Bienvenidos a Bariloche!

Steve and I arrived in Bariloche on Monday! Bariloche is located in the Patagonia region of Argentina and it is known as the Aspen or Vail of South America. It is Spring in South America so we weren´t planning on skiing but we decided to come here and take advantage of the incredible hiking trails and beautiful views.

Wednesday was our first full day here. We took a ski lift to this area called Campanero to get a 360 degree view of the area. When we reached the top we were amazed by our surroundings. It is a post card worthy view of snow capped mountains, green forests and rich blue water all around. This was a great way for us to start our trip. It gave us an idea of the type of mountains we wanted to hike and it gave us a glimpse of what we would be seeing when we reached the top of the hikes.

Tuesday afternoon we drove around the area and took a lot of pictures at scenic points. Then we tackled our first hike. This was called Cemetery Mountain for obvious reasons - there is a mini graveyard at the bottom. After we walked through this mini cemetery, we started our hike. Our hike was about 3 miles up and it was mostly a rocky trail so we had to do a lot of scrambling or climbing our way over the rocks to make our way to the top. Fortunately, Steve is an expert. He gave me a lot of great tips to tackle this course and helped me get through it. There is no way I would have attemped this on my own. (I´ll write more about Steve´s hiking navigations skill later). When we reached a nice scenic point, we took a few pics and made our way down. We had a full day of hiking for Wed so we wanted to take it easy on Tue.

Dinner was prepared by Steve on Tuesday night. He wanted to take advantage of the Parilla that we have at our house. We rented a cute house nestled in between the Andes mountains. This house has a huge outdoor fireplace that is attached to a large grill space for you to cook anything. It´s big enough to roast a pig. Steve decided to prepare filets and chorizo. The Parilla is a slow cooking process so it takes about 90 minutes. When he was finished we had the best dinner. Hands down this was the best meat we´ve ever had. After dinner we were thinking about how we could build one of these outdoor fireplace-grills back in VA....Steve´s main concern is HOA rules but otherwise, he´s on board!

Wednesday was a big day of hiking for us. We did 3 hikes:

Casita del Sol Peak
This hike was right behind our house. A very short hike (1.5 miles up and down) to get us warmed up. At the top, we saw incredible views, took a few pics and made our way down.

Llao Llao Peak
This hike was about 10 miles away. A medium hike (6.2 miles up and down). Again, when we reached the top, we saw incredible views, took a few pics and made our way down.

Lopez Peak
A very difficult hike. (11 miles up and down). All the hikes were difficult - no matter if they were short distance or long distance. They are difficult because none of them were smooth trails. They were all very rocky or there was hardly a path to hike on. You basically had to create your own path. Steve said it best, "Anyone could get themselves killed on any of these hikes". Lopez Peak was on a different scale. We had to battle weather conditions and a huge incline all the way. Now, all the hikes had incline (obviously we´re going up a mountain) but Lopez was consistently a 45 degree incline for long stretches. Another obstacle was the weather conditions. At the base of the mountain it was very mild Spring weather. As we started working our way to the top it started to drizzle. The drizzle turned into rain and then it stopped. As we got even closer to the top of the mountain, we reached the snow capped areas so we were hiking through the snowy trails in an incline. We wanted to reach Lopez Refugio ( at the top). There we could rest and grab something to eat before we made our way down. 75% of the way there, I was exhausted. I wanted to turn back around, especially once we reached the snowy parts. Steve kept on pushing me to go further and tried to motivate me with ¨When we get to the top you can have some cafe con leche¨. In my head I was thinking, ¨COFFEE??? I can have coffee on land!¨ However, he kept my spirits up by painting a great picture of what we would see at the top and then saying that we were almost there. He was right. We made it to the top and we enjoyed our cafe con leche and embraced the amazing scenery. We also made it in great time. The Park Ranger told us it would take about 3.5 hours to reach the top but we made it 2 hours and 20 minutes. After we had our mini break at the top, we made our way down. We were proud to complete 3 hikes in one day but we were exhausted.

Enough of the details of what we´ve been doing. Here´s the little stuff that I´ve pick on since Steve and I started our trip:

Man vs. Wild
Steve loves the show Man vs. Wild. Steve loves adventure and outdoor activities. He definitely brings out the adventurous side in me. When we go on our hikes, he´s always giving me a great lesson on the types of plants we see and what type of things to look out for in case we are faced with an emergency. He also gives me an education about natural erosion or anything nature related . Steve is also brave and at times fearless. I might look ahead at a trail and think, "Where is there to go? I don´t see anywhere for us to hike." Steve´s response, "Just walk over the bush or push all the branches and bushes out of the way and march on through!". Again, these are things I would never do on my own but when I´m with him, I just follow along. The best part of it is the rush I have when we do finish a hike. I´m really proud that I was able to tackle my way through. I have to agree with him when he says, ¨It´s all going to be worth it when we get to the top." He hasn´t been wrong so far. I have learned a lot from these hikes and I admire how resourceful he is. He always packs our backpack with the necessities and food. My contibution to the backpack: My Hairbrush. It is windy at the top so I need to brush my hair out because it gets knotty.

Our Quirks
After being together for almost 2 years, we are fully aware of each other´s quirks. We both love food. I´m obsessed . Steve will be driving and he is counting on me to give directions. Instead every few minutes I´m screaming out, ¨Pizzeria¨or "Ice Cream Parlor" or "Carne Asada" . His response, ¨Are we on the right track?". My response, "We have to go back to the chocolate store on our way out."

Then you have Steve´s positive attitude all the time. ALL THE TIME. When we were climbing up Lopez, I just wanted to throw off my backpack and just roll myself down the hill. Unfortunately the hill was rocky and too steep so I´d be throwing myself down a cliff. Through it all, Steve was upbeat and cheered me on. He would say, "You ran a marathon - you can do this!" or "Think about what we´ll eat for dinner tonight!" Then he would start singing my favorite songs to keep me going. He would even sing Michael Bolton songs because he knows I like Michael Bolton. The truth is, he likes Michael Bolton too :) Anyways, I love Steve´s positive outlook on EVERYTHING. I have my grumpy moments but he can always snap me out of it.

Life in Bariloche
The Argentines have been very kind and gracious. Everyone is very helpful and eager to accommodate. For example, when we reached the top of Lopez, the place where we wanted to rest was closed. We bumped into the owner as he was heading down (by foot). Since this guy is a pro hiker, it was only going to take him an hour to get back back. Even though he needed to be somewhere, he said he would turn back around and open up the shop for us so that we can grab coffee. Steve and I grabbed coffee. We wanted to pay and leave immediately because we didn´t want to hold him up. Instead, he did not rush us at all. We were there for almost a half hour and he just sat in the other room reading and writing . We really needed that break and we really appreciated his hospitality.

Also, as we have been walking around all the stores and street markets, people are very friendly and eager to talk to us, inquire about where we are from and help us if we need anything.

Today is Friday. Our 3rd full day here. We are not doing any hikes today. Instead we are walking around the city and checking out the stores, hanging out at cafes, and putting together a list of restaurants we want to check out. We´ll write more before we head off to Buenos Aires! Also, please excuse my typos in this blog....I´m tying as fast as I can and didn´t get a chance to proofread.