GlogTrotters. adventure of a lifetime Married couple on a Round The World Trip

chocolate and wine

Bariloche is the land of chocolate! There is even a museum dedicated to the history of it, and yes, there are some free samples.

Mookie, a close friend of the family was kind enough to lend us his cottage for use. It is lake front cottage with incredible views of the mountains and water. Although it is a beautiful place, it was located 21km outside the city center. We quickly learned that the bus service is limited and it is nearly impossible to hitch hike so we walked... A LOT!

The city center reminds me of Banff, Alberta with mountains in the background, all the boutiques and speciality shops. There is one store called La Tourista which is a grocery sized store with nothing but chocolate, ice-cream, cakes and other desserts...we went there almost every day.

To work off all the sweets, we climbed Cerro Campanario, a look-out point for all the surrounding lakes. It is truly a spectacular view and well worth the effort. If you are willing to pay, it is possible to take a chair-lift to the top. We just wanted to challenge.

We also visited the nearby Swiss Colony which prepares a specialty meal on Sundays. They dig a large pit in the ground in which they place hot stones. On top of that they put meat, sausages, potatoes, onions and cover it with tree branches and soil. The food remains covered for an hour and a half at which point in time everything is cooked to perfection. It looked good but you need to make reservations in advance (which we didn't).

After five days of relaxing in Bariloche, we made our way to Mendoza. It's all about wine, wine and more wine! We met Brian and Emma, a lovely couple from Ireland and together we made our own wine tour on bicyles. We visited CarenaE, one of the newest wineries and Di Tommaso, the oldest winery in the region. We also went the wine museum and ended our tour with sampling exotic liquers and chocolates.

Wine tasting with Bryan and Ema from Ireland

To end our stay in Mendoza, we did a horse back riding and rafting trip. It has been more than 15 years since I've sat on a horse and it involved a man leading the horse by rope in a circular stable. While riding the horse this time, I felt like I should have been riding horses all my life. They are amazing creatures.

Riding in Mendoza

As for the "white" water rafting, the rapids were classified betweem Class 2 and Class 3. The rafting involved mostly floating down the river. For someone who's never done it before, it was a good introduction, but next time I will go for something more exciting.

We are now back in Buenos Aires where we will do all the things we missed the first time, such as going to museums, seeing a tango show and maybe catching a tango class...wish me luck to convince Gadi to take a class with me.