Bariloche and things...

Last weekend I went to a town in Argentina called Bariloche. It is tucked up in the Argentinean side of the andes and it is situated right alongside a high mountain lake, really an incredible place. At some point I´ll be trying to get some photos out to you all but for now, if you wanna check it out i´m sure you could type in ¨bariloche¨ into a google images search and come up with some pretty amazing photos. Speaking of amazing photos/views, while we were there we went to Cerro Campanario, which is basically a viewpoint of the lake and the andes, and as a matter of fact, National Geographic rates it in the top ten viewpoints in the world, i.e. pretty darn cool. Also while we were there we went to Cerro Catedral which is definitely one of THE places to go snowboarding in South America. There we didn´t actually rent any gear because there wasn´t much snow left on the mountain and only two lifts were open so we weren´t quite sure if it would be worth it, but we still bought the ~15 dollar ticket to get up to the lodge on the mountain and check out the views and at least be in the snow a little bit. However, I had the incredible luck of running into one of the guys that worked at the hostel we were staying at and he lent me his gear so i was able to, for 15 bucks, make a couple of runs (3 to be exact) in south america. I´ve got to tell you that it is definitely high up on my list of things to do to return to chile/S.A. for a winter and experience the ¨real¨ season down here. I can´t even begin to describe the magnitude of this mountain range, it truly is something that I never could have imagined... hmmm... what else? that night we came back to the hostel and where they were to be cooking up an asado (bbq - but definitely different than the kind of que we might do in the states, i´m talking like grilling up half of a cow for 20 people). It should be said that the Argentinean meat is famous for its deliciousness, and rightly so. Probably some of the best meat that I have ever tasted (no homo). Anyways, we each paid about 10 bucks, 40 argentinian pesos, and ate sausages on bread hot dog style (aka choripan), four courses of meat, salad, and potatoes, as well as plenty of wine to go around. I´d say that´s a pretty good deal. It should also be mentioned that at the hostel they had 3 beers on tap from a local microbrewery (friends of the owners) that we about 2 bucks a pint and delicious. At the hostel they had a couple of hammocks and I definitely spent a lazy afternoon reading, napping, and checking out the view in one of them. All in all, a very good vibe and an enjoyable weekend to say the least.

Now I am back in Valdivia. This weekend is pretty exciting here. There are a couple festivals going on: a film festival (which is apparently a pretty big deal here, people come from all over south america... something I didn´t know before coming here, but whatevs) and a brew festival with about 10 localish breweries and there beers (this is the first time ever this is happening here, kinda cool). So I will definitely be trying to get out and see the festivities this week. Another thing is that I am going to be filling in for one of the gringas at an english institute and I will be leading conversation classes (in english) for 10 bucks an hour. I´m hoping that I will soon surpass Miles and that I too will be earning a salary (lol, much love homie).

Really i´m not sure what else to tell you all about, hopefully you have been enjoying reading my memiors. Until next time, peace out yall, hope you are all doing well (whoever is actually reading my posts - and to the others I don´t give an S about you, jk). Ummm, yeah... keep on keeping it real in the states and I will do the same down here. chao, y a las chicas, besitos, anden con paz! me voy!