El Bolsón, aka Berkely California

We decided to take a trip a bit to the south to see the artsy hippy town of El Bolsón. “Comunidad no nuclear” the sign read, as we arrived in town. Interpret that as you wish. We shlightly overshlept after a long night and didn’t quite make it in time to catch the morning bus. The late-sleeper 11:00 gringo bus was full. Soooooo, we sat in the Bariloche bus station playing Hearts till noon-thirty. Card gameing to pass idle time with random travelers abounds on the gringo trail is a common enough refrain.

El Bolsón was not quite worth the trouble and time but they did have an interesting feria artesanal (crafts fair). Some unique woodwork and knitting, homemade incense, and great empanadas: just what you would expect from a south american hippy commune. We hiked up to a mirador overlooking a clear river just as the sunset and then back to the bus stop to return to the big city Bariloche—a decidedly uneventful yet beautiful excursion worth a couple verbal sketches in the journal.