Travel (<2016)»Argentina, Dec 2007»Chocolate, carne y glaciares en Patagonia

So we are in Patagonia now, which apparently is not just mountains. There are spectacular lakes surrounded my snow capped mountains, there are glacier that crawl down... the mountains.
We are in a resort town of Bariloche, which, besides skiing, is also famous for it's chocolate. One of the recommended chocolate shops is called Mamushka - it's decorated with painted matreshkas, the salesgirls wear red handkerchiefs on their heads, and you can package your chocolates inside a russian lacquer boxes or in one of the matreshkas. The chocolate is alright, but the business concept received a stamp of approval from the MBA students.

For New Years we had dinner reservations for the whole group. Ours was a fun table dominated by Russians and Israelis, but still representative of the world, at large. We did an NY toast relay from Australia through SE Asia, India, Middle East, East & West Europe, East and West Coast, culminating with the one on Argentine time...

On the NY's day we went to an Estacia, where we rode horses, and had lunch of: meat empanadas, fat and juicy sausages, baby lamb chops, beef steaks, wines and un poco de ensalada. This is a fairly typical meal around here. No sides, just some bread. So, to summarize our diet here, it's meat (usually beef), wine (usually Malbec), ice cream and chocolate. Welcome to Argentina!

The next day we had a chance to burn of a bit of yesterday's indulgence with an extensive hike (18km, 1000m elevation) to a glacier. The views were spectacular - lush green mountains, azul lakes, and perfect white fluffy clouds in the sky. The temps at the top were a frigid 8C. Luckily, there was a well-stocked ranger hut, which had everything from flushing toilets to beer to bring us back to our senses. On the way down we glided over the snow-covered part of the mountain - tired and exhilarated with the days experience!