David Wishart photo

TUCKED away in the foothills of Chile’s Andes moun-
tains,, Patagonia offers good food and stunning
jews, but beware the local airlines’ business class.

Aa tas 4
Enriquez of EL jo
irant, September | 1.2265 1998
v ii-pabed trip vil provide a personal
diiction'to the best.of Spain's vineyards &
s. A unique, small group expefience.
\ °°" Call Juliet fordetails.

a

f a
16'Marine Drive
- Sag wo West Vancouver, BC

“ERP ER 5 926°8511

north shore news

Se
—_——

to Patagonia than landscapes

BARILOCHE — My
flight from Buenos
Aires to Patagonia was
eagerly awaited.

Was this not the wildly
exotic place that made such
an impression on Charles
Darwin, where Bruce
Chatwin made his name and
Paul Theroux met more sour
people? ,

But there was a delay as
inexplicably six business class
passengers showed up when
there were only four seats.
There was much arm-waving
and raised voices before the
captain slammed the cockpit
door and we were off.

We flew southwest over
the Pampas for two hours
and found the foothills of the
Andes and the resort town of
Bariloche, founded atter
WWI by Swiss settlers on the
edge of a cold lake close to
Chile.

Some years before Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid, on the run from Unele
Sam, came this way and shot
up a few banks before being
chased to Bolivia and gunned
down.

They're good at that here.
The main square in Bariloche
has a statue of General Roca,
who in 1879 started what is
grandly called the Conquest
of the Desert against the
local Indians, largely wiping
them out and letting the
wagons roll. Estancias

(estates) with huge herds of
sheep on rolling campos
made many fortunes, and the
British built railways with sta-
tions just like home, but
when wool prices collapsed
Patagonia became a forgotten
place, and to some the
romanticized home of the
gauchos.

Today wealthy, land-
starved Europeans as well as
Americans such as Ted
Turner and Sylvester Stallone
are buying estancias. Land is
abour $40 US an acre com-
pared to $1,500 in the good
old U.S.A.

Banloche, which once had
some European charm, is
now overbuilt and dominated
by an ugly casino. 1 wasted
litle time in getting out of
tawn, heading around Lake
Nahuel Huapi and into the
first of a series of national
parks. However, I did stop to
look over the lake at
Bariloche with its backdrop
of snow-capped mountains,
some with fiercely jagged
peaks. The skiing here is said
to be the best in South

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Sunday, May 3, 1998 -- North Shore News - 35

America, tor whar that’s
worth.

The two-lane road gener-
ally followed a gentle, clear
river that apparently teems
with trout, vet hardly an
angler was to be seen, nor
was there much traffic, ever
on a remarkable place where
we drove around the crater of
an old volcano.

The terrain levelled into
broad plains with fences and
cattle, and the occasional
gaucho with a Basque beret,
sprinklings of deer and gua-
nacos, the local Hama.

I went up to the little
town of San Martin and
made a loop by more rivers,
lakes and mountains — not
unlike che Kootenays really.
Good, inexpensive restaurants
are not hard to find, and the

Lai oni, Retu
si/585° — si-49

per person/twin

rve, while
ceedingly tasty.

For a finale I was lucky to
be invited to an asado, or
barbecue, at Angostura, on
the other side of the lake
from Bariloche.

We had beef, chicken,
lamb and spicy sausages with
fresh bread to wrap around
them, plus lashings of
Mendoza wince. It was not an
afternoon for a teetotalling
vegetarian.

Most people spoke
English, such as a Swiss cou-
ple who had just bought an
estancia. They were here for
the hunting — boar, stags
and ducks.

Only problem, said the
man, was the local airlines.
Never enough seats in busi-
ness class, he said ...

Arlene

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