Bariloche to the El Bolson Artisan Street Fair and the Hoyo Waterfall
Yesterday we drove from Bariloche down to El Bolson – about 121km. It was a nice day to drive – overcast with some sun, windy but not raining. The road was excellent and once we got out of Bariloche, there was hardly any traffic. We were mostly alone on the road much of the time.
It’s a long way, taking Route 40 down from Bariloche along the eastern side of the Andes. Everything is green, completely forested, with the Andes mountains and their snowy tops (remember, it’s summer here!) always visible. Our trusty chariot (which we have named ‘Jorge’) did just fine.
We chose this day for the drive because they have an artisan craft fair in the El Bolson Main Square every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We had gotten this info, more maps and directions from the Tourist Center in Bariloche – they are all over and staffed with very helpful people. Do we have this in San Diego? I hope so.
[cmamad id=”1141″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop”]We arrived from Bariloche to El Bolson a bit after noon, located the town square and saw all the vendors with their booths plus scads of mostly locals strolling around – some tourists, but definitely mostly locals. Can they tell we are from Bariloche?
We needed a restroom, so headed into a small burger place adjacent to use their bathroom – we ordered a small fries as the token purchase. I took a couple pictures of their menu board. (Note that today all pictures are at the very bottom!)
So, refreshed and munching fries, we started off meandering through the booths. Lots of interesting stuff – jewelry, children’s toys and clothes, food things, odds and ends. There were many vendors with handmade wooden items (cutting boards, cooking spoons, serving bowls, hat racks) and we ended up getting salt and pepper shakers that are fun.
[cmamad id=”1140″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop”]I also had my eye on some incredible serving spatulas – made with three colors of wood – very elegant, so thin. But I made a fatal error and thought I’d see if anyone else had the same thing for a better price and then come back and get them on the second pass. But no one else had them and when I went back, the gal was GONE! OH NO! Lesson for self: Get it at the time – don’t wait!
We eventually got lunch – some sort of a spinach pizza tart and a veggie gizmo on crust – both good (see picture of JB holding them). The street fair closed down at 2pm, so we grabbed some water bottles at a local market and hit the road to go a bit further south to Lago Puelo – a small lake with a tinier water fall close by. We stopped at the Lago Puelo Tourist Center at the entrance to the lake and got enough info to know that we didn’t need to see the lake for the park entrance fee of $12 each, but did want to hunt down the waterfall.
The gal there pointed us in the general direction and told us to seek out La Catarata de Hoyo (Hoyo Waterfall – ‘hoyo’ means small pit or hole), again checking at their little Tourist Center for specific directions. Off we went!
We headed back to the north, located the tourist center and a person who gave us a map with directions down several unpaved roads, instructions to park in a parking lot and hike up to the waterfall. There are 3 signs that point you in the right direction. (We’re getting really good at following directions!) Off we go, into a residential neighborhood and bump along this road until we find it – sure enough, there WERE 3 signs.
The trail marker (‘sendero’ is trail) says it’s a medium hike, but don’t you believe it! Slippery gravel path, very vertical in many places – we were huffin’ and puffin’ by the time we got up there – 1km never felt quite so long! The little waterfall was putting out a tremendous amount of water – very clean, not much silt in it at all. We rested up there a few minutes and then scrambled down. It was about 4pm. Sorry, 16:00.
The drive back to Bariloche was just as smooth and probably even prettier because the clouds were really moving in, so the light was fun. I took pictures from the car. Most of these were taken right though the windshield, so that’s why there is some distortion. But this gives you an idea of what the view from the road was like. Route 40 skirts 3 main lakes – Lago Gutierrez, Lago Guillelmo (ghee-shell-mo) and Lago Mascardi – all pretty good sized, like 5-15 miles – some shown in these pictures. We also took a picture of the local “Home Depot” type establishment – Hiper Tehuelche.
Back in our room about 18:00, we cleaned up and watched a bit of news. I got involved with uploading pictures and the blog, but we were determined to eat EARLY and get to bed EARLY. Results: Even at 21:00 we were the first patrons in the Italian restaurant just down from our hotel (Di Como, by name). JB, as usual, ordered pasta carbonara – this time con mucho panceta (bacon) and Carol got chicken in an herb sauce plus a salad. Red wine, of course.
Yes, we were in una restaurante Italiana di Bariloche, instead of una parrilla (the national pastime – barbeque). But the food was really some of the best we have had. Our waitress (who spoke NO English) was trying to help us figure out if any restaurants would be open on Dec 24th or Dec 25th. We’re still trying to figure that one out. But back at the very attractive Di Como (a beautiful place), our table was at the window and overlooked the lake.
We could see the strong wind blowing everything in sight and whipping up large whitecaps on the water. Re weather prognostications: Weather.com said “Rain on Wednesday in Bariloche” but the hotel said “Overcast”. (PS – it’s now Wednesday and it’s been raining steadily ALL DAY LONG.) We ended up back at our hotel on the early side and actually managed to make it to ‘lights out’ before midnight. Ah, a great evening in Bariloche.
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For more at Aloha Creek on Bariloche, see Christmas in Bariloche.
For an external link on Can Carlos de Bariloche, see the Bariloche link on WikiTravel.