Buenos dias to all you people out there! Kay and I had no pictures of this place in our heads before we got up this morning, but WOW! It is amazingly wonderful!! (The perfect weather didn't hurt either.) First thing we took a chairlift up Campanario Hill. Until then Bariloche seemed a very pretty place, but after riding above the trees, the world opened up magnificently! You know the color of Tahoe? Same brilliant blue but more of it with more mountains, more rugged, peninsulas here and there! Well we are in the foothills of the Andes for goodness sake! Just stunning, magnificent, incredible!!! Finished off the visit in the cafe with a cup of--recommended by our well-traveled guide: chocognac! Wow! I know, I know, I'm saying 'Wow!' quite a lot, but Wow! That's a drink to remember!
After a short drive we followed local guide Marta on a nature walk about local trees, birds--heard a few bird calls, some people saw one, but I caught sight of only the movement. Amazing bamboo-like plants that have now completed their seventy-year cycle, now all gray, but lovely lines and sections. Unlike bamboo, however, it is not hollow but solid! Most of the lagos around there were formed by glaciers, but a smaller one here was formed by a spring and is smaller than the others, warmer to swim in too, Marta says (she swims in the cold ones.)
That was the preparatory walk, the real trek was rather steep (though not as bad as we'd been told, I think to winnow the herd). Took us 55-60 minutes to climb (yes, huffing and puffing) to the viewpoint, much shorter time to get back again.
But what vistas! We were in part of the landscape we had seen Campanario Hill, on a promontory peninsula between two arms of the huge lake. Huger mountains arose beyond--some quiet cones, other extremely rugged, like teeth. Far in the distance, snow covered peaks in Chile --we'll go that way day after tomorrow. A truly magnificent sightseeing experience.
Lunch at a local brewery--as much beer as we wanted! Aren't you jealous? The brown ale was quite good and didn't make me sneeze!
The final experience of the day out was a talk wandering through the German/Argentinean neighborhood of Bariloche learning the history of that ethnic group as related to the Nazis. Peron liked Mussolini and Franco, not Hitler so much--too extreme, but Peron did allow/invite? Nazi war criminals into Argentina following the war. Before he was executed Eichmann praised Germany, Austria and Argentina! But a Nazi was an active citizen in Bariloche for years and years as president of the local German school, ran a deli, active in social affairs-had his picture taken with everyone! Our speaker is a local German/Argentinean whose father was active in the community as well and who has, as an anthropologist, a history teacher and a journalist, investigated the community (and the country, to some degree) about the period following WWII. The local Nazi had been involved in a massacre in Rome during the war and was eventually recognized by Sam Donaldson when he was tracking down someone else! He was tried and lived the rest of his life under house arrest in Rome until his death. Locals were stunned by the revelation and chagrined by the photos taken of him with the Nazi. Fascinating, and, as always when hearing of the Holocaust, horrified and terribly saddened.
Now, we have had a lovely few hours relaxing and putting our feet up. You can recognize by the length of this post that I have had time to write. Still unable to upload pix except a couple onto Facebook. As I said before, Buenos Aires was a lovely city, but this is what we came for--it is well worth the effort!
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