26.02.-12.03.11

Wwoofing at "La Confluencia"

Even though that the Lodge "La Confluencia" was owned by the couple Mark and Ellie from California and everyone over there would talk English, I decided to work as a "Wwoofer" for one week at the Lodge.

When I arrived on Saturday, 26.02.11 Ellie brought me up to the Wwoofer house and told me to settle in and start working on Sunday. Ok…it sounded good for me and therefore I unpacked my back and made some lunch at my new "home". The Wwoofing house was a beautiful wooden house with three bedrooms and a quite big living room and kitchen….and everything provided even a fridge and washing machine. Wow….what a great place!

Two hours later I met Christoffer, another Wwoofer from Sweden. While we had dinner together that night he told me about himself and his travels through Argentinia.

The next day Christoffer showed me around the garden and the essential things which have to be done first thing in the morning. Later on Ellie came around and showed me around the farm, introduced me to some staff and explained a few important things to me. For the first day she asked me to help Christoffer with planting the new Salad plants in the lower veggie garden.

The first two days I manly worked in the garden and did a lot of weeding. I didn't really mind as the weather was absolutely great and the sun was shining the whole week. During the first two days I also met Chealsy, the cook, Enrique, who was in charge for the horse ride excursions, Shay, the son of Ellie and Mark and the good looking and nice guy Omar, who was the manager of the lodge.

Two days later Jackie and Christina from California moved into the Wwoofer house as well. The two were great fun and the house became really lively and it was fun working with these two.

After a week Ellie asked me if I would like to stay for another week and I straight away said YES! Even though that I didn't like the weeding any more after one week...much but I really liked the live in the Wwoofing house, all the nice people who worked in the lodge and it just felt great to physically do something useful.

The Friday after I started it was Chealsy's birthday and her boyfriend Shay organised an "asado" for that night. So Christina, Jackie and I baked an "Apple Pie" for Chealsy's birthday cake. We all sat around a nice camp fire and that night I got to know Omar a bit more as he was quite flirty.

Even though that I only had 5 hours sleep I got up at 7am the other morning and walked up to "Wharton" where I took the bus into town. From there I took another bus to the beautiful "Lago Puelo". I arrived at around 12pm at the lake and hiked straight up the "Mirrador" from where I had a fantastic view. I think it was one of the hottest days in March and I couldn't wait to jump into the lake…..and for sure, Steffi forgot her bathing suit! Well, thank God I was wearing my black underwear and I didn't give a s*** when I jumped into the cold but nice clear water. And for sure…..I fell asleep at the beach without putting some sun protection on! Two hours later I woke up….burned and too late for the four o'clock bus! Well so I relaxed another hour at this beautiful place before I took the bus back to El Bolson at 5pm.

The following week I had my Up and Downs at the Lodge. I won't go into details here as I am publishing this text onto my website. But I learned a lot of myself and hopefully will learn out of my mistakes!!

During the week we continued with weeding, picking loads of plums, making jam and helped the three Argentinian staff members making new compost. Three days before I left, Ross and Jessica from California joined us at the Wwoofer house and for another two days we had the pleasure to meet Nikolas from Uruguay who was then the 7th Wwoofer at "La Confluencia"!

Wow…the house became very crowdie but the atmosphere was great and we cooked delicious meals and drank a lot of wine together. On my second last day we were even allowed to use the huge SPA area of the lodge. After the guests were gone for dinner we made use of the Sauna and enjoyed a glass of wine in the Hot Tub under a beautiful sky full of stars. Wow…that was so great for my back….I wished we could have used the Sauna and Hot Tub every night!

My last day at the beautiful Lodge "La Confluencia" was Saturday, 12.03.11. Mark had to take two guests to the airport in Bariloche and gave me a lift up to the Bar at Wharton. From there I took the local bus to El Bolson.

My plan was to stay for max. 3 more nights in town as I wanted to catch up with Omar, from the Lodge, Jenny, a German girl who lives in "Epuyen" and I also wanted to go to a "Hippi Party" at the hostel "Pueblito". So I walked right to "Seniora Rosita" house and ask her if I could stay with her. She welcomed me with a warm hug and a nice warm cup of coffee…..and for sure it was no problem to stay in her backyard.

Unfortunately the catch up with Jenny and Omar didn't work out but I went to the "Hippi-Party" where I met some nice couch surfers from Germany and Canada.

I finally left EL BOLSON then on Monday, 14.03.2011 and took the bus straight to BARILOCHE!!