Villa La Angostura is located about 80 km
North of Bariloche. To get there from Bariloche's airport by bus, you'll first
have to get to the bus terminal which is about 10 kilometers away. You can take
a public bus, which runs on the hour and costs 7 pesos (less than 1 dollar), a
shuttle (65 pesos) or a cab (150 pesos). From the bus terminal there is a bus
to Villa La Angostura which costs 60 pesos and runs every 2 or 3 hours so it's best
to check the bus schedule beforehand. Actually, the ideal would be to go
downtown Bariloche before heading up to Villa because that is where you can
exchange money more easily and for a higher rate. It's possible to get 13 pesos
for 1dollar in the grey market instead of exchanging it for the official rate
of 8 pesos for 1 dollar (the same goes for Brazilian reals: 5 pesos each real
in the grey market, instead of 3.3 at the official rate). So, try to take as
many dollars, or reals, and exchange it there!
Villa
La Angostura is a very small town; it is quiet and cute. Big and friendly
stray, or owned dogs, one can't really
tell, are definitely a remarkable feature of this town.
Party
rats will probably not be satisfied with the local night life, and the best bet
would be meeting people and trying to go out as a group or hang out at a
hostel. There is a very nice hostel near the bus terminal (about a 10 minute
walk) called Hostel La Angostura which costs 150 pesos a day. It has a large
living room, a big TV set, pool table, darts, ping pong table, grill, etc., the
rooms are cleaned daily and the staff is super friendly. It was there that
Débora met her American friend, Mike, who she hadn't seen for years and with
whom she enjoyed some nice meals and fernet+coke.
Cerro
Bayo, the local mountain for snowboarding and skiing, is low key, smaller and a
little cheaper than Cerro Catedral in Bariloche.
Because
the snow conditions are very unpredictable in this Argentinian Patagon area,
Débora does not recommend buying a week pass if the snow in Cerro Bayo is not
good. Also, because Cerro Bayo is a small mountain, getting a 3 or 5 day pass
should be enough, and she would have done it if she had known better! She was
mulling over the fact that she had bought a 7 day pass for a while before coming
to terms with herself. That would have allowed her to ride other nearby
mountains also, such as Catedral and Chapelco, both of them located about 100
km away, without waste. The same rule applies for the later mountains.
Cerro Bayo is
about 9 km from the town and this year there were no public buses up there, so
one could either take a 100 pesos shuttle service round trip, or hitchhike.
Débora took the van only one day out of the 12 days she stayed in Villa, the
others she easily hitchhiked up to the mountain.
If
you're not into winter sports, there are a lot to do in Villa also. The scenery
is wonderful and you can enjoy beautiful hikes, ride a bike, stroll around
lakes and walk up to waterfalls. The trail head leading to the famous Arrayanes
Park is located at the Villa's port. The best way to visit more places and
enjoy nature is by bike. Débora ended up doing everything on foot because she
was there long enough, but she somewhat regrets going to Lake Espejo on foot (12
km from downtown each way) because she could've seen a lot more stuff on the
way by bike.
Downtown has
a lot of gear rental shops with great service, and Débora chose Bayo Abajo
(right next to the town's bus terminal) for the best customer service and
prices. There you''ll be very well taken care of by Javier and Victor and get
good deals on your gear.
The
less than 2 day stay in Bariloche wasn’t enough time to do a whole lot.
The place has
many Brazilians, therefore it has been nicknamed BRAZiloche.
She visited the ski village at the bottom of Cerro Catedral which has great infrastructure;
it even has a shopping mall looking building which gives access to one of the
gondolas. The highly recommended visit to Cerro Campanario costs 100 pesos if
you take the chairlift, or free if you choose to walk up about 30 minutes. The
summit provides the visitor with a 360º view of the area (some of the sights are Cerro Tronador, Cerro Bayo,
Llao Llao peninsula, Nahuel Huapi Lake, Perito Moreno Lake, etc).
In
Braziloche she stayed at Pudu hostel for 1 night (130 pesos daily fee). It has
a good lake view, kitchen, and cool staff Pudu is a good place to stay if you
don't mind old buildings and shared bathrooms. It is also very close to Antares
Brewery which has good happy hour deals and a good crowd; however the beer
isn't that good.
TIPS:
- it's best to buy a 3 day alternate pass so you don't have to use all of it at the same time, so if there is no snow now, you can seek for it elsewhere.
- make sure to not exchange more money than needed in your country (at least in the US and Brazil), because the rates at the grey market in Argentina are MUCH better, and you could make your trip much less costly by doing that. It's not that easy to get the unofficial rate in Villa, so do it beforehand in Bariloche or Buenos Aires.
- It's easy to hitchhike from the main street/road (Arrayanes), right after downtown ends towards Cerro Bayo (south), passing the small bridge that goes over a creek.
- La Anonyma supermarket (2 blocks from the bus terminal) is cheaper and has a lot more options to buy groceries than the other grocery stores in the main road.
TROUBLES:
- can't count on public buses to go up to Cerro Bayo, and the shuttle service is expensive.
- Arrayanes Park trail was closed for maintenance so only the boat ride to the park was available.
- Very very very little snow this year.
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