View from Cerro Otto
I actually found the Fun Patagonia Hostel by contacting my fellow CouchSurfing Nomadic Ambassador Josue, a Mexican who could not offer a couch, but works in this Hostel while stranded in Bariloche for the last three month. A very friendly, very nice and funny chap that I was able to spend quite some time with.
As almost every other traveler experiences: Patagonia is huge, but there are some spots were all the tourists gather. There is a very strong tendency that the majority of these tourists are 19-24 years old Israelis, who just finished their military service. It's a tradition. As there are problems in Spain of Germans traveling in groups, similar behaviour is seen by Israelis in Patagonia. Well, and the Fun Patagonia Hostel is recommended in the Isrelian Lonely Planet. Hope you got an idea :)
Being deadly racked from over 30 hour bus ride I had my first laugh with Josue when checking in. Afterwards I hiked "Cerro Otto", more or less the house mountain. They have a ski-lift (which stopped working that day 5 minutes before I arrived). The mountain is 1405, while the "Lago Nahuel Huapi" is at about 700 meters above sealevel. The path below the lift was extremly dusty-dirty, extremely steep and the feet sung in the dust,... bad grip, no pleasure.
However, just when I reached the peak the sun set, I saw some birds hunting insects. I returned to the city via a dirt-road. Again my head-lamp did a great job, one of the top 5 major investments you should consider for traveling!
The hike did the job, I had a great sleep! I shared the room with Leonardo from Buenos Aires, who invited me to join him on his hike the next day...
As almost every other traveler experiences: Patagonia is huge, but there are some spots were all the tourists gather. There is a very strong tendency that the majority of these tourists are 19-24 years old Israelis, who just finished their military service. It's a tradition. As there are problems in Spain of Germans traveling in groups, similar behaviour is seen by Israelis in Patagonia. Well, and the Fun Patagonia Hostel is recommended in the Isrelian Lonely Planet. Hope you got an idea :)
Being deadly racked from over 30 hour bus ride I had my first laugh with Josue when checking in. Afterwards I hiked "Cerro Otto", more or less the house mountain. They have a ski-lift (which stopped working that day 5 minutes before I arrived). The mountain is 1405, while the "Lago Nahuel Huapi" is at about 700 meters above sealevel. The path below the lift was extremly dusty-dirty, extremely steep and the feet sung in the dust,... bad grip, no pleasure.
However, just when I reached the peak the sun set, I saw some birds hunting insects. I returned to the city via a dirt-road. Again my head-lamp did a great job, one of the top 5 major investments you should consider for traveling!
The hike did the job, I had a great sleep! I shared the room with Leonardo from Buenos Aires, who invited me to join him on his hike the next day...
