Thursday 4/9/15 -
We slept in a bit, organized our things, and headed out for the Circuto Chico bike ride at about 11am. Gabi, Stephanie, Alie, and I charged Stephanie’s bus card, took the crowded bus number 20 to the 18 kilometer mark, and walked the 5 minutes down the street to rent our bikes at the place recommended by the hostel. The man running the bike shop was extremely nice and helpful, drawing up suggestions along the bike route, and we were on our way by about 12:30. It was about a 25 kilometer bike ride and supposed to be very hilly. The bikes were great though, awesome brakes, gears, and feel. It didn’t take too long though for us to realize that Gabi was going to need help. He struggled to board his bike on the hills and change gears to accommodate. Soon enough, he had a problem with his bike, so we returned to the shop and switched it with another one. We left the second time at 1:30, leaving us only 5 hours to complete the circuit (the average amount of time people take) because we had to have the bikes back by 6:30. At this point, Alie stayed with Gabi and helped him, and Stephanie and I rode ahead. Soon enough, Alie and Gabi caught up as we were taking constant breaks, and it seems that Gabi had it down enough to keep up with us.
I am not going to lie though, I was very worried about Gabi (and all of us for that matter). “Circuto Chico” was a 2 lane, 2-way street and cars/buses/construction trucks were constantly passing us. I mean they were coming within 3 feet of the bikers. So when Gabi was swerving all over the place, there was a strong likely hood he would get clipped if a car was coming by. In fact, there was a point when he was trying to mount his bike, swerved, and the car coming was able to avoid him by only about a foot or so. So it was very comforting when he was able to get the hang of the bike, even though that didn’t remove the danger for him or for all of us.
The ride was very nice. There were great views all over the place of the surrounding lake and islands. There were no straight-aways, we were either going steeply up or steeply down, and the uphills were not easy. A few times I had to walk my bike up because I was in such a low gear that when I stopped pedaling, I would immediately start to roll downhill. It was frustrating and very tiring, but well worth it and super fun in the end. We stopped to enjoy many views including the last view of the lake and scattered islands, which was very breath taking and rewarding. We returned the bikes at about 6:45, but the guy was okay with us being a few minutes late because of the bike malfunction at the beginning of our journey. He still gave us the little welcome back chocolates. Gabi even got his chocolate even though he passed the bike shop on the way down the hill and went an extra few kilometers before he realized he had gone too far.
We took the bus back and got to the Penthouse at about 8, and I wasn’t too happy about that because we missed the sunset from the 10th floor, which was bound to be an amazing time. But I brushed it off and cheered up as us four made a fantastic dinner (again) in the best hostel kitchen ever. It was an egg dish that Alie prepared in the oven and we all contributed in some way, I helped with the extremely complicated chopping of vegetables. It was also a blast meeting other people while cooking in the social kitchen. We hung out in the main area with different people, just relaxing until 1:30am when they kicked us out because the lobby closed.
We slept in a bit, organized our things, and headed out for the Circuto Chico bike ride at about 11am. Gabi, Stephanie, Alie, and I charged Stephanie’s bus card, took the crowded bus number 20 to the 18 kilometer mark, and walked the 5 minutes down the street to rent our bikes at the place recommended by the hostel. The man running the bike shop was extremely nice and helpful, drawing up suggestions along the bike route, and we were on our way by about 12:30. It was about a 25 kilometer bike ride and supposed to be very hilly. The bikes were great though, awesome brakes, gears, and feel. It didn’t take too long though for us to realize that Gabi was going to need help. He struggled to board his bike on the hills and change gears to accommodate. Soon enough, he had a problem with his bike, so we returned to the shop and switched it with another one. We left the second time at 1:30, leaving us only 5 hours to complete the circuit (the average amount of time people take) because we had to have the bikes back by 6:30. At this point, Alie stayed with Gabi and helped him, and Stephanie and I rode ahead. Soon enough, Alie and Gabi caught up as we were taking constant breaks, and it seems that Gabi had it down enough to keep up with us.
I am not going to lie though, I was very worried about Gabi (and all of us for that matter). “Circuto Chico” was a 2 lane, 2-way street and cars/buses/construction trucks were constantly passing us. I mean they were coming within 3 feet of the bikers. So when Gabi was swerving all over the place, there was a strong likely hood he would get clipped if a car was coming by. In fact, there was a point when he was trying to mount his bike, swerved, and the car coming was able to avoid him by only about a foot or so. So it was very comforting when he was able to get the hang of the bike, even though that didn’t remove the danger for him or for all of us.
The ride was very nice. There were great views all over the place of the surrounding lake and islands. There were no straight-aways, we were either going steeply up or steeply down, and the uphills were not easy. A few times I had to walk my bike up because I was in such a low gear that when I stopped pedaling, I would immediately start to roll downhill. It was frustrating and very tiring, but well worth it and super fun in the end. We stopped to enjoy many views including the last view of the lake and scattered islands, which was very breath taking and rewarding. We returned the bikes at about 6:45, but the guy was okay with us being a few minutes late because of the bike malfunction at the beginning of our journey. He still gave us the little welcome back chocolates. Gabi even got his chocolate even though he passed the bike shop on the way down the hill and went an extra few kilometers before he realized he had gone too far.
We took the bus back and got to the Penthouse at about 8, and I wasn’t too happy about that because we missed the sunset from the 10th floor, which was bound to be an amazing time. But I brushed it off and cheered up as us four made a fantastic dinner (again) in the best hostel kitchen ever. It was an egg dish that Alie prepared in the oven and we all contributed in some way, I helped with the extremely complicated chopping of vegetables. It was also a blast meeting other people while cooking in the social kitchen. We hung out in the main area with different people, just relaxing until 1:30am when they kicked us out because the lobby closed.
Friday 4/10 -
With not much on the agenda, this day in Bariloche turned out to be quite eventful. First, I went with Gabi to the bus station to accompany him, get the bus card once he was done using it, and purchase a bus ticket of my own. It was weird saying bye to him because we had become pretty close and been traveling together for 3 weeks now and got along extraordinarily well, but we both knew that is just how traveling worked. Keeping in touch wasn’t going to be hard.
I had some leftovers for lunch at the hostel, hung for a second, and then Stephanie and I set off for a view point near where we had biked the day before. We paid the fee to take the ski lift up to the top, as opposed to walking up the steep 30 minutes, and the view at the top was beyond spectacular. One of those views too good for any picture or video. We didn’t have all afternoon to relax and enjoy though because we also wanted to check out the chocolate museum and walk around the city. We took a good hour plus to enjoy and then took the ski lift back down, caught the next bus, and made it to the museum for a half hour tour. Bariloche had chocolate everywhere so this museum was supposed to be good, and I was really in it to get some free chocolate. The tour was in Spanish (Stephanie speaks basically fluently and I didn’t have many problems when I tried to listen) and it was rather boring hearing the history and such, but we did get some incredible hot chocolate and a 15 peso discount at the gift shop afterwards, so we both splurged a bit.
By this time it was near sunset, so we decided to snag some food at a vegetarian restaurant near the hostel called Ren’s, which was supposedly amazing and Stephanie was a vegetarian, so she was set on going. Ren’s definitely didn’t disappoint, it had a very impressive display of options and successfully opened an eye of mine to meat-less food. We took the food to the hostel and set up to enjoy a quite glorious sun-downer. Probably 12 of us travelers set up to enjoy the colors, beers, company, and temperature change. Once again, the hostel did not disappoint in its expectations, the sunset part was tremendous.
It continued to be super easy to meet people as a group of brits had arrived that day and as I overheard them talking about white water rafting, I chimed in and convinced them to join me the next day. They inquired and signed up, just like that I had partners on the next days adventures as Gabi and Stephanie were gone. I had also met people at the hostel who were going to Mendoza on Sunday on the same bus as me, so a group had already started to form, too easy. I actually accompanied these guys (Martyn-England and Pat- Boston) to get some drinks and hang at a nearby Bariloche resto-bar this Friday night and it was a good time. I met some other travelers and everyone seemed to get along very well. We went home in the 11:30 range and I walked Noa, a 19 year old, brave, solo traveler from England, back to her hostel before heading back to the Penthouse and to sleep.
With not much on the agenda, this day in Bariloche turned out to be quite eventful. First, I went with Gabi to the bus station to accompany him, get the bus card once he was done using it, and purchase a bus ticket of my own. It was weird saying bye to him because we had become pretty close and been traveling together for 3 weeks now and got along extraordinarily well, but we both knew that is just how traveling worked. Keeping in touch wasn’t going to be hard.
I had some leftovers for lunch at the hostel, hung for a second, and then Stephanie and I set off for a view point near where we had biked the day before. We paid the fee to take the ski lift up to the top, as opposed to walking up the steep 30 minutes, and the view at the top was beyond spectacular. One of those views too good for any picture or video. We didn’t have all afternoon to relax and enjoy though because we also wanted to check out the chocolate museum and walk around the city. We took a good hour plus to enjoy and then took the ski lift back down, caught the next bus, and made it to the museum for a half hour tour. Bariloche had chocolate everywhere so this museum was supposed to be good, and I was really in it to get some free chocolate. The tour was in Spanish (Stephanie speaks basically fluently and I didn’t have many problems when I tried to listen) and it was rather boring hearing the history and such, but we did get some incredible hot chocolate and a 15 peso discount at the gift shop afterwards, so we both splurged a bit.
By this time it was near sunset, so we decided to snag some food at a vegetarian restaurant near the hostel called Ren’s, which was supposedly amazing and Stephanie was a vegetarian, so she was set on going. Ren’s definitely didn’t disappoint, it had a very impressive display of options and successfully opened an eye of mine to meat-less food. We took the food to the hostel and set up to enjoy a quite glorious sun-downer. Probably 12 of us travelers set up to enjoy the colors, beers, company, and temperature change. Once again, the hostel did not disappoint in its expectations, the sunset part was tremendous.
It continued to be super easy to meet people as a group of brits had arrived that day and as I overheard them talking about white water rafting, I chimed in and convinced them to join me the next day. They inquired and signed up, just like that I had partners on the next days adventures as Gabi and Stephanie were gone. I had also met people at the hostel who were going to Mendoza on Sunday on the same bus as me, so a group had already started to form, too easy. I actually accompanied these guys (Martyn-England and Pat- Boston) to get some drinks and hang at a nearby Bariloche resto-bar this Friday night and it was a good time. I met some other travelers and everyone seemed to get along very well. We went home in the 11:30 range and I walked Noa, a 19 year old, brave, solo traveler from England, back to her hostel before heading back to the Penthouse and to sleep.
Saturday 4/11 -
At 9am sharp we were downstairs and ready for the white water rafting adventure. It was quite chilly, so I felt great in my sweats, but it was bound to warm up later, so the Brits were confident that the frozen state they were in would be only temporary. We packed 12 guests, 3 employees, and the driver into the van headed 2 hours away to the starting site. The Brits were a party of 5, and Alie tagged along, and there was also an Argentinean mom with her two Brazilian sons, and an Argentinean couple. We were served a brief breakfast of bread and butter and then given our full body wet suits. They were meant to be super tight and worn with nothing on underneath, but I snuck my bathing suit on under and it was just fine. But boy were the suits tight. It was a struggle to get it on. But finally I got all strapped up with the wet suit, windbreaker jacket, water shoes, helmet, and paddle. Of course, a picture was necessary.
We had 7 English speakers and 5 Spanish speakers, so I took one for the team and went in the Spanish boat, because all of the other English speakers spoke basically zero Spanish. We actually got lucky because this was the low season, they don’t go rafting every day. The high season is right after winter ends, when all of the glaciers are melting, and they have rafting trips most days of the week. but enough people had signed up this day to have 2 boats, which made it much more fun. The guides had a lot to do with the fun as well. They were very energetic and funny jokesters, who clearly displayed a lot of confidence in what they were doing, helping us to relax and not worry about being tossed off the raft. I would have loved being in the English raft, but the Spanish raft was a ton of fun and challenging. I was at the front right of our double-columned formation, so my column was paddling based on my pace, and it was up to me and the other front paddler to paddle simultaneously. So a good amount of responsibility was riding on my half-Spanish speaking ears because I needed to understand the commands from the guide in the back of the boat. I liked the challenge though. And the rapids were fun. There were 10 of them, and on a few of them, I legitimately almost fell off because we either tipped sharply over a drop off or we hit a large rock. At one point, my whole right arm was in the water as I headed in as well, but the raft corrected itself just in time so I did not fall in. Regardless, I was getting absolutely drenched each rapid, once again taking one for the team. The English raft was behind us and they were having fun too. At one point, the guide blatantly threw Alie off the raft, which is funny.
Our rafting journey took 2 hours, but the water was obviously very low. You could see marks on the rocks where the water normally was during high season, probably 20-30 feet higher. Our guide said that our 2 our trip would take about 40 minutes during high season, you’re just flying. When I asked him if people usually fall off during high season, he responded “Siempre” (always). Half of me was jealous I didn’t get to experience that adrenaline, but half of me was happy I didn’t actually fall off and still got to do a good amount of rapids. It was a blast.
The van with our stuff in it was waiting for us at the bottom, and we dried off, changed clothes, took some pictures, and headed back to base for lunch. I brought my lunch but the Brits ordered the “parilla”, which is basically unlimited Argentinean barbeque – an asado. And when I was eating my lunch next to them, I was very jealous. They did share some, of course, but it was definitely a good (and expensive) call on their part for the lunch to top off such a great experience. After lunch we chilled on the little beach area for a second, I gave the Brits recommendations about other things to do in Bariloche, and we all slept during the 2 hour van trip back to town.
We made it in plenty of time to have another sun-downer at the Penthouse, and I tried to get some stuff done on my computer while watching it from inside. Noa had moved to our hostel, and she had some extra food, so we combined and made a vegetable stir-fry with a side of spaghetti. It turned out to be pretty delicious. I did a surprising amount of the cooking because Noa spent a surprising amount of time on the phone with her extremely recent ex-boyfriend. Once again though the atmosphere in the kitchen was social and fun, so I didn’t mind at all.
After dinner, we had some beers in the hostel and Martyn, Patrick, Noa, Ben, Nir (2 Israeli’s also staying at the Penthouse), and I hung out until about 1:15am when we went a few blocks down the street to a local Irish bar. The bar didn’t have a cover (so it wasn’t a boliche – club), but when we arrived, they were picking up some of the tables to make room for a dance floor. So we sat down, ordered some drinks, and hung out for a while as people continued to file in. At about 3:30am, we made our way to the crowded dance floor. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t leave, it seemed like the party was just starting. We had a lot of fun enjoying the half American/half reggeton music, and I fought through the fatigue, when finally I looked down at my watch at it was 5am. I looked around, and I could not move on the dance floor, this place was at its peak and the sun was only a few hours from rising. Within the next 30 minutes, Pat, Martyn, and I (Noa left way earlier) left and made sure to enjoy a street hamburger before arriving at the penthouse at about 5:45am, very excited to sleep.
At 9am sharp we were downstairs and ready for the white water rafting adventure. It was quite chilly, so I felt great in my sweats, but it was bound to warm up later, so the Brits were confident that the frozen state they were in would be only temporary. We packed 12 guests, 3 employees, and the driver into the van headed 2 hours away to the starting site. The Brits were a party of 5, and Alie tagged along, and there was also an Argentinean mom with her two Brazilian sons, and an Argentinean couple. We were served a brief breakfast of bread and butter and then given our full body wet suits. They were meant to be super tight and worn with nothing on underneath, but I snuck my bathing suit on under and it was just fine. But boy were the suits tight. It was a struggle to get it on. But finally I got all strapped up with the wet suit, windbreaker jacket, water shoes, helmet, and paddle. Of course, a picture was necessary.
We had 7 English speakers and 5 Spanish speakers, so I took one for the team and went in the Spanish boat, because all of the other English speakers spoke basically zero Spanish. We actually got lucky because this was the low season, they don’t go rafting every day. The high season is right after winter ends, when all of the glaciers are melting, and they have rafting trips most days of the week. but enough people had signed up this day to have 2 boats, which made it much more fun. The guides had a lot to do with the fun as well. They were very energetic and funny jokesters, who clearly displayed a lot of confidence in what they were doing, helping us to relax and not worry about being tossed off the raft. I would have loved being in the English raft, but the Spanish raft was a ton of fun and challenging. I was at the front right of our double-columned formation, so my column was paddling based on my pace, and it was up to me and the other front paddler to paddle simultaneously. So a good amount of responsibility was riding on my half-Spanish speaking ears because I needed to understand the commands from the guide in the back of the boat. I liked the challenge though. And the rapids were fun. There were 10 of them, and on a few of them, I legitimately almost fell off because we either tipped sharply over a drop off or we hit a large rock. At one point, my whole right arm was in the water as I headed in as well, but the raft corrected itself just in time so I did not fall in. Regardless, I was getting absolutely drenched each rapid, once again taking one for the team. The English raft was behind us and they were having fun too. At one point, the guide blatantly threw Alie off the raft, which is funny.
Our rafting journey took 2 hours, but the water was obviously very low. You could see marks on the rocks where the water normally was during high season, probably 20-30 feet higher. Our guide said that our 2 our trip would take about 40 minutes during high season, you’re just flying. When I asked him if people usually fall off during high season, he responded “Siempre” (always). Half of me was jealous I didn’t get to experience that adrenaline, but half of me was happy I didn’t actually fall off and still got to do a good amount of rapids. It was a blast.
The van with our stuff in it was waiting for us at the bottom, and we dried off, changed clothes, took some pictures, and headed back to base for lunch. I brought my lunch but the Brits ordered the “parilla”, which is basically unlimited Argentinean barbeque – an asado. And when I was eating my lunch next to them, I was very jealous. They did share some, of course, but it was definitely a good (and expensive) call on their part for the lunch to top off such a great experience. After lunch we chilled on the little beach area for a second, I gave the Brits recommendations about other things to do in Bariloche, and we all slept during the 2 hour van trip back to town.
We made it in plenty of time to have another sun-downer at the Penthouse, and I tried to get some stuff done on my computer while watching it from inside. Noa had moved to our hostel, and she had some extra food, so we combined and made a vegetable stir-fry with a side of spaghetti. It turned out to be pretty delicious. I did a surprising amount of the cooking because Noa spent a surprising amount of time on the phone with her extremely recent ex-boyfriend. Once again though the atmosphere in the kitchen was social and fun, so I didn’t mind at all.
After dinner, we had some beers in the hostel and Martyn, Patrick, Noa, Ben, Nir (2 Israeli’s also staying at the Penthouse), and I hung out until about 1:15am when we went a few blocks down the street to a local Irish bar. The bar didn’t have a cover (so it wasn’t a boliche – club), but when we arrived, they were picking up some of the tables to make room for a dance floor. So we sat down, ordered some drinks, and hung out for a while as people continued to file in. At about 3:30am, we made our way to the crowded dance floor. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t leave, it seemed like the party was just starting. We had a lot of fun enjoying the half American/half reggeton music, and I fought through the fatigue, when finally I looked down at my watch at it was 5am. I looked around, and I could not move on the dance floor, this place was at its peak and the sun was only a few hours from rising. Within the next 30 minutes, Pat, Martyn, and I (Noa left way earlier) left and made sure to enjoy a street hamburger before arriving at the penthouse at about 5:45am, very excited to sleep.
Sunday 4/12 -
Having gone to sleep at a far to late/early hour the night before, we all rolled out of bed just in time for the 10am check out and end of breakfast. Pat, Martyn, Alie, Sam (another girl kind of in our group), and I were all on the same bus, so we all did our different chill activities throughout the morning until we met at about 2:15 to take cabs to the bus station. Sam had an impressive amount of luggage, like 1 massive rolling suitcase, 2 large backpacks, and a mesh bag of scuba diving gear. I did a little bit of walking around the city, checked out all of the chocolate stores and touristy shops, and walked along the coast a bit to enjoy my last views of the Bariloche and Patagonia scenery.
We took Andesmar bus company to Mendoza and the bus was very nice. The employee even made an introduction at the beginning of the trip and they showed some great movies (American Sniper, Alexander and his very bad day, the newest Annie, and some other good movie), which made it easy for the time to pass quickly. It was also nice to have 5 of us on the same bus and to have comfortable camas to sleep on and some half decent food. The bus left at 3pm ish and arrived in Mendoza at 8:30am ish without complaints.
Having gone to sleep at a far to late/early hour the night before, we all rolled out of bed just in time for the 10am check out and end of breakfast. Pat, Martyn, Alie, Sam (another girl kind of in our group), and I were all on the same bus, so we all did our different chill activities throughout the morning until we met at about 2:15 to take cabs to the bus station. Sam had an impressive amount of luggage, like 1 massive rolling suitcase, 2 large backpacks, and a mesh bag of scuba diving gear. I did a little bit of walking around the city, checked out all of the chocolate stores and touristy shops, and walked along the coast a bit to enjoy my last views of the Bariloche and Patagonia scenery.
We took Andesmar bus company to Mendoza and the bus was very nice. The employee even made an introduction at the beginning of the trip and they showed some great movies (American Sniper, Alexander and his very bad day, the newest Annie, and some other good movie), which made it easy for the time to pass quickly. It was also nice to have 5 of us on the same bus and to have comfortable camas to sleep on and some half decent food. The bus left at 3pm ish and arrived in Mendoza at 8:30am ish without complaints.