A Bit of Argentina

This last week I went with my friend Lauren to Argentina. I have already gone to Mendoza, Argentina, but this time we travelled to different cities. Last Tuesday night we hopped on a bus to Bariloche (bar-ee-low-chay), Argentina. The bus ride lasted 22 hours. We travelled down the Chilean spine of South America until we got to Osorno, Chile. We crossed the border and the Andes and arrived in Bariloche Wednesday afternoon. Bariloche is known for snow sports and chocolate. We did not partake in any snow sports, but we sure did enjoy chocolate there. Why is it famous for chocolate? German influence from years ago immigration patterns. In the city center, every other store is a chocolate shop. That's a lot of chocolate. Lauren and I had heard which ones we should go to from friends who had lived there, and we were not disappointed by their advice. We nabbed the tastiest chocolate bars filled with anything from lemon cream (one of my favorites!), dulce de leche, cafe, almond cream, forrest fruits, peanut butter, vanilla, etc. Delicious. We found the chocolates so delicious, in fact, that we went back to the same shops two more times! The ladies who worked in Torres Chocolate Shop in downtown Bariloche got to know us very well :) Another awesome thing we did in Bariloche was visit Cerro Campanario. I learned that the view from the top of this very large hill is rated by National Geographic as one of the ten best in the world. Wow.

 Oh, by the way, it was very windy and cold, but so worth taking the chair lift up :)

We shopped the artesanias of Bariloche for an afternoon. After that we got on another 22-hour bus headed toward Buenos Aires. Lauren and I ate way too much food, what with the chocolate, homemade sandwiches, and food the busmen gave us, and we finished 25 sudoku puzzles before we forgot it under one of our lunch trays and it was thrown away with lunch leftovers. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 9 am and had a few adventures trying to get to our hostel. First we got on the wrong bus. Second, the bus conductor from the right bus forgot to let us off at the right spot. Third, we had to get off the bus and get on the same number bus going the opposite direction to backtrack. Finally we made it. Our hostel was located in San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, a good neighborhood in my opinion. We were very cautious and worried about danger in Buenos Aires. We had heard from friends who had previously visited and from authority figures that we needed to take extreme precaution and watch our things carefully. We were sure to never walk around with purses, keeping our important belongings near our bodies and hidden. Thankfully, we were lucky and never ran into trouble. I think it was partly because of the neighborhood we were in, and also because we never stayed out too late. We always did so much during the day that we were never out in the dark past 11pm. That first day in Buenos Aires we explored our neighborhood and the Plaza de Mayo, the main plaza of the city, ate some bife de chorizo (awesome steak that Argentina is known for), and drank Argentine wine.
The next day was Sunday in Buenos Aires. What a good day. The San Telmo artesania, an artesania that had hundreds of vendors of crafts, wares, and goods line 15 blocks of the old cobblestone street called Defensa. There were lots of people out walking around, vendors selling, live guitar and jazz music groups, tango couples dancing on the street corners, restaurant servers dishing plates and drinks to diners at outdoor tables, and entertainers, like mimes, magicians, wise-crackers, and even a surprising  Jack Sparrow look-a-like. That was a great day to be outside and wandering around. That night we ate food at an arabic restaurant called Habibi.
Monday, our last day in Buenos Aires, we went on a bike tour of the city. My body relished the the exercise riding the bike because I haven't been able to work out in awhile. Bicycling on the streets was definitely an adventure. Imagine cobblestone one-lane one-way streets, cars parked on one side while biking on the other, big busses rushing past you that seemed to almost brush your elbow while you're biking in the gutter, trying to avoid the garbage and dog poo bombs. Definitely an adventure. We biked in a  group of 7, a couple from Australia, our new friend Ruth from Mexico, a man from Brazil, our guide, and Lauren and I. We biked towards the Plaza de Mayo, to Puerto Madero, to La Boca (a neighborhood known for it's tango and colorful houses), and back to our neighborhood San Telmo.
After the bike tour, Ruth, Lauren, and I went to a concert called La Bomba de Tiempo that is held every Monday night from 8 to 10. It is a group of percussionists, directed by one member. The director improvises the songs by directing the group with hand signals. It was very cool to watch the interaction and communication between the leader and the drummers and between the drummers themselves. You could tell that they were having an awesome time themselves, so that added to the crowd enjoying themselves. It was a very fun concert to go to. It was something that Buenos Aires is very proud of.
That was my week in Argentina!