The Wonder of Bariloche

Wow.  How does one describe Bariloche, or Patagonia in general for someone…the truth is, you can’t.  Pictures don’t do it justice, and words are always going to be insufficient.  The reason pictures are insufficient is not because a lens cannot capture the scene or the view in the most natural way—by now we’re almost to the point where all camera phones can take high quality pictures.  Capturing the physical scene is actually relatively easy, but there is so much more to the beauty of the land than just the physical glory of it all; there is no way to capture, however, the sensation of standing on a shore, seeing the water, the sky, the tree-covered mountains, and seeing and hearing and feeling all of creation worshipping its creator.  That is what I was able to experience in Patagonia this weekend.  Of course, I was able to enjoy other things Bariloche had to offer, like the best chocolate I’ve ever had, as well as I got to learn a lot about the indigenous culture and how that has been changing over the years, and I was able to see artwork from a collection that is not in any museum (there is a lot of controversy about it and it’s artist, Toon Maes), but it is impossible to avoid the natural beauty that constantly surrounds you here.  It really has been a wonderful weekend; one that has made me wonder how anyone could ever stay in one place their whole lives.  This trip, more than anything else previously, has instilled in me the urge to travel.  There is so much more to the world than all the cool things man can make…there is so much that I have never seen, and so much I now really have a desire to.  It has been a majestic experience—one I will not soon forget—and it is an experience I would never give up for anything in the world.  I’ll write more about specific things later, but this paragraph needed a post of its own, and here it is.