Strange Christmas
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
82
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Bariloche,
Argentina
Sunday, December 26, 2004
1004
Hostel 1004 came highly recommended to me by a number of friends, so I made the booking well in advance to secure a space for Christmas. It was as fantastic as they said. Fantastic views of the lake and snow capped mountains, a balcony (which came in use when the sun came out and the wind died) great lounge areas and a wonderful kitchen, which I used almost more than my own kitchen back home and definitely far more than any other kitchenette thing I`ve seen on my travels. There is definitely something homely about this place.
There were some interesting things going on in this hostel though which will all come out over the course of this entry.... Anyways, 10 days with a views and nice people is just the kind of relaxing time I need before leaving this continent for another, more expensive, one.
The First in 11 Months
I`ve been travelling for over 11 months now. Quite a long time. I`ve been staying in dorms for the most part, except in Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay where dorms aren`t very common, and only now have I come across people having sex in my room.
I came home at about 3:30am after getting fed up of the Wilkenny (Emily, all the pull places you told me about gave me nothing!). I thought I was the last person home in the 6 bed dorm (except I later found out that Susannah was out) and as the person below was in the bed below me, I had a bit of a tough time climbing into bed, almost falling off and not succeeding at stifling a giggle.
No sooner had I made myself comfy in bed than I heard the entire whispered conversation between the two people underneath. It was in Spanish, but I still understood everything and was willing them to shut up and sleep. They obviously didn`t get my telepathic message as I heard zippers and then I knew that they were going to go for it on the bottom bunk.
I shall spare you the details except to say that I felt as though I was going along for the ride as my bed moved about. It was extremely hard to stop laughing and I had to bury my face in the pillow. The upside was, that the next day the squeak in my bed was fixed as one of the participants the evening before was a staff member.
Rafting the Rio Manso
This was my one little bit of action for the whole 10 days. I didn`t go on any walks or anything. Just a spot of rafting. It was a very nice place to try out rafting for a first timer like me.
I was in a boat with an Argentinian family (Mum, Dad and Daughter and Bro in law and his daughter) and a couple of Norwegian girls. It wasn`t long before the Argie Dad gave me a headache. He was sitting in front of me on the boat and clearly not paying attention to anything except the scenery and would marvel "Que linda" every 2 minutes which really started to do my head in. Anyway, we were given the whole instruction bit and also had some time to appreciate the beautiful clear green water that was so still as it glided through conifers with the mountains shadowing in the distance. Nice. Very nice.
However, I was already tired before we`d even got to the rapids, so that wasn`t looking too promising. I have to say that I`ve turned into a massive weakling on this trip and when I go back to kickboxing, Andrea is gonna pound me into mincemeat!
The daughter of the bro in law got booted out of the boat by the guide at a checkpoint just before the rapids as he said she was too young (15) and that if anything happened to her on the rapids, the whole family would panic. She chucked a bit of a tanty and had a cry, which I fully understood, as I would have done exactly the same thing if it had happened to me (and I have been known to tantrum it up too...)
So we were a chick down when we went through the rapids. They were class III and IV but they didn`t seem too dangerous or terrifying or big to me. I expected far worse. They were great fun though!! I didn`t fall out of the boat like I thought I would and Maria and I got to have a paddle at the front of the raft which was good. I also got to swim through a rapid which was very fun, even if it was very cold! After the rapids I had a bit more of a float down the river before having to scramble into the boat to take the last rapid at the Chilean border.
We had to climb up a big hill covered in horse shit to get to the bus. It was a very difficult thing to do when my feet were frozen and the sandals I was wearing were the guides (he wouldn`t let me wear my thongs as he said they`d fall off). I barely managed to climb up, using my paddle as walking stick to bear all my weight.
The day finished with an asado - yum - but not as good as the divine one after horseriding in C̣rdoba, and then a snooze on the bus on the way back.
Chocolate
Bariloche has great chocolate, and the selection is a litte overawing. My favourite very quickly became Mamuschka`s with the revolving Russian dolls on the roof. They were small, attentive, had great chocolate, nice tins, big tasters and not too large a selection. Every day I would go to Mamuschka`s for my chocolate fix, generally a Tiramisu chocolate would work wonders. I also bought lots to take home and hope that it won`t melt before getting back to Oz, although Andy tried to melt some chocolate for pancakes and it wouldn`t melt....
Christmas - La Navidad
In Argentina they celebrate Christmas with a big dinner on Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) so we had a big dinner at the hostel where everyone made something to share. My contribution were curried eggs and mini pavs and I made honey biscuits and wrapped them up as presents for everyone.
The kitchens were hives of activity in the 2 days before the dinner and everyone would comment and ask question and ask for tasters. It was lots of fun.
The lounge and living area was decorated in Christmas colours and lights and the tables all set up to hold the massive amount of food. I was sharing a table with a Canadian brother and sister, their English 4th cousin, an American and the only other Aussie in the hostel. We gorged and giggled and then I went to call my family, who would be about to eat their Christmas lunch in Australia.
First I called my aunt, expecting, or rather hoping, that everyone would be there so I could do the whole group shout thing and be done with, but it was only my aunt and grandparents there. It`s time to go home when your aunt thinks that you are a Tongan on the phone. Has she forgotten my voice so easily? Okay, so I did start off with Feliz Navidad, but she`s read it in the emails, so surely.... Anyway, I had a bit of a chat with them all and then called Mum and Dad and got passed around. My sister still didn`t tell me that she`s bought a new car. I only know cos my aunt emailed me a couple of weeks ago about it. If I bought a $20,000 car my family would all know about it ASAP. Anyhow, had the chat. Told them I could see snow and they said it was going to be 35 degrees or something like that. Wished them a feliz navidad and then went back upstairs to get dessert.
I helped with the dessert dishes, but abandoned that when Love Shack came on and raced to the dancefloor for a bit of Christmas Carving of the Dancefloor. Proceeded to be silly and dance like a maniac. I think it is probably about the first normal kind of music I`ve come across in 11 months, none of that terrible cumbia billera or monotonous techno so I let out all the stops. Got a bit hot so put on my skirt and returned to jump and shout all over the shop.
I was taking a breather when the old guy that owns the place (and thankfully lives at the sister hostel in the mountains) told me that I looked beautiful before, but was even more so in my short skirt. Ah, chau old pervert. Meanwhile, I found out some seriously strange things. He had a young blonde thing for a girlfriend who pashed away the night with him, but he also works with his ex-missus. Hmmm, it only got stranger.
The ex-missus, a woman with a great body, was dancing with the guys who work at 1004 when all of a sudden it turned into a strip show. She was the only person on the floor and proceeded to dance about and take her clothes off. It became the boys` most exciting Christmas Eve. I was sitting on the couch and I couldn`t believe that she was doing it, and that the people cheering her on the most were her colleagues. For a bit I didn`t believe she`d get it all off, but she did and had a bit of a dance totally naked before the music stopped and she got dressed again.
I had been promising to dance on the table, but this just totally shot that idea out the window. I was agog. But it was also a bit of a night killer. I mean, what had been a great party with people jumping around and dancing, turned into a strip show, and then after that, it`s very hard to go back to the innocent party we`d been having. Weird. It certainly goes down in my books as one of the most bizarre Christmases.
Christmas Day
People didn`t surface until about lunchtime and we snacked on leftovers from the night before. The day was gorgeous, sunny and for the first time, without the wind. I sat with everyone on the balcony for a bit and got quite hot, so I decided to go to the lake for a swim. After cooking everyone pancakes, Andy was up for a swim too, so we went down to the lake and sat on the rocky beach for a bit. I was then ready to jump in the remnants of a former glacier, and glacial this water was. The rocks made it hard to walk in and I soon understood why Andy and I were the only people swimming. My legs started to go numb from the cold.
Being from Guernsey and accustomed to swimming in cold water, Andy was in there swimming out far for about 15minutes. I got out and as I was heading back to my towel I saw everyone on the balcony watching us, so I waved and they waved back. After getting the blood flowing in my legs again, I put my thongs on to protect my feet for the second dip. So there was my Christmas Day 2004 swim.
Things I Learned
* I can raft, but it`s probably not something I would keep doing again and again and again.
* People tend to go a little crazy at Christmas
* Bariloche is a great place to hang out, but there are also lots of things to do apart from eat chocolate, but only if you are motivated to do them.
