Back in November, my mom was driving me home from a wild, 12.4 mile Spartan race that I did not train nearly enough for, but thoroughly enjoyed. I had about overcome my eating disorder, and the race reminded me how much I missed a regular, rigorous exercise routine. Sitting in the passenger seat, I browsed through Duke’s club sports on my phone. Clicking through the Duke Triathlon pages, I found their exercise schedule and was delighted to see that there was a training plan for every single day of the week and that they even had a few highly experienced coaches (i.e. world class athletes). I was hooked. Later that night, I discovered that their dream trip (a mostly funded trip Duke Club Sports puts on for each division every 3-4 years) was to compete in a half Ironman in the Patagonian region of Argentina in March! OK, so I was more than hooked. I was readily offering myself up for sacrifice and showed up at practice two days later. Originally, I wasn’t supposed to come on the dream trip. All of the spots had already been filled by members who had been practicing since September. About a month into training, I realized how counterintuitive it was to train for a half Ironman and not even compete in one, so I offered to pay my way. Then, about a week before the trip, someone dropped out and I got grant money anyways. The world works in strange and serendipitous ways, but it teaches you to take those leaps of faith. Flying into Bariloche was stunning. The browns and greens and imposing mountains were not like anything you get in the U.S. And our Airbnb? We lived in a huge, old house built in the 1940s (most likely by Nazi refugees, no joke; Bariloche was a mecca for them) that had a view of the mountains and forest, and a short walk down the drive led us to a lake, a short walk up the drive led us to a hiking trail. After the race, we took full advantage of the town and landscape around us. The Food OK, let’s start this section off with a disclaimer. I was vegan on this trip, except for when it came to dessert. Due to its Swiss and German influences, Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina, and there was so much to try. Ironman even gave us chocolate finishers’ medals produced by the local chocolate company RapaNui in addition to our metal hardware. My favorite treats were Havanna’s Havannets, cookies topped with cones of dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. They’re sinful. I liked them better than their traditional South American cousins, alfajores, which are sandwich cookies held together by dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. And then I also had chocolate fondue in the finishers’ tent after the race and dulce de leche ice cream on top of Belgian waffles at Rapanui...Was there more chocolate involved? Probably. There was just so much, I can’t keep track of it all. I also had (possibly my first?) empanadas after a group “recovery” ride we did later in the week. It was too long to really be considered recovery, and we were all quite hungry, so we stopped at a small shop on the side of the road and filled up on these tasty hand pies. Argentina is famous for its beef and steak, but obviously I had none of that. It’s also famous for mate, which I have had and loved in the past but did not have a chance to drink on this trip. Mate is a kind of tea that is even more integral to Argentine culture than sweet tea is to the South. It is typically drunk from small gourds (yes, gourds) through silver straws. Families and friends pass mate around while enjoying conversation and relaxing. It can be consumed hot or cold, so is good for any time of the year. On our boat tour, we saw many, many families carrying bags full of mate thermoses on board. The Hiking We had planned on doing some overnight backpacking while we were in Patagonia, but the parks were closed due to unpredictable high winds. What a bummer; I mean, check out these hikes. We did, however, have the aforementioned trail by our house, and several of us drove to a longer day trail in the Nahuel Huapi National Park that afforded us views of a hanging glacier and waterfalls, not to mention several species of birds (beautiful woodpeckers!). The weather was crazy in March. It rained pretty much every day, and we saw so many rainbows that it was abnormal not to see at least two on any given day. On the longer day hike, we started off bundled up in jackets, stripped down as we sweated on an upward climb, bundled up again as it started to snow, and stripped down again on our way back. Honestly, what mood swings Mother Nature was having that day. The Boat Tour Probably my least favorite activity of the trip and not worth the money in my opinion. It involved a lot of sitting, and it was also pretty cloudy on the day we went. We did get to walk around the pretty forest of Victoria Island and explore the beaches and forests of Los Arrayanes National Park, and we learned a little history about the area on the boat, but I would have rather spent my time hiking. The Cycling And, of course, I would be remiss not to mention the cycling. The busy road connecting Bariloche to other coastal towns is NOT ideal for road cyclists, except for when it was closed for the race; the traffic is fast and heavy, and the fumes are hard to breathe. Many locals ride their bikes on the curbs, but there is virtually no shoulder for road bikes. We took some roads into the mountains on our recovery ride, where the traffic was far better and the scenery even more gorgeous. This was the most beautiful ride of my life, and that’s saying something because Vermont was pretty darn beautiful. The Swimming We were in Argentina at the beginning of their fall, and while the waters weren’t unbearable...they were pretty darn cold. As in, wear a wetsuit cold. But the lake by our house had crystal clear water, and the exhilaration of diving in for a chilly swim was not to miss. That's about it for now! Feel free to contact me if you are planning a trip to Argentina and want some tips...I highly recommend Bariloche as a destination, and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to visit.
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