Bariloche (Day 1)

Bariloche is located in the western area of the Province of Río Negro, in the heart of the Nahuel Huapi National Park. This is a place of many outdoor activities of all seasons: hiking, mountain biking, horseback-riding, fishing & snow sports in winter.

This is what I found for the history of Bariloche:

There are the findings of numerous negative rock paintings of hands, similar to the ones found in Europe, that lead people to think that man appeared in Patagonia between ten and thirty thousand years BC, during the higher Paleolithic Period.

During the latter part of the Stone Age there was a peaceful coexistence, around Nahuel Huapi. Between the Tehuelche tribes from the south, the Puelche from the east and the Pehuenche from the north. This ended around the 17th century with the arrival of the Araucanos. Due to the relentless Spanish invader, the Mapuche or Araucanos came over from Chile and their culture absorbed the previous tribes. Captain Don Francisco de César, half a century before, had heard rumors of the existence of a fabulous city built of gold and precious stone on the shores of a large lake in the southern territories. The Church and the Army set off in a vain attempt to find the city; they found it impossible to civilize the Indians and generally found a tragic death. Such was the end of fathers Nicolas Mascardi, Guillelmo, Elgea y Laguna.

For more than a century there was no more news from this area until new expeditions started around 1860 with the arrival of Cox from Chile and Perito Francisco Moreno from Argentina. The "Desert Campaign" totally subdued the Indian remnants in 1879. White man - the Europeans - completely took over the archeological remains and destroyed the remaining Indian culture of the Lake District. Carlos Wiederhold built the first general store in the area in 1895, but San Carlos de Bariloche is officially founded on the 3rd of May of 1902. It was named Carlos in honor of Mr. Wiederhold and Bariloche from the Indian term Vuriloche.

In 1897 there were 14 settlers scattered around lake Nahuel Huapi whose main activities were agriculture and cattle raising. Then more settlers came from Viedma and Carmen de Patagones. In 1901 a group of Swiss immigrants arrived, and thus an heterogeneous population started shaping, where people from different nationalities but with the same spirit of work and sacrifice were true pioneers in this territory so distant from big cities.

Because of the visit of president Theodore Rooselvelt, in 1913, the first road for cars was completed. In 1936, several important buildings such as the Cathedral, the Civic Center, Llao Llao hotel and San Eduardo Church made up the center for the future tourist attraction.

Our rental house is up on a hill. This is a view as we walked into town, while waiting for the house to be ready.

It was a bit cold and cloudy today. This is the main square.

this is a funky tree we saw

It looks like a pine tree, but up close has cactus like leaves

the cathedral

a cafe we stopped in

The hot chocolate is amazing! Bariloche is known for its chocolate and hot chocolate, so we, of course had to try it. Delicious! So good that Doug will order it over coffee!

The same type schedule here as BA -- they even close many of the shops for siesta.

So, our first take on the city is 'Swiss chalet meets the projects'. It's an odd mix of Swiss-German culture, style, food, with Spanish language and some Spanish/Argentine culture, food, style and then some poor organization as the city grew.

This is supposed to be the best chocolatier - Mamuschka - on the corner. We'll have to sample some chocolates later.

The playgrounds and parks pale in comparison to those in BA, but the kids don't seem to notice. They sprinted to it as we saw it.