Pilar, Alberto and a cup of mate ...

The first day we decided to hike to the top of a small mountain called Cerro Otto; this is a mountain with beautiful views of the entire area, and you can take a skyline tram to the top or hike, so of course we opted to hike. We were following a young couple who seemed to know where they were going, but after a few kilometers, the path ended and we were just hiking straight up the mountain over rivulets where the rain had come down the mountain. I mean straight up; I can imagine the people in the trams laughing at us struggling up. By the time we were halfway, the other couple were as lost as we were, but it was clearly too treacherous to go back down that way with slippery gravel and rocks. So we went on, finally reached the top, and this nice couple asked us if we would like to have some "mate" with them. We had not tried yerba mate, but it is a very strong tea which the people in South America drink out of cups carved from gourds like pumpkin, sipped through silver straws. The gourd is filled 1/2-2/3 full with loose tea, then hot water is poured over, and you sip it through the straw which has a filter on the end. The gourd is passed around ... and hot water refilled as needed. Above is a picture of Pilar and Alberto, the couple from Buenos Aires who we met on the hike and drank mate with. They have been married "for ten long, hard, terrible years" according to Alberto, who was quite funny.

So of course after all that mate, I had to use the bathroom in the little tea house at the top of the mountain, but they wouldn't let you in unless you bought a sky tram ticket, and you couldn't buy one way, you had to buy both ways; I was far too cheap to pay for that, so we walked the long way (about 9 k) back down the car road into Bariloche. Which was actually a lovely walk.