Bariloche

So we had a 22hr bus to Bariloche... it was the most amazing bus ever - especially after such buses in Bolivia! The seats reclined to beds (in bus terms) and we were right at the front infront of the TV which played ENGLISH films (amazing) and we had a waiter. Flo and I couldn't believe our luck. We had lunch after about 30mins after setting off then a snack later on, some sort of alcoholic drink with a pastry, wine, dinner, pudding, coffee with sweet pastries and then a Tia Maria to top it all off! Everytime he bought soemthing new we would get way over excited.

We arrived in Bariloche about 11am. We made our way on a bus into town to locate our Hostel which Al had very kindly booked us on hostelworld.com. We had left our big bags in BA with Corisa and only took our little bags... Mine consisted of a few t-shirts, a dress and the clothes I was wearing (shorts hoodie and flip flops). It was quite cold... hence the coffee to warm up.

Then we saw an activity shop and decided to find out what we could do in this place. Rather a lot it turns out: paragliding, rafting, riding - you name it they do it. So after feeling excited about what was on offer we took the guy in the shops instructions to go and buy me some shoes - as flip flops wouldnt cut it. Eventually we found a supermarket with dodgy blue cheaps shoes which were perfect.

Upon leaving the supermercado we hopped in a taxi and gave the guy the hostel address. I asked if it was close and he said it was a 45min drive away... YOU WHAT? So we quickly hopped out the taxi and made a plan. If we didnt rock up to the hostel they would charge Al's card so we needed to get in touch to cancel it. So we made our way back into town to locate a hostel which we successfully did. The very kind owner allowed us to use the internet to get the hostel tel no. and then let us call to cancel it. Engaged. Try again. Engaged. Again? Engaged. Wow this must be a busy hostel...

We made the executive decision to go there oursleves check it out, stay a night perhaps and move the next night. So we called a taxi and off we went... we got further and further out of town. At first it seemed great. We were close to the lake, it was amazing countryside and all seemed to be improving. After another 20mins it was starting to feel like we were in the middle of nowhere and it was quite concerning when the taxi driver could not find the hostel for the life of him. What seemed like hours later we had arrived. The Hostel looked OK but I didn't start to panic until the door creaked open and we were greeted by a very hairy looking hippie who had a creepy femal sounding voice and asked if we were Florence and Becky. He looked like the type that could easily have a machete/chain saw under his bed.
I got a bad feeling... this is def how horror movies start!

He showed us to our room which was very basic, bland and with little light. That was when we realised we were the only people staying in the hostel! If we were to scream I could not guarentee anyone would hear us. We were pretty sure that this was not the place for us. So we had to explain to creepmeister that infact we wanted to stay a little closer to town and as much as we loved his hostel we wanted to move. He took it better than expected but it was a little awkward when we discovered we didnt have any money to pay him the cancellation fee. So we had to walk 1km to the local supermarket in the blistering heat to get some cash out. By this point we were seriously tired, hot and hungry. We made it back alive - Just, to pay and leave.

We had been told that it was very common for people to hitchhike into town so as we walked to the bus stop we very gingerly put out our thumbs just incase someone might stop (which we found very entertaning). That was until a few seconds later and the third car that has passed pulled in! WOW has he stopped for us? Run Florence, Run! Yes - it's for us. So we hopped in the back of the truck and off we went... Things had certainly started to look up. (We got the most amazing views of the lake from the back of the truck.)
We were dropped into town and made our way to the internet cafe to find a hostel to stay in.

We had been given a map at the bus st. and there was a hostel on there called freedom, so I gave them a call, and luckily they had 2 beds but not in the same room. Doesnt matter, we'll take them! We were lucky to find anywhere in high season - Perfect! We went back to book the activities we wanted to do to find out that paragliding was all booked up. Bummer. So we booked Canopy for tomorrow and riding the next day.

As we opened the door to the hostel, EVERYONE turned to stare at us... it took the manager a second or two to realise that we were the people that had just booked the room and jumped to attention. Whilst everyone continued to stare I explained that I had just called etc and he took us to room 12 which would be my room and then right out into the back to this small castle looking thing to the next room where Flo would be sleeping. What a long day and what an unfriendly hostel! Great... we dropped our bags and decided to go out for an early dinner.

We had a 3hour long dinner and by the end had become friends with the waiters! I think we were procrastinating as we didnt want to go back to the hostel. So after that we went online for a hour and slowly made our way back. By this point it was freezing so we went to our prospecive (is that right?) rooms to put more layers on. When I got to my room it was filled with girls getting ready to go out. They were really friendly and introduced themselves. They were all from Israel and they made me feel comfortable straight away. Phew. Then Flom came over and said we should go hang out in her little castle...

When we got into the castle there were 10 boys all sitting around chatting in a funny language... overwhelming or what? They all told us to sit down and join them. Turns out they were all from Israel too! We had been told about this by fellow travellers. Israelis travel in big groups and they take over hostels. So here were were right in the middle of an all Israeli hostel. It all started to make sense. That was why they were all staring at us, they were thinking what are these foreigners doing here?! But we had had NO idea. Hilarious.

So they were all really friendly but it was a rather bizarre situation. F and I with 10 Israelis - who would have thought. Most of the time we had no idea what was going on. Some were more interested in talking to us than others but it was more enjoyable than being hacked to death by a chainsaw! So eventually we decided to go to bed, I tucked Flo in along with her fellow 9 boys and went back to my room.

We had a lie in and then made our way to our first booked activity - Canopy, whilst the boys made their way to the 7 lakes. Canopy was funny. It was basically 9 zip lines around the forest. It turned out that it was probably more an activity for school kids, but we had a laugh all the same and at least I got to wear my new sexy blue shoes! There was one really long zip which was the length of 2 blocks (230m or something) and another which had the most amazing view of the lake. But probably not something I would do again. It didnt really get my blood pumping - unlike the zip I did may years ago off a cliff into a lake which was amazing.

So we made our way back to the hostel and just hung out. The boys came back and told us to join them. They were going out that evening so we sat around had some food and they started drinking. We were unsure as we had riding the next day but when they offered us a drink it was a bit rude to decline. We had an absolute ball, they taught us some really good games and when it turned 1.30am we were def ready to go dancing! So there we were with our new family: Yuval, Dan, Guy, Nitska, Shaggy, Silvan and Roy off to the club. They were so sweet and looked after us so well. Turns out the club was full of Israelis too!

When we got back at 6am we realised that in 3hrs we were meant to be going riding. Erm.... no thanks! So I left as message in my interesting attempt at spanish with reception to cancel it for us.

The next day we just hung out... sunbathing and writing our journals. When you walked around the hostel EVERYONE was on their i-phones/i-pods. It wasn't until our family invited us for supper and explained about friday nights that we got what was going on. Apparently in Israel friday night is really important, where all the family get together for dinner. So all day everyone had been skyping their families as it was the perfect time to speak to everyone.

It was amazing. The boys went to the supermarket and bought all the food for dinner. I cant explain how small the kitchen was and there were 6 of them running around doing various things and an hour later they had created the most delicious dinner for all 9 of us. They even made the sitting room look nice (which was hard). Before we sat down for dinner they did a prayer and blessed the wine which was then passed around.

That night we played more games... we taught them ring of fire - which went down a treat! It was possibly the funniest i've played. I think the rules that went down the best were no names and pick a mate. They found it hilarious when one person said a name and one person would have to drink, but then so would their mates! Brilliant. There was A LOT of laughing and woooooooooooooooowing going on. Later on we went back to the same club.

It was so much fun and I can't explain how friendly everyone was to us, not just our new family but everyone in the hostel. In general hostels are quite friendly but here, everyone wanted to talk to us, ask where we were from, invited us out with them - it was great! The other thing that was great was that they really tried to speak in English as much as they could, or would translate for us to keep us involved.

It was also really interesting to learn about another culture... they were telling us what it was like to be in the army. Everyone has to go into the army there when they leave school, the boys for 3 years and the girls 2. They all then go travelling when they finish - mainly in SAmerica. Learning about what they feel about those that dont go to the army, why they all have long hair because they have to shave while in the army and all kinds of things I found very interesting. The most interesting was that they only really meet other Israelis when they travel as they all stay in the same hostels and go to the same places. We were the first non-Israeli people they had met (other than the odd Brazilian). Which was crazy to me!

It was sad to say goodbye but F only had 5 or so days left and there was so much more to do... we had a total blast with the boys and we miss them but there is a small possibility that I may see some of them in Brasil and if not we are def going to Israel at some point!