Friends of friends of my sister and mum and dad… That’s how we explain meeting up with a lovely sister and her step-daughter in Bariloche Patricia and Ariana (not sure how to spell her name and I did have trouble rolling my r’s so probably never said it right!) took us to a Mexican restraurant which we were so happy to go to!!! We realise how spoilt we are for choice in Australia. After eating bbq, pasta or bbq for the last few weeks, Mexican and a margarita were a breath of fresh air! We had a great night laughing with these 2 as well, Ariana had alot of energy and laughed ALOT! Her laugh was hilarious and very contagious!
They’re in the English group here in Bariloche which only has about 15-20 people in it and don’t always have a full English meeting! Patricia is Brazilian and has come to live in Bariloche after marrying Fernando (Ariana’s dad). So she speaks Portugese, Spanish and English and Ariana is learning both Portugese and English. We laughed a lot at different things we’ve said wrong or other people have said wrong and about the fact that poor Patricia would sometimes forget which language to speak to us in and break out in Portugese or Spanish on occasion as we looked at her blankly! Ariana found that hilarious and would crack up laughing and correct her. It was a fun night 🙂
Thursday we took our chances on a cloudy snowy day to go to a Cerro Catedral, the ski hill of Bariloche. It’s the oldest and biggest in Argentina and a lot of people we have spoken to have talked it up. There is a little town about the size of Villa La Angostura at the base of the mountain, 37 lifts uphill! Unfortunately of these 37 lifts, only about 5 were open when we got up there… So we HOPED more would open as the day went on but we weren’t in luck. So we were pretty disappointed with our day at Cerro Catedral as we just couldn’t get up the hill enough for it to be any good. A lot of the spots were icy and there were beginners everywhere. The visibility was decent but it was snowing, so we called it a day early and left thinking we wouldn’t return…
The bus home broke down 10mins into the trip and so they sent another bus to pick us up. This bus that looked exactly the same must have been slightly smaller! As we went from sitting at the front of the bus, to being the last on the bus, and we almost didn’t fit! I was almost sitting on the bus drivers lap and Matt was squished in on the front door. A funny guy was yelling at everyone (making a joke to move, we THINK he was treating everyone like sheep in a pen) and the dude looked at Matt laughing like, yea funny hey?? Matt let out a belly laugh and I asked him what the guy said… “I don’t know” he goes!! hahaha… I could have sworn he knew! He just thought the guys laugh was hilarious. Add this bus trip to the list of crazy bus trips for South America. I’m sure there will be many more!
Friday Fernando and Patricia invited us up to Cerro Catedral with them. We checked the lift statuses on the site and 90% were green today! So we gave it another go and took off up the hill again with Patricia and Fernando! This day was much better! It was a blue bird day, the lifts to the top of the hills were open so we got some great torrain, some AMAZING views and great snow up on the hill. It was a great day to end our South American snow adventure.
Saturday we joined the group witnessing but we were a little useless as it was Spanish territory but we had a nice time spending time with those in the cong. and practicing our Spanish on them and getting to know them. That night at 7pm was the meeting, the public talk was in Spanish and we didn’t understand a word :). The English group went out to the second school to do the Watchtower in English though so we went with them and have never answered so much in a Watchtower ever! It was more like the old book study which was cool. The congregation was really nice though. They put the hard word on us to come back anytime as they need help in the group as they have a lot of interest! It would be a very cool place to live as both their summer and winter are great for adventure, being outdoors, camping, fishing, trekking, sports etc etc… Plus it has the advantage of not being a huge city, but a big enough city that you have everything you need. We really liked Bariloche and have decided that to us it’s probably the most liveable part of Argentina we have found (don’t panic parents, no plans to move here yet! :))
Sunday we went to Bariloche’s (MUCH BETTER) version of Arthur’s seat! There was a chair lift up to the lookout Cerro Campinario. But there’s also a walk, so we opted for the walk (due to the ice cream and chocolate we have been enjoying in Bariloche). The walk was step as! We don’t think they actually want you to walk up for free…. hehe. But we made it and realised how unfit we have become. The view was spectacular as you can see above. It was ridiculously windy though! SO the ears started to hurt after a little bit, but you could have a yummy cake and hot chocolate up the top (we didn’t have cake)… hehe So that was a great spot and beats Arthurs Seat hands down. 🙂
Monday Patricia and Fernando dropped us at the bus station and we jumped on a 20 hour bus ride to head to the BIG city Buenos Aires.
Timeframe: Wednesday 14th – Monday 19th August 2013
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