Patagonia: Bariloche, Argentina

---

We arrived in Bariloche, Argentina around 2pm and the weather was noticeably colder than we’ve been used to. I had to put my winter hat on and everyone at the bust station was wearing coats and scarves. When we were coming in on the bus the first thing I noticed and immediately said to Brett was how beautiful the scenery was and honestly, this may be the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. The mountains are vast and huge and covered in snow. The city itself is set on a lake that is surrounded by mountains on all sides as well as forest and the air is just cleaner and easier to breath here. We took a cab from the bus station to our hostel that Joey had booked for us; he would arrive a few hours after us. Joey had lived in Bariloche for a few months about two years ago and he knows the town well so we trusted him to make this hostel booking for us and when we arrived we were very pleasantly surprised. The place is called Arko and it’s in a small neighborhood that’s very close to the city center. It’s quiet, clean and welcoming. It’s more like a hotel than a hostel, we have our own private bathroom for the three of us and there is a courtyard and a “quincho” which is basically a grill inside a little house in the courtyard where you can grill and eat at your leisure. Brett went to get a toothbrush after we settled in and I did some organizing of my things and getting my life together as we waited for Joey. He finally arrived around 5pm and we talked about our respective journeys from Mendoza, his bus ride was fine was ours so that was all good. We got to talking and we asked him where he had lived when he was in Bariloche before and it turns out he lived here! In this same hostel right in the room next door, that’s how he knew it was such a good place. We decided that we wanted to be pretty low key on our first night, because this place is so low key and chill (apparently it’s the place for skiers in Argentina and during the winter this place is hopping like crazy, but still very chill like somewhere in Colorado) so we went to the grocery store and bought some rib eye as well as vegetables to grill up that night. Oh we also bought wine, can’t forget the wine. Dinner took a while to cook so we drank some wine and listened to my iPod and hung out in the “quincho” and talked while the meat cooked. After dinner we walked around town and went to a bar that Joey used to frequent called South Bar. It was a cool place with some craft beers that went down very smooth. We spent a lot of time talking to the bartender, she was very good looking and really nice as well so what’s wrong with that right? After that we walked around trying to find another bar however we didn’t succeed since it was Sunday and we came back home and passed out. I had a lot of crazy and uneasy dreams last night but I woke up very early this morning and as I cracked my eyes open I saw the sky on fire in front of my face. I almost thought I was still dreaming but I wasn’t. I got up and snapped two photos of the most amazing sunrise I have ever seen. I woke up both the other guys and they agreed that they hadn’t seen anything like it ever. They all took photos and we went back to sleep for a while. We got up and had breakfast, I talked to Marjo for a while online and she is heading to Iguazu today so I wanted to say hi before she took off and see how she was. Everything is good with her and Doortje which made me happy to hear. After she and I talked for a while I took a shower and Joey, Brett, and I decided to take a bus out to a mountain about forty minutes away and hike up to the top because there is a 360 degree view of the entire surrounding area including a view of the city. Before we went out to the mountain we inquired about a trek we wanted to do that was four days and three nights and includes crossing a few of the mountains nearby. We went to a sort of tourist center that has info for these treks and we basically got told that there was no way we could do this hike because the snow was knee deep and most of the passes were in fact impassable. This was a little discouraging but we were told that we could trek one day up the mountain, stay the night and then head back down the next day. We decided to do this and it was a small conciliation prize for our original lofty goal. The bus ride to the mountain today was about forty minutes and the hike was about thirty minutes and when I got to the top I was sweating like a crazy man! I took my shirt off and only wore my fleece because the wind up there was pretty intense even though I was hot. The view was breathtaking. I can honestly say I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like it in my life. I hope the photos do it justice but I really don’t know if I can describe what it was like up there. You just feel so small, yet so in tune with nature and what’s around you. It was peaceful and impactful at the same time. It was an intense feeling that you had to just slow down and appreciate life. We did appreciate it, we were up there for about an hour and took a lot of photos and then headed back down the mountain. We were down in fifteen minutes which was a nice change from the trudge up to the top. We tried to hitchhike back to the city but couldn’t find any takers so we made our way to the bus stop and waited there for almost an hour for the god damn bus to come! Across the street there were some wooden statues of condors and deer so we passed the time by taking some silly photos with them. We got on one bus that took us a little more towards town but Joey knew of a good craft beer place that was on the way so we stopped and had a couple beers and some appetizers. The bar was filled with coasters on which people write little notes and remembrances and stick them on the walls so it was only appropriate to write one for our family that we had just left that was still fresh in our minds. The pictures say a thousand words so you can take a look; we had some Dutch, some French, some Spanish, and some English on there to represent all facets of our family. After we drank and had some food we got back to the bus stop and the bus finally came and we got on, it got packed very quickly but we eventually made it back to our hostel in one piece, thank god for Joey knowing this place because I would have never known where to get off that damn bus. We came back to the hostel to make arrangements to stay a few more nights when we get back from the hike and afterwards we went into town to buy some things. I bought presents for pretty much everyone on my list and also got myself a few things. I spent a lot of money today but whatever I haven’t as of yet and I thought we all deserved some things! After we did that we went to the supermarket and got food for our journey tomorrow. We came back to our hostel, got most of everything situated and then went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant right next door to our hostel. It was delicious, we had some amazing fajitas and a couple beers, though Brett has been feeling under the weather, the partying has got him down so he had a coke. After dinner we came back here again and I typed this up, did some light Facebook creeping and now am heading to bed. Joey thinks he killed a black widow spider in the kitchen which makes me a little uneasy but whatever I have to deal with it I am in fucking South America. Anyways ya’ll peace out, stay up players and love and light to all. We’ll talk when I get back down off this snow covered mountain.

---

Comments

[Rhonda]

Man, I am jealous, I never knew South America was so beautiful!!!! I can see you are having a great time. Once in a life time that's for sure. Have a wonderful adventure Tom!