Bariloche

A small mountain town in Bariloche, Argentina. think Breckenridge, but developing country with awful pollution and dogs living in the street.

then add the majestry of the ANDES mountains and the most beautiful blue lakes nestled at the base of the mountains. This mountain town is international and breath taking throughout the whole day. As the sun moves, blues, greens and pinks transform the skyline into postcard images.

Right now there are more Brasilians here than Argentinians and I just heard English for the first time today... I have been here for 5 days.

I went to an amazing restaurant in town, opened for 6 months now, Sesamo. The owner, Ari, is Israeli and moved here 7 years ago. Many Israelis travel throughout South America for months after the obligatory military service. He came down, loved it and moved to Bariloche with a good friend from Israel. They opened a hostel in El Bolson, a neighboring community, and know has about 100 beds. They opened the restaurant -Middle Eastern food in a country where the only food is pizza, pasta and meat. Thank you to Ari for opening a slice of heaven in Bariloche. The food is spectacular. I like to think that I am a good judge of Middle Eastern food and the hummus - jumus in spanish - is amaaaazing. I could eat there pretty much every meal!

The Rocky Mountains are the best skiing in the Americas. I can say that now that I have skied in South America. Pretty sure there isnt skiing in Central America so I have tried it all (almost). Vail is #1 for sure! Aca, the snow is like sugar but with a hell of a lot of ice. The mountain is big but there is no elevation so the runs are pretty short. The best part, our hilllllarious expedition into the trees that left us on a 4x4 trail in the middle of the mountain, literally off the ski map. of course we walked through an ATV trail and rode down part of it. Of course.

We had fun but I am counting down the days until opening day in the Rockies.

Off to Chile in a bus on Sunday....

Buenos Aires

Where do I begin?

The party never stops in Buenos Aires. The first night here I was out until 5 or 6 AM, dancing and drinking. The salsa and reggaeton are SO FUN to dance to, I need to start a club in Denver for Latin dancing. It could be the next big thing. Anyway, I had class at 9 AM and I am pretty sure that for 2 of the 5 days of class I arrived with less than 5 hours of sleep. Each day, our profe asks what we did during the afternoon and at night and I just look at him...do you see the sleep in my eyes? But we are having SO MUCH FUN!

I am learning Portuguese. I can understand 80% of a conversation between Brasilians because I live with 8 Brasilians and there are so many at the school. I have even learned a few phrases. We had a party at our house - I live in a house with 10 or 11 people from our Spanish school - and I gave a hostess speech, my opening line was in Portuguese. Some of the people at the party thought I was from Argentina because I was speaking in Portuguese and Spanish. A dream come true for me.

Last night I was mistaken for Argentinian as well because people from our Spanish school did not think I spoke English. Hell yeah! Argentinians know I am not a porteña but they do recognize my Chilean accent and Chilean phrases.

Buenos Aires is a city for night people. I never consider myself a night person, but here we start the party around 11 or 12 at night and the clubs, called boliches, start filling up around 2 am. How do people do this!? I am loving it right now.

Last night we were at this place called Las Brujas and it is a salsa, merengue and reggaeton club. On a Tuesday night, it was packed and full of partiers. Beautiful man and a DJ that sings great songs.

Of course... the hotties are plentiful.