Tag Archives: patagonia

Bariloche: the Swiss Argentina and so much more!

Class Field Trip!

This trip was probably the closest I have ever gotten to having an out of this world Magic School Bus trip. I had an amazing time traveling to Bariloche on our field trip. Bariloche was so beautiful: mountains, lakes, trees changing colors, while roses crept up the side of our cabin. We stayed right on the edge of the lake, Nahuel Huapi, the namesake of the national park that surrounds Bariloche.

Bariloche´s location in relation to Buenos Aires

Bariloche´s location in relation to Buenos Aires

The cabins where we stayed by Lake Nahuel Huapi

The cabins where we stayed by Lake Nahuel Huapi

The town of Bariloche was so quaint: wooden edifices with cobblestone streets that wound around the lake. We had free time to wander through the small town filled with chocolate shops. I enjoyed taking in the crisp, fresh air, as well as the changing colors of fall that have only  just started to arrive in Buenos Aires.

We were able to take a few hikes while we were there, and I am afraid to say that my legs have completely forgotten what hills feel like in the flat pampean landscape of Buenos Aires. Indeed, that will be a rude awakening when I return to State College. Neverthless, it was great to spend sometime in the National Park and learn more about the ecology of Patagonia. There is not a huge amount of biodiversity, but a lot of species found there are completely unique to that area. So I saw a lot of interesting trees and plants that our guide, an ecologist, pointed out to us.

These types of trees only grow in Patagonia.

These types of trees only grow in Patagonia.

Learning first-hand

I am so glad I was able to take this trip with my class. Of course the touristy spots of Bariloche were spectacular, but with my class, we saw other parts of Bariloche outside of its tourism that I would never have seen on my own. For example, one day we went to a Mapuche community, an indigenous population of Argentina, and they prepared us a typical Mapuche meal. They prepared curanto. To prepare the meal they create a fire over rocks outside, and once the rocks are heated, they remove the firewood. They then lay fabric down over the hot rocks and put all of the food- chicken, beef, lamb, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and apples- and cover the food with leaves from trees typical of the region. After folding the fabric over top of the leaves, they shovel earth on top of the mound to seal it off and allow everything to cook.

As they prepared our meal, we listened to a lawyer´s lecture about indigenous rights in Argentina and heard community members´perspectives on securing these rights. The community we visited is one of the few that have obtained the right to their traditional territory, although the government has created laws to allow this reclamation to happen for all native communities. Once the food was ready, they called us outside for the process of disinterring our meal. Steam rose from the earth, and we could smell the distinct combination of earth, the leaves, and our food.

 

Cuarnto; a typical mapuche meal prepared on hot rocks beneath the earth.

Cuarnto; a typical mapuche meal prepared on hot rocks beneath the earth.

The food was amazing, and the experience entirely unique. With everything I have learned through my anthropology class about Patagonia in mind, I was able to interact and share a first hand experience with this Mapuche community.


With my class, we also had the opportunity to see art that is prohibited from being shown in the museum. Why? Because the art was painted by a Nazi-refugee, Toon Maes, in Bariloche. The town was actually a refuge for many Nazi leaders, where they lived quietly and solitarily until they died. Once the artist’s past was discovered, human rights activists protested for his art to be taken out of exhibitions. So when we went to see the art, the paintings were just leaned up against a wall. Normally they are kept in an office, hidden from the public. Our teachers spoke to us in English about the paintings instead of Spanish, because the person who maintains the collection was once a student of the Nazi artist. She really cared for him, so they didn’t want to disrespect her by denouncing  these paintings as art created by a Nazi.

Art by Toon Maes, a Nazi leader who found refuge in Bariloche, Argentina

Art by Toon Maes, a Nazi leader who found refuge in Bariloche, Argentina

We also visited a school in El Barrio Alto of Bariloche, a poorer neighborhood outside of the touristy center of the town. Our bus drove through dirt roads, with precarious homes on either side of the road. We arrived at the school, filled with happy children and surrounded my colorful murals on every walls. We brought with us musical instruments to donate to their school band and posters of pictures of our homes in the US. My group had a picture of mac and cheese on our poster, and the kids excitedly asked, “What’s that, what’s that?” They loved asking us questions about football and wanted to know what our school´s mascots were. The town´s newspaper was actually there and wrote an article about how we donated instruments to the school.

http://www.elcordillerano.com.ar/index.php/actualidad/item/26001-universitarios-estadounidenses-donaron-instrumentos-musicales-a-la-escuela-cailen

These excursions were very special and made my experience in this beautiful town all the more incredible. So, I was disappointed to leave this peaceful place but was happy to come home to my homestay family. They waited for me to arrive before they sat down to eat and were so excited to hear all about my trip.