"Hey! Where are you? What´s going on?"

This is the typical email I receive from my dad every once in a while when I have gone for more than a few days without writing him. And I always know that it is his way of attampting to say as calmly as possible - "Where the hell are you? Please write me to let me know you have not been eaten by pumas, kidnapped by guerilleros (of which there are none here, thankfully), or found, moved in with, and married an Argentinian with whom you plan to spend the rest of your life and never come home." And it is when I receive these emails that I realize how much time has passed since I have contacted the outside world.

So here I am, 8 days after last writing, sitting in the guest room in my friend German´s house in Bariloche, Argentina - perhaps the most beautiful city I can imagine one could have the opportunity in which to live, work, play, exist in general. I was here nearly 3 months ago - I cant believe that much time has already passed! - with Poppa T and I have posted photos and it is just as stunning and breathtaking and glorious as before. And it´s an even richer experience passing these days in German´s home with his wife and three kids and meeting the forever extending family (i.e. more and more family come by to chat, drink maté, eat each day). And tomorrow is his middle child´s 8th birthday, so I will be meeting even more people tomorrow - I LOVE the big Argentinian families!

When I last wrote, I was planning to leave Junin last Saturday to head to Bariloche with German. Well, in true Argentinian fashion, things did not happen the way one may have planned, and I was quite happy to spend another four days in Junin. I had an entire house to myself for the weekend - que rica vida, no?! - and then spent three activity filled days with Tay, Noelia, and their three young daughters playing in the pool, drinking maté, visiting Tay´s school in the mountains, going for gloriously beautiful walks with Noelia in the mountains behind their house and along the river - Beautiful, and LONG (I LOVE to walk forever and ever and, yet, Noelia had me gasping for breath and wanting to beg for to take a break for "un rato"!), doing my best to be helpful around the house, and dormiendo la siesta to escape from the fierce heat of the midday Andean sun. On Wednesday, I decided I better make a plan to leave; otherwise, I feared I would take up permanent residence in their casa. So I bought my ticket, packed my bags, and off I went to return to life as a mochilera after 6 amazing and fan-freakin-tasticweeks to the day of living with Vanina´s family. I was terribly sad to say goodbye, but left behind some things with the plan of passing back by once again before heading back to the states. And then there is this idea in my head of moving there at some point to teach English or work in a hostel. We shall see what comes of that...

So after a 3 hour bus ride that turned into a 4 hour bus ride due to an old man passing out from heat exhaustion and having to be taken to the hospital- for some reason the bus driver refused to turn on the air... - I made it to the Bariloche bus station where German picked me off and whisked me off to his beautiful home just outside of town. So I guess I wasnt actually a backpacker for that long seeing as how I cant say that staying in someone´s home, eating meals with their fam, and having my own room is exactly "roughing it." And having Argentinian families to stay with has been such an incredibly rich experience. I continue to love how everything has come together and feel forver grateful and thankful to the families I have met along the way who have opened their homes to me - how does one EVER thank someone for such hospitality?!

Friday, the day after I got here, I got up early and headed off to meet up with one of German´s friends who is a trekking guide and helps deliver food and supplies to a refugio in the mountains near here. We set off on a four hour hike high up into the mountains where after a mildly grueling ascent, I arrived to find a gorgeous cabin on a lakefront with a kitchen and a dorm upstairs to sleep. It turned out that this particular spot is very well-known for great climbing and there were a ton of people staying up there for the entire summer just to spend their vacation climbing. So I spent the afternoon chatting it up with a Chilean who took me on a hike to see a nearby valley, many people from Buenos Aires who were here to escape the insanity of the big city, an Italian, a Spaniard, and a few people from los estados unidos. In the evening, we ate dinner by candlelight, told funny stories, and listened while some people played guitar. It felt very cozy and camp-like and I was drinking it all in in big gulps - I LOVE this kind of stuff! Saturday, I had a very lazy day lying out on the rocks soaking in the sun and talking to random people who passed through until late afternoon when I headed back down with a girl from Bariloche. And since returning to German´s house, I have been playing board games with his kids, making enough fruit salad to feed a small country, and in the afternoon I took the kids to a nearby beach where we played hide and seek among the rocks. I love climbing up and over and around the rocks - it´s like a playground for big kids! Now I am tired and very much in need of a bath (I can currently smell my feet and it´s making me mildly nauseous), so I best be off. Hasta la proxima! VIVA!