Bariloche

Approaching from the north, you can appreciate the mountain backdrop of the holiday capital of Argentinian Patagonia, BARILOCHE , or San Carlos de Bariloche, to give it its full title, spread along the dry southeastern shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi. It banks up against the slopes of Cerro Otto, behind which rear the spiky crests of the Cerro Catedral massif, but this view is obscured the closer you get to town. Everything in town faces the lake, Northern Patagonia's heavyweight: an impressive expanse of water that can seem like a benign Mediterranean one moment and a froth of seething whitecaps the next, lashed by the icy winds that sometimes whip off it into town. The town's life-blood is tourism, with 700,000 visitors arriving annually, most of whom are Argentinian. As well as families, this is a place of pilgrimage for the nation's students, who flood here in January and February. They don't necessarily come in search of the mountain experience, but often end up having one, pushed out of town by the inflated high-season prices of hotels and clubs. The area's main attraction is a large one: the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi that surrounds town, although in winter, it's specifically the ski-resort of Cerro Catedral nearby - one of the country's most important. For five days in August, Bariloche celebrates the Fiesta Nacional de la Nieve , with ski races, parades and a torchlit evening descent on skis to open the season officially, as well as the election of the Reina Nacional de la Nieve, or Snow Queen. At peak times of year, you may find that the excesses of commercialization and crowds of tourists will spoil elements of your visit. Nevertheless, the place does work well in giving remarkably painless access to many beautiful, and some genuinely wild, areas of the cordillera and, out of season, the town is still big enough to retain some life The Town   The centro cívico , dating from 1939, as the centrepiece of town. It's a noble architectural statement of permanence: an ensemble of buildings constructed out of timber and local greenish-grey stone that are grouped around a plaza and which resolutely face the lake. The Alpine design is the work of Ernesto de Estrada, who collaborated with Argentina's most famous architect, Alejandro Bustillo, in the development of a style that has come to represent the region. In the centre of the main plaza, around which these buildings are grouped, is an equestrian statue of General Roca, whose horse looks suitably hang-dog after the Campaign of the Desert. On the lake shore in front of the plaza is the Puerto San Carlos , where boats depart for various excursions across Nahuel Huapi. Of the attractions around the plaza, the most interesting is the Museo de la Patagonia (Mon & Sat 10am-1pm, Tues-Fri 10am-12.30pm & 2-7pm; $2.50), which rates as one of the very best museums in Patagonia. Look out for the caricature of Perito Moreno as a wet-nurse guiding the infant Theodore Roosevelt on his trip through the Lake District in 1913. Superb, too, are the engraved Tehuelche tablet stones that experts speculate may have been protective amulets - they had an unknown ceremonial or medicinal function, and are not found in Chile; Aónik'enk painted horse hides and playing cards made of guanaco skin; one of the Mapuche's famous lances; and Roca's own uniform. Informative booklets are on sale for $2.50, but only the one on the Campaign of the Desert is translated into English. On the lake shore to the east of the museum is the Catedral Nuestra Señora del Nahuel Huapi , designed by Bustillo; its attractive stained-glass windows illustrate Patagonian themes such as the first Mass held by Magellan. Running due east from centro cívico is Bariloche's main commercial street, the busy Calle Mitre . Here you will find ice-cream parlours, shops selling regional smoked specialities, and the much-lauded palaces devoted to chocoholics. Fenoglio, Mitre 301, also has a factory at Av. Bustillo Km 1.2 (Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 3.30-8pm; tel 02944/422170). Just to the north of Mitre, at Moreno and Villegas, is the Paseo de los Artesanos, the place to buy regional handicrafts.