Sunday 20 Feb: Bariloche and beer

There was a Danish couple with their two children on the pitch next to ours at the campsite, who were touring south with solo bikes and kiddy trailers. We had a good chat to them and exchanged information on the road ahead. We discovered that there was an alternative route north from Bariloche, taking the ferry one way to the national park south of Villa La Angostura from West of Bariloche. This avoids traveling around the northern side of the lake.  We are starting to get into territory where we don't have a fixed plan (or even any plan), for parts of our journey. It's actually nice to be able to make decisions about which route to take, and something we missed in the south, where there is only one through road!

The ride into Bariloche was uneventful, but full of more amazing scenery, and we arrived in time for a late lunch. It took a bit of time to find somewhere to stay, as we wanted to stay near the centre, and space for storing tandems is limited. We eventually found a nice hostel with a garage (and garden), and arranged to use their washing machine to do some laundry. By this point we were starving, so headed for food and beer! There are several places serving artisanal beer, including the El Bolson beers, so we got to try a couple of those we missed out on a couple of days ago. We spent most of the evening trying different beers and hatching future bike plans. We decided to do a day ride on the south part of the lake and to stay at the hostel two nights. We'll then follow our original plan of heading out along the north side of the lake to join the seven lakes drive.