Bariloche! (part one!)

It's going to be a long one folks! And this is just day one! Get ready for a ridiculous amount of pictures! Seriously people, get ready.

Wednesday 18th: First day of the greatly anticipated trip to Bariloche!

Where in the world to begin!??!

Well. I'll start at packing I suppose. I packed on Wednesday during (durante!) the day. I was feeling good to go, when my mom came and checked on me. And she let me know that less than 10 shirts was too few. So I ended up doubling everything I had. But I definitely was prepared for the trip. hahhaa. My bag (bolso!) was so so full though. But it all worked out.

Argentinean money: check! (As I'm looking at these pictures, I realized I never did that with Chilean money. I'll do that someday...)

Let's go!

If you read my other post, about Nico's house, you'd know that an hour before I left, my memory card died. So we ran off and bought it three minutes before (antes de) 8. We went to the school and waited for the bus to arrive.

Parents and kids all over the place hugging tightly with teary eyes. And then I thought about when I said good bye at the airport. To not see Dad for a year. And how easy it is to leave for a week. But a year; a year is a different story. So I gave my second parents a hug and kiss good bye and was happily on my way! They called us by name to get on the bus as they took our Chilean i.d. cards. I ran up when I was called and then stood there struggling to get my card out of my wallet. hahhaha. And everyone just laughed and watched me. Like the whole crowd of parents and half the students. Classic. When I got on the bus everyone cheered. The party has started!

We sat down and started driving! By that time it was about 9 at night. Shortly after leaving Curicó, the music started and we danced and took pictures (sacamos fotos!).

Fernanda and I

Carolina, Paula, Nico, Diego, and Rolando.

Carolina and Pablo!

Some of us! (Algunos de nosotros!)

We stopped late at a gas station for a bathroom break and to buy snacks.

Carolina. :)

Miguel and Fernanda

Then we continued driving!

I slept quite a bit somehow. By the way, this (este!) trip resulted in quite a few pictures of me sleeping. But that was to be expected.

Another bathroom break along the way. You've just got to stay excited ya know?

Thursday the 19th

We were almost to the Argentinian border at 7 ish in the morning. We ate breakfast on the bus, which wasn't very good, but I was hungry!

While we waited for the line of vehicles to get moving, we got out and stretched a bit.

My stomach had been hurting for the past few hours so I got some pills out from my bag below the bus.

Then got our paper work ready (listo!)

When we got the the actual border, we got out and took pictures and did paperworky things. 

My fabulous classmates!

Nico and I!

I don't know who this guy is. Probably someone important or something.

Miryam and Michelle!

And some pictures from the bus when it was light.

Rodrigo and I

Mery tours bracelet:

Da bus.

The view (los paisajes!)

Happy happy!

We finally got  into Bariloche and to the hotel around 12:30. A 15 hour trip! We were all exhausted but the excitement of finally arriving made that disappear.

This is the trip (viaje!) that my classmates have been looking forward to since like 5th grade.

The hotel and streets:

I was in a room (pieza!) with Paula and Carolina. We had an hour to shower and clean up. We all showered super fast and got down to lunch. It was good to have some real food.

After that, we headed out for a tour of the town!

Carolina!

The tour company that we went through is called Merytours. I was really impressed with them. They made the paperwork really easy, we had plenty if free time, and all of our activities were well planned. Plus they had three staff members with us all the time. Stefani, Yearson, and a photographer. Stefani and Yearson were both super nice and we laughed a lot. Soon, I'll get a cd full of pictures and videos from the trip. I'm excited. Although, I never knew if it was a video or picture so I just smiled or made a face. Hahahaha. 

Anyways. Yeah. We walked to a church nearby.

Then we walked to the first chocolate shop! Frantom chocolates. They had some pretty impressive chocolate sculptures and some delicious samples.

After the chocolate shop, we took a few random pictures while we were touring:

Nico and Carolina

Argentinian (Argentino!) flag!

And then split up and had time to walk around and look at all the little gift shops. I walked with Carolina, Paula, and Michelle. I think that day, I only bought some postcards. I had some math practice converting Argentinian pesos to Chilean pesos to US dollars. And the. Seeing if its a good price. Phew.

We made our way back to the hotel and found Lobos, Alejandra, and Edguardo to go to the beach with. We didn't have time for swimsuits so we just walked in with shorts. And ended up getting soaked. But it was fun. :)

Paula and Alejandra

Paula, Alejandra, and Carolina

We made it back in time to change quick and get down to dinner.

After dinner, we took a nap and relaxed a bit.

At 10:30 we met up as a group and went bowling. We played pool as we waited and I found out that I'm really, really awful.

My ready to bowl face.

But in reality I was feeling dead tired. We were put into groups of 12 people and so the wait was ridiculous. Carolina and I soon ditched and went to dance. And we danced until 2:30. Not that many people stayed there that late. But the friends I was with stayed until the music stopped! We walked back to the hotel and we talked and hung out with people until 4:30 ish.

And that's the end of the very first night of traveling and the first day of my adventures in the lovely place called Bariloche!