Week 2 Photos

This is Ash again... finally posting some photos that we uploaded about a week ago. They are in opposite order, and we have already written about some of them.

Last weekend Clint and I went to a small hippie town called El Bolson. They have a huge craft market, which I really enjoyed. There were also amazing sculptures all through town. The campground we stayed in was... interesting. We accessed it over a footbridge, it was in a poorer neighborhood, and we were the only campers. But the woman who runs it lives on-site and was so nice--and it had a view of the river. It was quite an adventure and we were ready to come back to Bariloche after hiking the next day.

Oh my... the chocolate factory tour. Our tour guide was a sweet Argentine who spoke English because she studied abroad in Miami when she was in high school. The chocolate was so rich and chocolate history is fascinating.

Here you can see the trees` cinnamon-colored bark in Parque Nacional los Arrayenes. The second photo is a lagoon beside the same trail. You might be able to make out horses grazing in the distance on the left.

My 2nd favorite view was on our Parque Nacional los Arrayenes hike. The water in Lago Nahuel Huapi is snowmelt from the Andes surrounding the glacial valley--it`s very clear.

I´ve tried to be adventurous with food... and sometimes it doesn´t work out so well. This "pancho completo" (hot dog all-the-way) had tomato sauce and crushed potato chips on top. hehehe, yum.

El Calafate is a native Patagonian plant and in a couple of weeks we will travel to a town named for it in Southern Patagonia. I loved the bell-shaped flowers and apparently it produces sweet berries used in local jams.

Cerro Campanario: Clint´s favorite view so far.

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...

Photos de Argentina

Photos From Week 1

Clint resting in Santiago, Chile. Two flights down and three to go.


Apropos reading in the airport


The views from our hostel. The first is from our private room,
the second is from a balcony off the kitchen & living area. The
kitchen bustled with folks from around the world cooking together.


This one´s for Jess & Jimmy... we went out for an incredible
steak and wine dinner at Familia Weiss on our first night in town

Clint looking pretty awesome in borrowed & rented ski gear

The view from Cerro Cathedral: the ski mountain. The
snow was pretty bad, so we decided the day was better
for "sight-seeing on skis" than "skiing."

Our home with Marta & Marianno on Campichuelo


One evening Clint & I went walking to see what was up the street
from our house. We found a view of the city in one direction
and an incredible mountain view in the other.


On Tue, we hiked our first Patagonian Mtn: Cerro Otto.
We didn´t know exactly where we were going and missed
the trail-head, so we hiked straight up on the gondola
service trail. I turned around to this view each time
we stopped to catch our breath.


At the top, we found a paraglider, Jesus & Mary, and
a revolving restaurant. Beers at the restaurant tasted
especially good after the climb.

Spring is blooming across town. This is in the cathedral´s
park in the middle of town. Lots of locals come here.


We have a small park near our house. It´s usually
empty and I love going there to read my book and
see spring in action.

When I found the image at the top of this blog on googleimages, I thought it was a long shot that we actually ever see anything quite like that. Yesterday, our Spanish teacher took us hiking on another mountain, about 20 minutes from town. At the top of the mountain, we got that exact view. National Geographic named it one of the top ten views in the world. The photos simply don´t do it justice (and I haven´t had a chance to upload them yet). What an amazing experience. I feel so lucky.

The first week

Wow!!!!
What a week. It´s crazy to think we have only been here a week, it seems much longer because we have done so much already. Bariloche is a ski and tourist town bordering an incredible mountain range with an fantastic view of an enormous lake and huge snow capped mountains. We were a little schocked by the cold, it´s spring here but still mostly in the 30´s and 40´s and on a sunny afternoon will get warmer, but it´s a fleece and jacket for now. Ashley and I went skiiing/snowboarding on Cerro Cathedral and had a great time. The view from the top was the best part, the snow was crappy and honestly a ski resort in America would not even be open because there was not that much snow. Thank god we had rental equipment because I know we hit a few rocks. We are staying with a host family with a mother, Marta and her son Mariano. We arrived at the house and she was so nice and spoke a little english to us, she told us her son was tall but I did not think much of it because he is only 15. The kid walked in the house and he must be 6´6. I don´t think i´ve ever seen someone so tall so young. He is skinny as a nail and kinda quiet an awkard like a lot of teenagers. Anyway they are great and she cooks us two meals a day. We have breakfast around 8 in the morning and then dinner at 9 in the evening, which is different for us. The culture here is to eat a big lunch, have a snack, eat dinner late and then go to bed. Argentina also has siesta, like in Spain. Most of the stores and restaraunts close from 1-4 and then stay open till 10 or 11. We started school on monday and found out we have so much to learn. We both thought we were decent at spanish but that is certainly not true. We didn´t realize how much we need to learn to speak the language. We already have some funny tranlastion stories. The most common is ¨meses¨ and ¨mesas¨ The first means months and the second means tables. We tried to tell people that we were traveling for three months, however we said mesas, so in reality we told them we were traveling for three tables. You can image the looks we got. Our school is kinda strange but our profesor is great. He is young, speaks good english, and is really patient with us. Right now Ashley and I are the only ones in class but that will probably change next week. We are excited to explore the park and do some more hiking. We haven´t had the chance to really get into Patagonia but should have some time this weekend. It´s been a great week and the best part is having fun with Ashley. We spent 41 hours traveling and we are together almost all day long and somehow not sick of each other. We miss you all but were having such a great time and you can always email either one of us.

Clint

Move In Day

I really love this town.

We moved into our host family's house today. The house is quaint and beautiful. It is about a 10-minute walk from the center of town, so there are trees, etc. but still very close to restaurants, shops, and a park. There is an awesome panaderia (bakery)/convenience store across the street. Marta, our host mom, is very very nice and speaks a little English. Her son, Marriano, is 15 and we haven't met him yet. He was sleeping in because he had gone to his friend's 15th bday last night and stayed out until 7 a.m.

Things I have enjoyed about Bariloche:

* Obviously the view. I can´t wait to post photos.

* An awesome little park next to the Cathedral in town. It´s full of local folks: parents pushing kids on swings, families having picnics, people walking dogs, and teenagers making out. And it has an amazing view of the lake.

* A very welcoming Chabad House for Rosh Hashana services. I´ve never eaten so much food in my life--it just kept coming and coming! And the Rabbi drank Smirnoff during the seder. It was too drawn-out and entirely in Hebrew, but still a neat experience.

* The prospect of tons of hiking, camping, fishing, and exploring in the neighboring towns and national park.

* The mayonaise aisle at the grocery store cracks me up. Man, they love mayonaise here!

* Meeting other travellers from across the world (Israel, Canada, Ireland, England) who are generous with advice. It has been interesting that many of them are our age. The economy seems to be bad all over, and people have chosen to travel with their savings rather than fight for the few jobs out there. Many of the people we have met are on 6-month to 1-year trips across the entire world.

* The homeless dogs. They are everywhere, but seem to be happy and well-fed. I assume that people here just try to do their part to look after them. Their personalities are so funny! Most don´t really care about humans, but always hang out with a dog-friend or two. They sleep in building lobbies (even elevators) and chase pigeons through the square.

We also went skiing yesterday and I think I´ll wait and let Clint blog about that later.

Estamos Aqui!

We made it! Clint & I just checked into our incredible hostel overlooking the Bariloche town square. He´s resting for a minute before lunch, so I thought I´d let everyone know that we made it safely. And it is breathtakingly beautiful here. Blue skies, old european architecture, and a shining lake with snow-capped mountains beyond.

Every flight went smoothly and our giant backpacks made it safely through the five connections (the guy behind the CLT counter who checked us in goffed at our itenerary, had to hand write our luggage tags, and said, "you know, it will be a miracle if you get these right away.") It´s a miracle! We also lucked into two very friendly taxi drivers in Buenos Aires who took us to and from a loud, overpriced hotel to crash for our 11-hour layover last night (we slept like babies). We thanked one of the taxi drivers and he said, "a nice driver for a nice couple."

We are already starting to remember some old Spanish and can communicate well enough to survive--only a few funny word/phrase mix-ups so far. And a few moments of just smiling and nodding like a madman when someone´s talking way too fast to understand.

I wish I could post a couple of photos right now, but I´m not sure our hostel will let me upload them. They will have to wait.

Off to explore our new town...

Pre-Adventure Jitters

Clint and I have had different stages of excitement for this trip. My ecstatically impatient phase was about a month ago, when he was still thinking about work and fantasy football. Now we're having goodbye cookouts and family dinners and Clint's thrilled. I'm... excited... but mostly I'm nervous and scared. Of what? I'm not sure.

I always feel this way before a big trip. John Steinbeck explains this moment perfectly:

"In long-range planning for a trip, I think there is a private conviction that it won't happen. As the day approached, my warm bed and comfortable house grew increasingly desirable and my dear wife incalculably precious. To give these up for three months for the terrors of the uncomfortable and unknown seemed crazy. I didn't want to go. Something had to happen to forbid my going, but it didn't."

Nothing forbade John from hitting the open road the next day--and Clint and I will go south tomorrow.