Bariloche (for real this time)

So Bariloche and the Patagonia region is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life. We spent 3 days there and every day went to a different point with new views. It felt like I was living in a book of postcards, almost to the point that it was hard to believe what was in front of my eyes. Here's a link to the pics I posted on Facebook, and then a little day-by-day break down for anyone who's interested. Somebody tell me if that link works or not and if I need to post them somewhere else. It's too much of a pain to try to post them all on here...

http://southwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003666&l=4e99a&id=1534110046

The first day we got there it was raining and pretty cloudy so we couldn't see a whole lot. We spent the day in the town and did touristy stuff like bought t-shirts and chocolate. Bariloche is famous for its chocolate here, and rightfully so. The architecture in the town is very Swiss.

The second day of the trip we did a 6 hour hike, 3 hours both ways, the near top of a mountain called Cerro Lopez. I hadn't recovered my camera at that point so I don't have pictures, but if you look at the first pic in that facebook album we climbed almost to the top of the right peak. We spent like 2 hours at the top just to take it all in and eat lunch. It was a really, really good spot just to think and it was really peaceful and definitely the most beautiful panorama I've ever seen. We hiked down later and then ate at a restaurant in town.

The third day we took a bus trip to a boat and rode the boat out to a national forest and walked around and looked at the really pretty trees. (sorry for the obnoxiously long sentence) The forest is said to have inspired the animators of Bambi, though I'm not sure how true that is... After the boat ride we took the bus for a couple of hours to a beach and kind of hung out at the beach for a while. It, too, was absolutely amazing. We hiked up to a waterfall which was cool as well. After the beach we drove around a circular area in the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. We passed by a spot where they filmed part of the Motorcycle Diaries (if you've seen it, its by the bridge where they fall off the bike in the mountains, as I recall). That area reminded me a lot of New Mexico in terms of the flora and height of the mountains. I just found out that Ted Turner also owns a ton of land right in that area too, kind of funny...

The fourth day we woke up a little late and hung out at the hotel by the pool which also had an AMAZING view. We checked out and went to a ski lift type thing and went up to another panorama area (you'd think you might get tired of all the scenic views, yet it NEVER gets old, it's amazing). After the chair-lift we went back into town and I had great $7 US steak dinner at a traditional parrillo with a few friends. We then went to the airport and caught our flight at midnight... These people seem to have NO idea what late means...

Other than that it's just been day-to-day. I started my classes at Di Tella today and it sucked. I had a pretty hard time understanding the professor and the class seems a little bit over my head, especially if it's entirely in Spanish. I'm still in the shopping period so it's not a big deal, yet... I also signed up for a few classes at UCA today and those will start next Monday.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now!