A little Switzerland in South America

The Argentine cops and their drug sniffing dog didn't seem to care about this dead body under the bus
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I headed for the bus station in Mendoza armed with some crappy Carrefour empanadas and a box of herbal sedative pills, not looking forward to the 20+ hour bus ride.  One notable thing about this ride was that we were stopped about 5 or 6 times by Argentine police, who would check my passport multiple times, search the bus (for drugs, I guess) and who even brought a dog on at one stop.  Good thing I had swallowed my stash :-p

Not having anybody to talk to anymore was a slight bummer as the endless miles of flat, featureless plains slid by my window.  The first 6 hours kind of sucked. The next six hours were really shitty, but then, as we approached the Andes again and began our ascent to Bariloche things got better.  I took in the increasingly spectacular views of snow covered mountains, icy blue streams, horses grazing in orchards...

Cero Catedral ski area has several large mountains, covered top to bottom with sweet powder, overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi

the landscape started looking pretty nice all of a sudden!
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I took a city bus into town and headed for a well reviewed hostel.  Unfortunately it was full, so I went to my 2nd choice, which turned out to be easily one of the best hostels I've been to.  It was called Hostel 1004 and its on the 10th floor of what must be the tallest building in town.  After taking the service elevator up and walking down a dingy hallway I had some doubts, but as soon as I walked in the front door my spirits lifted.  It had a great common area, comfortable and well decorated, a massive kitchen and balconies and windows overlooking the lake and mountains.   I've been told the area looks a lot like Lake Tahoe.

the view from my hostel in Bariloche
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I hung out in the hostel, drinking with new friends, and the American couple I met on the wine tour in Mendoza as well.  The next morning I decided to go skiing.  I felt slightly nervous going alone in unknown territory, and having not skied for about 4 years.  Luckily I recognized a guy on the bus as somebody from the same hostel.  We hit it off and skied together all day.  My new friend's name is Olegario and he's a physicians assistant from Arizona.  We rented gear for about $15 US each and bought lift passes for another $25.

Barilche friends...on the left are the American couple. In the back, Olegario and Shane. On the right side are the guys I kayaked with.
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The Cero Catedral ski area has several large mountains, covered top to bottom with sweet powder, overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi.  In one word, spectacular.  The best skiing I've ever seen by far.

In the evening I was pretty tired but the good times were rolling.  I met up with the American couple and some other friends from the hostel and took the bus to a microbrewery just outside of town called Cervezeria Blest. We had some great brews, great food, good times.

The next day I went lake kayaking for more tranquil mountain beauty.  It kind of sucked that I got stuck with a 7 year old spanish girl who kept trying to capsize the boat, but we survived.

top of the mountain at Cero Catredal
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A little more about Bariloche.  It's a ski/mountain resort town up in the Andes, on a huge lake and surrounded by mountains and smaller lakes.  It's got chocolate shops everywhere.  It's also got thousands of stray dogs wandering around.  I mention them because they are notable for their seeming good health, good behavior and intelligence.  They don't bark at people, they know how to avoid cars, they're very friendly and none of them seem to be diseased or starving.

more mountain view
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The evening after kayaking I went out with Olegario and his travel companion, a real estate developer/business man from Atlanta named Shane.  We wandered around Bariloche looking for something interesting to do and lucked upon a little local bar with live music.  We were drawn in by the acoustic guitar performer despite the wall of smoke the poured out the door.  God only knows why most of the patrons continued to smoke in this place, because the air was already so smoky it was hard to see.  But the various performers put on a real show of spanish guitar, singing, soul, joking with the audience.

lake kayaking. check out my bracelets of power
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The next day I decided I really liked Ole and Shane and I would change my plans to travel with them to Calafate, way down south in Patagonia, where there is a famous glacier.  We checked out of our hostel, but when we got to the bus station we found that the only buses heading south were full.  Great planning, right!  The hostel we had left was full, so we went to the first one I had tried to get into that had been full before.  It had space, so we settled in for another night in Bariloche.  We ended up hanging with some German students who were visiting from their study abroad program in Buenos Aires.  It was a great time bantering with these two students.

live music
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The next day we got onto the first of 3 buses we would need to get to Calafate...the trip was something like 14 hours to Comodoro Rivadavia, then a layover, another 14 hours to Rio Gallegos, layover, then 4 hours to Calafate.  I never would have thought I'd look at a 10 hour bus ride as being nothing!