Bariloche

It´s been a while, sorry... let me catch up with the latest adventures.

Last time I was in touch, my friend Charlotte and I were off to El Bolson, a hippie town 2hrs south of Bariloche. Well, a hippie town it is...people think that growing out their hair and rolling in dirt is liberating...not so...the feria was not that big after all and sure didn´t have enough food stands! so we moved our bus tickets up and headed back to Bariloche early. (the one interesting observation was the movement of young people promoting a ´green´ way of living and agriculture....just don´t know why it has to be synonymous with being smelly and dirty).

The next 3 days we toured the Bariloche area....first hiking on the local ´cerros´(hills) for the great views of the lake, and then off on a boat ride almost to the border of Chile through the mountains. Actually Jonathan and I were on the other side of those mountains when in Puerto Varas and at lago Todo Santos with all those vicious flies. I need to explain with a map, I guess. Anyways, good hiking followed by some great restaurants in the evening: filet mignon on the grill...yum yum yum.... but very short nights thanks to some party girls sharing our dorm who would greet us with ´hola chicas´ at 4 am! We did luck out with the new hostal though: it was the 1st year annivesary when we arrived and the owner threw an ´empanadas´party for his guests...what a treat. The last night though we had to change yet again to another hostal...total nightmare...the road next to the hostal was so loud...traffic all night... couldn´t sleep... see picture of me at the cafe the next morning...even that yummy coffee couldn´t keep me awake. We are both starting to feel the accumulation of lack of sleep...but are keeping our spirits up....sleeping, that´s what bus rides are for!

Next was San Martin, 4hrs north of Bariloche, another little swiss looking town, more upscale but without the splendid lake view like in Bariloche. We relaxed some -canoeing on the lake- and exercised some more -crazy bike ride around town and through the mountain. For sure it wasn´t a ´real´ bike track...or else for advanced all-terrain cyclists....but we pulled through all the way to this lake on the other side of the hills, where we passed out for an hour. Back in town, we treated ourselves with jugo & cafe frappe (see pic)!

Our last evening there, we went for happy hour for some pisco sours...followed by a late meal (well 11pm is actually normal here)...fun night just observing local habits....a group of 8 argentinian women going for coffee at midnight to catch up and gossip, an elderly couple going for an ice coffee on a date, a group of dutch bikers grabbing a snack, and the two of us with our pasta and salad (for me, of course!). The Argentinians are very different than Chileans...to be expected of course...it´s like saying the French and Italians are different...of course. Argentinians are more European looking and definitively concerned about their looks (sorry for the generalizations here), and more in touch with US & Europe than Chile was (technology, music, cars, etc). However, be it Argentinian or Chiliean, they still are way behind in customer service and efficiency! I cannot tell you how many mistakes hostals make with their bills (to our advantage!). Even the more upscale hotel we went to in Mendoza forgot to charge our food and phone charges. No attention to details. Not complaining of course....just wonder how business owners will ever progress.