Bariloche: Lago Naheul Huapi & El Circuito Chico
Bariloche is amazing, and I would recommend that anyone who visits Argentina spend some time here. It’s really got everything going for it: Beautiful deep blue lakes, lots of tree-covered hills and mountains and parks surrounding the city, a good ski destination, cheap and accessible transit, and inexpensive food.
Since I was a bit sick of hiking, I spent a couple of days just walking through downtown and relaxing. The town of Bariloche is nice but mostly unremarkable. One fun day activity is to bike the El Circuito Chico. This is a somewhat fuzzy term for a bike route (on a normal road) from Bariloche along and around Lago Nahuel Huapi, the huge lake near Bariloche. You can do the loop starting and ending in the city, which is about 65km. What I did, and I would definitely recommend this, is to take bus 20 out to km 18 and rent a bike there. There’s a rental agency right by that marker, and they provide maps of the recommended route. This cuts the loop down to about 30-35km, and the portion of the road that you skip is very busy with traffic and probably not very fun. By starting at marker 18, you can limit the ride to about 6 hours and it’s the most enjoyable section without much traffic.
The ride took me past a number of really nice lookouts, as well as the the Colonia Suiza. Colonia Suiza is an old German settlement area, which today is a bit touristy. There are some German restaurants and lots of small merchants selling crafts and snacks. It was a really nice break from yet another hike!
