Backpacking in Bariloche

PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56780&id=515011896&l=78f59e4d91

On Wednesday, we put together all our backpacking supplies and headed out on the trail. The trail started at a ski resort that was not very active in skiing that that moment due to it being summer at the time. The trail took us through some beautiful areas and up through a steep valley. There were a number of Argentine families and backpackers making their way down the in the other direction. We came up to a beautiful like surrounded by high bare peaks on 3 sides. Beside the lake sat a refugio with beds and a kitchen that people could use if they didn´t have a tent. You could even buy a homemade pizza from the refugio if you really wanted to. There were probably 30 others camping around the refugio, indcluding ourselves. There were a number of Americans, but their knowledge of Spanish was pretty basic. The water was quite chilly but it was nice to take a dip. Up on the side of the bare sided hill there was a large patch of snow. I couldn´t understand how it still hadn´t melted considering the high temperatures during the day and it´s exposure to the sun. While making dinner, we met two guys about my age from Buenos Aires who were doing a little trekking as we were. They were studying in Buenos Aires. They talked very fast and it was especially hard to understand them in particular, but it was a good chance to practice some Spanish. They said they were going to the same places as us for the 3 day trek, but we didn´t see them after that night. The stars that night were amazing, I´m pretty sure more than I had ever seen before.

On Thursday, we began the difficult trek to Refugio Jakob. It started with a very steep climb up a rock face which was probably better to do in the beginning rather than all at the end. At the top we came to another mountain lake and had another large rock face to scale. The climbing part wasn´t that difficult, it was more the descent that was the hard part. We had to descend in elevation everything we had just climbed in to a large valley. You basically had to sled down with your feet while avoiding falling over. Otherwise, it would have been treacherous for the knees. Needless to say, coming down was a very slow process. Although, the views were aweseome. You had snow peaked mountains to the right and a large valley to the left. It was pretty nice to be back on flat trails after the long descent. The only thing was on the other side of the valley we had to do exactly what we had just done. We scaled a large rock face and then descended back into the valley to where the refugio was sitting on a lake. It was a difficult trek being on the rock faces but we saw some cool things. There were a lot less people camping near this Refugio, only about 12. We met a Canadian who was camping near us who had hiked all of the Appalachian Trail and was down in South America for some vacations. The wind roared across the lake to the refugio. The sunset went down through mountain peaks and provided a great sight. It didn´t get dark until about 9:30 which meant that we had light for a long time. We chatted the night away.

We awokened Friday to a rain but luckily that´s the only time it rained during the day. We hiked the 10 miles down the valley, walking along the river. There was a dog that followed us for a long time. He would run ahead and bark until he could see us and then he would run ahead again. It was almost as if he was scaring away the dangerous animals so we wouldn´t get hurt when we passed. The river was ridiculously blue and seemed something out of a fairytale. We finally came to the road only to learn that the nearest bus was another 2 miles up the road so we had to keep on trekking. We ran into two guys from Holland which made the trek a little more interesting. We finally came to Colonia Suiza (Swiss Colony) which has become a touist attraction to come see how the Swiss Immigrants lived during the time of the colony. For a bit of info, Argentina saw the success that US had had with boosting their economy by bringing in imigrants so Argentina did the same by bringing in tons of Europeans to populate their sparsely populated country during the 19th century. The majority of the immigrants that did come were poorer Italians while the Argentines had desired the rich Western Europeans. There were also many Spaniards, Welsh, Swiss, Jews, and many others that came to find a new home in Argentina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_in_Argentina). While waiting for the bus to head back to town, a college aged girl from Buenos Aires (what a surprise) offered us some of her maté and we talked a bit. Back in town, it felt really nice to be able to rest the legs. We went back to the same hostel to find it almost exactly as we had left it with many of the same people. The American girl (who was pretty good at Spanish) had been subletting her apartment out in Boston while she was living in Argentina. She had just received a message from one girl from Israel that was telling her that she was going back to Israel 5 months early eaving the American girl without someone to pay for the rent. That sucked. That night we decided to splurge and go to a restaurant to get some high quality Argentine beef. Argentina is known for their wine and their beef, both of which I can attest to are of very high quality.

Bariloche, Argentina with Harrsion

PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56774&id=515011896&l=98757cbaea

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon riding bikes around the beautiful areas of Llao Llao which is a 30 minute bus ride from Bariloche. The hostel which rented the bikes was full of Hippies and books of buddhism. It was certainly a workout for the legs with all the hills to climb but the views were wonderful. The snow topped mountains stood right next to the lakes. The area out there was full of places that had camping spots and also hostels. Also, the more fancy Hotel Llao Llao which is a very fancy hotel set on a small hill in the middle of a valley with mountains all around. The hotel has great views and caters to the rich (aka not us). At the viewpoints of of the road you found vendors selling sandwiches and locally made raspberry wine to quench your thirst in the hot day. After the 25 kilomters, we went back into town. At the hostel that we moved into, we met an American girl who was living in Bariloche for 6 months teaching English at an orphanage. I was thinking to myself that I sure wouldn´t mind living here for 6 months. We met a lot of people from Buenos Aires at the hostel and around. There was a really nice couple who taught me how to make a Argentine dish with ham, cheese, tomato and a kind of tortilla outside. Quite delicious. It seems that the Argentines travel a lot during the summer months so the hostels are not only full of foreigners, but also a lot of Argentines. Watching TV, it seems like almost all of the movies and also the television programs are American made with either Spanish subtitles or they´re dubbed. Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey happened to be on TV that night.

On Monday, we awoke for our Hostel breakfast of pastries and took a boat out from Llao Llao to visit the Parque Nacional de la Arrayanes (National Park of the Arrayanes) and Victoria Island. We met an older couple (in their 80s) and their daughter (in her 50s) from Buenos Aires while traveling on the boat. They were very nice and were interesting to talk to. Since Harrison was going to be studying in Buenos Aires, they had a lot to share about the city. The whole boat ride they spoke loudly over the loudspeaker to try to get everyone to buy their DVD of the national park because it was supposed to be the best there is and a must buy. I have my doubts. The national park is well known for the forest of Arrayanes trees which is the only forest of this type of tree in the world. It closely resembles the Crape Myrtle. It soaks large amounts of water so it´s hard for anything else around it to grow, leaving a forest of cinnamon colored trees. It´s pretty cool although it has become a bit touristy. Afterwards, we took a trip to nearby Victoria Island which had a lot more trails to explore and a beach to the lake. Hidden among the trees were many National Park Service buildings. I was thinking that it would be an interesting way of life to live on the island a a park ranger. At the end of the trip, Harrison was even able to get the digits of the daughter to be invited for dinner in Buenos Aires. There was an younger girl from Buenos Aires back at the hostel that provided a good source of learning some Spanish. She was really nice. That night I had to go to the internet cafe to finish an application for the AIESEC position of Vice President of Exchange for the local committee in Viña del Mar and I was there until the wee hours of the morning. The internet shop was full of teenagers playing internet computer games with each other such as Counterstrike. It´s sometimes said that the youth all around the world have more in common with each other than they do with the older people of their own culture.

On Tuesday, we spent the day to relax in Bariloche. I set out on my quest to find a sleeping bag that good for backpacking. The one that I had had was a little too large and I had the idea of finding one at a cheaper price in South America rather than buying another one in the US. I didn´t think it would be a difficult task to find a sleeping bag in such an outdoorsy city such as Bariloche, but I seemed to have been mistaken. I asked many people and got sent to places all over town that didn´t even sell sleeping bags. The ones that did selling sleeping bags that I found were of pretty poor quality. It didn´t help that I forgot about the siesta from 1pm to 5pm where everything closes down. I finally ended up finding one of quality about 3 blocks from the hostel after searching all day. We were talking with a Canadian at the hostel and he recommended that we check out some backpacking near Bariloche because it has some awesome views. We decided to take him up on his suggestion.

Valparaíso, Chile to El Bolsón, Argentina

PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56772&id=515011896&l=8da007f7c5

On Thursday, I spent the better part of the day trying to get my visa situated. I was planning to leave for Argentina in the evening and I needed to register my visa before leaving the country or else I wouldn´t have been able to return. I first went to the municipal building in Valparaíso thinking that was where I needed to go. After waiting in line for 45 minutes, they told me that because I was going to live in Viña del Mar that I would have to register my visa in Viña del Mar. I was in a bit of a hurry because the offices involved in visas are only open until 1pm everyday and I really needed to get it that day. I made the trek back to Viña del Mar to search for the International Police Building in Viña del Mar which took a bit of searching. I waited in line for a bit and then the International Police took all my information. I waited some more and then after that I had to go to the -Civil Registry Building in Viña del Mar to put in a request for an identification card. After a 20 minute walk and asking a number of people, I found the building. I then had to wait 40 minutes in line to finally put in my request to get an identification card and receive the slip of paper that I needed to leave the country. I set off from the bus station in the evening leaving at 6:30 pm for the 14 hour trip to Osorno, Chile in the south. I then got on another bus at 10am headed for Bariloche, Argentina which was a 6 hour trip. The drive through the lakes region was absolutely beautiful with tons of lakes with the Andes mountains backdrop. On the bus I met a friendly Chilean man going to visit his daughter in Bariloche and two Argentine teenagers heading back home after visiting relatives. The Argentine guys shared some of their music which was pretty techno. I had some trouble at the border because as I was leaving Chile, the immigration officer for some reason did not stamp my passport. When I arrived at the Argentine immigration building, about 3 miles away from the Chilean immigration, the Argentine immigration officer spent a lot of time debating about my situation and talking to his superiors before finally letting me through on the basis that I was probably telling the truth. After arriving at Bariloche around 4pm, I hopped on another 2 hour bus to the south to El Bolson to meet up with my friend from UNC, Harrison. On the way out of Bariloche, we came across a large forestfire, burning forest on the outside of town. The police and firetrucks had already arrived and a number of onlookers were nearby. After asking people in Bariloche a couple days later about it and them not having heard anything about the fire, I assume that the fire did not cause detrimental damage. We crossed a lot of barren land and nothingness until we came to the small town of El Bolsón (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Bols%C3%B3n,_R%C3%ADo_Negro). I was looking for Harrison´s friend´s home for they lived in El Bolsón. I took a taxi through a valley with mountains on all sides, and hiked a mile into the forest to find their house. As I was hiking down into the valley, I came across many tired backpackers making their way back to the road. I came to the house only just as dusk was setting. The houses was set in valley with wonderful views all around. It was located among the refugios which are the last stop for backpackers before heading out on the trail. The family was from California, but the husband and wife had moved to Argentina 20 years ago and raised their children there. I found the son´s English accent interesting because he had learned English from both of his parents, but having not lived in a English speaking country, his accent was a little different. They were in the process of building a lodge for guests and they had a hottub with an old fashioned heater fed with fire and logs. Some friends from around town had come over for the evening before they were going to head into town for the nightlife.

Saturday morning, Harrison and I left the house to go back in town. We spent the afternoon in town strolling through the Saturday market. El Bolsón is basically a town of a lot of hippies. Their appearances reminded me a lot of the youth of 1960s America. I opened my wallet up at the bank only to discover that my debit card was nowhere to be found. Good thing I brought traveler´s checks. In the afternoon, we both took a bus back to Bariloche to spend some time in the beautiful city. Its proximity to a large very blue lake makes it a picturesque setting. Bariloche has a tourism industry that has developed a lot but it still retains homey feel. Without seeing or hearing Spanish, you could easily mistake yourself for being in a Swiss Alps town due mainly to the architecture. I´m not sure why, but a number of the hotels and hospedajes were German themed or European themed. We walked around town trying to find a hostel to stay in without much luck. We probably went to about 10 hostels, all of which were already full for the night. We finally gave in and stayed at a hotel for $20/night/person compared to the $10 price for hostels. When we saw the room, I was surprised to find that the bathroom had a bidet in which I thought was only found in Europe. I would of thought that it was just that it was a European themed hotel, but a day later in the hostel, I found that their bathroom had a bidet in it as well. I don´t know.

Week After 'Cocosur 2009'

PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56755&id=515011896&l=58e481c3e7

After the week of the conference, many people from the conference went to Valparaiso to vacation for a bit considering many were in Chile from other countries. ¨Paraiso¨ is spanish for paradise and i´d say that description is pretty accurate for Valparaiso. It´s a coastal city directly west of Santiago and where I´ll be studying until December. Connected to Valparaiso is another city called Viña del Mar. They are very close to each other and similarly sized cities. I´ll be living with a family in Viña del Mar while I study at La Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (The Catholic University of Valparaíso). I stayed in a hostel with the local committee from Buenos Aires which was a lot of fun. Of course we had to go to the beach on Tuesday and enjoy the summer weather. Tons of Argentines (and Chileans for that matter) flock to Valparaiso/ Viña del Mar during the summer because of its nice beaches, so it was pretty crowded. I spent the evening with the group from Uruguay going to the supermarket and getting lost trying to find our way back to the house they were staying at. I found that MacDonalds is a popular late night snack for those in Viña del Mar. I ended up eating MacDonalds both of the first two nights after the conference only because that´s where everyone I knew was going and quite possibly it was the only thing open in the wee hours of the morning.

On Tuesday, I checked out Valparaíso which is really nice city. The buildings are painted a wide array of colors while the limits of the city stretch up onto the surrounding mountains. A Chilean who had spent a while living in Germany approached me and started speaking to me in German. After he saw my confused look, he started talking in Spanish. I told him that I was in fact American not German and we talked for a bit. He had moved to Germany and married a German woman while he still owned a house here in Valparaiso, and he and his wife were on vacation. He was a really nice guy. After I told him that I was going uptown, he insisted that he give me a ride. After making my way back to the hostel, I went with the crew from Buenos Aires to the supermarket. We bought some salad makings, some hamburgers, and of course the salt (Lots of salt is a requirement of any Chilean meal; put on everything from meat to salad to sandwiches). I was quite surprised at the level of security in the supermarket. To enter, you must pass through a turnstyle with a security guard collecting all bags that could possible be used to steal food. And then another 8 or so guards were dispersed through the store keeping watch on all clients. All employees were dressed very professionally with all of the same uniforms. In the produce section, there was a person to weigh your produce and tag it with a barcode. There was a number of employees working in the meat section, another couple in the deli section, another in the flower section, one in the section of bread, and or course the cashiers and baggers. The bread in Chile is so much more delicious and cheap than at home which is really nice. For the night we all went to the club. We had dinner around 11, then went to a friend´s house, and then finally we went to the club around 2. It was pretty packed being that it was the summer but the music was quality. We danced the night away and didn´t leave until it closed down around 5am. We walked the long way back to the hostel, but it was a good night.

On Wednesday, after 4 or 5 hours of sleep, I joined the group from Buenos Aires as they went to Isla Negra (Black Island), which is actually not an island at all. It is a city on the coast, south of Valparaíso. It was about an hour and half bus ride down until we came to the city. It´s generally a small coastal town. It´s known for being the home of Pablo Neruda for some time. He was a famous Chilean author who is world renowned. We visited his house which was full of things from ships, particularly the part of the ship that sticks out on front with many times the carvings of goddess women or something like that. He had those hanging up all around his house. Afterwards, we went over to the beach nearby to enjoy the afternoon. There were huge rock formations near the beach which made for nice climbing. The water crashing onto the rocks made for some spots where slipping into the water could be quite a bad situation. After traveling backing to Viña del Mar, I had to spend a night of rest instead of heading to the disco club.

Jan 12-17: AIESEC Conference 'Cocosur 2009'

PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55677&id=515011896&l=6c0d7b6b2d

AIESEC is the world´s largest student organization in 107 countries and in short, it´s an organization that develops globally minded leaders through conferences, working in a local committee, and participating in internships abroad. Basically, the local committees work with local companies to create internships for people in other countries while the committees in other countries are doing the same thing for students of all other countries (including Americans). Each local committee then sends members to other countries to participate in an internship and live with the local comittee. It´s a great way to meet people from all over the world. I´ve gotten to meet people from Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, tons of people from the US and many more. The day after I arrived in Chile, the AIESEC conference began near Valparaiso at a small Chilean resort (but less a resort and more like just a Chilean vacation place for the weekend). This was the annual conference for the Southern Cone which brought together all the AIESEC members of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. It was basically a week of getting to know other people, learning about how to better perform in our local committees, and also learn how to be better leaders. The conference is run by members of AIESEC so basically it´s just a lot of fun. I found out quickly the differences between the Spanish that I learned and the Spanish of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. First of all, in Chile many of the ´s´ are cut off at the end of the words so at times it can be difficult to understand. Not to mention the rapid speed at which many speak. And of course different vocabulary for many things that I had learned. I had a lot of catching up to do. During the day we would have sessions and then by night party. I have found that I´m quite the fan of Chilean and Argentine music because it´s all about dancing and it certainly gets you in a good mood. I was introduced to the Argentine drink Maté which is made by putting yerba (an herb) into a container called maté with hot water. It´s a very social drink and is normally passed around to everyone. During the conference, there was always someone drinking maté. Interestingly enough, due to its similar appearance to marijuana, it has not been unknown for gringos to attempt to smoke it when passed maté. It has a lot of caffeine and being the caffeine fiend I am, I´m sure I´ll be drinking a lot of it in the future. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)

AIESEC Winter Conference 2008

PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55665&id=515011896&l=a1340d6aad

From December 27th to January 2rd, I attended an AIESEC National Conference in St. Louis, Mississippi. I had a blast. We drove up from North Carolina with 3 of us (2 people from Appalachian State and myself). There were about 150 people there from all across the US with lots of partying and then sessions during the day. I had never seen the St. Louis Arch, so that was pretty cool. We were in a Sheraton Hotel (I think) for the 5 day conference. I met people from South Korea, China, Poland, Costa Rica, and Russia. The President of AIESEC International, Juan Cajiao from Costa Rica, came and served as Conference Chair which was pretty exciting. There was also a lot AIESEC dances which are an integral part of every conference.

An example of an AIESEC dance:



AIESEC Youtube Videos: