Parque National las Arrayenes

Hello! Clint & Ashley together here...

We left Bariloche for the first time last weekend to visit another town, Villa Angostora, and a new national park, Parque National las Arrayenes. It was a quick 1-hour bus ride with beautiful landscape. We started early and Ash kept trying to sneak a little sleep, but Clint was so excited and kept saying "Look at that rabbit/deer/landscape/lake/cow!" He was right, it was too good to miss. After breakfast we headed into the park for a 15-mile round-trip hike through a peninsula. In the first mile, there were two overlooks with incredible views (honestly, they keep getting better and better). The forest was amazing with huge 100-year-old trees; it seemed well-preserved. The forest itself was much prettier than the other hikes we´ve been on. But, the highlight was at the very end of the peninsula where there was an Arrayene forest. The Arrayene tree is a rare type of myrtle with cinnamon colored bark and deep green foliage. They really are beautiful. Another funny thing about this hike is that we encountered a group of cows grazing in the forest... and then a group of horses. We are not really sure what that was about. We were exhausted when we finally got back to Villa Angostora so we had dinner and caught the bus back to Bariloche.

Two weeks into school and we are starting to see a difference in our Spanish. We´ve even gotten compliments from strangers! But every day we realize how much more there is to learn. Mati is very patient with us. He also took us to happy hour one afternoon this week at a microbrewery. We sampled local beer all afternoon until Mati had to leave and go to school (tipsy). We hit another happy hour on the way home.

Last night Ashley cooked lasanga for our host family and, according to Clint, it was incredible. She had fun wandering the grocery store & verduria (veggie store) and getting creative with what she could find.

We are now 1/2-way through our stay in Bariloche and starting to think about the next leg of our journey. We feel like there is so much of Patagonia yet to see that we could spend all three months here. Honestly, we may try to head south for a couple of weeks to see glaciers, penguins, and whales.

Photos to come again soon...