San Carlos de Bariloche chocolate festival

It was Easter today and Christine was busying preparing Easter baskets for the kids last night after we went to bed. It is a holiday that is somewhat foreign to me as the date seems to come up last minute changing year to year and I am never up to verse with the lore and mystery of the Easter bunny baskets the way Christine understands it. It started with cute baskets Christine made and then easter egg hunt with chocolate eggs and then we went to the hotel breakfast which was carbohydrate heavy.

The baked goods in Argentina tend to be on the starchy side. Our kids as always with buffets had one slice of toast and a drink. They are always excited for hotel breakfasts but are also picky eaters and don't eat a lot for breakfast so not great value. Christine on the other hand loves a hotel breakfast. Fortunately they offered gluten free stuff for her. 

After breakfast which was packed with guests, we went to the pool and Jacuzzi and the kids swam in the heated pool and even outside. 

We then headed to town to walk around. The chocolate festival had made the largest chocolate bar in the world at 220m and broke it up and gave it away. It brought the 10,000 visitors yesterday and the traffic. We ubered to the the town center and walked around and visited the sugary treats.

There are chocolate stores everywhere and they sell chocolate edibles, drinks, and ice cream. Rapa nui was a brand we knew because a coworker gave me a couple of their alfajores last year and Christine loved it. We had asked all over Argentina but they are only sold in Bariloche (and online). Their store is so busy and there is a restaurant and a ice skating rink ($35/hr). Christine bought one of their treats and ate it.

We then went across the street to Delturista for their hot chocolate which was also amazing.

The kids had cotton candy and we had free hot chocolate from the police and there were games kids played.

We were out for over three hours until the temperature dropped and the wind picked up and we went back to the hotel for some rest.

For dinner we took an Uber back out to the one Chinese restaurant.

The food was okay. They were out of dumplings. We had some fried shrimp which were not what I was expecting, some beef and green onions, braised tofu, egg rolls, and talu, sort of hot and sour soup with out the hot or sour. The soup was the best. 

We walked around a bit but the street workers were already taking down the decorations and it was drizzling so we went back to the hotel.

Christine put on a glow stick hunt before the kids settled back down for bed.