A beautiful day in paradise! The sun is streaming in over the mountains and the lake. I have perfect hair and my back no longer hurts. Life is good. Amy and I make jokes about my hair. I don't think even Ryan could make my hair this perfect. There is no humidity here. "All you need now is to find a husband." Amy tells me. I am not so sure about that, but it is fun to joke about it. I am not sure if it is the air in Bariloche, the Ozone treatments or what, but for the first time in months, I have no pain in my back. This is a good thing.
We hit the road in our VW and decide to look for coffee. The roads are all two lanes, with double yellow lines. It doesn't seem to faze anyone here to cross over and pass on either side. Oh well, this is Argentina. They do drive much more sanely than the capital, just very fast. I keep looking for the CHP. Funny thing, they never materialize.
We both see a place at the same time but not quick enough to pull into the parking lot. So I pull into another parking lot further up and make one of my famous 3 point turns and turn around. We pull into the driveway of what looks like something out of the wild wild west. In we go. The smell of baking breads is overwhelming.
The menu is bread, bread, bread. We order the Especial. Coffee, budin, (coffee cake) pan casero, and a croissant filled with jam. Everything made fresh that morning and only 10 pesos for everything. The waitress who is also the owner and the baker brings us small plates with fresh butter and home made jams.
She is excited to talk with us once she finds out we are from California and the Capital. She has two sons who live and work in Lake Tahoe. To her, the USA seems like a paradise. Besides her sons, her only other reference point is television and the movies. It is never fails to amaze us how many people think that life is actually the way it is portrayed in the movies and TV. If only the good guys always won. They always think we are crazy to want to live here..where nothing works.
After breakfast we go back on the road. Our plan is to first do the teleferico-sillaire or air tram. There is a tour bus unloading in the parking lot. Amy and I run to the ticket window. We want to beat them there. Standing behind a group of tourists who cannot make up their mind is not our idea of a good time.
This teleferico is more like a ski lift. Lovely. We jump in and off we go. The scenery does not seem all that great. We are going higher and higher. I look behind us and then I see what is going to be so spectacular. "Amy check it out" I say to her. She turns "Wow". The view is stunning. Soon we crest over the top and the view is spectacular. We jump out of our chair and go to the rails to look at the view.
We are on top of a mountain overlooking the lake and more mountains. It is mind blowing. Amy is already climbing and taking pictures. Most of the tourists stay on the lower decks and snap pictures. I start climbing as well. I feel like I am in the middle of a National Geographic magazine.
I meet up with Amy at the top. I give her some camera tips. I am finally learning how to use mine and want to help her out. Amy is in such awe she is whispering. We take pictures of each other. This stupid guy with braces who keeps gawking at Amy keeps trying to get into our pictures. I want to push him over the railing. I decide that probably is not a very good idea.
We walk down and go into the gift shop. The view from the coffee shop is mind blowing. We stop to stare. We walk outside and find someone to take our picture. We ask her for shots on both of our cameras. We have to play tourist sometimes.
Now it is time to take the ride down. As plain and nondescript as the ride up was, the ride down was like being in a movie set. The views were amazing. Bariloche has to been one of the most beautiful places on earth. The best part is that it is not spoiled yet.
When our chair comes to the bottom two cute guys are there to help us out. Mine doesn't let got of my hand and leads me over to the far right. It takes me a second to figure out what he is doing. Amy laughs at me. Sometimes I really am a dumb blond.
We get back into the VW and head for El Bolson. People told us we had to go there. It is a hippie town that has a crafts fair on the weekend. It is a 2 hour ride through the mountains. I am sort of lukewarm about the idea, but Amy wants to check it out.
The ride is beautiful. We can see the leaves changing color on the trees. I tell Amy "I think we are in Vancouver now." She laughs. There are almost no towns on the ride there. It is a good thing we made sure we had gas in the tank this time.
I cannot believe what a creature of habit I am. I am still looking for the CHP. For the first time in my life I drive like an Argentine and I cross the double yellow line to pass a truck that is not only going slow, it has wood falling off the back of it. It is more dangerous than me crossing the double yellow. I still can't believe I am doing this. Amy has renamed me "Reina de la ruta."
We coast into El Bolson. It looks like a town in Missouri. I can't remember which one. Neither of us are enthused. We look for parking. I might be driving like an ace, but I am parallel parking like a blond. We finally find a place behind the fair to park.
I mention to Amy how when Kunj and I went to La Plata we decided that all crafts fairs are alike. We decided that there is a school somewhere that teaches people all over the world how to make the same junk. Kunj says even in India you can buy the same stuff.
We walk into the fair. The first place we hit is the "food court." Nothing looks very appetizing. We walk down an aisle. The crafts are the same stuff you see everywhere. We are in the jam and bread aisle. Neither of us are moved to buy anything. Nothing looks that good.
As we walk down the aisles we look at many things. The quality is not that good and the prices are high. I had bought a really fine pair of earrings in the artisan fair building in Bariloche for 15 pesos. Here crudely cut and poorly designed earrings were going for twice that.
We stop in front of a booth that has chocolate. The woman is knitting. Amy asks her a question. She ignores her. The woman keeps knitting. She asks again. The woman continues to ignore us. It is so absurd we laugh. Finally she glares at us as Amy asks again what the price is. Just like everything else it is overpriced. I tell Amy I think the chocolate has been refrigerated or frozen. I point to the sugar crystals.
We go buy a coffee so we can use the bathroom. We have been in El Bolson maybe 20 minutes. "What do you think?" I ask Amy. "We can leave." she says. What a let down. I guess because we have so many good craft fairs in BA and the crafts we saw in Bariloche were so nice, this was nothing special. For us it was a waste of time.
The worst part is that we have to go back the way we came, so we see the same thing again. I tell Amy we should go to Mamuschka and treat ourselves. She agrees. As soon as we get back to Bariloche we head for the center of town.
We enter Mamumschka and go to the back where they have a small cafe. We order small finger sandwiches called chips. I have a coffee. They serve us their wonderful candies. Amy sighs, "All roads should lead to Mamuschka." Their chocolate is always the perfect end.
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