Christmas Fiesta Gone Bad

We woke up around 8:30 PM from our nap, reluctant to get out of bed. After much encouragement and discouragement was exchanged from our respective bunks, we both got up and peeked out the window to see what was happening below. Pudu, our hostel, had been roasting two full lambs all day for their Christmas Eve fiesta, and they looked like they were finally close to done (Ab almost puked when she saw them cooking). In addition to the meal, they were encouraging people to dress in costume for the evening. Looking down from our window vantage point we saw a nun (with a black trash bag draped over a white scarf as her habit), a sheep, a few colorful costumes of unknown origin and a Who (from Whoville and the Grinch) among others.

With little time to even think about the holidays, let alone a costume, we both ended up heading down to dinner in jeans and sweatshirts (mine was red at least!). We checked email on the hostel computer and then grabbed a seat at a table for dinner. Our bunk mate, Stephanie, a 25 year old traveller from Canada in Bariloche to study Spanish before trekking north into other areas of Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, joined us at our table. We chatted until dinner was served: lamb, mashed quash, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes and vino (minus the lamb for Abby). For dessert there was a chocolate layer cake that was kind of flaky and kind of tart, with a little bit of dolce de leche (usually gross but yummy in this cake) and a glass of champagne. Not bad!

However, the drunk couple across the table, who were singing at the top of their lungs and demanding that we sway to the horrible music, put a little damper on the party. And as the night went on, they got worse and worse! The next step was the snowboard shots, where 5 shot glasses were glued to the board and so everyone had to lift and drink at the same time (this always resulted in at least one person getting drenched with booze). Somewhere in the middle of this, Ab and I escaped to bed (equipped with ear plugs and eye covers that really did nothing with the ruckus going on downstairs at the bar) but around 4 AM the drunken couple ended up upstairs outside our room, blasting Michael Jackson and singing along very badly (Michael Jackson is fantastic, I know, but on full blast at 4 AM? Not ideal!). Then they proceeded to make drunken "I love you" phone calls to everyone they knew. It was infuriating. To top it all off, this was their final conversation:

Girl: Look how tired I look, how did this happen? I used to be able to stay up all night parting, but now I can´t keep up. What happened to me?
Boy: You look fine.
Girl: No, I´m getting so old. I´m losing it. I have to go party more!
Boy: A couple weeks ago you were up for 48 hours straight partying. Baby, you still got it!
Girl: Yeah I guess I was. I look OK, I guess. YEAHHHH!

Isn´t that touching? All outside our room at 4 AM. Both Abby and I, in our separate beds, plotted out how we were going to absolutely kill them if they didn´t go away. :) But after that we ended up getting a few more hours of sleep, and felt OK (sleepy but not murderous) in the morning. Because it was Christmas day, not much was open but we managed to get a coffee and some empanadas for lunch (gross but better than nothing) and then headed back to the hostel for a couple minutes to grab our bags, get a taxi and head to the bus station for our 5 PM bus to El Bolson.

The bus ride was beautiful and uneventful, aside from some smelly hikers we picked up somewhere in the middle (mixture of Indian spices, body odor and weed). We made it to El Bolson by a little after 7 PM, found our hostel (Hostel Pehuenia - where the owner gave us cheek kisses and a hug upon arrival - so cute!), dropped our bags and headed back out to get some dinner. We went to Juaja, known for their fantastic fruit helado (ice cream) of every variety, where I got rainbow trout (the local specialty) and Ab got a noodle dish with veggies and tofu (!!). We got ice cream too of course! The guy at the ice cream stand was super cute, claiming he didnt speak English but then telling me the ice cream I was trying (he gave us many samples) was made of snake. We almost believed him...

From there it was a little town exploration (not great because it was raining) and then to the hostel to bed (a double bed for the first time on this trip! Yay!).