Bariloche is the biggest town in the Argentinian Lake District and a major centre for tourism. It’s on a big lake with lots of beautiful smaller lakes dotted around. 
It’s full of walkers in summer and skiers in winter. But as we were here in autumn it felt peaceful and relaxed. We were lucky again to have good weather for two days which meant we could do a great walk up into the mountains. 
It was disappointing though to walk past so many ski and chair lifts and still scarcely any snow on the ground. It looks like it will be great fun here in a month or so.
Pools of frozen water on our climb up above 1500 metres
On our first day, we managed to get out of bed just in time to catch the early 7am bus up to the ski resort, our starting point for a big walk. Having run down the hill in the dark from our hotel we just boarded the bus before it pulled off. We were very pleased with ourselves until we realised that we didn’t have enough small change and the driver didn’t have enough change for our 100 peso note. He refused to take us and out of the assembled locals nobody offered to stump up the additional 20p we were short of. How very disappointing and un-Argentinean compared to our previous experiences. An hour and a half and a long, disconsolate walk to the bus station later, having stopped to admire quite possibly the most incredible sunrise we had ever seen on the way, we were finally on the bus. 
Although the day had got off to a shaky start, the walk completely made up for it, with a great variety of scenery, amazing views and wildlife. 
Evidence that we finally got views of the majestic, Andean condor. The terrible, blurry picture doesn't begin to do justice to the sight of five of these massive birds soaring just overhead as we walked along a ridge with incredible panoramic views. The next day our thighs were aching and we couldn’t face getting out of bed early again for another hilly walk. We opted instead for a stroll around a beautiful national park of woodland and lakes.
The Lake District in Northern Patagonia lived up to everything we had been looking forward to – lots of walking, relaxing and stunning scenery. 
2 comments:
the last photo is fantastic, very jealous
A few seconds later a 100kg condor landed on my head and a mountain puma danced a jig for us. But that photo didn't come out so well.
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