When I got to Bariloche from El Chalten, I was pretty damn tired. Woke up the next day and sampled some öf the world renowned chocolates and ice cream that lied within the city limits. Bariloche is in Argentina´s lake district, on a lake, and is a very touristy place. Reminds me a little bit of Traverse City, Michigan, but with mountains. Very beautiful, and prices are hiked up due to, well, tourists. Apparently it´s a place for snowboarding in the winter as well, as I saw Milosport and Alta stickers on the window in my hostel.
After walking the town, I met up with an Italian friend of mine who I met in El Calafate. We walked around and grabbed a drink, and enjoyed a pleasant night. She spoke English, Italian, and Spanish all pretty well, and coming in contact with so many Europeans makes me infinitely jealous of their culture and language advantages.
The following day, I woke up and bought my bus ticket at the station. Headed for Mendoza the next day at 1:30. A 19 hour night bus? Not too bad, or so I thought.
After I bought the ticket, I started to get ancy, so decided to try to hike to Cerro Otto, which people normally take a bus to, and take the teleferico up to the top. I saw a dirt road and a worn down sign that said Cerro Otto, so I decided I´d take it. After walking about an hour and a half in the scorching sun on an endless path, I decided maybe it was time to stop.
This is when something super bizarre happened. A little grey car pulled up, and out of it a women shouted at me, asking if I needed a ride in Spanish. I saw two more women in the car, and figured this couldn´t be a bad idea, so I hopped on in. We drove what seemed like forever to the top of the hill. I´m glad I took the ride because I don´t think I would have made it without another water bottle. There were 3 girls, and although I can´t remember any of their names, this turned out to be my most interesting experience of the trip.
They invited me to hike with them, so we hopped a do not enter sign, and walked through some shaded paths. From here we walked maybe 30 minutes to a rock viewpoint covering many of the lakes and mountains in the surrounding area. The girls then showed me how to make mate, and shared some. If you haven´t had mate, I would recommend this argentinean tea.
Then we hiked down to some hidden shack the called the refuge, which happened to be a super upper class restaurant in which you have to take a 4 wheeler to get up there. One of the girls knew the chef, and he brought us all out fondue, which was the first time I tried it, for free. Needless to say, it was delicious. Then said chef, needed to drop off some 4 wheelers for some clients, so he let us drive them down the hill to the drop off point, and drove us back up.
After that, we hiked a little more, and the girls dropped me off back at the main road to go to my hostel. These were probably the 3 coolest girls that I´d met on this trip so far, reflecting on it, I should have got their contact information for future adventures. The girls were super friendly, and a normal hike turned into something completely different.
Hopped on the bus the following morning, and that´s when the battle with the babies occurred. A day I´d like to forget, but is forever ingrained into my memory, like a horrible event that happens on a bus and is forever ingrained into your memory, usually involving babies. I´ll have to save that for later. Too much typing and too much to do.
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