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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 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 ve
ry 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 nearb
y 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.
ry 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 nearb
y 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.
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