Empanadas and Mayonaise: Saying goodbye to Santiago.... and hello to Bariloche, Argentina!

Buenas noches a todos! Qué tal? I am finally getting around to my latest update on our adventures! Last week, on July 8th I left my home in Santiago for the last time. The night before, those of my housemates who remained all just sat together in the living room and sang along to Denis's (Guy from Belgium) guitar and ate little cakes that Franzie and I made for James's (Australian housemate) birthday. It was just about the best last night I could ever hope for. Then the next afternoon along with the craziness of packing I had a sushi picnic with my four closest friends, James, Franzie, Marcela (Chilean girl who I met through my host mom) and Martin, (the son of the family that Grandma Bertie connected me with). It was so incredible getting to know them and I am so so thankful for all of the time we got to spend together. I know I will keep in touch with them forever. As Andrew and I then rushed to get to the bus terminal with our huge backpacks my housemates started screaming "BEX DON'T GO" and being all goofy and loving like they always were and I lost it and literally had to run our of the house and down the street because they were all hanging out of the windows yelling after me. They were truly an incredible group....

Anyway, I finally re-group and stopped the tears and twenty four hours later (all spent on a bus:) ) Andrew and I arrived in Bariloche, Argentina. San Carlos de Bariloche is in the southern half of Argentina and is famous for its amazing ski slopes and.... CHOCOLATE! It was absolutely stunning and although we had only planned to stay for 3 days we ended up extending the trip to a whole week because it was just so calming and filled with nature and we had absolutely nooooo desire to go back to a big city (Buenos Aires was our next stop). We spent our days there just walking through the beautifully cobbled stoned little town, hiking through the mountains and kayaking along the lakes. I think it was exactly what both of us needed after the craziness of the huge city and we absolutely loved the calm down time. We stayed in an awesome hostel called 41 Below and they served the most incredible croissants of my life every morning for breakfast. Along with homemade raspberry jam (which made me think of you Grandma!). The people there were all really awesome and our first day a girl walked into our dorm and I just looked at her and said, "How do I know you?" Turns out she is my year at CAL and we have some mutual friends and a lot of other really random/crazy things in common! Like having big feet, playing vball, having a small bladder, etc. What a small world! We also watched the world cup final there and although they lost, the town still had a huge parade and it was really cool to be able to say that we watched the world cup final in the country of one of the teams playing! Overall, we had an amazing time in Bariloche and it snowed in the town the morning we were leaving! Andrew had never really been in snow falling before so that was a cool experience to share :)

We arrived to Buenos Aires this afternoon, after another 24 hour bus ride. The amazing thing though is that the ride isn't actually bad at all when you have good company. We just sit and talk and laugh and sleep on each other and just enjoy the time together and it flies by! Guess thats what good company does. Love to you all and I can't wait to see you soon!

Boo

Andrew and his sister Paula eating our homemade ceviche her last night with us in Santiago.