I heard that there was some special thing that happens on Sundays in Colonia Suiza, a small community near Bariloche, so I bought a bus ticket and caught the extremely crowded bus to the small village. I was actually at the first bus stop which had an enormous line of people, and surprisingly, all of them fit on and I managed to squeeze into a 64 square centimeter plot of bus land near the rear entrance (it is always good to be near the exit in these situations; especially if you are beside the button that tells the bus driver that you want to stop). So, fully loaded, the bus headed out a few blocks and found another 30-40 people who also magically managed to fit on the bus, and now I had no elbow room. Fast forward 50 minutes and an interesting conversation in Spanglish with an Argentinian woman and several other people on the bus, we finally managed to make it to Colonia Suiza and get off the bus. I followed the crowd to see where they went, and they mostly seemed to congregate at the “feria” which is not a ferry, but a fair ground of sorts (this had confused me earlier when someone was telling me about things to do in Colonia Suiza and they said I could go to the feria, which I thought was a ferry, but they meant the fair). On the road to the feria, someone handed me a flyer for something called “curanto” which, as it turns out, I managed to arrive to with immaculate timing.
Curanto is done in Colonia Suiza on Sundays and Wednesdays in the early afternoon and is quite interesting to watch; it is a bit of a show. I caught it just in time to see the workers taking out the remaining large chunks of wood from a large fire pit that consisted of a lot of rocks and embers. After ringing a bell, they proceeded to spread out the embers and rocks evenly, cover them with branches with green leaves on them, and place various meats, squashes, potatoes, apples, carrots and other foods on top of the leaves. Next, they covered the food in more branches, then canvas, then sand. The net effect, in my estimation, is similar to other procedures which involve cooking food in pits. The picture below shows the process just after the food was placed on top of the first layer of leaves.
As you can imagine, this experience would not be complete without actually eating the food that was cooked, so I asked around and found out how to order some. Basically, you just pay for a ticket at the cash, they write down your name and when the food is ready, they will prepare your portion and call out your name to pick it up. The cooking process would take a little over an hour, so I decided to explore more of Colonia Suiza (which is not hard because it is very small).
The first thing I found was a path between two private properties that led down to the public access to Lago Morena which is a beautiful deep (going by the slope at the beach) clear blue lake beside a mountain.
I heard the lake beckoning me to go for a swim, but I felt a cold coming on, so I decided not to (as I found out later in the day, I was right about the cold).
After enjoying the views from the beach, I proceeded on to visit the rest of the village. It is mostly a tourist trap with several beautiful restaurants–many selling trucha (trout) dishes–and shops. Obviously, some people live there. It looked as though many of the people in the village came by car; I guess not everyone braves the infrequent public bus, but for $1.50 for a 50 minute bus ride, it beats paying for a taxi.
Back to the curanto… I got back to see the end of the curanto procedure which is just as expected: they shovel and scrape off the sand, remove the canvas, then the top layer of leaves to expose the food. The food is removed by type and quickly processed. The squash turned into a delicious orange puree, the meat and other items are mostly just chopped up into portions. One head chef (who much more resembles a beer guzzling Canadian barbecue “chef”) seemed to do most of the chopping and portioning. After a short time, my name was called and this is what I got (vegetarians beware!):
Out front is the salsa mix and the squash puree. The main tray includes portions of chicken, beef, sausage, a rib, potato, carrot, and baked apple. There were also a couple of buns. All in all, quite a gastronomic experience for less than $20.
The Argentinian lady I met on the bus invited me to watch a mariachi band later, but they didn’t start until 10 p.m. and my cold was brewing, so I thought I would play it by ear. I managed to find some Halls and tissue and relaxed in my warm bed with a book and an ibuprofen. As it turns out, I was asleep before 10, so I obviously didn’t go out and the cold seems fairly minor so far; I’m hoping it resolves itself as quickly as most of my colds (which I haven’t had in years) in a couple of days. As I write this on Monday morning, things are still okay with the cold. I only went through one package of tissue and don’t seem to be getting any worse.
And yes, the bus was packed on the way back too, and it was a longer ride. It seemed a little quicker after I found an Israeli fellow I had met on a different bus. We compared notes about our trip in Bariloche and now I have a few more ideas for the next time.
I am now off to breakfast and maybe to a farmacia to look for some precautionary nasal spray.