Bariloche was very good to me. Rather, I decided to be good to myself for the days I spent here. For one, almost no hiking! At Cerro Campanario, you can hike up or take a chair lift to the top. I took the lift and had tea and an empanada while enjoying a panoramic view of Bariloche. At Cerro Otto, you can, again, hike up or take a cable car. I took the cable car. It was sunny the day I did Cerro Otto and the views were spectacular!
One morning, I took a colectivo to its last stop at Llao Llao (pronounced Zhao Zhao). I kind of went on a whim and didn't know exactly what to see or do there, but I ended up walking about 6 kms and saw a lake (Lago Escondido) and a bridge (Punta Romano). Cool. While in the forest, there was a kind of bamboo that covered the pathway, making it feel like a very magical-and even enchanted-place. Very cool. Back on the road, it was raining pretty hard and a ranger gave me a ride to the hotel where I could catch the next bus back into town.
My last day in Bariloche, I went chocolate shopping for two hours. TWO HOURS!! I visited 11 stores and bought something from 10 of them lol I don't kno what came over me!.. some crazy ideas about comparing chocolates perhaps. They had one store called Mamuschka - Russian themed and complete with matroshkas (the little doll statues that are stacked inside each other). For some reason, Bariloche had a lot of little Russian touches and several stores sold Russian trinkets.... I liked this very much.
Post chocolate-shopping, I had a massage. Awesome except for the fact that the woman stood there and watched while I undressed...(Incidentally, this happened in Thailand too.) Next, I was off to Parilla de Tony. Not including all-you-can-eat restaurants, this is the most meat I've ever had. The options for single portions are 400 grams or 800 grams... that's 14 ounces or 28 ounces of filet mignon. SO MUCH MEAT!!! I got the filet mignon pequeno (400 grams): You have a massive plate in front of you that you can use to snack on the bread and chimichurri sauce they give you.... then Tony himself comes out to serve the meat. He put one filet on my plate... it was BIG. But then he put ANOTHER one on my plate!
For any Ruth's Chris fans, this was bigger than the Ruth's Chris cut and there were TWO of them on my plate! I think it was way over 14 ounces and probably closer to 20 ounces. It was amazing!!! (This was, incidentally, my second time eating at Parilla de Tony - I went the first night with my friends and it was so mouthwateringly good that I went back [by myself!]).
So basically, Bariloche to me means incredibly beautiful landscapes, R&R, massage, chocolate, and meat. It doesn't really get better than this :)
Next stop: Crossing back into Chile to hit Osorno, Pucon, then Santiago!
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