TravelStream™ news feed for member mrsplaying_dead on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mrsplaying_dead en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:58:27 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mrsplaying_dead/2/1224144300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mrsplaying_dead/2/1224144300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mrsplaying_dead/2/1224144300/tpod.html Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:58:27 -0500 LIVING LA VIDA LOCA! SOUTH AMERICA - THE HIPPIE TRIP

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Bariloche, Argentina

Well, it is coming to the end of my time here at Hostel Pudu and Bariloche! So I have a lot of goodbyes and things to do before I head off to meet my cousin!The first thing is to celebrate Hostel Pudu 6 month birthday! We have a fancy dress party and the theme is 6 MONTHS OLD! So as you can imagine there are lots of grown ups in nappies, baby clothes and drinking beer from baby bottles! I chose to dress up as a 6 year old, lots of pigtails and freckles! The party was amazing, great music, craic and amazing guests who got into the full swing of things! The best thing however was the food. John bought a full lamb and we had to put it on the table and saw it in half! Lovely! We then covered it in tandoori sauce and put it on the barbecue to slow cook for hours! There was not a crumb left of that lamb when it was served! Of course being a birthday we had lots and lots of vodka jellies and a birthday cake, that once Emma got her hands on went straight in to the face of John, who then threw a big piece at Nicole the cleaner and it hit her square in the eye, BEHIND her glasses! What a shot! The rest was carnage and then it turned into a riot when Ed the local chef from Cork arrived dressed as a KKK member and Sebi the German sommelier came as a priest and Conny, Ed´s Argentine wife was a blacked up chimney sweep! I thought they all looked hilarious but there for a Yank there that didn´t appreciate it and a bit of to do was hard! But then it was all forgotten about and the party continued in full swing till the first guests arrived down for breakfast!Later that week, myself, Emma and Nicola, packed a picnic and champagne and rented some bikes to do a 30km cycle through the national park! I lasted five minutes and 2 kms before getting off the bike and pushing it back to the shop! Not only where my thighs burning already but every time a car or bus rushed by me I fell off or wobbled uncontrollably on the bloody thing! It was not fun! So I brought the bike back, hopped on the bus and met the girls in the park where we walked through the dead forest to get to a stunning shimmering lake where we sat down, cracked open the champagne and talked and giggled and gossiped as the sun warmed our skin! This picnic spot is probably one of the prettiest places I have ever stumbled across!From biking to another sport, but this time one I like and can actually do, horse riding! Myself, Emma and John booked a half days riding through the open plains near Bariloche! The day started at lunch time with an Asado, all the meet you can eat and wine too, a dangerous combination when you are just about to mount and big bloody horse! But a think the wine gave me just the right amount of edge to up my courage and sing voice as I belted out Raw Hide and any other horse referenced songs as well, of course the favorite was My Lovely Horse, the Father Ted Classic! The horse riding was great, fast and through real cowboy country and fields! Yee Haa!To say goodbye and as a treat, we went to the Butterfly restaurant http://www.butterflypatagonia.com.ar/. It is my favorite restaurant in the world and has the most amazing food, wine, location and staff. It is a seven course taster menu with seven different bottles of wine to match the food! It is set right on the shore of the lake and it is a small exquisite decorated place and everything combines so perfectly to created the most memorable dining experience ever! As usual the food was out of this world and the wine flowed freely! When we were finished we all went out on the beach, lit a bonfire, lay down, drunk whiskey and smoked cigars whist bathed in the light of the full moon! It was the most perfect way to say goodbye to my friends, family and Bariloche!
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Bariloche, Argentina

And after all that photography I had to record the greatest thing about Bariloche and the best assistant ever! The wonderful, delightful, funny Mila Moo May! Mila is a street dog that Emma and John kidnapped and rescued and give her a wonderful home in Pudu! She is the best dog in the whole world, and quite a poser for the camera too!
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Bariloche, Argentina

Talk about being inspired! Bariloche has some many cool things and stuff that make it such a great place! After the dogs and chocolate and graffiti the other really cool thing is the banged up, held together with string and tape old bangers of cars that everybody drives around proudly like they are the newest Ferrari! Some of them as so funny and it is a miracle they actually run and don´t fall apart with the wind blows!
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Bariloche, Argentina

Another day, another project! This time to photograph the cool and funky graffiti on the streets of Bariloche! Not much to write about but just have a look at the photos and enjoy!
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Bariloche, Argentina

So after all that chocolate I needed some exercise, so I took my camera and this time and dog as well and we hit the mean dog filled streets of Bariloche to photograph all the dogs that roam wild and free.Wild dogs are a big problem in South America but I have never noticed so many in one place as here in Bariloche. They are never alone either, they hang out in gangs in parks and on the beach, all that they need now is some beers and they would be like the teenagers hanging at the same places! There is a very cruel tourist attraction in the main square which are big huge or tiny baby San Bernard dogs, that people pay to have their photographs taken with! The dogs are filthy and left tied up all day and they are not treated very well by the owners! The dogs are also really aggressive and angry and you can see the sadness in their big red bloodshot eyes! It is very sad and if anyone does go to Bariloche please by a stuffed dog instead of giving these horrible exploitive dog owners money!
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Bariloche, Argentina

So this week I didn´t do much but I didn´t just want to sit around the hostel doing nothing, plus I am getting a little restless and feel that I haven´t done anything creative in a while. So, I took my camera and went all around Bariloche recording details and some of the lovely things this town has to offer. The most lovely of all being the world famous Bariloche Chocolate. On the main street of Mitre there are over 20 chocolate shops. Some large, some small, some chains, some home business, some with factories attached, some with cafes, but all with free samples! Yes that is right FREE SAMPLES! So twenty free pieces of luxury chocolate is my idea of dying and going to heaven!!!! The chocolates are artist bonbons or bars of chocolate of every shape, size and flavor! From morroc, which is like a praline, to curry, pepper and oregano flavored bars! Chili and white chocolate is amazing! One of the best however is the local grown raspberry covered in Organic milk chocolate from my favorite store Rapa Nui! Delicious! There are cakes, ice creams, biscuits and sauces and everything else in between!  The most famous shop is the large Mamuschka http://www.mamuschka.com/ but the nicest two are Fenoglio, which even has a chocolate museum  http://www.museodelchocolate.com.ar/ and Rapa Nui http://www.chocolatesrapanui.com.ar/rama.htm Plus the white chocolate from Reina de Chocolate is the nicest in the whole town! There is even a chocolate festival http://www.patagonia.com.ar/rionegro/bariloche/fiesta.phpSo if you are a chocolate nut or chocoholic Bariloche is the place to indulge your every desire!
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Bariloche, Argentina

Another week, another out door parrilla. As great, tasty and satisfying as they always are. We also spent the week making changes to the already great Pudu in order to make it even better! We cut down some trees to improve the view, we moved stuff around to make more space and spruced up the paint work. And it is all working very nicely cause Pudu is one of the highest rated hostels in Bariloche on Hostel World http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Pudu-Bariloche-29555.In Bariloche there is a mountain called Cerro Campanario and it was voted one of the top 10 views in the world by National Geographic! So a gang of us packed a picnic and booze, of course! And we headed up one beautiful evening for sunset! A 10 minute bus ride brings you to the base of the mountain and then it is a steep STEEP hard climb for about 40mins to the top! I thought I was going to die within the first few minutes and by 5 minuets in my legs where like jelly, my face like a tomato and my breathing like a race horse! Nice! But I made it! And what a treat was in store for us!The views, as usual in Bariloche, were stunning! Lakes and lakes and more lakes dotted all in between the beautiful mountains and forests! Then the sky turned the most amazing fire red, with lots of peaches and pinks and blues and purples all mixed in with the funky cloud formations! It was silencing and we just absorbed it all in our own quiet way and took so many photos to remember this view for ever! We then polished off the wine and beer and cheese and crackers and started off for home!Easier said than done! We only had two small torches between us all and there was no trail or markers or clues as to how to get down! And we never left a trail of bread crumbs! With in minutes we were lost and it was dark! We walked all the way down through the thick prickly forest and came to a dead end and a lot of wild dogs barking! We then had to climb back up! I was dying by this stage and trying to dodge the branches and twigs and rocks and trees was getting harder as the night closed it! In a way it was really good fun and like a mini adventure or crisis depending on how you look at it, but I was just getting tired and fed up! Then a miracle happened, i looked up and saw a shooting star and made a wish to get out and then we did! We ended up at a road! Saved! So we walked out of the forest, unharmed apart from a few cuts and grazes and head back to the hostel for a well earned shower and beer! So just remember, when you wish upon a star ...
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Bariloche, Argentina

To celebrate the first day of Spring, Bariloche had a Peace Festival and the town was filled with cool stalls and sculptures of peaceful things! After walking around and admiring these we then hit the chocolate shops to sample some of the worlds finest chocolates, we, in my humble opinion that is!The sun has been shining all week and John and one of the guests Tom and Brodie where busy building an outdoor barbecue! They had been working had all week and by the Saturday night it was ready to go! So out came the garden furniture, fairy lights and alcohol and, of course, the delicious Argentine steak! John is an amazing Asador, bbqer! And the food kept flowing and just getting better and better with each new cut! Everybody was chowing down in blood sausage, as rich as chocolate, sweetbreads and glands, tasty! then every cut of meat that you can think of, from rump to ribs to the world famous Lomo! As usual it was all washed down with faultless Argentinean Red Wine! The party was a great success, as usual, and I am sure that is just the first of many uses of the out door BBQ, just one of the many great facilities at Hostel Pudu!
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El Bolson, Argentina

Two hours away from Bariloche, through spectacular scenery of mountains and lakes is the quaint little Hippie Market town of El Bolson. Every Saturday there is a big artist market on and this Saturday we decided to go! The sun was out and we were all in a very joyous mood. So Deanna from Canada, Ayel from Israel, Colleen from The States, Mark from England, and myself and Emma from Ireland set out with our Mate in hand and began our multi national road trip, day out!The bus ride there was full of great scenery and lots of chat a giggles coming from the back where we were all seated. The market itself wasn´t very big today and nothing took my fancy apart from a necklace with the Mapuche frog symbol on it. Mark on the other hand spent a large chunk of money on an amazing hand carved chess set with druid figures! Such a beautiful set! However we were finished with the market after just a short while, so what do you do when you have nothing to do? Get drunk of course!So we headed to the supermarket and left with a bottle of Tequila, Cointreau, ice, limes, salt and plastic cups. We then headed to a space of green under some lovely trees and began to make Cadillac Margaritas! The first batch tasted foul but by the time it was drunk and we were on the second batch they were slipping down nicely! Ayel had the music going and we all choose two songs each to add to a play list on the ipod, and when it came to my choice of Queen´s Bohemian Rhapsody, we were all very tipsy and we all joined in at the tops of our voices and threw in a good dose of embarrassing head banging and air guitar! It was then a very long and hard to remember bus ride home where we drank more, sang more and generally acted like drunken fools all night long! Good stuff!
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Bariloche, Argentina

With the Santa Rosa storm over and the snow already disappearing fast it was a week of snowboarding and chilling out. The lovely thing about Bariloche is that it is very easy to relax and chill out in the spectacular mountains and surroundings. So I got the dog and we went for a lovely easy hike to the snow covered Cerro Otto. It is about a 20 min walk from the hostel to the base of the Cerro and then we walked around following the road all the way up to the top! We were even kept company by an unkempt husky dog, with one eye and very little fur left. About a quarter away from the top I was walking with one dog on either side of me and then all of a sudden the little mangy husky just disappeared! No foot prints, no clue as to where he went! Myself and Mila the dog went looking for him but he had vanished right beside us! I was so freaked out by this that my walk soon became a run! We reached the refuge and then Mila disappeared! She sunk right in to the snow as it was so deep so I had to go in and help her out! So we were now both soaking wet and up to our knees in snow but we didn't care as the views from the top where breathtaking. The clear blue sky, shimmering lakes and surrounding mountains combined to make such a pretty view, even Mila seemed to be taking it all in! On the way back down I decided that it would be nicer to walk directly down the mountain through the snow covered trees instead of following the road again! Nice idea but the snow was so deep that I took us ages to get down as we couldn't find the trails or the edge of the mountain! But it was such a peaceful walk, so silent apart from the crunch of the snow, the thuds of snow falling from the covered branches and the fast flowing sound of a river near by! Paradise! www.telefericobariloche.com.ar
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