94 hours on a BUS

No, we did not spend 94 hours on a bus all at once, but in 3 weeks we had the pleasure of doing so. Our last and longest ride was to vina. We left at 10am yesterday and got here at 10am today. Bariloche was AMAZING. Imagine a town, surrounded by mountains and lakes, filled with unlimited amounts of chocolate and icecream shops, and composed of a lively and welcoming popultaion. We stayed in a Hostel on top of a hill called La Justina. It was a small hostel, only 14 people, but cute and friendly. On Wed, Erin and I ran up a mountain called Cerro Osno, the view from the top was amazing and worth the pain (vale la pena). That night we had an AMAZING dinner at a resturante in town. It was the first time we hadn´t cooked in a long time, and it felt good to just sit and relax and eat Argentinian steak. The next day I went rafting with a group of 9 people. They came to the Hostel at nine and I didn´t end up getting back until nine. We went to El Bolson (2 hours) and had lunch at a house in the country. We then got on the river for a 2 hour rafting trip. The people in my raft didn´t speak any spanish, which made it an interesting trip of translating admist the " rapids" what the instructor was telling us. I call them "rapids" because they weren´t really rapids. But a goodt ime was had by all. In the group there were 2 argentinians, 3 chileans, and 2 women from Austria. It was fun to get ot kno weveryone.

One cultural ritual that I love in aregentina is Mate. Everywhere you walk, people hav etheir thurmus under their arm filled with hot water and their mate cup and straw on them. Mate is a mixture of herbs tha tyou put in a cup and drink out of a straw that filters the herbs out. Hard to explain. But its more of a social thing. Everyone shares (including the guys in the bus on the way to rafting). Its strong, but I didn´t mind it.

Ok, well i suppose thats all for now. I am going to post some more pics for you all. They are out of order, but I hope you enjoy them!
Cristina