side of this district is the town of San Carlos de Bariloche, or just Bariloche, or Bazza, as I've come to call it.
Snow-capped mountains are a wicked backdrop. So is water. Any town with either of these is guaranteed to attract its fair share of tourists. This is why everyone comes to Bazza, because Bazza doesn't have just one of these natural phenomenons as a backdrop - it has both. And in the same way that combining vanilla ice cream and green soft drink creates the 'atomic spider of death', combining snow-capped mountains and water (in lake form) gives you the ultimate, picture postcard 'atomic backdrop of death'. It dominates.
Like any good tourist mecca, Bazza milks it for all it's worth, with well kept wooden chalets, overpriced restaurants and surely the most chocolate stores of any town in the world. Before I arrived, people had told me "Yeah, it's kinda like Switzerland, but in Argentina...", and when I got here I thought, "I guess it's kinda like Switzerland, but wait, I've never been to Switzerland.". So when I ran into a girl from Switzerland, I had to ask the question, "Does Bazza remind you of home?". "No. Maybe the mountains, but the lakes, the houses, everything else - not Switzerland. No way.". Emphatic. Matter settled for me. To summarise, Bazza - nothing like Switzerland. But also nothing like the rest of Argentina I have seen so far. This place is cashed up.
Now it's time for a tribute. A tribute to my Helly Hanson's. I'm sorry. I was skeptical. Ok, I had severe doubts. Climbing mountains is far from your area of expertise. In fact, with your thin, gripless soles, lack of adequte ankle protection and general poor design for off-road conditions, climbing an enormous mountain is the last thing you should be doing. But, I took a chance on you, and you responded. You stepped up. You looked around at your lightweight, high-tech, gortex equipped, built-for-the-mountains peers and said, "No, not today. Today we are going to strike a blow for casual sneakers everywhere.". And so it was. You transported me from the base of the mountain known only as Catedral, along the 10km 'red dot road', to the summit, Refugio Frey. And then back down again. Along the way we were confronted with sand, mud, rocks, fallen trees, gravel, horse shit, rivers, waterfalls and finally snow, but you handled each with a confidence and assurance that has won my everlasting respect. Bravo Helly Hanson's, bravo.
My guidebook neglected to mention that Bazza suffers almost constant bone-chilling winds. I am not equipped, fashion wise, to handle bone chilling winds. Plus, they are really cold. Therefore, as beautiful as Bazza and the Lake District are, I need to go in search of warmer climates. The beach would be nice. Then there's only one real option - to Uruguay... More thumbnails ...
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