Andes Travel

When I arrived in Buenos Aires, I took a taxi straight to a hostel (i forgot its name & its now closed) frequented by Israeli backpackers in the Once neighborhood on La Rioja street. I had called the hostel when I was still home in the States to make sure it still existed & the address was right. I came to the right place. Within a few hours I had two partners with whom to set out on some adventures. I landed in Argentina with absolutely no clue where I was going aside from to a hostel. I didn't even know in which direction to head.
So i met this one guy from northern Israel who had the same name as me & had also just arrived on the continent. He had worked in a pizza shop with Mexicans, so his Spanish was decent, he also seemed to be focused on where his next destination would be in Argentina, so I stuck with him.
Then there was this really pretty dark Israeli girl sitting on the couch reading a book. I was sure she was of Yemenite descent & about my age, but it turned out she was Indian , her family was from Cochin, & I later found out that she was 35. There are two, to my knowledge, villages in Israel of Cochinni Jews.
She had already done her time on the continent & was supposed to be going home but she had some issues with her ticket expiring (after extending it a few times) & decided to go revisit some of the beautiful places she had been to.
So the three of us spent the next two days checking out downtown Buenos Aires, the Jewish district, & the HUGE Abasto shopping mall - with the only kosher McDonald's outside of Israel (in addition to the other two inside the mall) & had some great Dulce de leche ice cream.
We bought tickets with Via Bariloche, a long distance bus company offering seats that recline in to a full bed -cama; or almost fully -semi cama. I think we got semi cama for about $75, it is a 24 hour trip to Bariloche which is the gateway to the Andes & Argentina's skiing capital, it is also known for its chocolate shops & it has a distinct swiss alps feel to it.