Now I know that “the district” is frequently used to describe the fun that is Washington DC, but I beg to differ. “The district” is by far more suited for the Lake District of Argentina. Not sure if that’s the official name, but that’s what my guidebook calls it, so be it.
Since I’m such a rugged traveler, I decided a semi-cama bus would be fine (and it cost almost a hundred pesos less). All I needed was to get from BA to Bariloche. I could make it without the pillow and blanket and 30 degree extra recline in the seat. Well, I got to Bariloche but it wasn’t a super pleasant trip. A lovely Peruvian man straight from the farm sat next to me and wrapped himself up tortilla style in this dirty blanket that smelled like horses. The movies were lame. The food was bad. But my goal was accomplished and I made it to Bariloche. Plus, the scenery on the trip was unreal. Once we got close to the mountains (oh say, 20 hours into the ride) I forgot all about horse blanket and just stared out the window for the rest of the trip. It was amazing.
I hung out at the bus station waiting for Brie to meet me. Her bus from Mar del Plata was going to arrive about an hour later. However, the time is an hour off in the Patagonia and I was all confused about what time her bus was coming or had it already arrived, etc. So I took a cab to our hostel, 41 Below, checked in, showered, and read until she arrived.
Brie came in after a long day of traveling including a 3 hour layover bus transfer in Neuquen. Then we headed off to find some food and beer. We ended up in this pub that many ads and books claim is the “party place of Bariloche”. Also written about it was “Come early to snag a booth and bring your best pickup lines.” Well, we got the booth but never got to use our pickup lines as we were the only people in the whole place. Oh well. Timing is tough in Argentina. We walked around Bariloche which is another cute and picturesque little mountain village town. Bariloche is famous for it’s chocolate and a chocolate store occupied every corner. We were still craving something sweet and ended up super splurging on a chocolate fondue at this cute little restaurant. They brought bowls of all different fruits and the fondue thing. It was so good. I’d never had fondue anything before. It’s quite fun and delicious.
We awoke the next morning ready to do some adventure trekking. We took off to scale Cerro Otto. Well, we found what we thought was the trail. We hiked it for about an hour, saw some awesome views, took pics, loved it. Then we saw that the top lookout point was waaaay to the east (maybe west, who knows. I had no compass.) So we decided to hike back down and try to go find the other trail. Another way to go up Cerro Otto is in a cable car gondola thing. Of course it was closed the one week we were there. We asked around for where the trail starts and ended up basically scaling this mountain going straight up under the gondola trail. It was impossible. We ran into this dude who let us cut through his back yard. It was serious off road trekking. Suddenly, about ¾ to the top, the “trail” ended. We were kind of silent for a minute or two contemplating what to do. I had already decided in my mind we were definitely going to die and at the very best, I could just maybe end up with a broken leg trying to get down. I could already see the News Star headlines of “Mintz Dies Hiking Off Trail in Argentina”. Brie however is much more cool, calm, and collected. Climbing straight up was hard but trying to go straight down was even harder. I basically crab walked. I scooted. I slid. It was pathetic but we did eventually make it down. I ripped my shorts on a rock while scooting. I was covered in dirt and humility. We went to the first store we could find, bought 2 beers, and sat in someone’s front yard and drank to our success. We survived.
We made it to the hostel, showered Cerro Otto off ourselves, and went to the main plaza to read and chill and just stare out at the lake. We both fell asleep, looking very hipster travel girl-esque. We went to an amazing restaurant for dinner for a well deserved feast. It was a “parilla” which is basically a meat palace. The menu consists of about 10 cuts of meat and 10 sides. We ordered some meat and a salad. It was the best ever. They brought us 3 huge fillets that were fresh off the cow farm. A huge salad. We ate every little bit. It was the best steak. Of course we went to get ice cream after at one of the chocolate stores. A complete meal.
The nest morning we slept in, ate hostel breakfast, talked politics with our Irish roommates, and then went to the plaza to wait for Mauricio.
What a character to introduce.
Brie’s family had an exchange student in high school. His name was Facundo, he went to Truckee High, played basketball, was the prom king, etc. Brie still keeps touch with him and one of the reasons she came to Argentina was to get to meet his family and see where he’s from. Brie set up for Mauricio, Facundo’s dad, to come pick us up and take us to their house for a few days. They live in Villa la Angostura, about an hour from Bariloche. It’s a ski town that is absolutely beautiful.
So we wait for Mauricio, never having met him or knowing at all what he looks like, and then suddenly this huge white tourist van pulls around the plaza and we see this man yelling out the window, “Briiiiiiiiie!!!!”
Mauricio had arrived.
He gets out of the car, all 6’7 inches of him. He wears a formula 1 racing hat, a navy sweater vest, and some hippie jewelry. There was a fanny pack. He basically smothers Brie with a huge hug and we all introduce ourselves. We pile in the van that seats about 15 and go to lunch at a cute restaurant overlooking the lake. We got ice cream. Then went on errands with Mauricio all afternoon. We went to the hardware store, the grocery store, the mechanic, etc. Then he drove us to Traful. The drive was stunning. We saw Ted Turner’s estate. Then we stopped where Mauricio owns this hostel by the lake. There were about 50 13-year-olds there on a retreat. Brie and I fascinated them. They surrounded us and asked us all kinds of questions from “What’s your favorite color?” to “Do you know Britney Spears?’ I eventually asked them what they thought about High School Musical and that got the crowd going. One girl had some little teeny bopper magazine and she brought it out and we went through all the pics of Zac and Vanessa. It was great. Like we crashed the church lock-in and got to see all the drama. Loved it.
Finally we were off to La Angostura. After a rough and bumpy ride, we arrived to the Walter’s house. We were greeted by Liliana, the Mrs., and went to a nice dinner at this great place outside. Finally we got to sleep. Quite a day.
We slept in and woke up to an empty house. Mauricio came home and then took us to lunch. Then it was off to see every pretty lake and view in town. We came back home late afternoon and had mate (tea) with Liliana and her friend. Liliana took us on a drive of this beautiful neighborhood. We went and used the internet at Mauricio’s office. We went home and ate dinner. Another great day.
Day 3 in La Angostura started with a bang. Literally. On the door. We thought Mauricio was taking us to this ski resort but it turns out one of his employees was taking us. Which we didn’t know. So when some dude comes banging on the door of a house we don’t live in, we instinctively hide. Hide. We hid. Then after about 10 minutes of total awkward “I don’t know what to do” action, Mauricio called and said that dude boy came by to get us and we didn’t answer. We faked that we “didn’t hear him and were asleep” and timidly went outside to get in the car.
He took us to Cerro Bayo where the chair lifts were still running (kind of like summer trip to Aspen). It was like we had the whole place to ourselves. We got on the lift to the top and then hiked around, took pics, found some snow, etc. I don’t have the best chair lift history but I played cool. Brie is like a snow bunny machine and is one of those cool kids that doesn’t even pull down the bar. I didn’t dive off. Success! It was so great. Highlight of the trip.
Mauricio or “Dad” as Brie is calling him by this point, picks us up at the bottom and takes us to lunch at this great place by the lake. We ate bomb chicken milanesas and had some beer. Then he sent us off on a boat excursion to the some island forest. The weather takes a turn for the worst as it always does when we get on a boat. We went celebrity status again on the boat with some teenagers from Argentina asking us 100000 questions. We got off the boat and went through the forest of Arrayanes in the rain. By this time we are so over the tour. We had also planned to hike back instead of taking the boat but the weather said no. Finally the tour ends in a tea house. We got hot chocolate and an alfajor. Then it was back to the boat and to the pier where Mauricio picked us up. It was raining and freezing. But when we got home, Liliana had crepes with dulce de leche waiting on us. Then we went to one of their friend’s houses (whose kid had a Barbie with dreads), came back, and had a little party. An asado!
Some friends came over and we ate and ate. Meat meat meat. We told our life stories for the 6000th time. We tried to explain how no one actually takes the Greyhound. It was a lovely, tiring, night. These adults kick it at the dinner table til 2 am. No joke.
The next morning we got up to go on a little family road trip. We drove to Chile (not far) but got rejected at the border bc Mauricio only has a temporary passport bc his got stolen in Brazil. So we drove back, had lunch at the house, and then went into Bariloche.
It was really like we were on a family vaca. But instead of a cooler full of cokes and sandwiches, we had mate and crackers. We went up this other chair lift to a lookout and got coffee. We went to Hotel Llao Llao, the most famous hotel in Argentina, we drove through the Swiss Colony, we went to another ski resort, we stopped and got snacks, and finally made it home. Friends came over for a pasta dinner. Lovely day again.
By this time, it was time to go back to BA. I had to meet MKB at the airport Tuesday morning. The Walters really didn’t want Brie to leave them but we achieved the impossible dream and got off on a bus to BA. Taking with us 10 jars of homemade jam, herbs, and whatever else the Walters could find to send with Brie. They were so hospitable and nice to us. And they fed us every 10 minutes.
The bus home was the usual. We got back to BA, which turned into a sauna while we were gone. I did laundry, fasted, slept, and tried to recover from an interesting, fun, and full week in the Lake District. Enjoy the pics.
