Cerro Catedral and Refugio Frey

For my first full day in Bariloche, I was determined to get some real hiking in. I had been in contact with a local over couchsurfing.com and we planned to go on a 9+ hour hike (it should be 2 days but we were going to try to push it into 1 day) to Jakob Refugio. I waited for 30 minutes at our meeting point and he never showed, so I went to the bus stop at 10am to wait for the next bus and do it on my own (it's a long hike and I didn't want to get stuck when it got dark). As I was waiting for a bus I found Stephen and Ann Marie, an awesome couple from London who were on their year-long honeymoon through Africa and South America. Ann Marie was a pediatrician and Stephen was a lawyer, but both of them quit their jobs to do this excursion. While we were waiting I asked where they were going and if they minded if I joined them. They said they were going to hike to Refugio Frey and of course I was welcome to join! After we loaded onto the bus we met Rachel, a girl from San Francisco who has been volunteering as a physical therapist in Ecuador for the past 4 months. She asked if she could join us and, of course, we welcomed the fourth and final wolf into our wolf pack.

We got off the bus to Catedral at the bottom of a ski hill in a ski-resort area. We opted to take the longer and more difficult "ski slope route" up the mountain, to add a bit of diversity to our trek. Usually hikers take the gondola up and then start the "difficult" part at the top of the peak, but we're just too badass and decided to spend the next 3 hours hiking up black/double black diamond trails (think The Wall at Kirkwood or Heavenly). I was thoroughly exhausted which made reaching the peak that more rewarding. Before even looking at the views I opened up my stash of cheese and crackers and devoured half a block of cheese. I probably should have had breakfast...

The gondola we could have taken but didn't

That's where we're going. Daunting, no?

Just imagine it with snow and it seems a bit easier to do it now

We made it!

View of Bariloche (far right corner) and the Catedral ski resort (see that tiny spot in the center?)

The views were incredible. On one side was a full view of Bariloche and all of the lakes. On the other side was a great view of the Northern Patagonian mountain range and the Nahuel Huapi National Park. We then traversed for the next two hours across the ridge, climbing over boulders and being careful not to trip and fall the 2000 meters straight down the side of the mountain. The trailmarkers were very useful- little red dots spray painted onto rocks every 100 feet or so. About three peaks over, we climbed to the top and found ourselves looking down at Laguna Schmoll, the lake right before Laguna Toncek and Refugio Frey. We then used our awesome mountaineering skills to climb down the ledge and walk along the valley to Refugio Frey.

Time to actually find this Refugio everyone's talking about

Views trekking along the ledge

Follow the red dots! And please don't slip...

We're going up there?!

We made it! Laguna Schmoll from the peak

And now it's time to come back down. I agree, hiking doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

We found Refugio Frey and I was able to refill my empty Nalgene and finish off the rest of the cheese and crackers. We sat for a bit at the Refugio to enjoy the breathtaking views of the mountain range surrounding the lake. We then headed back the "official" 5-6 hour route, which took us about 2.5 hours downhill. I'm very glad we took the unofficial "Frey por el Filo" route up because the views weren't that amazing on the "official" route. The "official" route was also a REALLY long walk- about 11km. We missed the 6:30pm bus back to town by about 15 minutes so we waited in the ski resort parking lot for the 7:45pm bus. Good thing too because there was a side kiosk/restaurant open that sold waffles with dulce de leche and apple strudel with cream. Ann Marie and Rachel got waffles and I ordered the strudel (and asked for dulce de leche... great choice!). I then noticed that they served "vino caliente" (hot wine) and I thought, what the heck? I just hiked/trekked/mountaineered 15 miles, I deserve some wine. It was interesting. Not bad, but very interesting, as if they made it more alcohol by adding hard alcohol. This was good though because it warmed me up and it was starting to get pretty cold. Overall, an incredible day of hiking. I'm extremely sore but can't wait to see where our next hiking adventure will take us tomorrow!

Looking out at Laguna Toncek from Refugio Frey. I still can't believe we just climbed that mountain range.

Refugio Frey bathroom signs

THANK GOD WE'RE ALMOST BACK

Exhausted but exhilarated team. 25 km in about 8 hours!

Strudel and hot vino!

Bariloche: Días uno y dos

Since I finished midterms and am on an LSA program (sometimes we do a lot of work, sometimes we do no work), I have a full week of vacation to do whatever and go wherever I want! So after much consideration and planning, I decided to spend the week in San Carlos de Bariloche, a part of Argentina's Patagonia. Because I'm just so adventurous (sarcastic self call) I opted to take the bus (22 hours) instead of the plane (3 hours). It helped that the bus was 1/3 of the cost of the plane ticket. And since it was such a cheaper option, I decided to splurge and buy a first class semi-cama seat that folded a full 160 degrees! Once on the bus, I was also surprised to find that as a first class customer, I was provided a small 200 litre bottle of the finest 2012 Malbec wine (which I recognized from the grocery store as a $3/bottle brand) and a glass of champagne for dessert (which I drank after brushing my teeth- oops). My seat was on the top floor in the front of the bus, so I had a fantastic view of the trip. I took random videos and compiled them here, if you care to see what a 22 hour bus ride looks like in 2 minutes. My attendant was very helpful and asked me a lot of questions about the United States, including if I lived in Aspen, Colorado (What? I know it caught me off guard too). I've come to find that many people in Argentina live in an incredibly beautiful and diverse country, but cannot afford to travel outside of their province, let alone country. It's an unfortunate fact that makes me feel bad I have been given all of these opportunities just because I was born in a different country.

My home for the next day

Beautiful sunset that I wouldn't have gotten on a plane

I would recommend going by bus because 1) it's a helluva lot cheaper than going by plane 2) you get a taste of the landscape of the country 3) you get more benefits for less cost (like champagne and wine included) and 4) you can always sleep for the 20+ hours! Which is what I did. I woke up at 8am just in time for breakfast to be served and we arrived in Bariloche at 10am, perfect timing for me to get unpacked at my hostel, buy groceries, and maybe cram in a hike before the sun went down. Greenhouse hostel is a small hostel 5km from the Bariloche center. So far it's fantastic! They provided me with a card preloaded with 10 pesos to use for the public bus system. They allow residents to cook in their kitchen between 8am until 11pm, so I can make lunch and dinner for myself every day. The young guy who runs the place used to live in Buenos Aires but he hated the city so he travelled a bit before moving to Bariloche permanently. Because I am traveling to Patagonia in the off season, the hostel is more or less empty, so I have the entire 8 person dorm to myself. Which is really nice for safety reasons but definitely a bit lonely. I did meet a nice couple from Holland that was living in the dorm but was leaving today. They both quit their jobs and have been traveling around Argentina for the past month and are going to travel around the rest of South America (sans Brazil) plus a bit of Europe for the next 6 months. I asked the woman if they were married and she said no- they spent all of their wedding money on this trip. What a perfect way to spend money that was supposed to go towards a wedding!

After buying groceries and resting for a bit, it was only 3pm and I realized that I AM IN PATAGONIA and need to get off my butt and start taking advantage of that by hiking. I compromised with my tired self and took a short trek up Campanario, a hill/mountain that's about a 20 minute public bus ride away from the hostel and 40 minutes to the peak. It was short but I was sweating a little over half way up. Probably shouldn't have worn jeans. What a dumbass. Almost to the top and panting, I hear noises and figure I'm close to the peak. I pick up my pace and emerge from the forest to see...

On the trail- OMG IT'S GUNNA BE SO BEAUTIFUL AT THE TOP

WAIT WHAT THE FUDGE

Yeah, there's a flippin' chairlift that takes you to the peak! I was flabbergasted: I could have taken the chairlift instead of busting my butt up this stupid mountain??

A Virgin Mary for all of the lazy-asses to pray for their safety at the scenic point

Nah just kidding I knew about the chairlift. It's for old people and lazy people. Good thing I have a beating heart and two working legs! At the top I celebrated the fact that I was the only person who had hiked to the peak (and there were well over 50 people at this scenic point) by buying an alfajore. I also asked people to take my photo for me instead of taking selfies. I know, they would have been awesome selfies, but I figured I should get a decent photo of my accomplishment. 

I made it!

So many lakes!

An alfajore, Bariloche-style

Yeah, that's right, I hiked a whole 30 minutes to get here. My parents must be so proud.

La Boca Real

23/4

It is said that when tourists come to Buenos Aires and only have one day, one of the top three places they go includes the barrio La Boca. Gaby wanted to show us "the real Boca" on our tour of the neighborhood. La Boca is a neighborhood where the port-side is colorfully geared for tourists while the rest of the neighborhood is slums. Unfortunately, this neighborhood is not unique in the fact that the tourist-oriented street vendors don't live in La Boca so the neighborhood stays poor. On our "real" tour of the neighborhood, Gaby took us to companies run by La Boca "born and raised" owners. We had lunch at a co-op that was aspiring to become an alfajore factory. We then walked past the La Boca Juniors fútbol stadium to a co-op that recycles cardboard into covers for books. After, we went to a conventillo (very old slum-like apartments with a central patio) that is 120 years old, is a national historical landmark, and now serves as a workshop for two local artists. We only had 4 hours for the tour of the neighborhood since we had midterms the next day, but I am definitely planning on returning for a day of exploring this quirky neighborhood!

Co-op alfajores. (Let me know if you want to buy some and I can bring them back- it's for a good cause!)

La Boca Juniors Stadium "graffiti"

Book shop co-op from the outside

Conventillo turned art factory

A Weekend in Córdoba

19/4

Another great thing about API is that weekend-long trips out of the city are included in the cost of the program. This weekend we travelled to Córdoba, a city smack dab in the middle of Argentina. We spent three days there. Here's a play by play of what happened each day:

Day 1:
All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go, I'm standing here outside your door, I probably won't wake you up to say goodbye. Come on, I'm not that rude! It's 9am and I'm leaving on a jet plane out of the local airport in Buenos Aires. I always forget that other countries didn't have a 9/11 so security is very lax- I wasn't even asked to show my passport. Our 2 hour flight gave us a free snack box which was another pleasant surprise. We land and I am surprised by how HOT and DRY Córdoba is. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised since we're in the middle of Argentina in a desert. Also just a side note the architecture in Córdoba has a lot of Peruvian influences so it goes along well with the fact that it is in a desert. Once we unloaded at the airport a few of us went to a restaurant recommended by the hotel staff. And it sucked (yeah, I was surprised too since usually hotels make good recommendations). Good thing I only got a salad! After lunch we went to get ice cream, which definitely made up for the terrible lunch. I got two flavors (dulce de leche and flan) in a waffle cone for 10 pesos (~$1.30).

Flan and Dulce de leche with white chocolate chunk ice cream. Can't get any sweeter than this.

We then went as a big group to a house that was converted into a museum after Córdoba became a city. I've gotta be honest and say I can't remember much because I was enjoying the sun too much. Not that  we don't get sun in Buenos Aries! But this sun reminded me a lot of summer back home in Nevada and it was a nice (dry) change. After we walked around downtown Córdoba and passed by a bunch of neat looking churches. Unfortunately we were not given time to explore since Gaby has a very strict schedule. So that sucks. Actually, the majority of the trip ended up being us getting dragged around by Gaby every minute during the day and then our only free time was at night and 2 hours for lunch. Which is very unfortunate since Córdoba is where the first university in Argentina is located and so there are a lot of young people in the city, so it would have been nice to have been given time to explore and do things we wanted to do, not what was pre-planned. But what is done is done. It was still a beautifully sunny day to walk around!

There was a well at this house-museum!

Downtown Córdoba plaza

We also got to visit a museum that used to be a detention center for torturing Communists/Fascists/etc. in the 70s. It is very interesting because 1) the torturing only happened 40 years ago so it's very close to home 2) the detention center is RIGHT in the middle of the city were everyone is walking by and cars are honking, meaning that people who disappeared weren't really gone and were actually only separated by one wall when they were getting tortured and 3) when the government was done torturing these people, they dumped their bodies off of planes into the rivers nearby. The official count says about 3,000 people died at this center but estimates are around 20,000. Also, they would torture pregnant women and when the women had their babies, they had the women write letters to their family asking to take care of their babies because they wouldn't be able to (depressing). And then they would hand out the babies to families connected with the military. So right now a lot of people are still looking for about 1,000 babies that were born in these detention camps and given away to unknown families.

The disappeared (all four walls of the room were filled)

Creative way of listing the names of the victims (there were 3 others like this)

After getting all nice and depressed we went on a tour of the University in Córdoba, the oldest university in Argentina and the 3rd (or 2nd?) oldest college in Latin America. The guide showed us their old book collection, which really was not that impressive since at Dartmouth we're allowed to touch the manuscripts and a lot of what was displayed was copies not the real deal. It was still nice to walk around a real college campus (I don't think I've said this yet but UTDT, the university where our LSA group is studying, consists of two buildings. Hardly a campus, let alone a university). We then grabbed some coffee at an outdoor restaurant and bar. They had martinis for 15 pesos so I decided to order my first martini. I was so excited to pretend to be as cool as 007, but I was too scared to get it dry so I ordered a "Martini Rosso", which was sweeter and dark brown and without olives. Not nearly as legit. But I still felt like a badass drinking a martini next to everyone else with water and coffee.

What a neat iglesia! Too bad you can't explore it.

I'm just too cool for school.

Day 2:
We started off bright and early (very unfortunate for the half of our group that was hungover from the night before of partying with the local college students) and drove to Ernesto "Che" Guevara's childhood home in the suburbs, which is now a museum. Two things: I didn't realize how little I actually knew about Che and how much he travelled when he was younger- he actually travelled throughout ALL of Latin America (except for Brazil) on a motorcycle, plus a few boats and planes. We then drove around the countryside of Córdoba and stopped at a few towns. At one we stopped and hiked out to a waterfall. Some of the girls in our group swam in the water but it was freezing cold and they didn't appear to enjoy themselves very much. They stayed in the water for maybe 5 minutes. I decided it wasn't worth the effort to change into my bathing suit. BUT I did go fishing with some breadcrumbs I found on a rock and saw some trout swimming around! Lucky the girls didn't know this.  We then drove out to Belgrano, a town that is filled with German immigrants. And it shows- there are beer stores everywhere! And chocolate shops, which reminded me of Bishop, California for some reason. These shops were great because each of them gave out free alfajores to sample. I was full but proud to say I ate 6 alfajores even after being stuffed from dinner earlier.

Che Guevara's house

Street vendor's wine and jam collection

Yeah, that looks enjoyable

Can you spot the trout?

Alfajores!

Day 3:
This was our last day in Córdoba, and we had a flight midday, so not a lot happened. We visited two art museums, had lunch, and then got on a plane back to Buenos Aires. Fun fun! (Also if you can't tell, each day's post is significantly shorter than the previous. I'd prefer not to make this a novel so I condensed the less interesting days. Such as this one.)

Art Museum #1

Art Museum #2

On Wednesdays we go to the opera

Last night I went with a few other members of the LSA group to Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires' (and Argentina's) premium opera house with the "best acoustics of any opera house in the world". We saw Carmen. And I am speechless. I really don't know how to describe it and give the quality of the performance justice. Carmen was sung in Italian and the subtitles were in Spanish, but unlike Macbeth, which I saw a few days earlier and was performed entirely in Spanish (also a dynamic performance), I understood a lot more of the plot solely because I was able to read the text instead of struggle through listening to and understanding Spanish influenced by Shakespeare's language. Carmen was my first opera and though I have nothing to compare it to, I'd say it was very well done. This is also coming from the fact that Natalie, the theater major, has seen operas before and said this was exceptional. This is becoming a trend, but a lot of firsts for me happen overseas and are usually some of the best (see: eating my first papaya ripe off the tree in Tanzania). I'm getting really spoiled, I know. At least I admit it?

Our seats. Not the nosebleeds ("Henhouse" as the Argentinians call it), but still one of the cheaper seating options. $15 bucks a ticket! Not bad at all since the acoustics are sooo good in Colón so I could hear everything fine. 

Damnit Don José, why do you have to be so selfish?? Taking up the whole stage for yourself... 

Entire cast of Carmen taking the final bow

The Anthropologist's Perspective of Argentina (Fact 6)

So I don't know how much you know about Argentina, but their wine and beef is exceptionally good! But I learned something last night at dinner that surprised me quite a bit: whenever porteños have cheap wine on hand, they always mix it with seltzer water (about 50/50) to make it smoother ("más suave"). Also, "house wine" at restaurants is the cheapest (and the crappiest) wine on the menu. Meaning the restaurant recommends the wine the most efficient way to get drunk without breaking the bank.

The Anthropologist's Perspective of Argentina (Fact 5)

Porteños (natives from Buenos Aires) are a highly affectionate people. So far I have seen them: making out in the park, making out on the subway, making out in a restaurant, making out on the bus, and making out on the sidewalk at red lights. BUT I have yet to see them making out in clubs or bars.

And, of course, it is customary to kiss on the right cheek for greetings and farewells.

La Estancia

12/4

So apparently an language study abroad program includes actual studying, so here are some bullet points about a fabulous day in the Argentinian countryside!

1. Our group travelled to an estancia (ranch) about an hour and a half long bus ride outside of Buenos Aires
2. Gaby recommended we bring jackets but I decided against the extra weight and it turned out to be a beautifully sunny and clear day

What a beautiful day!

Even the dogs were enjoying the sun

3. I rode a horse for the first time since I was 10 and got over my fear of riding!

3.5. Except the (very sexy) gauchos knew I wasn't experienced and wouldn't let me get past a trot- in broken English, they told me "we don't want to get chopped up into soup by Gaby" (because if I had fallen off, Gaby would have been all over them... and I was the only one at risk of falling of course)

Come on, just let me ride and be free!

4. We had 5 meals- breakfast (croissants and tea), first lunch (salads and bread), second lunch (meat and potatoes), first dessert (incredible home made flan with dulce de leche), and second dessert (pear tart)

Preparing the meat

MEAT! (chorizo, pollo, carne)

5. We played fútbol with the gauchos and then sang around the dinner table as if it were a campfire

Guard owls to take care of the rodents