Chillin´out, maxin´, relaxin´and coolin´......

Hola from El Bolsón! We have been here for... 4 days now? Hard to keep track... this is a lazy, laid back, awesome place. Big hippie town, along the lines of Berkeley, CA, with artisan markets every other day and organic produce everywhere. We are staying in a great little hostel outside of town in the woods- calm and relaxed, just like hangin out at the ranch. We have been cooking massive meals, handwashing all of our clothes, and reading far too many books while swinging in the hammock. Life is tough for us!

But alas, all good things must end, and we are skipping town on Sunday towards Púcon, Chile (we hope!). However, let me catch you folks up on what has gone on since our last update.

We had a terrible, sweaty 2 day bus, on which we were neither fed not watered. WTF!? Oh well, we slept and read and waited for the hell to end. And it did, dropping us off at 10am into the cool breeze in El Bolsón. Disoriented and without directions to our hostel, we wandered in the blazing sun as the breeze vanished, and eventually staggered upon our hostel with the help of a few amigos on the streets. Awesome little house, one of 3 or 4 on the property, with dorms upstairs, a double room downstairs, huge kitchen and great porch. We immediately settled our stuff in and then wandered around the town. Great huge artisan market with handicrafts and organic snacks, cerveza de casera, maté cups and straws galore, and loads of hippies. We felt right at home, as though we were wandering the vendors at SNWMF.

Spent the rest of the day kickin back, the following day too, come to think of it. We have not been overly productive while here, but everyone needs a break sometime. Yesterday we actually got our act in gear and hopped in a cab with our new German friend Sam, off to the Bosque Tallado. After a sweltering and steep 45 minute hike up a dusty hill, we made it to the entrance. The Bosque is a collection of 40-odd tree stumps that have been carved into works of art by different visionaries throughout the past few decades. Very interesting experience!! Photos below.



After wandering the Bosque, we hiked up to the Refugio to have some cerveza de casera and check out the view. Gorgeous panoramic of the mountains and the town! We hiked back to the start, waited an hour for the cab, and trudged into town. When we were getting dropped off, Oli realized he forgot his backpack in the parking lot. Passport, camera, cash, credit cards... everything. So he hopped back into the cab for another $40/90 minute round trip to see if he could find it, while I ran off to the local hiking club to see if they had anyone on site who could be radioed to grab it. I was in luck and they had someone go down to check. Thirty minutes later, they called back. Success!! They would deliver the bag to the mountain club that evening. I ran to the cab company to have them radio to Oli´s cab to let the driver know that all was well. A bit of flubbed spanish later, the message was sent, and I frolicked off to the hostel happy as a bee. Oli arrived about an hour later, bag in hand. He had run into the guy on the radio walking off with his bag! All was good though, and so we relaxed. I baked some bread (first time ever, it was aweeeeesome!) and we hung out for the evening. When we were in bed, we heard a knock on the door, a girl in the hostel had found Oli´s wallet dropped outside.

I have now come to the conclusion that Oli must be chained to his valuables at all times, and that we have very good luck. Musta been that gnocchi we had back in Dec. (If you eat gnocchi on the 29th of each month, it is good luck. We made sure to have some last night as well. We need all the luck we can get!)

So here we are, relaxing once again. We were going to hike today but my shoes were still wet from a little victory jaunt I had in the river. So we shall continue with our lazy selfs until Sunday.

We miss you all, hope all is well, and want to hear from you!!! xoxoxo