le Smoosh: To Patagonia!

OK ... so after Punta del Este we headed to Colonia and rented some scooters and rolled around the town and countryside and it was so lovely. Stopped for a picada (antipasti meat/cheese platter) and beers at this beachside beach bar and just generally terrorized the roads. Then we jumped a morning ferry (suuuper nice ferries here) for some coffee and breakfast and a ride back to Buenos Aires, where we showered at our apartment and jumped a plane to San Carlos de Bariloche, or Bariloche for short. Bariloche is the tourist hub of the Lake District, in Rio Negro province of northern Patagonia, in the Andes along the Chilean border. It's a Bavarian inspired town of 100k people which explodes in the winter and summer with ski and summer play. Really gorgeous town stretching out along a huge lake, and amongst the dozens of lakes around here. High Andes peaks and crystal blue lakes and sunny skies makes for a damn good time swimming and generally playing in the summer sun. Tons of lovely BnB's and cabins and hotels and hostels all around and a great vibe of summer good times in the mountains. Plus the people here are considerably more relaxed and super nice compared to the city. We hooked up with a super cool local cat named Juampi who took very good care of us in terms of orientation and lots of recommendations. Dude is a superstar good guy. Day 1 we hiked (trekked, I should say) to a secluded beach that was drop dead gorgeous. Day 2 was horsebackin' in the high plateaus and Day 3 was sea kayakin' the crystal blue Andean lakes and workin' on our tans! It's rough here, send sympathy ASAP.

Olaf the town St. Bernard

The city square looking on to the lake

Swimmin' hole

Cover and I tried our hand at hitchhiking when we got tired of walking. Yeah ... can't say we had any luck. Bastards. We must've walked like 10 miles that day.