Our 22+ hour bus ride (thank you Benadryl, earplugs and eye mask!) illustrated exactly how truly massive Argentina is (8th largest country by landmass in the world). We saw hours of tan, wind-swept brush out the window, read the entire To Kill A Mockingbird (me), studied oracle (Mark), watched 2 movies and ate a lot of roadside fruits and ice cream.
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| We lucked out with no one in front of us! The semi-cami seats were actually comfortable most of the time! |
Upon arrival in El Bolson, we found our hostel and since it was prime Argentinian dinner time (aka- 10 pm...these Spanish-influenced times for eating and shops closing is always rough getting used to), we ventured to a delicious local place (plum pesto tagliatelli for me and steak of course for Mark) nearby, complete with local music. Thankfully prices are slightly cheaper here and we got a better blue dollar exchange rate. El Bolson is a 'hippy town' per Lonely Planet and definitely is proud of its organic farming and sustainable living practices which makes me happy too. The artisinal market on Saturday was fabulous with delicious food and unique local crafts. Since I have no room for more things in my pack, we mainly enjoyed the local specialties like fresh raspberries, chocolate and of course, french fries. Framed against the nearby peaks, the market was lovely and relaxing.
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| We found a hand-knit South Park scene! |
We walked with a fluent Spanish-speaking French guy, Alex, to the mirador overlooking town and enjoyed the sun (especially after it was really quiet cold farther south already!). The farms spread out in every direction and another mirador included a big white cross.
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| We found a small tienda selling homemade jugos (juice) and he even showed us where he made it! |
On Day 2 in El Bolson, we joined up with Fio, a Uruguayan women staying in our hostel, to hike Cerro Piltriquitrón. We hired a remise to drop us off a ways up then hiked through the Bosque Tellado where hippies in the 1970's carved a bunch of unique sculptures out of wood.
At the refugio, we got a quick introduction to the trail up to the top and kept going. Unfortunately, by now it was cloudy and the wind was picking up. So after reaching the very steep top, we had lots of rocks and no views :(
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| The views before the top |
We then walked all the way back to town, about 15 more km, but we interspersed our Spanish conversations with vocabulary lessons and learned more about Fio's life in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ice cream and a nice dinner with Fio was our reward but I think we are done hiking for a while (over 110 miles in less than 2 weeks is good!).
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