A Whole Lot of Chocolate

Hola hola!

I had my first big trip this past weekend! My friend Carolyn and I went to Bariloche, a town in the northern part of Patagonia. I didn't really know what to expect, aside from all of the "ahhhhing" from the Argentinean's before I left when I told them I was headed to Bariloche. I didn't want to look at pictures, because I wanted to be surprised.

Little did I know I would be visiting the most beautiful place I have ever been to! It was so full of nature and had European charm. The town of Bariloche is a Swiss town (when all of the immigrants flooded to South America, the Swiss settled in Bariloche and El Bolson). Thus, the small "center" of town had a huge Swiss influence, thus LOTS OF CHOCOLATE!!

The first day we arrived, it was rainy rainy rainy! After our 21 hour bus ride (yes, you read that correctly, but we were treated like royalty with wine, champagne, a merienda, dinner, and breakfast) we were ready to take on the town. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we couldn't do the outdoorsy things we would have otherwise done that day, so we got familiar with the center and tasted chocolate like it was our job! We ate lunch at one of the most well known parillas in all of Argentina! (El Boliche de Alberto) Carolyn got lamb and it was great! We then went back to our really cute hostel and later made ourselves a stir-fry for dinner and met the other people in the hostel. Most people were traveling around South America for many weeks or months, and most were from Europe. The common language was English!

Rainy view from the road to the hostel

Rainy day cure: chocolate caliente

chocolate on chocolate on chocolate

oh and then some gelato

Our cute hostel!

The next day we decided to head to El Bolson, which was formally (and still has a large influence) the huge hippy town in Argentina. Needless to say, it has a very chill atmosphere. I don't know how it couldn't, since it is planted in the middle of a beautiful backdrop of luscious green mountains and a river that runs right through it. They have an amazing artesian fair that we went to with local beer, berries, jams, chocolate, hand-crafted items, and many other things. It was a good day, and we unexpectedly ended up hiking up a mountain that overlooked the small town, which was nice for snapping a few shots. Speaking of snapping shots, the drive to El Bolson was absolutely beautiful and that in itself was worth our day spent there.

El Bolson! and the pretty sky

Frambresas #nomnomnom

View of the town from our hike!

Cute lil mountain town

On the drive there..

and again.. the drive

The next day we headed down the road to go on a bike tour of the lakes surrounding Bariloche. We took the bus (after quite the struggle, may I add, thanks to the kind soul who paid for us to get on...) to the bike renting place. After getting the map of the places we would be seeing, we were off! Excited and full of energy, our feelings quickly took a large downfall... as we saw the first obstacle ahead of us.. aka a mountain. Why I thought we would be doing a flat course was possibly one of the dumbest thoughts my brain has ever processed. HOLA BRAIN, we are in mountains, clearly you are going to be biking up all the mountains around you to get across the lake... what did I expect... magical flying bikes? So, after four hours of utter exhaustion (think a 4 hour spin class....) I must give myself 23 pats on the back for never walking up the hill thank you #stubbornness. BUT really, it was such an amazing experience, I got to see some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. The agua in these lakes, SO unreal. I don't understand how they are so beautiful and so blue/green! Then.. I took a 3 hour nap... then woke up for dinner.. and passed out once again. It was a fab end to the day.

Panoramic View of some surrounding mountains

Thought I was taking a nice picture at the beginning, but we ended up biking up this and 40 other mountains #died

The next day was by far my favorite day!! Why?? Because we went into town and bought chocolate (kidding, but we actually did go buy chocolate en la mañana). But really the best part of the trip: KAYAKING! We got picked up and brought to a secret lake that was off the beaten path. Carolyn and I doubled up in a kayak and she was the captain controlling the utter (is that the right word?? IDK the steer-y thingy). Anyway, we were on a picturesque lake, and what was the best part? We were the only ones on the lake. This lake was no pond. It was HUGE and it was smack dab in the middle of mountains on all 360 sides of it! So beautiful. I tried to take pictures of the amazing color of the water.. definitely not the same in the pictures.. but ya get the point. That night, we headed into el centre for our last dinner. We got trucha y cierva (fresh trout probably fished out 30 minutes before it was cooked.. but really.... and CIERVA= DEER). Yes people, Ellen Leserman ate deer/venicen, whatever you like to call it. The chica who doesn't eat red meat.. I am so adventurous. It was SO yummy, it tasted just like brisket, and for those of you (MOM) that know my obsession with brisket (like the only red meat I genuinely love), I was a happy lil camper.

On our final day in Bariloche, we cried in our hostel for the morning as we had to depart from our fairy tale vacation. But good news, we both finished our books while we were there! After blowing my nose 393984 times, we were off... I got sick there since it was pretty chilly out. Then we took another 21 hour bus ride back.. And I am still hoping that I will wake up in Bariloche!!!

So, if I am MIA, I probably ran away and you can catch me in Bariloche! (it rhymes)

Besos a todos,

Ellen