¡Bellisima Bariloche!

OK, I will try to keep this a quick one since I am sooooo behind on my updates!

Dan and I headed a bit further South along the Andean chain to Bariloche, a small, lakeside city in the Argentine Lake District.  Here we spent 7 lovely nights with a local host family while taking spanish classes during the days at La Montaña Spanish School.  We knew that early May wouldn´t be an ideal time to visit, so were somewhat prepared for the cool and variable fall climate.

Bariloche

Bariloche and the Argentine Lake District is best known for its trekking during the summer, world-class ski in the winter, and artisanal chocolate confectioners year-round.  Let's just say that we had our fair-share of chocolate. :)  Another thing to note about this pretty little, lakeside city is that it has a large Dutch, Swiss, and German influence from it's early European settlers... all looking for a place that looked like home!  You can catch the similarities in their artisanal cervezas (you should know that this means BEER!), chocolate, arquitectura, and mountainous scenery.

¡Mas Clases!

We signed ourselves up for 20 hours of classes this week... which sounds like alot for a couple of gringo tourists but it was exactly what we needed!  Our teachers were awesome and more than anything really helped us improve our conversational skills. Lucky for us, school was closed on Tuesday for the Argentine Labor Day so we had a full day to tour around and do a bit of hiking.

¡La Naturaleza!

When we weren't in class you'd find us trekking around las montañas, checking out las vistas (the views) of the glacier-carved lakes and surrounding andean peaks.  The cool and sometimes wet fall climate wasn´t ideal from a comfort standpoint, but the turning leaves made for beautiful scenery.  Depending on location, altitude and oxygen levels, some trees varied from a fierce red to a lush green.  Again, words just don´t do it justice... check out the photos below!

¡Nuestra Familia y Amigos!

We were lucky to receive room and board with such lovely people.  In our house lived Kuki, Roberto, their son Diego, Diego's son, Tomas, y Fahad (another foreign student earning his masters in aerospace engineering in Bariloche). We also became friends with Carolyn, a sweet Dutch backpacker at our Spanish school. 

Okey-doke, time for me to get on with my day! Stay tuned for my Chilean adventuras next!