Bariloche, Argentina

A week well spent. I just got back from my class trip to Bariloche, Argentina. An extremely long bus ride, but it was beyond worth it! I can now successfully check off "Traveling to Argentina" on my Bucket List. It was also a special trip for me because my cousin was an exchange student in Bariloche about 12 years ago! It was cool to be able to get a sense of were one of my cousins spent his year abroad when he was my age!

The first day we spent the afternoon exploring the little city and all of the tourist shops. As you walk through the streets all you can smell is chocolate, an exchange students wish come true. Bariloche is known for their chocolate, and I now I know why. It was absolutely delicious. Later that afternoon I went to the beach with some of my friends, the water was freezing, but refreshing! The water was gorgeous and far out in the distance were mountains and behind them mountains with snow, quite the view to say the least. Later that night we all went out bowling. It was quite the sight for me. Most of my classmates had never been bowling before and were extremely surprised when they asked if I knew how to play and I said yes! Let's just say that was the first night I was the teacher. After bowling that night we went to a discoteque in town. Lots of dancing, screaming, chanting and lots of laughs of course! Lots of late nights and little sleep, by the end of the week I was exhausted!

Another day we took a chairlift to the top of an overlook to view the gorgeous lake, Rio Negro. The view was absolutely breathtaking. The ride up was a lot of fun as well. You were able to see so far out, it was a very clear and sunny day. Basically perfect! And after we all headed to another river. At this river, if you choose to, you could drink the water and for the amount of sips you took it had a meaning! So of course I laid down on the rocks and took one refreshing drink of the river water. Later I found of that my "fortune" will be that I will return to Bariloche someday in the future. Which I hope comes true, it is truly a gorgeous spot. After lunch we all went paint-balling at a outdoor place. It was my first time ever paint-balling. It is a lot of fun, but quite nerve racking too! After paint-balling we all were walking around with at least one black and blue from where we had gotten hit! Later that night I was once again the teacher for these Chileans! We went ice skating, in a very small and bumpy rink! Of course once again most of these kids were surprised and impresed that I grew up going to public ice skating on the weekends with my Mom! It was a very entertaining night to say the least, but I was happy to help as much as I could! It was a lot of fun! Later that night we all went to another discoteque filled with more of my embarrassing dancing. I still have to work on my dancing skills! They all need to teach me some moves!

On our last full day in Bariloche we went to a horse ranch, "Tom Wesley", and that is were I was able to cross another item off of my Bucket List! I can now successfully check off, "Ride a horse"! I was extremely nervous, and it is a little scary when you are up on the horse, but after a few trots it feels completely comfortable. It was actually a lot of fun! After all of the horse back riding our class participated in a human, life size version of Foosball. We were in this cage type of thing and were attached to the equivalent of baby "Jolly Jumper". Therefore if you were to miss the soccer ball you would swing back and forth like you were flying, it was entertaining to say the least! I dominated the game by scoring two goals for my team! The next thing we know we were getting drenched by water. And that's when the games begun! There was another class on the same trip that we were on and we had lots of competitions with them throughout the afternoon! It's hard to explain them, but I basically felt like I was doing some land challenges you would watch in the television show, Survivor. It was a lot of good teamwork and our class ended up coming out on top! After that crazy afternoon we all took a long nap and prepared for our last night in Bariloche! That night we all hung out at the beach all together, it was the perfect way to end such a great trip with such great classmates!

On Friday we had our final hours to go get our touristy stuff to bring home with us before we got on the bus again for another 12+ hour ride back to Chillan. Bariloche was a very special trip and I am so happy I was able to spend it with my other family, my classmates! I hope to travel back someday soon! Overall a very quick, but amazing trip!