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 By Ewan Moffat

Myself and my girlfriend are staying a fairly central flat in the northwest of the city. We’re renting from the apartment from a Bariloche native who we were put in touch with prior to arriving in the city. The apartment had already been booked for a three day period overlapping with the beginning of our stay and our landlord suggested that we leave town for a few days and stay at his parent’s farm in El Bolsón. Dubbed the ‘hippy capital’ of Rio Negro we jumped at the chance taking a stunning scenic car ride through the mountains passing lake after lake. After Spanish lessons at La Montaña it is a great place to practice your Spanish in Las Montañas.
Our few days in El Bolsón were beyond anything we could have expected - and it is a place that I would thoroughly recommend checking out. Waking up to snow-capped peaks and falling asleep with the stars lighting up the sky behind our curtains the trip has rejuvenated us in both body and mind.
In the town itself my girlfriend treated me to an early Christmas present and we both spent an hour on the massage tables at Lumina ‘Espacio Holistico (‘holistic space’). Lumina is somewhere that will amaze, inspire and heal any weary traveller passing through. On a warm day in El Bolsón be sure to swing by for an afternoon yoga class, a spot of aromatherapy or just to admire the remarkable architecture of the ecobuild slap bang in the middle of town. From the giant eye window in the yoga studio is a view of the mountains that you will not forget.

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By Ewan Moffat
 

 
Famed for its diet of meat, meat and more meat, my dabbling in vegetarianism has been put on hold since my arriving in Argentina. Hamburgers, hotdogs and of course steaks being the call of the day, near enough every day since my arrival a fortnight ago. This weekend I was invited to my first Asado for a celebration of a friend’s mother 71st birthday.
After a productive week in the classroom is great to get out and practice out in the real world - and with some tasty morsels too of course. Arriving at the house, met with the obligatory kiss on the cheek, I was shown out to the back garden where the food was cooking up. On the grill were a giant stack of Chicken and Chorizo though these were second fiddle to the entire goat slow roasting in front of an open fire. It was great to get to witness and enjoy such an essential part of Argentinian culture with my friend’s father, and self-proclaimed Gaucho, manning the grill.
In a manner reminiscent the Mediterranean culture in mainland Europe, Argentinian meal time seems to centre around family, community and good eating. The meat falling off the bone and onto our plates we were well fed and I was once again blown away by the incredible openness and hospitality that has so far been an theme of my time in Bariloche, and in the Andes in general. Though it is still relatively early in my learning Spanish it has been incredibly rewarding to feel the progress in my comprehension of the language since starting up with language classes. And I’m not sure I can imagine a more welcoming and friendly a place as Bariloche to actually put that learning into practice.

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¡Hola! ¡Me llamo Ewan!
I came to Argentina a little over two weeks ago hoping to see the sights, drink in the famed Latin culture and get to know a place that I have heard so much about. From Malbec to Messi, Tango to Gauchos, Eva Peron to the Patagonian sun, when myself and my partner were deciding where we wanted to go next, Argentina was top of the list.
So far in the “Land of Silver” I have wandered the plazas of Buenos Aires, sipped wine in the vineyards of Mendoza and eaten more beef than my belly would care to admit. All of which have been joyous but busy cities (even busier schedules) have meant that everything thus far has felt like a whirlwind.
Additionally - and perhaps contributing to this - I speak not a word of Spanish. (That is aside from the “Una cerveza, por favor.” and “¿Hablas ingles?”, gleaned from a couple of short trips to Spain over the years). To truly get the most out of one’s travels, I feel it paramount to be able to communicate with those whose homeland you are staying. And with that fact in mind, I have been trawling the language schools of Argentina - both virtually and in the time I have been here - for the past few weeks in a quest to be able to learn the language somewhere along my travels. Keen to slow down and make a base rather than continue to move around, we were unsure where to settle. From natives, travellers and internet blogs alike, we kept hearing the same name over and over - San Carlos de Bariloche.
Situated on the shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake with snow capped Patagonian mountains surrounding in a 360° panoramic, Bariloche had me hooked the moment the bus rounded the final bend of an 18 hour journey and the city came into view. My time since then has been a whirlwind of different sorts; downsizing from the hustle and bustle of the metropolis to a much more manageable mountain milieu.
Over the next weeks and months, I will share my thoughts and feelings, highs and lows as I begin my journey here in Bariloche, Patagonia with La Montaña Spanish School.

Gabrielle, from the US


 

Rachel, from Canada

Penny y Roberto de UK


Jesse and Leslie, from Seattle


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