Bariloche

And after that circus of a weekend, we're back.  Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of Argentina's independence, so this whole weekend was one gigantic celebration.  There were no classes Monday or Tuesday, so the parties stretched day and night from Thursday at noon until about 2am this morning.  We went to some bars and clubs, had a few friends at our place, went to some friends' places, went to the Argentina vs. Canada soccer game (Argentina won 5-0), and went to the gigantic celebrations on 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world.  Last night there was a crazy parade, the coolest one I've ever seen (it was created by the guy who produced the off-broadway shows De La Guarda and Fuerza Bruta).  I honestly think the whole city came to see it, there was no end to the people.  The floats consisted of people flying, giant burning objects also flying around, a gigantic snowglobe with tons of people and confetti in it, flying cars, and the best float imaginable- a traditional Argentine folkdance party, with an actual asado on it.  I mean the people were having a blast dancing and singing to the music, in cool costumes, all the girls were super hot, they had a fire pit on one end with giant slabs of steak, chicken, and sausage cooking, giant jugs of wine, and a live band.  It literally was just my dream party placed on a platform and towed through the city.  They were even handing out food to people in the crowd.  Best thing ever.

Now for Bariloche.  Sorry if this is a long post, but we spent 5 days in Bariloche and I want to cover them all now.  We met a lot of ex-pats from around the world who had told us they visited Bariloche once and decided to move there.  If you have ever been there or ever do go, you'll understand why.  Bariloche is a gorgeous ski-town in the middle of the Andes and a ton of lakes near the Chilean border of Argentina.  The people are very laid back, extremely friendly, and love to have a good time.  We arrived there around 1pm on Wednesday after our ridiculously long bus ride from Chalten.  We headed immediately to the chocolate factory because Bariloche is famous for its chocolate.  Afterward we just walked around exploring for a bit.

Thursday a few of the girls went paragliding while the rest of us relaxed in the hostel or did a little more exploring.  Max, Madeleine, and I wanted to ride the alpine slide, but it was closed.  Instead we hung out by the lake and found a cool cat too play with.  Later, the guys, Laura, and I headed to a nearby go-kart track to do some good old fashion, American-style racing.  The place had a loft with a really nice bar, tv's, couches, and more, where we had some beers while the guys prepared the karts.  They were super fast and it was a fun track, so we had a blast.  Max won and I took second, I choose to blame the weight disparity for that.  The place even gave us a printed time-sheet with everybody's lap times, it was great.  That night we played some games, went to a Mexican restaurant, then went to a bar and played some games with a few guys from England.  Great day.

On Friday, Dave, Malcolm, Max, Hannah, Brenny, and I went paragliding.  There are a few guys in Bariloche who are good friends and have their own private company, so we went with them.  We drove for about an hour and a half south to a place called El Bolson to do it.  We pulled up and parked in the front lawn of somebody's farm, and Max and Hannah hopped in the pickup truck with the guys and headed up the mountain.  They flew down fairly quickly, then Dave and Malcolm went.  They had great luck and caught some rising warm air columns which carried them so high that we almost couldn't see them.  Malcolm got so high into the clouds that he has pictures of the other side of the mountain range, it was unbelievable.  Brenny and I went last.  We also had some good luck.  Brenny got about as high as Malcolm and Dave, and I was up there too but not as far.  Paragliding is so cool.  You basically sit in a little chair and literally just float around wherever you want, looking for rising air columns so you can stay up as long as you want.  Our rides were only about 30 minutes because there 6 of us that had to go, but that was enough because it was freezing that high in the air.  I posted a bunch of pictures taken during my flight on my photo page.  I'll try to find a way to post some videos too.  Friday night we had a wine tasting party at the hostel with all the other guests.  That was fun because we got to hang out with some cool people from all over the world.


Saturday was the guys' day out.  We rented bicycles from a local place and headed off on Bariloche's famous "circuito chico".  A few miles in, we got off our bikes and went for about an hour hike up a hill to our first incredible view of the day.  We continued on and stopped at the magestic Hotel Llao Llao, which a few of the girls chose as their future wedding spot.  If I could afford it, I'd probably agree (what a guy thought).  We went a bit further and stopped at a little cove with a beach on the lake, where we saw a bunch of hawks or eagles or something.  A bit further and we ran into trouble.  While riding my bike through some woods earlier on, I had taken a small tumble and bent the derailer on my bike.  After that it was making this weird clicking sound when I pedaled.  Well on my way up a hill, the chain snapped.  We were really far from town so I just walked/scooted the bike or Dave and Max would push me until I reached downhills which I would bomb at terrifying speeds.  Eventually, we reached our haven- a microbrewery in the middle of the woods.  We called the bike shop, and they sent a guy with a new bike for me.  Meanwhile, we ate some good food and tasted the local brews (which included a pale ale- extremely rare in Argentina and my favorite kind).  A few more miles and one gigantic hill later, we arrived at the most breathtaking view I have ever seen in my entire life (seen in the picture at the top of this page).  For miles around you could see lakes and mountains and the Hotel Llao Llao right in the middle.  And it was just as the sun had set behind the mountains directly in the middle, so the whole sky was light up bright orange (unfortunately my camera didn't capture the light very well).  I literally wanted to stay there forever and just keep looking at it.  Instead we went up some more hills until we arrived back at the rental shop.  That night we went to dinner and hung out.  Sunday we relaxed and then took the bus back to Buenos Aires, arriving about 16 hours later in Buenos Aires.


All in all, the trip was amazing.  Fresh air, incredible views, physical activity, and no stress at all.  I'd do it again in a second.  Now go buy your plane tickets.


PS- Do you guys look at the links that I post inside these stories?  I add them whenever I feel they could add something.  Somebody other than my mother, please post a comment and let me know.