Week 1- Introduction of Bariloche
7 flights and 2 weeks later I am in Argentina! Bariloche to be exact Which is in the Patagonian region! Because of the close proximity to the airport and many different bus lines, there are many backpackers making there way down to the the end of the world. I think I may do that same at some point, but i haven’t quite figured out when or how. The town is on top of Nahuel Huapi Lake.
This town is super cute and Super European. It is known as the Switzerland of South America and it is very easy to see why. I keep thinking there are many tourists here because everyone looks European, but they are actually citizens.t's strange going from Peru to here because of this and the huge difference of appearance. Get this: they love chocolate and they love making it! There are "chocolateterias" everywhere. Of course now being intolerant to milk I can't try any of it. I will have to remember a few lactose pills next time I go to one (thanks for those Vikki :)) There are also many “cervecarias" or breweries and I am not intolerant to this, but maybe a little tolerant some might say ;) The beer is better here than in Peru.
Okay this is going to sound bad but I can't tell the difference between the ex-nazis and just the average citizens. Apparently many nazis flocked here after the war to exscape execution/ prison. I can't help but wonder if every older male I pass is ex-nazi.
The dialect and words are a very different form of Spanish I am not used to. For example I love avocado and really came to know the name as aguacate in Spanish. The name is palta here. When you ask for directions everything is in kilometers and every street is on a certain kilometer. For example if I needed to get home I would say I lived on the Main Street of Pioneros off kilometer 3.6 and this would get me pretty close to my home.
My host mom, Mirta, is hilarious! I really enjoy talking to her because she does her best to slow down the conversation for me and the 2 other students staying in this house and they are from Canada and Germany. She is the cutest lady ever and enjoys wine and smoking cigarettes on the patio. She also caters to my non-dairy diet very well. My room is very tiny but with an incredible view of the lake with a bed right by the window that somehow puts me in a trance and I fall asleep every time i lay down on it. I never take naps, but now that i have time to relax it seems appropriate. I didn’t know that i had 2 other student roommates in the house so it was an awesome surprise to see them at my first dinner. Dinner time is at 9pm here and that is normal for Argentina! I just have to make sure i have lots of snacks before then and I will survive. My Canadian roomate showed me around the town and shared snacks with me on my first day which really helped me adjust :) i am super thankful for her.
CLEAN CLOTHES: I am so desperate to wash my clothes after my Peru trip! I asked Mirta how i could do this and she recommended I drop them off at the Lavendero. This sounded like an okay idea until i realized i wouldn't be able to wash my own clothes, but would have to have someone wash them for me. I did not not feel comfortable doing this at all, but that's just how it works here. I did this and luckily the lady working there understood that I wanted 2 separate loads done because I had many clothes that i just wanted washed by not dried. I felt better after I knew I could do this. $22 and 8 hours later all of my clothes were clean. I was so happy! It's the little things in life :)
Also, a side note, bring American dollars to Argentina if you ever come. The ATM's are literally out of Pesos and the only banks that ever seem to have some money in them will cost you an arm and a leg to pull it out (around $6) and the max you can pull out is around 2,000 pesos or $140 dollars. This problem is from the high inflation rates occurring in the country.
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My room in Mirta's casa
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The view from my room :)
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| The lake next to my house- Lago Nahuel Huapi |
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| Near downtown or "Centro" |
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| This is what all the bus stops look like in Bariloche |
Llao Llao Day Hike
Today we we planned to hike “Frey” which is a very famous hike here and is supposed to take 4 hours to get up and 4 to get down. We waited at the wrong bus stop for the bus and ended up changing our plans around. We decided to opt out of this hike because we would be finishing close to sun down so we didn’t want to put ourselves in a bad situation. We ended up meeting a few people that made the same mistake as us and as we found out later they actually found the right bus and completed the hike before sun down. Oh well maybe next week.
We took bus # 20 to the end of the line with my Canadian roommate and our friend rom Switzerland who goes to the same school as my 2 roommates. Bus # 20 gets very very crowded and we were definitely squished like sardines in there until we got to the end of the line from the main town square (50 minutes long). We got off the bus in front of the famous hotel “Llao Llao” (pronounced Jao Jao because of the double L). This hotel is atop a hill overlooking a few different lakes and the rolling green/ snow capped mountains. There is lavender everywhere! I love this place!
We found a trailhead behind the hotel for Chico Cuircuto. We hit a few viewpoints on this trail and saw a hidden lake (which wasn’t as impressive as the others). After the trail ended we decided to walk along the street and find a cafe. We did just this just near a river called Rio Negro. It was breathtaking. The water was all sorts of colors and I was told it was this way from the ash of the 2011 Chilean Volcano Eruption. After a long long day of hiking we got back to the town center and got Happy Hour at a very cute Cerveceria called “Manoush”. I have fallen in love with this place already
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| On the property of Llao Llao |
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| Famous Arrayan Trees |
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| Lago Perito Moreno |
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| Mirador de Lago Moreno |
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| Hidden Lake |
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| My Swiss and Canadian friends- Christiane and Maryse |
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| Rio Negro |
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| Rio Negro |
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One of the original Breweries in Bariloche
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Week 2
I am in search of the best steak sandwhich. I have tried many for lunch and have decided that steak sandwiches are amazing in this country. I have been spending a lot of my time in Bariloche studying Spanish at school and at my home with Mirta. I go to school every morning and have the afternoons free. I usually go running, eat, drink tea, eat lunch, go to happy hour in town which is a 10 minute bus ride from my house. So far my Spanish lessons have been private since we don’t really have many people attending my school which has been nice and I have been learning a ton! I have been making friends with students from the school my roommates attend since they have a lot more students at their school and they all hang out in town.
I have been going to a Chocolateria called “Rappa Nui” a lot since they are a pretty big cafe open during the “siesta hours" (1:30-4:30, during this time most business close for their siesta (:DI know amazing right!)). Also not to mention they have a great wifi connection (which is hard to find). My mouth waters every time I walk around in there because of all the fresh chocolate and ice cream that is displayed. I found a few fruit flavors of sorbet that don’t have any milk and they are pretty amazing tasting!
The weather has been quite warm and I hope it will cool down soon. We haven’t really had any “storms” per say, but some days the wind blows super duper hard and then the next day everything is just calm and perfect. The power went out the other day, but it only seemed right since the wind was soooo crazy.
Goals this week:
- Always to keep practicing and learning my Spanish
- Learn the metric system/ celcius (for now I have an app to help me covert)
- Find the best steak sandwich in town
- Find a vegan food store so I can buy some non-dairy desserts
Cerro Campanera
SO MUCH DUST: We had a field trip with my school to hike up to this point. The trail probably had about 6 inches of dust the whole way up. I guess this is mostly from the 2011 Chilean volcano that erupted. It was supposedly only 30 minutes to the top, but it felt like a lot longer since it was straight up with hardly any flat parts to walk on. The view at the top was incredible and completely worth the hike! You could walk all around the top of the mountain for a panoramic view of about 7 lakes (I think) that encompass Bariloche. They had a cafe/restaurant/bar at the top where we were able to buy amazing looking desserts, beer, and ice cream. I could seriously stay up there for forever and just look at the view. After a few pictures and some food we made our way down.
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| A mirador at Cerro Campanera |
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| Mirador at Cerro Campanera |
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Mirador at Cerro Campanera
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| Some of the BSL Spanish School folks at Cerro Campanera |
El Bolsen
We bought bus tickets to go to a town, El Bolsen, which was 2 hours away for a beer festival called “Fiesta Nacional del Lupulo”. We heard about this festival from many people and there was information regarding the location and dates on the internet. We arrived Sunday and what do you know?… of course they changed the date of the festival and didn’t bother to communicate this. Welcome to South America! is the only reason we had.
We weren’t too upset and knew we should have expected for this to happen.
They still had their infamous Sunday “ferreteria” which is essentially an artisans market. We were told this town was full of hippies and i could see why. It was sort of like Venice Beach but a little bit less crazy (or at least the people/vendors were). We were surrounded by beautiful mountains and some even still had some snow on top of them. We started walking around looking for beer and food and our friend who had just left Bariloche the previous week jumped out of nowhere and scared us. He had been staying there for the last week and was leaving today so he hung out with us for the day. We had smoothies (which are super hard to find around here) and tarts/empanadas from the food trucks (yuuuuuum!!).
We then decided to head to a pub for some beers. Along the way we saw people dressing up as elves in a booth and taking some funny looking photos. At first we thought it was completely weird and wondered why anyone would do this. A few drinks later this is exactly what we did. We got dressed up in some elf gear and stuck some poses while people told us how to pose. We got a few epic pictures and many laughs out of it. Overall it was an awesome day and I am glad we still had so much fun without the festival.
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| Smoothie cart at El Bolsen |
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| Beers at El Bolsen- Beer always comes with peanuts in this country |
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| A vendor at the Ferreteria in El Bolsen |
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| Dressed up as Elves for our photoshoot |
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| Some of the artwork being sold in the Ferrerteria |
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| My friends from Germany and Switzerland |
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Our friend Rick that we ran into, ready for his next adventure
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Week 3
This country loves feeding me bread and ice cream (helado de agua is ice cream based from water instead of milk)...I feel like thats all I ever do :D I tried Yerba Mate for what i thought was the first time, but as soon as i tried it i knew i had it before from my Argentinam friend back in the states. It is very addicting because it makes you feel awesome, even more so than coffee or tea. I learned all about the mate etiquette and now i am hooked! I know they sell it back home so i will buy a Yerba mate cup and straw and make it when I get back.
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| Peach/ strawberry Helado de agua- my favorite flavors :0 |
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| Chocolate submarine from an heladeria |
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| Lunch at my favorite cafe - Luckay Cafe |
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My first cup of Mate-
Warning: It's super strong if you drink it like this |
Lago Gutierrez
I didn’t have much going on today so i decided to take the bus to a Lake about 30 minutes away from my house. I spent the first 1 hour walking around looking for food and a kayak to rent. I was able to get some awesome pictures of the very glossy looking lake since it was still early in the morning. I asked many people where I could buy food and all of them pointed me in different directions telling me where I could find some, but nothing was open! I finally found a grocery store with a cute little sandwich shop next to it. It was called “Pancha Mamas” and it was delicious!
Refugio Frey
What a nice HOT day. My roommate and I decided to get an early start on this hike since it could take up to 4 hours each way. We took the bus over to Cerro Cathedral which is the town that you start the hike from. We knew it was forecasted to be about 80 degrees today by 2pm. The first 1/3 of the trek was nice and cool and pretty flat. Then we got to the forest and saw lots of trees and beautiful fields of flowers. There were also some people camping and cooking around here. It was so beautiful in this forest and we didn’t run into much wildlife minus a few lizards. The last 3rd of the hike was pretty much completely uphill and we had to hop up and over many rocks and boulders. Another note to self: bringing hiking shoes next time I come to Bariloche.
Just when we thought we had died from climbing up this hill with the strong sun beating down on our heads, we saw it… We saw the Refugio and we knew we were just about there. After another 20 minutes of climbing the rock obstacle course we made it and found some shade under the Refugio and demolished our sandwiches and fruits that we had brought up.
A Refugio is a building where hikers can camp out at when they get to the top of a hike. This Refugio was very well maintained and had a decent kitchen, bathrooms, and some bunks. It is sort of like a hostel, but I am not exactly sure if anyone runs it or how it is maintained. Usually they are donation based if you decide to use them. There were also about 30 people out there camping in their own tents.
We explored the grounds and hung out by the lagoon and just did some people watching while we rested from our hike up. There were people up there sun bathing, cooking, reading, slack-lining and swimming. It was so peaceful.
By the time we left we were feeling refreshed and determined to get down quickly to get out of the sun. We passed many people who were still trying to make there way up and I just felt so bad for them knowing the sun was even hotter by this time and they still had to climb up all of those rocks. We passed some barefoot hikers! Holy cow… I have no idea how they were doing this! I had no traction left on my shoes so I have no idea how I didn’t fall at all. We got back down the mountain in no time and bought ice cream in town which was absolutely amazing. We were completely covered in dirt and couldn’t wait to get back home to clean up. We did the 8 hour hike in 5.5 hours :O I am proud of our time, but I am soo sore and can’t move now. I am ready for the next big hike (hopefully next weekend).
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| Blackberries at the bus stop |
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| The beginning of the hike at Cerro Cathedral |
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| There were fields of these flowers everywhere! |
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| Laguna Toncek |
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| Refugio Frey |
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| Konstantine- My roomate from Germany |
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| Action shot! |
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| This is how I felt getting to the top so quickly! |
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| Random cross in the forest |
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| Ice cream after the hike |
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| I was truly covered in dirt after |
Week 4
No real big updates to give here as the most exciting event this week was my weekend in Pampa Linda (see above tab). A lot of people that I had befriended have left already so I have just been studying and hanging out outside since the weather is still extremely beautiful. I am really starting to miss lots of different types of food from back home like Chipotle, Sushi, Mothers restaurant, and Acai Bowls :D Feel free to send these my way!
It's getting close to dinner time hence all the food pictures :)
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| Mirta made this awesome lentil dish... mmm |
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This is from a self serve vegetarian restaurant in the town center called Ren.
It's the only vegetarian restaurant I have really seen so far... Doesn't look appealing, but it's delicious and healthy... I have been missing vegetarian food so much! |
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Steak and ham sandwich from Club Nautico which seems to be a some type of boat club
Great view, okay food/drink |
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Gnocchi, handmade by Mirta
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La Cascada de Los Duendes
Our field trip this week was to a waterfall. We took the bus to Lago Gutierrez and walked quite a ways and hiked through this forest to a small waterfall. It was cute, but not too impressive. The water in the lake was super pretty though and it was a very nice day. We ended up going on another hike further into the forest to a view point of the lake. This was amazing... It was pretty steep, but definitely worth the 45 minute hike up.
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| Lago Gutierrez |
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| Cascada De Los Duendes |
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| My classmate and I trying out my favorite pose |
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| Mirador de Lago Gutierrez |
Last 2 weeks
I spent my last 2 weeks in Bariloche wrapping things up and hanging out with my host mom a lot. I finished up my classes at the Spanish school and now had a week free to do whatever I wanted to do. I took myself out to lunch at a beautiful spot on the river called Chiado. The view was amazing as you can see from the pictures below, but i ended up getting food poisoning from the chicken sandwich I ate. This was my first time getting and had no idea how to handle it. I just layed in bed for about 4 days because of all the pain in my stomach. I just wanted to make sure I got better before my 20 hour bus ride to Mendoza. I did end up feeling a lot better a couple of days before thankfully!
My roomate and I wanted to try the hamburgers from our favorite cerveceria called Manush so we decided to take our host mom out to dinner there. We had been talking about how good these burgers looked for weeks, but since we always had dinner prepared at home we never had the chance to try them. The burgers looked way better than they tasted, but I didn’t care as it was my first burger in months and Mirta was very excited that we wanted to take her out to dinner. It was a nice change.
I also had the chance to hang out with my host mom and her friends at her friends house in the very beautiful section of the city called Llao Llao. The house we went to was the cutest german style cottage right on the lake. It was incredible. I got to practice so much spanish and enjoy the breathtaking views of the lakes and mountains from her house. Next week Obama would be coming to Llao Llao to play a game of golf with the Argentinian president.
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| Mirta and Konstantine :)- Familia |
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| Hamburger and IPA at Manush |
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| My Spanish Teacher Marina... She dealt with my Spanglish for 5 whole weeks and taught me so much! |
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| My poisonous chicken sandwich at Chiado |
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| Chiado- Don't go here... |
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| Mirta's friends house at Llao Llao |
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| Mirta's Living room- Loved all the wood in that house |
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| My shoes that I had to throw away after 6 weeks in Bariloche |
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