La semana de fiestas!

Futaleufú River in all her glory!!

Buen día! I am in Bariloche, Argentina once again after a delightful week in Futaleufú, Chile. And rapidly recovering (Thank Goodness!) from a cold. This last week - while it didnt involve as much traveling as the week before - was just as full of adventure and moving and shaking of a different kind. And after a week of near constant companionship of raft and kayak guides and activity ranging from rafting class IV+ rapids to dancing until 5 am at the disco in the campo to gambling for the first time (I gambled away a whopping $3!)in Bariloche, I am feeling somewhat sad to have had to say goodbye to my "family" for the last week. It´s amazing to me how quickly and fiercely relationships form when you are traveling. And, of course, the people I meet have some of the most amazing stories that inspire me to keep pushing myself to explore new places and try new things!

As I have said again and again Futaleufú is small, remote, and isolated. But never underestimate the power of small, seemingly quiet places. At the beginning of last week, I spent several days being terribly lazy and readjusting to actually experiencing the sensation of being miserably hot at midday as the sun beat down and ran most of us inside between the hours of 12 and 8. Joe and I would hang out some midday at the hostel, but he started working at a local restaurant at nights, so I was on my own to explore and make friends and keep busy (or not). On Thursday I finally got to get myself on this fabled river that people come from all over the world - and drop boatloads of cash - to raft. The season has pretty much come to an end now, so last week was really slow as far as tourists passing through town to go rafting, but by 2 pm we had rounded up enough people and off I went with 5 guides and 8 rafters. It was a grand day on some pretty freaking big water. Big and turquoise - TURQUOISE! Like the caribbean, but a river. It looks so unreal. The color of water you would find on a lazy river at a water park, not a massive, naturally flowing, raging river. Increíble! At one rapid, The Magic Carpet, our raft attempted to surf the wave. And while the 5 guys paddled with all of their might, I got to sit on the front of the raft and "ride the bull." Talk about good times! I thought I must look super cool, but the photographer told me I looked like a monkey... Later we jumped off some rocks into the chilly waters and for added fun flipped our raft in the hole on one of the last Class IV rapids. I came up and found myself at least 20 feet from the raft and looked back to see each of my 5 rafting buddies holding on to the raft. How exactly I got so far away from the raft so quickly is a complete mystery to me. Evidentally they got the " grab-onto-the-raft-the-second-you-fall-out" memo and I didnt....oh well! Ive done a bit of rafting in my time, but this was some of the biggest, fastest water I have ever seen with the added bonus of having very little break from one rapid to the next. Im hoping my dad can get down here some day soon to kayak this thing - he would LOVE it! And for a fantastic end to a great day, the guys had a barbecue for everyone in the backyard of the rafting office - some 15 people sitting around the fire representing 10 countries (USA, Peru, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, France, Chile, Israel, South Africa,and Spain).

Friday, I went for a long hot run and then essentially adopted myself as a 5th leg on the 4-man raft guide crew (a Frenchie, a Kiwi, a Peruvian, and an Israeli) and spent the whole day tooling around town with "nothing to do in Futaleufú." It was another sunny day, so after eating sandwiches and ice cream at the local hot dog stand, we wandered down to the river to swim. I "swam" by slowly dipping my feet in the ice cold waters, being totally and completely content to send chills up my entire body this way rather than actually having to dunk myself body in the water. The guys were a little bit bolder than I and proceeded to play like two year olds rolling over each other as they swam through the rapids and attempted to catch eddys before continuing down down down without life jackets on. These guys had been together nearly 24-7 for the last 2 months and I really enjoyed having a moment to feel part of the family - not to mention the oportunity to laugh until I hurt at their jokes! Later that night, Santiago - the Peruvian - prepared dinner for about 10 of us and then we headed to a nearby (ok, everything is nearby) restaurant for a slideshow of photos from the previous weekends river festival.

Cooling off with the guys on a hot hot day!

Saturday was cold and rainy - a DRASTIC change from the previous 5 days. My newfound raft family had a full day raft trip with two American guys, so I spent the day sleeping and watching a movie with Ines, a girl from Spain. Around 7, we decided to do something productive (we had talked about a 7 hour hike originally - ha!), and prepared dinner for all the raft guides and few other friends. My role involved cleaning, picking, and chopping basil. My cooking skills definitely have not improved on this trip! It was a tasty dinner shared with some really great people, and after pretty much licking the pot clean, more people started trickling in until the small house I was visiting was filled with some 20 people living and playing in Futaleufú. It was the official last night of the season as many of the people were leaving town the next day and the plan was to celebrate in true Futa style - a night out at the disco!! That´s right. Futaleufú may only have 2500 inhabitants MAX and may be 70 kms from the closest town, but you best believe that they have themselves a honest-to-goodness discoteque. And I wasnt about to miss the opportunity to experience it in all its glory - even if it meant having to wait until 1:30 am before going out! So at 1:30 am, our group that now numbered around 20 stumbled down the quiet streets of Futa creating quite a raucous as we made our way 1 km out of town to the disco where our group combined with another 30 or so raft guides and friends from other companies definitely made up at least half the disco population - the other half being the under-18 crowd of townspeople. The two americanos that went rafting that day - Dan and Mark - joined us, and I kicked off my dancing evening on the dance floor with Mark as jived to a Chilean campo rendition of "Grease Lightening." We certainly gave the local kids something to talk about with their friends!

Showing the locals how it´s done at the disco!

I called it an "early" night at 5 am, leaving the majority of the people behind so I could try to sleep for a few hours before waking up early to pack my bags and head back to Bariloche.

I was having a blast in Futa, but Mark and Dan (los Americanos) offered me a ride back to Bariloche, and as the majority of the people were leaving on Sunday, anyway, I didnt want to stay around to have it get quiet and lonely. I wanted to leave on a high and best to take advantage of a free ride with good company! So in a complete haze after too little sleep - I had more of a nightlife in my last 4 days in this tiny town than in the previous 4 months combined! - I got up, flip-floped back and forht as to whether I should leave or not, finally threw everything into my bag, and piled into the rental car with Dan, Mark, and two of my adopted family members - Dan (from New Zealand) and Joseph (from Israel). And off we went, bumping down the gravel road, crossing back into Argentina to head north to Bariloche. We dropped Joseph off in the town of El Bolsón along the way and the rest of us jetted on to Bariloche where the fun just did not stop. Dan and Mark had been in Bariloche a few weeks earlier and claimed the casino had the best drinks in town. So after eating a giant salad for dinner - my diet for the entire time I was in Futa consisted of no less than 6 large pieces of bread a day...I was aching for some fresh veggies! - we went to people watch and drink some crazy strong Jack and Cokes at the casino. Dan (el americano) taught me how to play roulette, and I proceeded to quickly lose $3. That was all the taste I needed, but now I can say - "been there, done that!" By this point, I was actually quite sick with a head cold from lack of sleep and drinking several nights in a row - in general, my alcohol consumption is little to none, just call me a cheap date! - but I forged on. The next stop was to be - well, should I even reveal this? . . . a strip club. Well, it turns out females aren´t allowed. I tried, though. I gave it my all, and the bouncer just wasnt having it. I think he was also utterly confused as to why I would even be interested. Im just taking life as it comes and look at everything as a new and unique opportunity. He did not care. So the two Dans and Mark continued their night-o-fun, and I walked home alone to nurse my cold.

And my crazy, late night antics pretty much ended there. Los americanos left on Monday, and Kiwi Dan stuck around until today. The last two days have been pretty low-key as I showed Dan a bit around Bariloche, drank a lot of tea, ate tons of veggies, and learned some interesting tidbits about life in New Zealand. My favorite phrases being rubbish bin for your garbage, bum bag for a fanny pack, and chilly bin for cooler. I spent yesterday evening drinking maté with German and his family and then having dinner with Rosario, a girl I met the last time I was here. She´s invited me to stay with her the rest of this week, and the plan for now is to head back into Chile this weekend to make my way to the island of Chiloé. Ill let you know how those plans come along. And will definitely post photos - I tried to do so today, but the computer is ill - typical!