Day 17 - to El Bolson

This morning I received an email from Courtney saying she was arriving in Baralochie at noon. She would meet us in El Bolson if we were going. John and I decided we would meet her at the station then head out to El Bolson together.

Sure enough Courtney was right on time, so John ran and got us tickets for the next bus to El Bolson. (They run quite frequently because El Bolson is only 2 hours away from Baralochie.) It turns out the tourists get charged more then the Argentines for tickets so we gave John money and he got them for us. At 12:30 pm we were off to El Bolson.

The bus ride was beautiful. We drove down a wined highway through the mountains until we arrived in a beautiful valley surrounded tightly by mountains of various sizes, shapes, and colors.

As soon as we arrived in El Bolson we needed to hurry up and find our hostel so we could go to the market. The Saturday market in El Bolson is supposed to be one of the best markets in Argentina. And let me tell you, I love markets. The hostel we were going to stay at was owned by this little old lady. She is really cute. We called her Grandma. Courtney had stayed here when she was here during the summer months. We didn´t have her number though so were unable to make reservations or call and let her know we were coming. We walked to her place, but she wasn´t there so we went to the market.

The market was so amazing. It turned out the market was closing at 4pm and it was about 3:15pm so we had to hurry up and get what we needed. Courtney sat with our stuff and John and I went and poured money into El Bolson´s economy. I got some really great stuff. Almost everything I got was made of wood. It was all hand made and beautiful. I don´t want to disclose what I got yet. :)

After the market we headed back to Grandma´s Hostel to check in. Apparently she had been reading so didn´t hear us when we knocked on her door and rang her doorbell when we had come earlier in the day. She is kind of a crazy old lady. Courtney thinks she speaks English, but just hides it. It actually wouldn´t surprise me. It is a good thing that John was with us too, because he could understand her. Courtney could understand some of what she was saying but not everything because she talked so fast.

Her hostel is so cute. She has a bunch of rose bushes all around her house. Off the back of the house she has various rooms that she rents out to guests. Apparently she is pretty busy in the summer months. A lot of people stay here. El Bolson doesn´t get a lot of touristy people, more backpackers because the hiking is so great here. Apparently, ¨Granny¨ is really into everyone´s business too. She likes to play match maker. When Courtney and Lacey were here in the summer Granny tried to hook them up with an Italian guy and a German guy. What a funny old lady.

Following our unpacking we made a quick trip to the store to get some stuff for dinner. We just hung out for the evening. It was really nice.

El Bolson is so beautiful. Words can hardly describe it. I would say that this is probably the most amazing place I have ever been to. El Bolson is like heaven on earth. It is stunning. The mountains that surround it have very unique character. When the sun rises and sets it is always going behind or coming out of behind the mountains. The colors are unreal. The town itself is small and quiet. The streets are lined with trees of all types. There are rose bushes all over. The little dogs roaming the streets are kind of cute too. Everything is also really slow paced, but not too slow. It is a truly amazing town. If I were to live in Argentina, I would want it to be here.