The whole thing was only 20 miles, but took us about 4 hours to do. I thought I was a good biker, but I had to get off to walk the bike at least 4 times. I guess all those spin classes weren't that necessary after all! In the middle of the ride we stopped at a Swiss village called Colonia Suiza for lunch. We ate at a restaurant that doubled as a treehouse. There were fairies hanging from the ceiling, incense burning from the center tree trunk and trippy lights everywhere. Best place ever! The menu only seemed to have fondue and boars head, so one pot of chocolate fondue later we were ready to go. After we got back we walked around the town, which is the chocolate capital or Argentina. I have never seen so many locally made artisinal chocolate shops. I found Mamuska, which is supposed to be the best one, and saw that inside they shops not only have every flavor combination of chocolates imaginable, but they also decorate the store so beautifully. This one had tons of winnie the pooh decorations, and those little Russian dolls that go one into another. The chocolate shops all have little cafes you can eat at too, but after the fondue I opted out ( I'm sure ill be back tomorrow!)
When I got back our 3 girl dorm turned into 8, so I made new friends (Lynn, Belgium and Gabby, Hungary), and went to this great Mexi place for dinner. It was the first real meal I've eaten in days and I was thrilled. We even made it in time for happy hour with 5 minutes to spare, so $2.50 margaritas all around :) Bariloche is definitely one of my favorite towns in Argentina so far. To end my night wonderfully, I spoke to Caryn and Melissa today, trying to coordinate meet-ups. Melissa is most likely coming to meet me in Bolivia, which will be so cool because Bolivia looks like such an amazing country with so many unique places and I think we'll have so much fun! And I reworked my schedule to meet Caryn in Cusco for a few days. I hadn't planned on going back but I realize to go from Bolivia to Ecuador it's not so far to go through Peru. I want to see Caryn, and Peru was the trip that started my South American obsession. The timing is actually perfect because she is going during the big Semanta Sana festival which Becca and I missed by 1 day our last time in Cusco. I am so excited about seeing my friends, because as much fun as I'm having, I miss my friends and family so much!
Day 2 of Bariloche I went with 2 girls from my hostel, Cassie and Kenzie from Australia) to El Bolson, a hippie town 2 hours south of here. They have a feria artisinal fair on Saturdays, which was mainly handmade jewelry and things like incense burners, gnomes and fairy sculptures and pressed flowers made into clocks and things. It was a cute place to spend the day, but the town was small and I'm glad I didnt end up sleeping there. When we came back Cassie and Kenzie share my love for chocolate, so we went to this chocolate shop called Rapa Nui which was like a mini version of Willy Wonka. They had everything I've ever dreamed of! We had hot chocolate and bought some chocolate dulce leche for dessert, and I'm already excited to go back tomorrow to try some of the ice cream after hiking! The days are so tiring (and cold) that I had planned to go out tonight but the thought of leaving my warm hostel bed sounds so unappealing. To me, vacation is about seeing things, keeping busy all day, 8 hour hikes followed by massive amounts of chocolate and sleeping in right now! I will go out in the next town that hits a temperature above 30 degrees :) Its actually a good thing that I didn´t go out because I heard that it was a total mess at the bars. When you go inside they give you a red ticket that means you have to buy a drink. When you buy a drink they give you a green ticket which means you can leave the bar. Apparently people were drunk and lost their green tickets, and the bouncer wouldn´t let them leave. One girl tried to leave and the bouncer tried to stop her and she ended up getting hit somehow. Even more reason I´m glad I was in my nice warm bed last night!!!
Day 3, I slept in, and when I woke up the room was empty so I was even able to get in some pilates exercises (finally!) I went with Cassie and TJ from New Hampshire to Cerro Otto, another hike. It took is about an hour to get to the base, and an hour and a half to the top, but it was one of the hardest climbs I´ve done. It was all on dirt and there wasn´t a path, so for every step I took up, I ended up half a step back, slipping the wrong direction. When we got to the top though the views were stunning, and there was a restaurant at top that rotated 360 degrees so we had a view overlooking all of Bariloche. We had a coffee and then were rushed out of the place because the only way down, a chairlift, was closing at the random time of 2:50 pm. We ran and got our tickets and went on little bumper car ski lifts down the mountain back to town. Very fun day, very good workout, I am ending the day with a big ice cream from Rapa Nui to celebrate! Tomorrow I head to Pucon, Chile, where I plan to stay for 5 days - 1 week. I´m not so sure how long my bus ride there actually is, I had heard it was about 7-8 hours but my bus ticket doesn´t really seem to tell me much information. Either way, it should be a few degrees warmer there which I´m really looking forward to!
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