So we’ve been in Bariloche for a couple days now. This place just screams tourism and is so close to America it’s uncanny. It reminds me a lot of Lake Tahoe actually, so if you’ve been there you can picture it…without the hoards of casinos. The first day we didn’t do much, just wandered around town taking pictures. That evening we went to the local theater to see Munich, a rather disturbing movie that is up for an Oscar, which we found out yesterday are on tonight so we may try watching them.
After spending a lot of time just traveling around to towns and not doing anything particularly noteworthy we thought it would be good to try something new. So Jordan, Fabrice, and I signed up to do canyoning, which we found out is where you hike down a canyon in a river. We were picked up at our hotel by this very nice man named Hector. He took us out of town to this small house near the mountains. There we put on these big bulky wet suits and then proceeded to hike up a steep hill in the hot summer sun. If that’s not a good workout I don’t know what is.
We finally went down to the river and proceeded to hike in it in the direction the water was flowing. Then we came to a small waterfall and were instructed to jump into the pool below. One by one we did, not having a clue what we were doing but trusting our guide. The first time Jordan got a large bruise on his butt and I had one on my elbow from hitting the rocks at the bottom of the pool. It’s quite the adrenaline rush though: jumping more or less blindly into the water and submerging in the cold. We proceeded on and were able to go down a natural waterslide and jump into a few more pools. The real excitement was yet to come.
We get to the edge of this one waterfall and we discover we are going to repel down right next to it to where the water gathers below. Hector started preparing these ropes and we moved to stay out of his way. Then he gave us instructions on how to repel down since none of us really had any experience in this sort of thing. Then one by one we started to climb down. I ended up being the last one and as I got hooked in I became very excited. I couldn’t wait to see what was over the edge as from where we were sitting on the top you couldn’t see anything. As I began to back down the side the first chance I got I looked behind me. I had underestimated just how high this waterfall was.
Picture you’re hanging off the edge of a four story office building. Now picture a large cascade of water roaring just a couple feet to your right, and instead of a building you’re on a large granite wall, covered in slippery plants and moss, that shoots straight down. There really is no way to describe it. I slowly made my way down the side of the wall, taking the view all in and losing myself in the purity of the moment with the thunderous sound of the water around me. With the light of the sun hitting the falls it actually looked like I was climbing down THROUGH a rainbow. I didn’t want it to end.
I finally got all the way down and joined the others and we waited for Hector to join us. I dearly wish I could have taken some pictures of it all, but the situation didn’t really allow for best means of keeping a camera safe. Then Hector made his desent and proceeded to show us all up in a way that is an experienced man’s right. He made the entire repel that took all of us an average of three or four minutes in only twenty seconds.
We made our way back to the house where the woman had baked us these delicious rolls. They were these fried breadlike pastries that reminded me a lot like hush puppies and we pigged out on them. All in all it was definitely worth the money we spent on this excursion, which was only less than $60.
We aren’t sure what we’ll be doing today or in the next couple of days. Tomorrow Fabrice will be leaving to go to Santiago to meet up with his friend Rose Mary again who he hasn’t seen in about two weeks. We probably will meet up with them at some point as that seems to happen a lot down here. Either way we will definitely see Fabrice again as he wants to do Machu Picchu with us in May.
We’ve also added two new albums to our picture gallery, one in Argentina and one in Chile so check’em out. Until next time!
Sphere: Related Content