I read about Bariloche being a beautiful place for hiking, with lush green landscapes, but because Kay wanted to wait for some cama-style bus tickets instead of semi-cama from El Chalten, which ended up taking us 26h in the bus, we ended up having only a couple days in Bariloche and more time in El Chalten. Plus, allll that time in the bus. What are you going to do… honestly, it was a nice break in the bus. 🙂 By the time we got to Bariloche, I was really worn out from hiking and I needed little break.

We were a little grumpy upon arrival because our hostel overbooked and at nearly midnight, did not have room for us, so they needed to shuttle us over to another one of their properties, which was really not amusing after such a long day traveling.Bariloche IS really pretty though. It is so incandescent. It reminded us so much of home! Brilliant green hills and sun, hilly landscapes and crystal blue water. Mmm.We took a bus from the city to the base of Cerro Campanario and then walked up the hill, which only took us like 15-20 minutes instead of the 40 they quoted us.On the second day we took the bus back to almost the same spot and rented bikes from Circuito Chico Mountain Bike, where below you can see the 27km route we took.We ended up doing the detour to the Swiss village because we HAD to… even though I’m not the best on the bike and I didn’t like it when we went on unpaved roads, or too fast, or too steep uphill. It’s hard guys. Hard.We took our time, mostly because I kept hopping off the bike to push it up the hill while Kay sat at the top waiting for me and laughing. Sometimes, I would get back on shortly before the top and ride the last way up so that he wouldn’t know just how much I was really walking up the hills…See, I look like I’m made for biking, but I am not. All that hiking and muscles in my legs, and they are like jelly on hills. Although if it was a little flatter, I sometimes gave Kay a run for his money.After Bariloche, it was time to head back to Buenos Aires and pick up our luggage holding the dive gear after 3-4 weeks without it. The weather in BA was a lot rainier and miserable than our landing in Argentina and we spent the day touring Casa Rosada, which only holds tours on Saturdays and Sundays.Next it was time to fly on to Auckland and start our trekking in New Zealand!