Time Shift

We are back in El Bolson. For a third time. Not going to lie, I want to move here. Just for a year so I can learn Spanish. On the 21st we are going up to Bariloche (2 hours north of El Bolson) to meet Susan. Yippiee! Someone else to speak English to!

We just spent 4 nights at Parque National los Alerces, 160 km south of El Bolson. The ride took over 4 hours along dirt roads. Not too much fun with a screaming blatter. Every pothole was painful. But we spotted a couple of condors along the way! That made the ride all worth it. The first day we wandered along the beach, found some funny looking birds that Joel just had to chase for a flying picture. The second day we hiked up to a mirador (lookout) and along the way saw some pre Columbian artwork estimated to be over 2000 years old. Then we hiked along another trail, found a sweet spot to skinnydip and had lunch along the lake while being swarmed by wasps (clothing on). The next day it rained (only the 5th day of rain in our entire trip!) so we hung around our campsite drinking mate and playing cards. Joel drank an earwig accidentally! hahaa. It was hiding in the bombilla (mate spoon-straw) and he sucked it right up. I felt bad for him but couldn´t contain the laughter. Our last day was rainy too and Joel was feeling ill (earwig, perhaps?). So it turned into another lounging day playing cards (no mate).

On Monday we had to leave back up to El Bolson - we ran out of fuel, oops - on the 9:30am bus. We got ourselves out of bed early enough to use the last of our fuel to cook up some eggs and boil water for coffee, packed up our gear and walked up to the bus stop. After 15 minutes of waiting a German family joined us. They were friendly and curious about Canada, we discussed social, political and environmental problems in Canada, why geographers and maps are needed and about the baby booomers retiring. (They don´t have the baby boom generation in Germany...) So 10:30 rolls around and the bus still isn´t there and we´re starting to wonder what´s up... 10:45 and the bus finally shows up. We hop on, hear the German guy asking why the bus is late, only to hear that the bus isn´t very late at all. It´s actually 9:45am. Apparently they have time changes in Argentina too. I´m not really sure how this all works... since they´re changing their clocks for Fall, but in Canada it´s for Spring... what´s the time difference between here and Pacific Time?

I also have exciting news! Joel has an interview for a field work coop job this summer. It´s a phone interview... I hope the employer knows they have to call Argentina. And we really have to figure out what time it is in Victoria. The job description didn´t say how much it pays and that is a determining factor for a job this summer. So I hope it pays well and he gets it and then much stress for the summer is gone. Yea Joel!