So yeah, last post was about the first 2 weeks there which was mostly rainy, but then things got a tiny bit better and we decided to take a roadtrip! We spent 2 days on the road, which was terrifying, because I'm used to regulated speeds and rules and such... That doesn't exist in Patagonia xD We were driving in 130km/hr on winding mountain-roads, in pouring rain and without safety-rails, and I have to admit I feared for my life more than once, but we lived! Anyways, our goal was to get to a small city called Junín de Los Andes to see these special kind of trees that have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, as well as a volcanoe on the border to Chile. We made it there late afternoon, and it was just so cool... The entire landscape of the Patagonian steppes with the trees really made it look like a T-Rex could come walking any second xD
The Lanin-volcanoe was pretty impressive as well, seeing as it was my first time seeing one in my entire life. Apparently you can climb it if you want to, and who knows, maybe one day we'll do it!
Since it was almost dark outside when we left Junín, we had to stay over in another town called San Martín de Los Andes, where we stayed at this really cosy hostel that had an awesome breakfast. Next day we did some touristing in town and bought some snacks to have for the trip home, amongst them smoked boar, salmon and trout, which was amazing! After about 5 hours of driving we made it to Bariloche, where we stayed for a couple of hours as well to buy some chocolate (Bariloche is famous for its handmade chocolate) and just look around. And in true, passionate, crazy Argie-manners, we ended up almost in the smack middle of a street-fight, but thankfully it was interrupted by the police before anyone got seriously hurt. That's when we decided to just get in the car and continue back to my SO's town. Made it there late afternoon, and the next day was Christmas! Yay!
So, I'm used to Christmases being this huge money-madness by now, with tons of food and tons of presents (since I usually celebrate Christmas with my family and relatives, we're almost always 22+ people which results in a lot of presents), but this year was a bit different, and it was so nice to just get away from all the crazyness. Christmas was quiet and nice, with just my SO and his family, and we had turkey alongside with some other stuff, and then exchanged gifts before going out to look at the fireworks. Fireworks are banned in my SO's town due to the risk of forestfires, but people don't really care so the entire sky was filled with colours anyways xD
The turkey! Which I stuffed. Which was disgusting. Because it was the first time I stuffed a turkey, and it was all gooey. Also tried having turkey heart, liver, kidney and various other guts, which was... Interesting. Not particularily disgusting but it felt wrong when I thought about what it was xD
Empanadas and pie!
Okay, that's it for this post, might make another one straight away or later, we'll see
Next up anyway is our hiking-trip to the top of Cerro Lindo, which was the most exhausting and awesome thing I've done in my life, and something I'd love to do again
Seriously though, it looks like you had a bloody awesome time!
And Tooki, you can come anytime!