Jay arrives and we do epic sh*t!

... yeah. Yeah!




Jay made it to Bariloche on a Sunday afternoon, and luckily Jake and I were sitting in the common room of our hostel by the windows because, while we knew he was close, we had no idea he would be rolling into town that day! As we were discussing whether to walk into town to the music festival Jake glanced outside and exclaimed "there's Jay!!" and dashed for the door to chase him down.

It's tough to chase someone cruising downhill on a road bike when you're wearing flip-flops.

Eventually (7 blocks later) he caught him and they walked back to the hostel where Jay chowed down on a loaf of fruitcake. We decided to show him the town and check out some folk music, then force him into the shower and early to bed after such an epic ride.












I got some earrings to wear at my cousin's wedding!


Alerce trees are so prehistoric looking!


Wild boar stew con spatzel - omg <3



Apfelstrudel mmmmmm

We gave him a rest day on Monday and then hired a climbing guide to show us some sweet spots near town. For $125, Martin picked us up at the hostel and took the three of us up onto Cerro La Ventana (Window Mountain, because of the squared natural arch on one side), carried all the gear besides our shoes and set 6 lead routes of increasing difficulty on some sweet overhangs.






























Awesome day, despite everyone's decreased climbing strength after such a long break! AND we topped it off with our first taste of true "Parilla," (pronounced pa-REE-shah) which is a big sizzling platter of all different cuts of meats, sausages and innards served on a raised plate over a bed of coals. AHmazing.










After another rest day we packed up and headed to Villa Cathedral, one of the biggest ski resorts in the Andes, just outside of town. It's a bit of a ghost town in the summer, but a lift or two take sightseers to the top for the views.
We locked up the boys' bikes and headed up the mountain to the locally famous Refugio Frey, refuted to be in the most beautiful setting atop Cerro Cathedral.
Well the hike was hot but not too hard, and then we turned the corner of the mountain and it headed up, up, UP through the woods. We rested briefly and snacked on some crackers with the last of our local jam at a small hobbit-hole of a refugio in the woods and then pushed on to crest the mountain just as the sun dipped behind the jagged crags surrounding the surreal lago beside our destination.


















Almost there and feeling good!


Now tell me how you really feel...






Refugio Frey! We made it!









The mist rolls in and Jay plays us a tune









Some chocolate calienté before turning in for the night






We watched people climb this face all day, from the comfort of our tents :)









Was he Slovak or Slovenian? I can't quite tell...






Sunset



Time to head back down; ciao, Frey!



one at the time!!


Great times in Bariloche! Now, onward, southward, to El Bolson!

Bariloche Bums

While Jay was braving the barren road, fighting off windmills and the call of roadside sirens, Jake and I were bumming around beautiful, blustery Bariloche.


Previewing the desolate desert into which Jay is heading!

ready to get off this bus

Snow? No, ashiness just north of Bariloche

The day we arrived was sunny and 70, if a bit windy, and we gazed around in awe at the towering mountains and white-capped waves of the lake.


Beautiful views of the lake and mountains from right downtown

We fondue, do you?

But it's good that we got a look around, because the next day a storm rolled in and it POURED rain for two days straight! Straight down, straight sideways, maybe even straight back up, the wind and rain did not let up at all for a good 48+ hours, so we had a forced indoor recuperation time after the 23hour bus ride into town.







Just when we were getting antsy, two fellow hostel guests, Nestor and Monica, graciously offered us a tour of the area in their van, since it had just been repaired and they wanted to take it for a test drive before they left the following day for the coast. We drove out of town to the Hotel Llao Llao, pretty much the fanciest, most expensive hotel in the country, if not the continent. Done in a European hunting lodge / Canadian mountain retreat style, it reminded me of the photos of Fairmont Hotels in Banff and Lake Louise or Whistler, complete with the impeccably dressed staff and stunning scenery complemented by the rustically grandiose architecture. Wow.




We also drove through a soggy Colonia Suiza, a (you guessed it) Swiss settlement of quaint chalet-style houses and dirt roads famous for it's Curanto, meat cooked while buried underground. We didn't get to sample it that day, but as we're only a hundred kilometers south for the next month or two, we can always go back!

When the rain finally cleared the next day, we took Nestor and Monica's advice and hiked up the mountain just to the west of town, Cerro Otto, to check out the views from the rotating restaurant on top.




And we thought the scenery was pretty from IN town!!













The hike was fantastic, and we were famished by the time we reached the top, only to spend our last bit of cash on the tickets for the gondola/funicular and entrance to the cafe/museum/scenic overlook and discover they only accept MasterCard at the restaurant!! Isn't VISA everywhere you want to be?!?!





Fine, we'll check out the view, but we're hungry and not happy.



Hungrily, we rode the gondola back down the mountain, where we found an ATM and extracted cash, but discovered we were now in a restaurant wasteland and had to hoof it 4km back into town before we could find food! Talk about working up an appetite!





these are our gondola hunger faces!!!

Great, beautiful day overall :)

Other than that, we pretty much just hung around town, twiddling our thumbs and lounging at the hostel while Jay continued his epic ride from desert to hill to ashy lakes* to us!


Best artesanal beer so far (I wouldn't know. Bleh, beer)

First Argentine helado of many!

Bandurria!

First time making spaghetti sauce from scratch! Never going back!

Red sky at night = Jay's unexpected arrival mañana!

* last summer, around June, a volcano just inside the border of Chile began spewing ash and it has been drifting and settling and causing general ashiness all over the region around and to the north of Bariloche, including Villa Angostura and the seven lakes district Jay biked through.