When in doubt, go to Argentina

There's a strange suspension of reason that starts to take over when you're traveling. Passing fancies that you would ordinarily dismiss as impulsive and borderline delusional - say, for instance, "we've got a few days with nothing to do...why not go to Argentina?" - start to sound like good, carpe-diem common sense. Brianne and I have apparently reached that level of vagabond whimsy, because after our WWOOFing experience in Metri fell through, we decided that what our hearts most desired were the mountains and lakes of Bariloche, the chocolate capital of Argentina.

We took another spectacular bus ride across the Andes and arrived in the windy, ashy ski town of Bariloche. Our hostel left some character to be desired, and their promise of a free "vegetarian-friendly" dinner yielded a questionable plate of white rice in cream sauce (i.e. cream) with vegetables (i.e. three sliced chives). But the workers at the front desk were very helpful, and ended up giving us the use of their partner hostel, now closed for the low season, to work on our neverending graduate school applications. So we spent a day plowing through internet forms here:

With the occasional chocolate break at Rapa Nui, which is pretty much the Argentinian answer to Willy Wonka.

Having satisfied ourselves that Bariloche's cacoa reputation was well-deserved, we decided to follow another travel hunch and explore the mountain town of El Bolson, known as Argentina's hippie mecca. Since our aborted WWOOFing stay had tightened the belts on our budgets, we had written ahead to the owners of the family-run hostel Hospedaje Peheunia to see if they had any work we could do in exchange for a room discount. They had responded enthusiastically but vaguely, and so it came as something of a surprise when we showed up and they asked us in rapid-fire Spanish if we would run the hostel for them for four days while they went out of town. Que? We ended up politely declining, but did agree to man the helm for a day while they did some shopping in town. And we fared pretty well, all things considered, with only the small adventure of giving an Argentinian travel agent a tour of the property in toddler-level Spanish. The rest of the time in El Bolson was spent walking the hills with Canadians, wandering the artesan market, and making foolish purchases of pack-heavy, slow-dry knit panchos.

While we were there we also heard back from a WWOOF farm in Chiloe, Chile. This was actually the first farm that caught our eye, with an emphasis on communal living and vegetarian/vegan cooking. When we first wrote them they were full up for the fall, but thanks to some cancellations they had space for us, and we were very excited to have another chance at the South American farming experience. We boarded a bus back to Bariloche, where we not only spent a night in a much better hostel with a much better view (see photos below), but also accidentally took out too many Argentinian pesos and were "forced" to spend the excess on more chocolate and wine.

Now we're back in Puerto Montt for the night, and headed to Chiloe tomorrow for WWOOF Chile take two. We're not sure what the internet situation is going to be on the island, and so blog posts may take a brief hiatus as we (hopefully) dive into vegetables and meditation. If our trip so far is any indication, there will be plenty of surprises in store.