Argentina, We've been here for weeks!

So why is it taking me so long to write anything about Argentina? We've been here for almost two months. Well we had travel visitors, we didn't have internet all the time and I have had to spend time figuring out what I will be doing for work when I get back and we have no money left.  All these things kept me too bust to blog. But now here in Northwest Argentina, we have great internet and we are all sick with a stomach thing. Ye,s for the first time in 8 months of travels out stomachs have finally said enough. SO I am hoping to catch up on blogging as we lay low for a few days.
Back to the beginning of our Argentine adventure....
We arrived in Bariloche Argentina on Feb 29. The first couple of days we hung around took it easy and explored the town a bit. It is on a huge lake with the Andes in the background, much like Puerto Varas the town we just left. But some how the mountains seem closer and bigger. The town is a little bigger too with more dance, yoga and music happening. In our limited time Argentina seems even more European than Chile. In Chile Germany seemed to have more influence ( at least in the areas where we spent the most time), here its Italy. So you can probably imagine some of the personality differences between the two countries. The food here is more varied and flavorful but still too much meat and cheese. The street dogs, at least in Bariloche, are fewer but equally well cared for looking.

Bariloche is famous for making chocolate. This is one of the many colorful shops.

Main downtown square building

The bus ride from Chile passed through the Andes and had spectacular views. We went past a volcano on the Chilean side that has been spewing ash for the last year and a half or so. It has not effected the Chilean side much as the wind blows it to the Argentina side of the mountains. We could see the effects of the initial eruptions in the scorched forest we traveled through. Then came the layers of ash. More on that later.

The highlight of Bariloche for me was the hostel where we stayed, Hostel Achelay. It was so welcoming and well run. It has a great location, friendly helpful staff and was clean and safe. They had a weekly “assado” aka BBQ that was a lot of fun. When you arrive they invite you to relax before you sign in, then they give you an orientation to the town with a map and ask about what you might want to do, giving you their suggestions for the best activities. The other factor that made the place were the other travelers. There were a wide age range of people from all over the world with a variety of travel experiences. We had some great conversations that went beyond the usual how do you take what bus to where type or just plain travel war stories. Pablo the owner/manager(?) was a wealth on knowledge about traveling in Argentina. I wish they had a place like this every where we have been. I didn't want to leave!

One Bad Day in Bariloche
Today we went on our first adventure or partial mis adventure in Argentina. We were going for a hike but ended up on a bike ride, well at least some of us did. Here is how it went:
1. Went to wrong bus stop even with instructions in English.
2. Missed bus to the hike and didn't have ticket to get on the bus that came.
3. Got a bus to the Circuito Chico bike route. Got to the bike rental place didn't have cash and they don't take credit cards.
4. Get bikes and on the first down hill turn Anika wipes out has to go home.
5. I feel guilty for the rest of the ride which is gorgeous but with tons of up and down, on the hard side for me. But we did 13 miles, had a good lunch, and Anika was fine if a little scuffed up.
These are views from the bike ride:

We also took the chair lift up Cerro Campinaria one day and enjoyed the 360 degree view of the area. There is a great cafe up there too.

One part of view from Cerro 

After this our trip really changed because Paula and Ward and then my brother Mayne arrived. The next three weeks we had travel companions we actually knew before the trip. But that's for the next blog.