so, after seeing the beautiful view from the bus terminal, we could only imagine what else bariloche had to offer us. After a long trip, we arrived at the hostel run by an Irish couple, PUDU. Pudu is actually a super small deer looking thing only found in southern argentina. We relaxed and pretty much just went to the super market the first day since we were so wipped..oh and the laundromat. That night was ASADO night and the hostel was hopping. I cooked up some sausage, broccoli and pasta while everyone else paid 40 pesos for loads of meat. We enjoyed reuniting with our friend micheal from our program in BA and his friend Nico. THere were also some guys from switzerland who had awesome accents. WE ended up just watching TV that night and taking it easy. Going to bed while a full fledged shin dig is going on...is quite hard..an ipod helps :) the morning brought clouds and the thought of snow, but really just cold weather. It was nice to catch up with the family on skype that morning while enjoying the amazing view. We decided to do a little "hiking" and headed up Cerro Oto. The 2 hour walk up was on a dirt road that switched back and forth about 12 different times. The views just kept getting better even though it was super cloudy. The sun penetrated through the clouds in one spot and highlighted a little island in lake Nahuel Huapi. At one point, i ripped open a massive pine cone and filled my nostrils with the burley scent of pine...it was amazing. so much so i brought the pine cone with me to continue sniffing it haha..katie followed suite. We FINALLY got up to the top and wouldnt you know, we couldnt see a darn thing. This was supposed to be one of the best views and the lowlying, thick, white clouds was all we could see. Cold, hungry and tired, we sat for a minute in the revolving restaurant thinking about whether food could even cheer us up..no was the answer. So we took the cable car down in silence and luckily got a free bus ride back to the hostel. I decided to act on my newfound infatuation of chocolate by making a submarino..hot chocolate. I went to the nearby kiosk with dylan (the dog named after bob dylan who looks like a golden retriever but needs to grow a foot). The sweet owner proceeded to debate about which chocolate would do a submarino justice and came to the conclusion that none would, but i bought some anyways. There was some tension between katie and i as we were both frustrated with our somewhat waisted day and for that, i bought her a chocolate milk. This was pretty much a low point out of the whole trip. For the rest of the afternoon, i watched TV and katie hung out downstairs for a while. IT came time to cook..chicken, cauliflower and potatoes were on the menu. It was a little hectic trying to cook everything at the same time in a small space..as usual. I enjoyed talking to jim saturday night before he took off to South Africa for a week and 1/2. Sunday morning, we were rudely awoken by the same family screaming at 7 am. Enduring the chaos until about 9 30, we got up and got ready for church. You know how they say when in Rome, well when in South America, you have to go to a catholic church, so we did. It was a very tastefully decorated church, unlike the rest we've seen. The mass was very good and I enjoyed being in church for once..its been 7 weeks almost. Hugo, our mexican friend, accompanied us there as well. On the way back, all I could think about was getting into some warmer clothes.. it was about 40 degrees F there..but they go by celsius. After dilly-dallying some, katie came in and asked if i'd like to go get a choripan for lunch, 5 pesos..deal. I didnt know what that was or who was going but it was one of the best decisions we've made so far. A dutch guy, Eddie, is the one who got everyone excited. Hes in argentina with his friend Mariska doing volunteer work and hanging out. Hugo is just traveling around and like I said, he's from mexico, super nice guy. There were some swiss snow boarders at our hostel as well, and they just looked like they're ballers in the snow. Our other friend micheal from GA and his friend Nico from Mar del Plata came along on this adventure to get choripans (sausage with chimichurri). Unfortunately, the choripan man wasn't at his spot and we searched some some other food. Before that though, we went in all the chocolate stores and tried to get free samples and then leave without buying something :) haha it was fun. After lunch, hugo and i continued to walk around the town alittle as i needed some time away from the group. He told me alittle bit about some theories he's been thinking about..how most of your problems are all mental and can be changed..somewhat true. I had the most rich hot chocolate ever..tasted like straight up melted chocolate but it was perfect for this freezing day. When we parted ways with the others, we decided we'd make our OWN choripans and have a big hostel dinner together. I was in charge of the salad, Eddie and Hugo the choripans and Katie, the entertainment. THis was the beginning of what we like to call "the choripan clan"...we had so much fun together we decided to recall our adventures in story form:
Chapter 1 Choripan clan forms
Once upon a time in a Swiss-looking village called Bariloche there were two American chicks, a Mexican, and a Dutch guy. These foreigners stayed at the fabulous, luxurious 5 star hostel Pudu overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi. One rainy Sunday afternoon they all got hungry. The Dutch guy, named Eduardo had had a religious experience the day before when he met The Choripan Man. “Guys, this sandwich is delicious. You got the chori, you got the pan.” “Mehhhhhh.” The others said. “And there’s a show! It’s only one euro! Which is like five pesos.” “Ooooooo! Yeah! Let’s go have choripan.” So the new friends got bundled up to venture outside. While they waited for Holly, they accosted arriving hostel guests, trying to convince them to join the group for a delicious lunch of choripan. But no one else understood how awesome the sandwich would be.
Holly soon arrived and the group began to walk. They were all so excited – their empty bellies would soon be full of choripan! But when they got to the plaza, The Choripan Man was so where to be found. “Unbelievable! The Choripan Man should be here. The fact that it is Sunday is no excuse,” said Katie. “What are we going to do now?” asked Hugo. “My tour guide will take us to another place,” said Eduardo, coming to the rescue. The group followed Mariska to Rock Chicken and they had a delicious meal of lomito and Sprite. But it just wasn’t the same as choripan. “I know what we can do! We will have a choripan party tonight. Everyone is invited! We are the Choripan Clan!” “That’s a great idea, Eduardo!” said Holly. Katie was bent over laughing and unable to speak.
Holly and Hugo went off to find Milka chocolate while Katie went with Mariska and Eduardo to the supermercado to buy supplies for the choripan party. They bought some chorizos and some pans and went back to the hostel Pudu to get everyone excited about choripans.
At 8 PM Hugo and Eduardo got the BBQ started and they were ready for some entertainment. That’s where Katie came in and she gave a great show with her choripan song and dance. Around 9.30 PM the BBQ was hot. The choris were on the fire, the pans were cut and the salad was prepared. So it was time to enjoy the choripans and they were f’ing great.
Chapter 2 Signing the contract
The choripan clan went on an adventure today. At 10.30 AM they were looking for car rental place and fortunately found one. They paid 300 pesos and the got a white fiat punto. After seeing the car they had to sign a contract, which scared them. The guy from the rental place told them that if they hit somebody with the car they had to pay 2000 pesos and if they are flipping over they had to pay 6000 pesos. That scared the clan a little bit. But there was no way back and the got in the car.
Chapter 3 The map
The Mexican was the first one, who got into the car and got behind the steering wheel. They actually didn’t have a lot of good tunes, only one cd with reggaeton music. That’s wasn’t an option for them, so they tried to find a nice radio station, which they found. Unfortunately when they got out of Bariloche there wasn’t any signal anymore, so there wasn’t any music.
The plan they had was to see the 7 lakes in the area. So they found the map in the car and went in the right direction. The way up to the 7 lakes was real nice and they stopped a couple of time for some pictures. ‘PPPOOOWWWWWWW’ ‘POOOOWWWWWW’ Eduardo screamed. This was because they were playing the game buffalo and they had to shoot us much animal as they can. During this trip they were talking a lot. They were a lot things to discuss and be talked about.
For example about the stereotypes of there countries. When they discussed that subject, they had to make the decision which road they should get. They took this crucial decision very quick, they kept on talking and laughing. After 40 minutes of driving they still haven’t seen a lake and they start worrying. So they parked their car and looked at both map they had of the area. The maps were completely different from each other and that was real confusing. They decided to turn around and the Dutch guy was up to drive.
Chapter 4 The bridge
They were speeding to get back to the point where they had to decide which road they had to take. The guy from the car rental mentioned they had to take a dirt to get to the lakes. So they took one of the dirt roads they saw. Entering this road there was a massive sign that said the bridge was closed. But the clan just ignored that sign and went on. It was a real dirt with a lot of holes and puddles. All of a sudden Katie screamed ‘EMOEEEEE!!!!!’ Eduardo stalled the car and the rest of the clan saw to emoes, which ran away when we finally got all our cameras ready. Fortunately Holly was able to make one picture. They kept on going on this road and they were just ignoring the signs. After 3 minutes of driving the saw a boar and they called him Pumba and they were also looking for Timon, but they couldn’t find him. They took some pictures and continued their safari. They were waiting to see an elephant or a lion, but instead they saw a whole family of Argentinean cows. So they said ¡Hola! and drove on. So we drove on and there was fork in the road, which leaded the clan to a house or the bridge. They took the road to the bridge, while they were driving the road got bumpier and more watery. They drove till the point the bridge was supposed to be there, but actually it wasn’t. So they had to turn around and almost ruined the car with that trick and went back. The clan decided to go to that house to ask for some directions to the lakes.(written by eddie with his dutch-english phrases)
Chapter 5 Nazis
So they drove on for 5 more minutes and they got to a little sketchy village (more like a farm). What could this be? A village where the Nazis are living. Hugo got out of the car to ask for some directions. They told him to get off their property, if not they will kill us and have us for diner. So Hugo jumped back in the car and Eduardo pulled an U-ie to get the F… off the property.
Chapter 6 Chased!
On their way out they saw 3 gauchos, so Hugo asked them for directions. The gauchos didn’t know and we had to get of their land. We figured we had to get as fast as possible of their land, so, with a bit of speeding they took off. On their way out they saw the cow family again. The clan said goodbye to them and drove on. After 5 mi
nutes Katie just screamed: ‘LLAAMMAAASS’. On the top of the mountain there were a couple of lama’s. They couldn’t make a good picture of them so they started chasing the lama’s. But lama’s can run pretty fast, so actually the run was useless. While chasing the lama’s they saw the gauchos again and they didn’t look so happy. They pretended to make pictures of the lovely land, but the gauchos weren’t that pleased. The clan got escorted of their property. If they had guns, they would definitely killed the clan. But fortunately they didn’t have the guns on them.
Chapter 8 The drop off
After this scary part of the day they decided to sing songs with each other. All the all-time favorites were sang. For example beatles, rolling stones, queen etcetera. There isn’t a song they didn’t sing. Unfortunately they had to drop off Eduardo at the Mercado de la Estepa, where he had to do some volunteer work. But the rest of the clan went on.
Chapter 9 Chilean border?
Earlier Eddie mentioned how the map was just a little bit below par..that fact comes into play now. After dropping off our beloved dutch friend, we scarfed down lunch, filled up the tank with gas and started on another adventure. This time we were headed north along the coast of lake Nahuel Huapi to see some other lakes (because we'd only seen about 2 or 3..instead of 7). After driving for a while, we stopped to make a few pictures. After chatting with a man at the view point, he told us mirror lake was up the road just a bit. So we continued on..and on.. and wouldn't you know we come to a security checkpoint. Since they are randomly all over argentina, we didn't think anything of it until the woman said "why are you going to Chile"...we laughed, looked at the map and realized where we had gone..OOPS. Hugo pulled a UUIIE and we jetted out of there. THis part of the adventure um poco mas tranquilo because we were so whipped from earlier in the day..or maybe it's because we'd been laughing constantly??
Chapter 10 Teresita
Katie and I developed strong feelings towards the hitchikers here in bariloche..and because we had a male with us we decided it was ok to act on those feelings. Our first hitchhiker was Teresita, not Teresa, but teresita. She had a brother who was going to the Paul McCartney concert in New York..Hugo caught this info because he's a native speaker but Katie and I just picked up on that we were taking her to work :) After she hopped out, Hugo mentioned it was quite weird she introduced herself as Teresita..the equivalent is, say, me hopping in the car and saying, "oh just call me hollybear" haha the "ita" in spanish is diminutive and usually just used among friends.. i guess she was pretty comfortable with us :)
Chapter 11 If you AIN’T Dutch, you AIN’T much
After a great day of following their hearts they got real hungry. A real good friend of the clan Mariska made a Dutch dinner for them and the rest of the hostel. The dish is called Hutspot met gehaktbal. They all real enjoyed the dinner and partied after.(by partying, Eddie means we taught them how to play nertz and the others played Jenga)
Chapter 12 Bring the coffee in the car
at 6:00 we heard the alarm go off. I don't think we've every not wanted to get up so bad..the thing that did get us up though was the pure excitement about seeing LAGO HESS.. hollys lake. The girls tried to coerce Eddie and Hugo into coming with them the night before and sure enough it happened..except Hugo. HOWEVER, he was sweet enough to get up at 6, explain to Eddie that he was going skiing, then went downstairs to send his regards along with the girls on their adventure. The rental car was due at 11 and we left at 6 45. Holly began the drive with her somewhat jerky stick skills but it worked fine. Eddie meanwhile was still waking up in the backseat accompanied by coffee all over his lap :) sorry Eddie. The clan decided to stop on the side of the road to check out the amazing array of stars..it was FREAKING MONKEYS outside though, so they quickly hopped in the car and continued. Katie thought for a split second that the light dusting of white on the road was indeed the salt that had already been put down...yeah right! Holly agreed and they both realized their american mindset was WRONG. Once again, the maps were sketchy and it was hard to decide which road was the one the clan was in search of. Katie acting as the navigator, and Eddie the backseat driver, were arguing whether the road we found was correct...the wager was a Choripan. The seemingly thick snow postponed the clan for just a few minutes seeing as how their fiat hadn't won much trust. The need to see lake hess as the sun rose was imenint and they decided to test the waters. The views kept getting better and better as the night sky brightened to welcome the new morning. The radio of course didn't work and gave the clan a chance to test their vocal cords this early, frosty manana. "sha la la la la la la la la la la ti da" Eddie then took it away with "They're my, blue eyed girls"... some songs that debuted were: man, i feel like a woman, save tonight, ive got friends in low places, roll black water and it's a marvelous night for a moondance. The best was when eddie broke out in song with some outlandish and somewhat offensive words that katie couldnt place with a song. Singing to the tune of the snowflakes, we quickly forgot it was only 8 30am. The sun doesnt really rise until about 8 45 which allowed the clan to marvel at the sun's daily job unfolding. Lago Hess was just splendid..the mirror image of the mountains was breathtaking. Eddie and Holly were engolfed in capturing the moment while katie had found some energy and went running to a boat on the edge of the lake. After some silence, eddie decided to taunt katie with a snow ball of fresh powder.The clan took one last picture..eddies camera, paired with hollys tripod, and an extra arm for hugo. Katie and eddie patiently waited for holly to wrap up her nature photo shoot which left all three not able to feel their toes. Eddie wanted to drive, Holly wanted to take pictures and katie wanted to sing so we did all those things. The things that weren't allowed was: smoking and throwing up..which we didnt do!
Ch 13 We almost died!
Eddie got a little excited about the agility of the car and almost made the clan take an adventure down the side of the hill..almost. Once arriving to the beginning of the one way street (until 10 am its either way, from 11-1 its IN and from 2-6 its OUT only)..holly realized she had left her tripod right there in the prestine snow.. The clan was in a pridicament.. they needed a phone to extend their car rental but didnt have signal..There was no way they could go in a retreive the tripod: holly decided it was best to lay it to rest at the side of her lake anyways. As we approached the security gate, something went wrong in eddie's head. He figured since there was no one coming in the left (in) side that he'd go through that..mid decision though katie and holly hollered at him to take the right path. Instead of choosing one way, he came to a sliding hault right in front of the security gate (meanwhile all three woman security guards in the other hut watched with crossed arms). After scolding the indecisive dutch, we explained to the ladies he was just a little confused..we then proceeded to ask for a phone to use. They didn't have a phone (or at least thats what they told us) and so we headed on our way back to bariloche in hopes of finding singal. Again holly and katie wanted to act on their hitchiker passions, and because it was pouring snow, the clan stopped to pick up a man. Oscar was his name and he had a phone! Katie quickly put it to use and extended our rental car one hour to allow for our return. Oscar informed me that his son was a ski instructor at Cerro Catedral (the famous ski resort in barilcohe) and that if we wanted lessons, he could get them for us. Eddie contiued to be somewhat of a skatterbrained driver and when oscar told me directions, i tranlasted them to eddi and then he got flustered :) We said goodbye to oscar and searched for the rental car's home. By this time, eddie had not smoked ALL morning and was getting to be a little grumpy. The girls enjoyed teasing him and testing his patience. After finally finding the rental car garage, eddie pulled in with much regret. He began to pull forward, and as a family sternly watched he began to scrap the side mirror on the wall.. the girls screamed and he viered away from the stone barrier. After hearing the words "todo bien" (meaning we were cleared from the rental) the clan headed to get some ice cream (not sure why because it just finished snowing).
Ch 14 Ice cream the night before
The actual reason they went to get ice cream was that eddie and holly had ventured there the previous night. They were sent on a mission to buy ice cream for the hostel patrons and could only find expensive gas station ice cream. Emma, the hostel owner told them all the ice cream shops were closed and so they believed her. After searching bariloche up and down, they consented to buying the expensive dulce de leche cones at ESSO gas station. BUT, right after that, they passed an ice cream shop that was OPEN. THey had to go in.. and shared a wonderful mixture of bariloche chocolate and americana. When holly suggested americana flavor, eddie replied with "just becuase its american doesnt mean its good.." and ongoing joke between the clan. The hostelers didn't even notice they'd been gone for 45 mins and scarfed down the pre-made cones.
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