Home of the Hippies (El Bolson, Argentina)

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick update from Patagonia...

I now feel comfortable saying Patagonia because everywhere I look is some new sharp snow covered peak or glacial lake. Where we last left off, I was working my way south, then located in Bariloche.

Bariloche was a very touristy, yet equally beautiful town with a fetish for chocolate, mountains, and all things german/swiss. The buildings all had a swiss architecture to them, and it was almost to much for Katrine, who just felt that she was back in Europe. It´s also the chocolate capital of Argentina, and we definately put in a good effort on understanding the whole breadth and depth of artesenal argentinian chocolate.

Unfortunately, I left my backpack in the taxi on the way in and lost it! AGAIN!

REALLY unfortunately is that it contained my journal. Now this is sort of my online journal too, but my journal really meant a lot to me, had a lot of the personal thoughts and contemplations, and just in general was shaping up to be a great memory keepsake. So I spent at least 2 days sort of... well sulking around, asking the taxi company if anyone had found it, and doing a whole lot of nothing. I then got my act together, chalked it up to the continual process of accepting change, and started looking for some of things I lost. Which means, books (Matilda in spanish, spanish dictionary), sunscreen, medicine, and my journal. Not all that much really, once again I was lucky that I didn´t have any valuables in there, just goes to show that I should never stick valuables in my backpack :).

So... after all this, we decided we wanted to go for a hike. My friends decided to go on a 3 day hike, up over on a glacier. It sounded wonderful. It didn´t occur to me until we were walking around that day, but I realized that I couldn´t go with them. I strained my leg pretty badly outside Copacabana, Bolivia, and ever since its been sporadicaly feeling strained again. I realized that I wouldn´t want that to happen to me again out in the wilderness, but yet I´m going to have lots of trekking opportunities in the near future and want to do them, so I would start up slowly and work my way up to multiday treks again.

The next day, they left on the trek, and I took a newly met Israeli friend up to Cerro Otto, what was supposed to be an easy 4km hike up and down for a nice afternoon. Well the trail, was a nice gentle slope, but I didn´t really see it, and we ended up walking up an extremely steep incline that went all the way beneath the gondola to the top. My friend decided halfway up that he wasn´t so into it anymore, but I continued on to the top, and then took the trail (which turned out to be 9km) down. All in all, it turned out to be longer than I had expected, but it felt great! I realized that my calf is just strained and tight, and that with lots of streching and strengthening, I can be back up and trekking in no time [knock on wood :)].

But enough about me, what about the places I´ve been?

Well, after the hike, I grew ancy about Bariloche, eager to move on, so I hopped a bus last night, beautiful bus ride by the way, to El Bolsòn. Described in Lonely Planet as, `the closest you can get to Berkeley, California in South America`, I would offer my own description as a mix between Berkeley, California and Sedona, Arizona, swirled together into one big hippie-organic-energyfield bundle and splashed down into the Patagonian Andes.

What does this mean? Beautiful mountains, a laid back feel, lots of parks with lots of backpackers and hippies lying around barefoot and guitar wielding, and some of the best ice cream in Argentina.

I´m set to stay here and relax a bit until my debit card finally shows up (I lost it back in Satiago). In some ways I feel like the rythem of the the trip has been for me to lose things, find them, replace them, lose them, replace them... oh well, asì es la vida.

So, Chao Chao for now,
Jesse