Culopatinar (Ass-sliding) in Bariloche

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Bariloche:
We stayed in Bariloche for a few days which is a much more developed ¨city¨but within 20 minutes of some very beutiful scenery, again of mountains and lakes, but on a great scale. the city is actually in the middle of the national park nahuel huapi and many people come here in the summer to go hiking. there are hostel like refuges available in the middle of the mountains that you can stay in over night on a first come first serve basis. we hiked to one and it was quite an experience- the sleeping area resembled the quarters of a concentration camp, beds side by side filling the entire room, which wasn´t that big to begin with. the entire structure resembled a shack built in the 1930´s and leaks in the roof in the kitchen and poor lighting. but in all it was interesting, and the good thing is there is food there so if you wanted to do some serious hiking from one refuge to the next, you don´t have to worry about bringing food (the next refuge might be 4-6 hour hike away over some very pretty scenery, desert like mountains, or through forests, and views of greener mountains and lakes and valleys).

on another day we went to the top of a mountain and in an area where there was snow the people there were sled riding on their asses. so i decided to try it and sure enough it worked! all i did was sit down in the snow and lean back, and i went down the mountain as if i had a sled.

on another day, we rented mountain bikes for what i thought would be an easy ride on a level path through the park, but turned into an entertaining and sometimes dangerous, grueling trip up and down through the woods of a national park- i even flew over the handlebars on one occasion when i was racing my friend and had to go on a sharp turn in sand like dirt.

****i had written a lot more at this point but for some reason the computer didn´t save the rest so i´ll try to rewrite from memory****

other cultural tid bits: the smurfs in spanish are pintufas (pin TUF as), sponge bob is bobo sponja (boe boe SPOAN ha).

people in argentina don´t like to touch their food. i saw a kid once skin a pear and cut it into edible portions without touching it once. i also heard stories of people eating a hamburger entirely with a fork and knife. and recently someone we were eating with cut a dorito like tortilla chip with a fork and knife!!!

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