Aire puro: Villa General Belgrano/La Cumbrecita
I shook Ashley awake at 8:00 am.
"Get up, we are going hiking."
I heard noise. I poked my head out onto our room's porch. Rain by the buckets.
"Never mind, go back to bed."
We slept on our bunks until the ripe old time of 10:30.
Hiking was out of the picture, do to the lightening and downpour. So we decided to switch days around and head to Villa General Belgrano.
As we waited for our two hour bus ride (it was supposed to be 1.5) Ashley made a friend. When she went back into the bus building, he sprinted after her. Look at his loyalty!
The bus ascended into the Sierras, and we found ourselves next to a mountain lake. If it was sunny, we would have skipped the town and gone swimming. It was absolutely beautiful, with a lot of people house boating.
We then got into the adorable German town. The architecture, food, and music was typical German themed, and quite funny in the middle of Argentina. We noshed on some typical fare, walked around in the cool air, and stumbled upon an insane chocolate/ice cream store. Some of the best chocolate of my life. We also picked up some beers (there are several breweries in true German fashion).
It was relaxing, reasonably priced, and we got to be tourists with the other Argentinians.
The next morning, it wasn't rainy, it wasn't sunny, but we decided to take a risk and hit the Condoritos for trekking. After checking with about 6 bus companies, we discovered they had no seats left. How is this possible? Well it was a holiday weekend, so apparently everybody and their 4-year-old child (I'll explain this in a bit) wanted to go to the mountains. We decided to go to La Cumbrecita, a town an hour from Villa General Belgrano that has some trekking and waterfalls.
So, once again we took two long bus rides out into the beautiful mountains. La Cumbrecita is another tourist town, this one in an alpine style. There were many duende dwarf cartoons there for some reason, but never the less it was a beautiful area, a great weekend get-away.
Side-note about what I noticed there:
1. Argentinians have NO trail etiquette
2. They take their four-year-olds hiking
3. They will hike in their thong bikinis (ohhhh, the jiggle)
We saw all these features on our way to the waterfall. Fortunately, the beauty made up for the horrors my eyes witnessed.
On the way down, I got to whip out some of my angry Spanish after this one guy wanted to shove and cut his way down the trail. Dude, we are on the side of a mountain, chill out. I have deduced Boys Scouts doesn't exist here.
We then walked a bit farther to La Olla, and watched some people swim, despite the looming thunder. Mosquitoes had attacked Ashley, so I ground up some Benadryl pills into powder, and made a paste on her bites while we sat next to the water. She then was less itchy, but had pink stains on her legs.
We could sense the impending downpour, and so walked quickly back to town. We had just made it to shelter when the sky opened.
We managed to stay dry with some tea and Ricotta Cheesecake (many, wonderful European pastries) while waiting for our bus back to Villa General Belgrano, and then Cordoba.
After a harrowing trip through a storm and a bus delay, we got back to Cordoba with just enough time to run to our hostel, grab our bags, and walk quickly to the bus terminal. We tried to catch a taxi, but all were full due to the rain. We had an 50 minutes until our bus left, 20 until we were supposed to check-in, 12 blocks, and I had a bottle of wine and two beers in my bag (which really slowed my down). We were walking as fast as possible, when all of a sudden this little black lab started pawing at Ashley's bag. This skinny little puppy walked with us for eight block to the bus station. We decided he was our Spirit Dog, making sure we weren't robbed. I named him Perrito Puppy, and he actually knew his name. I have never seen any dog so loyal and adorable in my entire life. He dropped us at the bus station in the nick of time, and then he ran into a clear glass door. Cute, but not too smart.
We ran frantically trying to find our bus ticket window. After asking 3 people, and one escorting us, we found it. We then got on our bus and passed out watching the Descendents in Spanish. A long day, but definitely worth the aire puro pure air.
"Get up, we are going hiking."
I heard noise. I poked my head out onto our room's porch. Rain by the buckets.
"Never mind, go back to bed."
We slept on our bunks until the ripe old time of 10:30.
Hiking was out of the picture, do to the lightening and downpour. So we decided to switch days around and head to Villa General Belgrano.
As we waited for our two hour bus ride (it was supposed to be 1.5) Ashley made a friend. When she went back into the bus building, he sprinted after her. Look at his loyalty!
The bus ascended into the Sierras, and we found ourselves next to a mountain lake. If it was sunny, we would have skipped the town and gone swimming. It was absolutely beautiful, with a lot of people house boating.
We then got into the adorable German town. The architecture, food, and music was typical German themed, and quite funny in the middle of Argentina. We noshed on some typical fare, walked around in the cool air, and stumbled upon an insane chocolate/ice cream store. Some of the best chocolate of my life. We also picked up some beers (there are several breweries in true German fashion).
 |
| The town has the largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany! |
The next morning, it wasn't rainy, it wasn't sunny, but we decided to take a risk and hit the Condoritos for trekking. After checking with about 6 bus companies, we discovered they had no seats left. How is this possible? Well it was a holiday weekend, so apparently everybody and their 4-year-old child (I'll explain this in a bit) wanted to go to the mountains. We decided to go to La Cumbrecita, a town an hour from Villa General Belgrano that has some trekking and waterfalls.
So, once again we took two long bus rides out into the beautiful mountains. La Cumbrecita is another tourist town, this one in an alpine style. There were many duende dwarf cartoons there for some reason, but never the less it was a beautiful area, a great weekend get-away.
 |
| Entrance to the town |
Side-note about what I noticed there:
1. Argentinians have NO trail etiquette
2. They take their four-year-olds hiking
3. They will hike in their thong bikinis (ohhhh, the jiggle)
We saw all these features on our way to the waterfall. Fortunately, the beauty made up for the horrors my eyes witnessed.
On the way down, I got to whip out some of my angry Spanish after this one guy wanted to shove and cut his way down the trail. Dude, we are on the side of a mountain, chill out. I have deduced Boys Scouts doesn't exist here.
We then walked a bit farther to La Olla, and watched some people swim, despite the looming thunder. Mosquitoes had attacked Ashley, so I ground up some Benadryl pills into powder, and made a paste on her bites while we sat next to the water. She then was less itchy, but had pink stains on her legs.
We could sense the impending downpour, and so walked quickly back to town. We had just made it to shelter when the sky opened.
 |
| The photo looks blurry, but it's actually rain! |
After a harrowing trip through a storm and a bus delay, we got back to Cordoba with just enough time to run to our hostel, grab our bags, and walk quickly to the bus terminal. We tried to catch a taxi, but all were full due to the rain. We had an 50 minutes until our bus left, 20 until we were supposed to check-in, 12 blocks, and I had a bottle of wine and two beers in my bag (which really slowed my down). We were walking as fast as possible, when all of a sudden this little black lab started pawing at Ashley's bag. This skinny little puppy walked with us for eight block to the bus station. We decided he was our Spirit Dog, making sure we weren't robbed. I named him Perrito Puppy, and he actually knew his name. I have never seen any dog so loyal and adorable in my entire life. He dropped us at the bus station in the nick of time, and then he ran into a clear glass door. Cute, but not too smart.
We ran frantically trying to find our bus ticket window. After asking 3 people, and one escorting us, we found it. We then got on our bus and passed out watching the Descendents in Spanish. A long day, but definitely worth the aire puro pure air.
Comments
Post a Comment