8th Entry 7-9-12 – Argentina
Howdy All,
I’m currently in Santiago, Chile and have been here for about 36 hours. Before Chile I was in Argentina. From Brazil Christina and I flew to Bariloche, Argentina. Bariloche is a town located in the Andes Mountains in Patagonia. The town is pretty geared for tourists and is well known in South America as being one of the skiing and snowboarding hot spots. The town is situated on the banks of a lake of which there are many in the region. The town is beautiful and has many mountains all around. While in Bariloche, Christina and I saw some beautiful scenes, ate a lot of local chocolate, took a snowboarding lesson, and had our first snow storm on the 4th of July. The snowboarding lesson was pretty fun. Our lesson was in the morning on a mountain called Catedral. There was snow everywhere, but it had warmed up a little the day before so much of the snow had a layer of ice on top. We had a group of 6 people in our two hour class. Our teacher was Dutch and travels to different hemispheres for winters so he can teach snowboarding almost year round. During the class we pretty much tried to learn some basics of snowboarding. I’m pretty sure I was the worst in the class which I’m blaming on my Achilles because it doesn’t let my foot bend quite like it needs to. Christina did pretty good and was able to do a little bit of snowboarding by the end of the day. I couldn’t really stand up with the snowboard attached to both my feet…. Oh well it was fun. We stayed on top of Catedral for most of the day even though it started snowing pretty heavily by early afternoon. We did a lot of walking around in Bariloche going up and down various streets. There was a local mountain called Otto that we wanted to go up, but it didn’t work out.
I’m currently in Santiago, Chile and have been here for about 36 hours. Before Chile I was in Argentina. From Brazil Christina and I flew to Bariloche, Argentina. Bariloche is a town located in the Andes Mountains in Patagonia. The town is pretty geared for tourists and is well known in South America as being one of the skiing and snowboarding hot spots. The town is situated on the banks of a lake of which there are many in the region. The town is beautiful and has many mountains all around. While in Bariloche, Christina and I saw some beautiful scenes, ate a lot of local chocolate, took a snowboarding lesson, and had our first snow storm on the 4th of July. The snowboarding lesson was pretty fun. Our lesson was in the morning on a mountain called Catedral. There was snow everywhere, but it had warmed up a little the day before so much of the snow had a layer of ice on top. We had a group of 6 people in our two hour class. Our teacher was Dutch and travels to different hemispheres for winters so he can teach snowboarding almost year round. During the class we pretty much tried to learn some basics of snowboarding. I’m pretty sure I was the worst in the class which I’m blaming on my Achilles because it doesn’t let my foot bend quite like it needs to. Christina did pretty good and was able to do a little bit of snowboarding by the end of the day. I couldn’t really stand up with the snowboard attached to both my feet…. Oh well it was fun. We stayed on top of Catedral for most of the day even though it started snowing pretty heavily by early afternoon. We did a lot of walking around in Bariloche going up and down various streets. There was a local mountain called Otto that we wanted to go up, but it didn’t work out.
We
had planned to leave Bariloche at 10:30 one morning, but there was pretty
serious snow falling at that time and our plan had to be rerouted to land
somewhere else. We ended up spending a
great deal of time in the airport waiting for our plane. Our plane finally arrived, and we took off
for Buenos Aires. Our flight lasted an
extra hour because there was not a place for us to land in Buenos Aires because
we had left so late from the previous place.
We ended up doing some circles in the air I think…. I’m not sure, I was
in and out of sleep most of the flight.
We finally got to Buenos Aires which is the capital of Argentina and has
about 13 million people in the metropolitan area. The city is pretty impressive. There is a combination of old buildings with
classic architecture and newer buildings with modern styles. Christina and I didn’t have much time in
Buenos Aires and even less when we lost an afternoon because of the delayed
flight. We did a lot of walking around
the city and saw many of the important buildings in the city. We actually were able to go inside the Casa
Rosada, The Pink House, which is where the president works. We also went to a Tango show. The Tango show was really entertaining. There was a live orchestra, about 8 dancers,
and 2 singers. Christina and I both
really liked the show. We also had some
typical Argentine meat. Meat, and beef
in particular, is very big in Argentina.
The first night in the hostel, there was a BBQ with all kinds of
food. It was really good. Christina and I also had a great time in
Buenos Aires.
Now Christina is
back home after two weeks of traveling around South America, and I am into my
last week of travel. I’m in Santiago,
Chile right now. My first impressions of
the city so far are that it is really nice.
The city is has been really nice so far.
There are a lot of well-kept parks, the city has been remarkably clean,
and everyone has been friendly. I am
staying with a friend of mine from William Carey University named Jean
Paul. His brother was on the tennis team
with me, so I go to know them both pretty well.
It is awesome to have someone that can help show you around a new
place.
So my next post
will probably be written from Texas or on the way back to Texas on one of my
342 layovers. Over and out!
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