San Carlos de Bariloche

Back in Argentina, the hostel Amanda, Alessandra and me were supposed to meet was booked, it is the high season, there are so many people travelling in Argentina! It was late when I arrived, so I went to another one, had a good night's sleep and guess who I met in the new hostel on my way to breakfast next morning? Yep, Amanda and Alexandra! We went for a walk and for something to eat in the city centre, a few streets that are packed with fancy clothes and chocolate shops. Not only the Swiss and Belgians claim to have the best chocolate in the world! Then, I went to get some information for planning the next part of my trip. Not a big success: I found out that the trip from Bariloche to Puerto Montt, Chile, over three lakes by bus and boat costs 170 dollars, a bit too expensive for one day, but it is supposed to be very nice. Next thing, the website navimag.com where you can book ferries to the south of Chile did not work so I could not reserve the ferry, nore could I find out if there was some place left. I went to buy a very little tent, cooking material and a matress, so Patagonia, here I come!

At night, we had a good party with a huge pan of paella cooked in the hostel and two famous Argentinian artists playing flamenco, it was lovely. In the end, there was only some Argentinians, some Brasileros and me left. The DJ was asked to play some Brasilian music and so he did. That is how I got my first Samba and Forró lessons from Amanda. It is al very simple: Samba is um, dos, tres and Forró is um, dos, um, dos but if they speed up the rhythm of the dance, than I do not see the um, dos, tres any more! Anyway, we ended up with Amanda taking the leading role, so I just had to let me guide, which is a lot more easy, I can tell you! It was after four when we went to bed.
Next day, the alarm clock went of at 8 am. At 8.30, Amanda and Alessandra had still not appeared at breakfast so I went to their room to ask what was going on. Of course, they were still sleeping and they asked me to take the bus at 10 am and so we did. The bus went to cerro Catedral, a hill with a beautiful view on the lake that Bariloche is next to. We took two lifts up, lifts that are used for skiing in winter. It was very strange to take a skilift without snowboard attached to my feet, I hardly knew what to do to get of. Anyway, at the top of the cerro, there was snow and that was the main reason for our trip. Alessandra and Amanda had never seen let along touched snow in their lifes! So, to celebrate them touching snow for the first time, we had a little snow fight and it showed they had never done it before. Later that day, we had to say goodbye because unfortunately they left for Buenos Aires.
At night, Gabriella, the girl I had met in Salta and who is doing voluntary work in Bariloche at the mo, went to have a Swiss cheese fondue and then sadly we had to say goodbye as well, cause I had a bus to catch early in the morning.

That's all, folks, byebye