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Approaching from the north, you can appreciate
the mountain backdrop of the holiday capital of Argentinean
Patagonia, BARILOCHE, or San
Carlos de Bariloche, to give it its full title, spread along
the dry southeastern shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi.
It banks up against the slopes of Cerro Otto, behind
which rear the spiky crests of the Cerro Catedral massif,
but this view is obscured the closer you get to town. Everything
in town faces the lake, Northern Patagonia's heavyweight:
an impressive expanse of water that can seem like a benign
Mediterranean one moment and a froth of seething whitecaps
the next, lashed by the icy winds that sometimes whip off
it into town.
The town's life-blood is tourism, with 700,000
visitors arriving annually. The area's main attraction is
a large one: the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi that surrounds
town, although in winter, it's specifically the ski-resort
of Cerro Catedral nearby – one of the continent's most
important. For five days in August, Bariloche celebrates the
Fiesta Nacional de la Nieve, with ski races, parades and a
torchlitght evening descent on skis to open the season officially,
as well as the election of the Reina Nacional de la Nieve,
or Snow Queen.
Bariloche does work well in giving access to many
beautiful, and some genuinely wild, areas of the cordillera
and, out of season, the town is still big enough to retain
life. The perfect place to learn Spanish!
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