parting ways

tomorrow, leana and susie leave for puerto varas, chile (another little woods-y resort town on the other side of the border) and i take a bus to the santiago, chile. we're parting ways for a bit, which is sad.

but, we lived it up the last three nights. seriously, out of control. as leana would say, cruuuuunkk. haha. so high school.

after several days of hiking, biking and horseback riding through the wilderness, we decided to enjoy this little town of bariloche. its like some sort of miniature swiss village, only everyone speaks spanish and they still dont know how to do fondue. anyways, on tuesday night (jen and joel's last night in town before they head to BsAs!), we convinced mrs. joel comer to come join us unmarried girls for a night on the town. we headed over to one of four bars in town, this irish pub-type establishment for a round of quilmes. jen and susie were soon in deep conversation, reminiscing about childhood stories and canadian politics. leana and i decided to explore the bar and found that there was a live band performing. a skinny, tan-skinned argentine passionately clasping a microphone warbled out pink floyd lyrics, in slighly odd english. it was pretty hilarious. leana and i bumped into some other guys, obviously enjoying the funny display of not-quite-correct english music and soon we were all talking about our travels. the guys were from israel, and had just ended their mandatory three year military service. the rest of the night we got to hang out with the guys some more, and dancing and general silliness ensued.

on wednesday, tired from our night out, the group parted ways. jen and joel left bariloche, and us three girls moved to a new hostel. our new "hostel," about 5 kilometers out of town, proved to actually be a small cabin in the woods. its amazing! a few blocks from the lake and complete with two floors and a full kitchen, we have had a blast hanging out at our cabana for two nights.

wednesday night was hilarious. us three girls got dressed up and headed to town, prepared to go to a restaurant that had been recommended to us as an excellent fondue place. "la fonda del tio" sounded like it could possibly be an establishment worthy of a great journey, but after we walked more than a kilometer and we nearing the not-so-suave part of town, we began to doubt. finally, after 10 blocks, we saw a small restaurant. inside, we noted the basic, cafeteria style tables and groups of futbol-uniform-clad guys and kids running around. clearly a more laid back fondue place, we thought. but we didn't see any fondue. we had so much faith that the restaurant had fondue that we decided that the small brown pots on the table must contain fondue. susie heard pounding in the back kitchen and announced, "that's them chopping the chocolate for fondue." we nodded.

by the time we were seated and had looked over the menu for our fondue options (but only found listings for french fries and cheap salads), we asked the waiter. "donde estan ... el fondue?" the waiter just looked at us oddly. "queremos fondue." leana added, just to clarify. the waiter shook his head. we don't serve fondue here, he said. and that's when we realized that we were dressed to the nines and in the argentine version of denny's, attempting to order cheese fondue and appetizers. they didn't even charge cubiertos there, it was soooo class. not. ha.

today, we leana, susie and i wandered around the lake and ate ice cream for breakfast. then we walked a few kilometers to the gondola station and rode gondolas up the mountain. at the top, we ate at a revolving restaurant (just like the space needle!) and then enjoyed a looooonnnng hike down the mountain, on a winding road on which argentine teenage boys kept attempting to pick us up in their spluttering cars. we laughed lot, mostly at stories about old hamsters and ginnea pigs that had died in tragic ways.

tonight, we finally made it to fondue. it was great, and we stuffed ourselves on oddly thick argentine bread and swiss cheese. we laughed more, always, and then headed back to our cabana. as we were walking in the kitchen, we heard a meow outside. opening the door, a blond boy cat ran in, clearly scared. a huge pack of dogs almost crashed into the front of our house in pursuit of the poor feline. the cat were so grateful for saving him that we immediately curled up against our feet and purred. the little guy accompanied our packing up and tried to bury himself in my clothes in my backpack. i felt very tempted to take him to chile with me in my purple bag, but then he started hacking up a hairball.

tomorrow, i get on an all-night bus to santiago, chile. saturday night, i arrive in the city center and will head to the house of shannon, carlos and flyter; none of whom i know but who have opened up their couch to me. i look forward to a weekend of fun in the capital, and then a few days at the beach in valparaiso!

words / concepts of the day:

cubierto - a basic table charge you get at a nicer restaurant in argentina. sometimes, if you are at a medium classy restaurant, you can avoid the charge just by sitting at a table without a tablecloth. usually only 3 pesos ($1 usd)
tienes fondue aca? - "do you have fondue here?" what you should do to check your facts.
argentine boys - not really a special word or concept, but a whole persona. argentine boys are out of control flirty. seriously. example: the guys at the front desks of the past two hostels i have stayed at have chatted me up, flirted like crazy, offered me everything from mate to private spanish lessons and then, bam, dropped some line about how their girlfriend and them are celebrating their third year anniversary that night. what the heck?