Mendoza and Bariloche

Mendoza
To reach Mendoza we rode the bus 15 hours from Buenos Aires.  We decided that since it only cost a few dollars more, we would get the "Salon Suite" (aka First Class) and whereby have seats that reclined all the way plus get fed.  We took a chance on a company named Sendas which our hostel front desk chica had never heard of and did not recommend.  She said take Cata, but that was $50 pesos more and we're about trying new things.  As soon as we got on the bus we knew why she hadn't heard of them.  The interior seemed like it had a bit of wear.  The plus side was there was wifi.  The meals weren't that great since we weren't able to tell them we wanted vegetarian meals ahead of time.  Llew tried some beef that look like shoe leather.  He didn't appear to be very happy with it though as he didn't take another bite.

We arrived in Mendoza sometime before noon and walked through the city underneath beautiful trees finally ending up at Hostel Alamo.  The city seems a lot more laid back than Buenos Aires and I love all the trees here.  Its also in the heart of their wine country, which neither of us care about.  We were hoping to be in the mountains, but unfortunately this is at the base of them.  I told Llew I feel like we're in Visalia except we're not visiting our awesome friend Daniel.  We've decided 1 night is all that we want to spend here.  We ate some more pizza and did a pyramid workout at the parque.  I like that they have areas at the parque that you can workout.

San Carlos de Bariloche

We rode 1st class with AndesMars bus company to travel to Bariloche.  We got mislead by their company into thinking we did not need to printout the ticket.  However when we arrived at the bus station we checked with that office and they said we would have to print it out and that it would cost $20 pesos.  That got us fired up enough to find an Internet cafe out of the bus station and print it for $2 pesos.  I do not recommend this company to anyone based on that.  I honestly don't think it was worth being 1st class with them. There was no wifi, and no individual tablets for entertainment.  The only benefit was being able to lay flat, but I couldn't stretch out as it was designed for someone 5'8 like Llew.  I did sit next to a pretty cool German named Sven who does video editing for a TV station.  After 18 hours of riding and not being able to do more than liquids in their in bus toilet, we were more than ready to be done. haha!

Bariloche is on a big lake (lago) called Nahuel Huapi.  The town is very touristy and teeming with foreigners and Argentineans.  It has a European look to it and even Sven said the houses look like the ones in Germany.  

We stayed in the Condor Hostel the first night, which had a neat chalet look to it.  The other 2 roommates in our dorm room were from Spain.  One of them had worked down in Torres de Paine and highly recommended doing all the treks down there.

We weren't able to stay more nights at Condor so we went hostel shopping. haha! We eventually decided to stay at Rodinia Hostel.  Immediately the nicest Argentinean couple made friends with us and shared information on what they enjoy in life and helped me with my Spanish.  There names are Mati and Lucilla.  She has pretty green eyes.  I asked if she had a sister, and she offered her brother. ;)  Hope we can meet both of you in the future.

Anyone that has gone hiking with me knows how I love my Tang!  I've noticed that Tang is very important to the people here.  They have far more flavors here from Lemon, Pomello, Pineapple, Peach, Mandarin, Apple, and mix of the fruit as well as the original.  I feel like I've been cheated out of all these flavors in the US. haha!

We did a hike at Companario which gives an awesome view of the lakes and mountains near Bariloche. 

Ah, my favorite color found in nature :)

We shared a dorm room with 3 Argentina amigas that are doing some traveling on their vacation.  Their names are Macca, Bianca, and Delfi (Sargento Piola, which means "cool sergeant")  The funniest thing is the girls thought we were in our mid twenties.  When I told Macca I was almost 38, she wouldn't believe me and I had to prove it by showing my license. haha!  Anyway, they were fun to hangout.  Macca helped me with my Spanish.  Muchos Gracias. :)  We all stayed up until 3am doing skits and silly fun stuff.  Good memories!  Thanks for making our stay at the hostel so much better chicas! :)

Today we left on the plane to fly to El Calafate.  This puts us in the heart of Patagonia.  Here's a glimpse of the awesomeness to come.