Christmas Eve in Bariloche. We (Justine and the two Chris´) spent the day out hiking. The bus to the trail head, to our surprise, was following its regular schedule all day long. So, by 11am, we were at the bus stop waiting; having already had breakfast, showered, gone to the supermarcado for lunch stuffs, and buying food for Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas morning breakfast, and Christmas dinner.
The bus ride took an hour, and the route passed along the lake front. Bariloche is an up and coming resort town. The place is inundated with hostals, hotels and bed and breakfasts. Although it is situated in the most picturesque setting: beautiful blue lake, surrounded by pristine forest and majestic mountains, it is hard to believe that all the buisnesses are able to survive.
We spent the day hiking Cerro Lopez. The trail up was steep to start, but ended up following a switch back road for half the distance ending at a refugio. The refugio is situated beneath granite spires covered in snow, with an amazing view of the lake and surrounding area. We spent some time enjoying the view then trudged back to the trailhead to await the passing bus.
Christmas Eve here is a little bit bigger than Christmas, but being that we were staying in a hostal full of Israelis, two muslims and us, there really wasn´t much of a ¨festive¨feel going on. It was kind of fun explaining to people what Christmas is all about, as many of the people at the hostal had never celebrated or talked really with people who celebrated Christmas. We played a few Christmas carols from our Ipod and went for a walk just before midnight. A lot of families and locals go out and have dinner at restaurants and celebrate Christmas out to dinner or for a drink. We missed the throngs of people though, as another part of Argentine nightlife is also that things don´t really get going until well after midnight, and then they go all night.
Christmas morning dawned sunny and as warm as can be on a giant lake at 1000m plus. We would love to say it was a wonderful Christmasy moment, but the truth is, it really could have been any other day. We had mamosas at breakfast and otherwise slept in and have relaxed today. We bought a few chocolates at the ubiquitous chocolate shops in town (as it turns out a lot of stores are open in the afternoon of Christmas day) and in the place of a roasted chicken we are going to have milanesa, which is a breaded flattened chicken and some ravioli. Cooking can be a bit of a shoving match as some of our hostalmates can be quite different from the Canadian way of cooking and living. ... so we are enjoying a chilled, relaxed and otherwise really, really low key Christmas this year.
Merry Christmas to all from Argentina.
The bus ride took an hour, and the route passed along the lake front. Bariloche is an up and coming resort town. The place is inundated with hostals, hotels and bed and breakfasts. Although it is situated in the most picturesque setting: beautiful blue lake, surrounded by pristine forest and majestic mountains, it is hard to believe that all the buisnesses are able to survive.
We spent the day hiking Cerro Lopez. The trail up was steep to start, but ended up following a switch back road for half the distance ending at a refugio. The refugio is situated beneath granite spires covered in snow, with an amazing view of the lake and surrounding area. We spent some time enjoying the view then trudged back to the trailhead to await the passing bus.
Christmas Eve here is a little bit bigger than Christmas, but being that we were staying in a hostal full of Israelis, two muslims and us, there really wasn´t much of a ¨festive¨feel going on. It was kind of fun explaining to people what Christmas is all about, as many of the people at the hostal had never celebrated or talked really with people who celebrated Christmas. We played a few Christmas carols from our Ipod and went for a walk just before midnight. A lot of families and locals go out and have dinner at restaurants and celebrate Christmas out to dinner or for a drink. We missed the throngs of people though, as another part of Argentine nightlife is also that things don´t really get going until well after midnight, and then they go all night.
Christmas morning dawned sunny and as warm as can be on a giant lake at 1000m plus. We would love to say it was a wonderful Christmasy moment, but the truth is, it really could have been any other day. We had mamosas at breakfast and otherwise slept in and have relaxed today. We bought a few chocolates at the ubiquitous chocolate shops in town (as it turns out a lot of stores are open in the afternoon of Christmas day) and in the place of a roasted chicken we are going to have milanesa, which is a breaded flattened chicken and some ravioli. Cooking can be a bit of a shoving match as some of our hostalmates can be quite different from the Canadian way of cooking and living. ... so we are enjoying a chilled, relaxed and otherwise really, really low key Christmas this year.
Merry Christmas to all from Argentina.
1 comment:
Feliz Navidad, Justine (Who-steen-eh?)e Chris.
En Midland, Ontario, hace sol y tibio - una Navidad verde. Pero yo lo quero mucho. Goza sus viajes y la temperatura tibia.
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