The zero-dollar day

When you plan a trip out, it`s very rare that you consider the little festivals happening in each small town, there are normally other time constraints to fulfill. Amazingly, somehow my timing in El Bolson perfectly coincided with the Fiesta de Lupolos, or Festival of Hopps. Learning that this region produces the lion`s share of hopps in the country and also has a large craft brewery industry, and that they would be celebrating all of this for two nights only was like awakening in a fairy tale.

I met up the guys from the mountain refuge from the night before, and we walked up to the fairgrounds north of the city. There was a steady stream of people headed in the same direction, and a long line of cars. We thought it strange that so many people would be driving to a beer festival, imagining a sea of endless beer gardens and mountains of wooden kegs. As it turned out, the festival was a full family affair with live music, food, beer, cotton candy, you name it. And basically everyone in the entire town was there, the raucous, rural population of hippies and farmers.

Now luck so far had brought me a missed flight connection and a stolen camera. It only seemed appropriate that the next traveler affliction would befall me: food poisoning. It`s possible it was the lunch meat that I brought up hiking the day earlier and left overnight, or maybe it was a lack of handwashing at my volunteer family´s house, though I think it was some grapes I bought at the grocery store. Either way, I was halfway though my first beer when it all came up. And I had eaten a lot that day.

It was only because of the awesomeness of the festival that I stayed as long as I did, but eventually the fever won out and I retreated home. I was debating just how many gory details to share with the blog and I`ll just say that it was one of the worst stomach illnesses I`ve ever suffered through, enough so that I put a copy of my passport out in case I was in super bad shape in the morning.

All told, it was a good place to be sick, I stayed in our little volunteer shack the entire next day. I was pretty sore due to the amount of lying down I did, and the bright green pee was probably an indication that I didn´t drink enough water, but after a full day of rest I was ready to face the world once again. And on the bright side, it was a zero-dollar day. Very rare.