Villa la Angostura, BsAs 2.0

I left El Bolson and headed north to Villa la Angostura, dubbed the "loveliest Argentinian mountain village," which is debatable, but gorgeous nonetheless. Here I stayed for 3 nights, and did some good hiking in the area.




One day I went on a short hike with 3 very out of shape argentinians from Buenos Aires who were vacationing for a week. I shouldn't say they were out of shape, that's too vague. I'm out of shape, but they just weren't used to long hikes. So instead of hiking up and down the mountain, we hitched up and down a lot of the way. I would gave rather walked and enjoyed it that way, but they weren't having it.




I love hitch hiking though. Here it's called "hacer dedo," or to do the finger. As in your thumb. Anyways.




We went to Cerro Bayo, a ritzy ski resort at the top of a mountain and on the way stopped to see a gorgeous waterfall. I really wanted to swim in it but it was the late afternoon, and nights get chilly in Patagonia.

In Patagonia during summer, you will find nobody besides Argentinians and Israelis. Ok, not true. But there's a lot more of them than any other nationalities. The good thing about this though is I got to meet and make friends with tons of Argentinians while in Patagonia. You can't really do this in BsAs.

The second day on Villa la Angostura I went on my own to el Bosque de Arallanes(sp?). I think this was one of, if not the first excursion I've done by myself since I've been in country. The thing about traveling alone is you're never alone, even if you want to be.







A few times In the last few months I've gone to churches just to get away from everyone. It seems to be the only place where noone will talk to you, so I doze off for an hour or so.

Anyways, the forest hike was 30km round-trip from the town, so it took a few hours. There was some solid incline and decline too, which I have grown to appreciate.

Great view of the mountains and lakes from there.

After 3 days due to every hostel in Villa la Angostura, San Martin, and Bariloche being full along with no available bus tickets to Chile, I had no other choice but to head back to BsAs. 20 hours later I arrived in el horno de Buenos Aires.

I got to the bus station, got a cab to a hostel, dropped my stuff off, and went to meet my friends Rober and Nico in Puerto Madero for a drink. They're two of the guys I met in Mendoza, and are great friends of mine now.

Nico works at the casino nearby there, so myself and Rober decided to go visit him while he was working that night. The roulette wheel was not in our favor.

I stayed a couple of nights in a hostel, then got invited by my friend Chelsea from Boston who I met in El Bolson to stay at her apartment in Palermo since her roommate was gone. I've really lucked out with this sort of thing. Anyways, I stayed with her for 5 nights or so, then moved back into a hostel to make sure I didn't overstay my welcome.

Last Thursday I went to Colonia del Sacramento, uruguay on a 3 hour boat ride. I only planned to go to renew my visa, but thought the people and the place were wonderful.
















I went and returned the same day, and successfully renewed my visa. 90 more days without the risk of deportation. Bueno.

In colonia I checked out the old part of town which is really tiny but interesting. Went to the supermarket, picked up some fruit and the same food I eat everyday (salame sandwich with queso cremoso, tomatoes, and avocado), and had lunch on a bench along the coast.

The boat is really big, and I thought the voyage was loads of fun. I have traveled so many hours on busses, any new mode of transportation is a treat.

At one point there was a tango show with two professionals doing their thing, and afterwards asking people from the audience to dance with them. The first song, 2 audience members were chosen, and it was painful to watch. The song ended, and the participating audience members went back to their friends and family who were clapping and smiling, seemingly out of pity (not to say I could have done any better).

Anyways, I was about to make my way back to the deck outside when an attractive 20-something was picked to try to tango. She got into position before the music started, and I started to get a feeling she's done this before. The music started, and so did some of the most graceful dancing I've ever seen. Here's an Argentinian girl wearing a jean skirt and tank top flying around the floor with the pro tango dude dressed in fancy tango attire, astonishing the audience. People were fighting with eachother to get a better view and see this girl move. When the song ended, it was followed by cheers and applause of everyone there. I got the chills. They danced to that song as if it was coreographed. She definitely showed the pro-tango-chick up. Her and her fancy clothes.

A day or two after that my buddy Rober told me to visit him at his work. He makes dental implants, cavities, crowns, dentures, that kind of thing. Anyways I went and hung out for a bit, he gave me an old cell phone of his that I could use while I'm here rather than using facebook to communicate with him and Nico. Very nice of him.

Other than that, I've pretty much just been hanging out with Nico, Rober, and a few brazilians I met at the hostel. Also Aussie Luke from Sydney, really cool guy.

It's hard to say who are more beautiful, Argentinianas or Brasileras. I think Brazil has the leg up for the moment with Geissy from Natal as it's representative. Stunning.







Right now I'm on the same boat I took before, heading to Colonia del Sacramento. From there, a 2.5 hour bus ride to Montevideo, where I will hopefully be able to catch a bus to Punta del Diablo.

I'm going to spend a week or so at the beaches of Uruguay in order to escape the summer heat in BsAs. Also to soak up as much warmth as possible before I head to the frigid North American temperatures. Should be good!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone