Without further tainting the name of the saintly John Tesh, I'd like to present to you Bariloche, Argentina: Land of the lakes and Home of the jurassic dog, milk chocolate, natural beauty, 80's souvenirs, the aerosilla and the greatest choripan on earth.
The city center plays up the woodsy, yet abnormally classy, Aspen-like architecture. It´s really quite beautiful, but feels completely contrived, which it probably is. On the left you can see a St. Bernard and it´s opportunistic owner waiting for some less-than-savvy tourist to come along. In the center is a clock tower with the wood and stone construction typical of Bariloche. Just underneath that you can make out some white paint. The day before we took this picture there was a peaceful gathering protesting the lack of prosecution of the perpetrators behind the Dirty War--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War--in which people painted white bonets on the ground memoralizing friends and family who ¨dissapeared¨at the hands of the goverment.
It´s a ski town, it´s full of lazy tourist, and epic views. Why not run the ski lifts in the offseason. For the record, we hiked up the hill, but because we are cheap, cheap people who plan to stay in South America as long as possible. Those are the Andes in the background.
Just in case you wanted to see what all the postcards, billboards, advertisements and tourist information offices look like. National Geographic says that this is one of the ¨Ten best views in the world,¨and when I say National Geographic I mean a brochure that claims National Geographic says this, it´s unverified at this point.
Important Note, directions to the Choripan Man: Go to the main center square. You'll know you arrived when you feel like you've just entered Abraham Lincoln's house on steroids. A series of Log Cabins doubling as a city center all surrounding a square. From there head away from the water towards the janky craft market beyond the left hand side of the plaza (left if you are facing away from the water). A block up there will be a diminuitive man wielding a spatula inside of a gas grill on wheels. go up to him and immediately order two choripans. Once delievered slather in chimichurri and pickled vegetables, then devour.
Gorgeous pictures! and glad to see both of your beautiful faces :) and I had to look up what a choripan consisted of --- sounds delicious, now i want one!
ReplyDeleteJason, I dreamed about you last night. I don't know if you were in Euroland or I was in SurAmerica or we both were home, but I saw you for the first time in what felt like forever, and I jumped all over you with a huge hug. Then when I stepped back to take a look at you I was embarrassed because suddenly I didn't recognize you anymore and I thought I hugged the wrong person. You were a teenager and you were wearing eyemakeup (which actually looked really good) and your 80's lesbian hairdo was replaced with a buzz-cut. I kept looking the photo of you from this post - the one with meat in both hands (I guess I was carrying it in my pocket) - and comparing without success it to the dream-Jason in front of me; finally I was able to recognize you because of an "I'm so clever" look in your eyes you flashed during the conversation. I didn't even remember the dream until I reread this entry this morning and recognized the photo. anyway, i guess i miss you.
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