Argentina Pictures, Part 5: Bariloche

A side trip to the frigid, windy Patagonian land of lakes.

SO windy:

 

Fortunately, the view is also nice from indoors. This is the lobby of my hotel:

Even the trees wear sweaters:

 

 Bariloche was founded only a little more than a hundred years ago, so it doesn't have the colonial look a lot of towns in Argentina have. Here is the cathedral. I think it was built mid-20th century.

I sat inside for awhile to warm up and admired the rustic style:

Typical look for Bariloche civic buildings:

Even the phone booths embrace the mountain styling:

The rest of town was mostly lodging, chocolate shops, and outdoorsy/adventure establishments and places selling clothing and gear for outdoorsy adventuring.

Then, out of town, where hardier souls than I do their outdoor adventuring:

This little ferry terminal is where you can go to take a trip to Chile. About the only boats I saw in the water the whole time I was there. There were a few marinas so people must boat sometimes. Is it ever warm there?

View from the chairlift:

This looks like a chilly job:

View of the fancy Hotel Llao Llao from the top of the mountain. Most of the lower elevation pictures are taken from near that hotel. It was a nice place to go inside and warm up. On the steps of the hotel I ran into a family from San Francisco who were in front of me on the plane down. They were some of the hardy souls who came here to bicycle.

Argentina Pictures, Part 4: Tigre

One day I took the train from Buenos Aires out to Tigre, in the watery suburbs up the river. It's only about 1/2 hour on the train but a huge difference from the big city. Lots of islands and canals and boats boats boats everywhere.

Waiting for the train in Retiro Station:
(There are two train options to get there. One is a more scenic train up the coast (you have to start on a regular train, then switch trains partway), the other is the regular commuter train. A bunch of travel guides seem to say to save money by taking the commuter train, but they're both really cheap and the difference in price is like a dollar. Well, actually, for the scenic train there is a tourist price and a locals price, but the lady charged me the locals price :). But even with the tourist price it's not that much. And the scenic train is less crowded, goes along the water and through some nice areas, and where you transfer trains you walk through a weird connector between stations that somehow involves a long corridor full of antiques for sale. Why would you want to miss that?)

In town on the mainland, near the train station. You can get on lots of different boat buses and tour boats here:

Supplies from shopping trips in town loaded onto the roofs of the bus boats:

The marketplace, and more boats loaded with shopping:

I love this striped building:

I like this one, too. I think it is some sort of Italian Club:

 Rowing clubs:

 Tigre Art Museum:

Scenery along the canals: