Whooooo. It’s been fabulous here. I just got back from Bariloche, Patagonia. I can now claim that I have been to Patagonia, even though it’s the northern part of the region. We flew from Buenos Aires to Barlioche Thursday morning and started dour sightseeing right away. We went on a chairlift up Cerro Campanario and the views were to die for. There were tons of glacier lakes all the most beautiful blue. And the mountain. Ah! Amazing. The sun was hot there, and with no sunscreen it’s a miracle I didn’t burn. Everywhere you looked on the top was another incredible view.
The next day was the day we got to choose whatever we wanted to do. Sightseeing on a boat…going for a hike…hanging at the hotel…those sounded alright. But what caught my eye was the whitewater rafting adventure. So that’s what I did. I couldn’t believe that only 6 of us from the program decided to do that. Boring folk I guess. It took us 2 hours by van to get to the river. We spent nearly 3 hours on the river, and then another 2 to get back. It was a long day, but so worth it. The rafting was great. The rapids were never too scary, well there was one we kind of failed on, but nobody fell out of the boat (although there were some close calls). There were parts of the river that were calm and where you could see the rocks on the bottom. We’d jump out and swim along side the boat to cool ourselves down a bit. The guides were great, and put up with 6 American girls trying to get down the river. I was so content to just be on the river surrounded by more amazing mountains, and I even say the boarder of Chile. Rafting can be a little demanding, but overall it was an adrenaline rush with moments of total tranquility.
Our last day in Bariloche we spent doing a big ol’ hike. The mountain was called Cerro Lopez and it was a big ol’ hike indeed. They have a saying here that says “Sube como un viejo, y baja como un joven,” which translated means “Climb up like a old person, and come back down like a youngster.” Which I’m glad we did. Although at times the hike up seemed painfully slow, it was good to set a pace for the trek. Took us nearly 3 hours to get to the top where there was a refuge with some shade and a cool breeze. It was dusty and dry, and absolutely gorgeous. Pictures and words are hard to capture the views that I had my whole time in Barlioche. We rested at the top about an hour, I munched on some items wrapped in napkins stolen from the hotel’s breakfast buffet, and got to hang in the shade a bit. Going down was harder than going up I think. The path was either loose rocks or sand pretty much, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fall a couple times. At the bottom there was a creek where we splashed off a bit, but still everyone arrived dusty and stinky to the airport to fly back “home” to Buenos Aires.
I’ve got a couple free days now here in BA, but I have to study up some because I’m going to be taking an exam this week to see if my Spanish is good enough for la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Pressure!
Thanks for reading my blog even though you don’t have to.
Until next time….
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