Bariloche is kick ASH...volcanic ash that is.

Advisory Warning: Pictures to come. Just haven't gotten around to uploading them yet.

Simply put, Bariloche, Argentina is ah-maze-ing. Literally. This place is super cool, and we had a great time and I would love to go back one day. So we took off via bus through the Andes pass, one fine Friday morning. After hours of driving through a perpetual Thomas Kinkade picture, see pictures below, and two border crossings, we arrived in Bariloche. We successfully found our hostel  and were informed that if we stayed 3 nights we would get a 4^th night free because of the Rugby world cup or something. Not sure, doesn’t matter, we stayed an extra night. So, for around $9USD a night, we stayed at a great hostel, met some cool people, and on top of that- breakfast was included. Gotta love traveling through South America.

Thomas Kinkade painting

The Andes Pass (I'm still trying to figure out how to flip it)

So, the first day we arrived we were told that The Wailers. As in THE Wailers were in Bariloche that night. What. Bob Marley’s remnants of a band- yes we should go. So after a, might I say, delicious dinner of quite possibly the most amazing steak I’ve ever eaten in my life ($7USD…see picture) we walked down to the club where the band was staying only to find the tickets a little to pricey for our tastes. Yeah, I would like to see the Wailers, but let’s not get crazy. So we headed back to the hostel and watched a movie and crashed early. Only to be kept  up all night by a girl/couldhavepassedasaman who’s snoring was so loud that it sounded like she was swallowing her tongue/ making some sort of moose-type mating call/ actually trying to shake all of the bunk beds in the room and succeeding. Needless to say, the first night’s sleep wasn’t fantastic. But I had earplugs, and thus survived to tell the tale. Lessons learned after living in an on-campus dorm for the past two years of my life.

We woke up early the next morning and headed out to circuito chico- a kind of loop trail system that is normally done on mountain bikes, or by car….so naturally we decided to walk. Our first stop was Cerro Campanario, notably in National Geographic’s top 10 views. And so it was. After a straight up, uphill hike (switchbacks not included), slipping through the volcanic ash that composed the top 3 to 4 inches of the trail, we made it to the top. At least now we know why there was a chairlift option to get to the top- should have been a red flag, but eh, cosas que pasan. Out of breath, we became increasingly more so once we caught sight of the amazing view. Literally- it took our breath away!! The gorgeous Andes mountains, silhouetted by a bright blue sky so clear and vast and cloudless, with lakes acting as mirrors, reflecting it all just in case you missed it the first time. Purely amazing. We ran into an Argentine couple at the top and they told us that they have been coming to this spot for over 10 years, and that this is the most beautiful day they have ever seen. Without volcanic ash spoiling the view, without clouds, with a sun as bright as it was, and so forth and so on…Really, we lucked out- and we were thrilled. We continued our trek along the circuito chico (which means short circuit, and in my personal opinion, not so very short…), and we hiked along Lago Moreno and Lago Escondido only to be met with similarly stunning views. For those of you who know me, you know I’ve seen my fair share of big mountains from the Rockies to the Alaskan range- but I’m telling you, this was truly spectacular. Every vista, every lookout point, every mirador was beautiful and different in its own way. At one point along Lago Moreno, I felt a strange compulsion to get into the crystalline glaciar fed lake. And so I did. I know the girls thought I was crazy, but I just looked at Katherine and said “Welp. I think I’m going in”. Off came the shoes, the socks, and yes the pants too. It was so worth it- and hey maybe I am crazy, but when is the next time I’m going to be able to go swimming in a glaciar fed lake in the South of Argentina in the Andes Mountains? So I took advantage of the opportunity, and if you want to blame someone, blame my mother because she would have done the same thing.

After this, we came to the realization that the day was growing old and we wouldn’t be able to complete the whole circuit, so we met up with a couple from New Zealand and began walking down the road in the direction of the ever-elusive ‘bus stop’. Ah yes. Just a little bit down the road we were instructed. Past experience has taught us that this means an hour or more walking down the road and it was fair to say we were tired. So, after a pit stop on a bridge where we saw the biggest trout I have ever seen and also where I stared enviously at a man climbing a multipitch just across the way, it was thumbs out to hitch a ride. A woman, her young daughter, and friend picked us up and we learned that she owned a restaurant/hotel in the area and that both her and her friend had studied abroad in the United States. So between broken English and broken Spanish, we successfully made it to the bus stop and took the bus back into town (I make this sound easy, but the reality is, I had to convince the bus driver that we needed a ride because apparently only some of the city buses take cash, the rest are run by a bus pass system. This bus did not accept cash. Good thing there are good people in the world- because that bus driver drove us for free all the way to the next stop. Sometimes I’m glad I look like an innocent little gringa who doesn’t know any better).

After dinner at great Italian spot (Argentina is known for its Italian influence- hence the great food, and the great wine!) we stopped for some dessert and headed back to our trembling room of the great snorer almighty. The next morning we had signed up for a tour to go see Cerro Tronodor, a black glacier, some waterfalls and other cool outdoorsy things. Another beautiful day, albeit more ash in the air, we (after a substantial amount of car trouble…don’t get me started) made it to the glacier. It was really an amazing sight and our guide told us that we should feel privileged to be able to see this glacier as it is now because it is one of two black glaciers in the whole world and its fading fast. As she pointed to the first lookout spot, about 150 yards from where we stood, she told us that only 75 years ago, the glacier used to be right up on the fence where people could reach out and touch it. As the glacier receded a new lookout spot had to be created. Now, the current lookout spot is several football field lengths from the actual glacier. It’s really incredible, and our guide says that she can see the glacier melting more and more every day. It’s things like this- glaciers that are millions of years old, and that have melted to more than half their size in less that 100 years, that makes me wonder how people can dismiss global warming. I turned to the girls and said “How can people not want to protect this? How can people sit there and say that the speed of melting of this glacier is natural? Will somebody please bring Rick Perry out here and show this to him?” Because really, and I don’t want to talk politics right now, but Perry dismisses global warming as a ‘natural heating cycle’, it’s apparently not anthropogenic, and he says that climate scientists are just trying to make a quick buck off of a trend….right. Rick, I’ll be the first one to tell you that Argentina doesn’t want its only black glacier to melt, actually, I’m pretty sure they don’t want any glaciers to melt. So if this is just a conspiracy to make money- please enlighten me why they would melt, intentionally, a huge source of tourist income? Really just unbelievable. Due to more car troubles we arrived back at the hostel rather late, with me being rather angry, and we headed out to grab dinner. We came back to the hostel to find a new dorm mate- Claudia from Mexico. She was wonderful, and assured us that she didn’t snore.

The next day, we had secured a tour to visit Cerro de Leones, las cavernas de Viejo volcan. So pretty much- in a nutshell- there are these caves on the outskirts of town where the Mapuche people lived for thousands of years. The mountain is called ‘de Leones’ because pumas (mountain lions) used to run rampant through the area and were a serious problem for the health and well being of the Mapuche…naturally. So we went on this really cool tour and got to hear the history of the caves, see some actual Mapuche cave drawings, and even get to do a pseudo caving expedition (hard hats included) where we ventured into the inner caverns to see the pristine lake within. Seriously, cool stuff. There was also a cypress tree there that is recorded to be the oldest tree in the area, well over 1000 years old. This kind of history really blows me away- I find it so interesting that the caves I was walking through, were the same ones that were walked through by Mapuche men and women thousands of years ago. Cool stuff, on the real. Also, I finally got to see what rose hips look like! Now I am familiar with the delicious little fruiting bodies that make the homemade jam of Marisol so delicious. Mosqueta. Gimme some a dat. Anyways, after this, we headed downtown and acquired some of the world renowned chocolate from Bariloche, specifically, Mamuschkas. There are several artesan chocolate shops and factories throughout Bariloche, but Lonely Planet said “Don’t skip Mamuschkas, really, don’t skip it.” So we didn’t. I got to hand pick the chocolate I wanted and had it put in a cute little red box with the signature Mamuschka Russian dolls on the top. This was guarded with my life, as it bought it as a gift for my host family- and let me tell you, it took some serious self control! Erin and Katherine both got chocolate too, Erin much more than the rest of us- but we don’t judge because that chocolate was seriously the bomb. We grabbed dinner at another excellent Italian place (and after sample a fair share of Argentine wine, I can tell you I’m still quite partial to Chilean grapes), made a quick stop for some dessert, and then back to the hostel where I stayed up a little too late on google chat with Clairey entertaining ideas about everything and anything and lots of travel. God I love that girl 

Our final morning in Bariloche was spent at the Patagonian museum learning about local history and Argentine history. We then made a quick dash to the chocolate factory down the road and then pretty much sprinted to the bus terminal. After a smooth Argentinian border crossing we were met with strict customs at the Chilean border, fully equipped with sniffer dogs. And yes, we were busted for trying to smuggle sandwiches across the border with lunchmeat and cheese on them. Criminals at large, I’ll tell you what. The snow had melted from the trees as we made our way back through the pass, but the Andes were still stunning. The part that we traveled through seemed very similar to the Southwest in the US, and Katherine and I even bore witness to one of those mini-cyclone things of volcanic ash. I was beat when we got home, but the weekend was all in all a blast. Hugs from my host family and a mad dash for my box of chocolate made for a comforting night at home. I’m glad to be back in Valdivia, and let’s hope I brought some of that Bariloche sunshine back with me

Con chocolate y abrazos...Chao!