Biking in Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes

Bariloche is a ritzy ski and mountain town on the shores of the beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi in the Lakes District of Argentina. We arrived to a terrible view however because of a nearby fire but that didn't get in the way of chocolate and ice cream shopping downtown.  They're supposedly famous for both and had quite a colorful selection to choose from. The most interesting part was running in to 2 of the 6 Israelis from TDP at the chocolate shop and they seemed much happier than they were at the end of the hike. 

Preparations for Semana Santa

Bariloche really wishes it was a European ski town based on the hotel names of Edelweiss and Chamonix but the downtown was nothing special. Our amazing hostel 4 km outside of town though was awesome. They picked us up at the bus station, upgraded us for the same price to a private room (especially fabulous after our 11 bed room in El Bolson) and had a fabulous kitchen and common area. While the hiking here is supposedly superb, we are hiked out so biking the Circuito Chico was a great compromise on our goal to see the national park while not hiking. After a late night chatting with our other awesome hostel guests, it was hard to leave early but soon we were on our rental bikes (mine was horrible and clucked up every hill) in the beautiful sunny and clear day. 

There were plenty of steep hills that forced others to walk but I was determined to bike up, even after my bike stopped working to get into the bottom 8 gears. We had amazing vistas, fast downhills and bridges over crystal clear streams.  

My favorite part was finding a hidden beach off a side dirt road. Here we ate lunch and relaxed under the sun on some rocks by the lake. The trip ended just after the beautiful Llao Llao Hotel, a super fancy resort and golf course. 

As it was St Patrick's Day, about 12 of us from the hostel ventured downtown for the festivities. We met up with Fio from El Bolson as well. However, we didn't want to be out too late and it was still dinner time (11 pm...so we could only get a drink if we were seated at a table...weird) so we only tried one local beer each.  We walked around with Fio for a while and then returned by 12 though I'm sure the others partied quite late since no one was up for breakfast when we left at 830 for the bus station. 

To get to San Martin de los Andes (and back to Chile), we road the scenic bus through the cute town of Villa La Angostura where we had a few hours to enjoy a cute cup of tea.  

Then we rode past the famous 7 Lakes which were beautiful before arriving in the equally cute town of San Martin on the shore of Lago Lanin.  

Here we planned to bike more and relax and thankfully, we had a beautifully sunny day to bike up and up the mountains flaking the town and the lake and then zipped down the backside before circling around the side of the lake again.  

Beautiful!  Helado (we're suckers), cheap Mendoza wine ($4 for 1.5L!), hostel-cooked meals and kitchen conversations with Argentinian travelers capped off a fun day!

Enjoying our hostel salads, steak (yes, even I will eat steak in meat-centric Argentina) and vino!

The wine aisles are amazing here!  Almost all are from Argentina and very affordable!

The chill life in El Bolson

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.

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.

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.

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 :(  

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!).  

Argentinean Patagonia

The beautiful Fitz Roy mountains! 

Oddly enough, on the stop between El Calafate and El Chalten, we learned that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid out in this area back in 1905.  It was weird seeing references to Rawlins, WY on the walls this far away!



 We arrived to El Chalten, the tiny town in nature's paradise, around 9:30 at night and didn't think much of it when the lights in the little bus station went out. However, we were soon walking through town by flashlight and no hostels or restaurants had lights, only candlelight, and it looked really , like something out of a post apocalyptic zombie movie. Thankfully, we found our hostel and lights were restored in another 20 or so minutes. Our first day, we hiked to Laguna Torres which was a relatively flat 12 miler round-trip to a glacier lake. We heard the previous 6 days had rain so we were happy for sunshine but oh that Patagonian wind! By the time we reached the lake, it was near hurricane force and I could only look at the lake, with its huge waves crashing over large ice chunks, for a few moments before being forced back down below the ridge.

 Thankfully, the weather was even better (slightly less wind and fewer clouds) for our hike on Day 2 to Laguna de los Tres where you get a spectacular view of the Fitz Roy mountains. This involved a lot more uphill but we first detoured en extra few km to see Piedras Blancas, another stunning glacier where we witnessed a huge section of ice crash down and send ripples across the lake towards out lunch spot.

The first view from the laguna 4 km in

 

We then returned to the main trail to start the arduous uphill climb of the last km. It was very steep but our breathlessness was rewarding with absolutely breathtaking views of these peaks and the shimmering blue lake in the front. We may or may not have taken 150 or so pictures up here. Thankfully, the clouds move so fast that we were able to get some great clear shots of the tallest spire in between times when it was shrouded in clouds again.

 

An hour or so later, we sadly said goodbye to this beautiful place and, since it was already 4, we quickly descended the 10 km all the way back to town.

The water was so clear (and potable right from the river still!)  I hear the fishing is good too!

Yes, I realize that some of this looks like Colorado.  It's hard to venture too far from the mountains!

 Our hostel is literally 300 meters from the trailhead (so awesome...and no park fee too!) So that was nice after 16 or so miles! We were so lucky to have two sunny days to explore this mountain paradise! The next day was a bit rainy and cold so we were happy for our sunny days.  We had a wonderful dinner with the Irish couple in our room and a couple from Vanuatu, an island in the South Pacific that I've never even heard about before.  They informed us about island life and were pretty nervous because a huge storm was poised to hit their island.  We hoped it wasn't as bad as was anticipated and now that we are in El Bolson with internet, I see the front page of CNN is about the post-cyclone destruction to their island.  So sad!  Wishing their families and everyone affected recovers from this tragedy. 

Chilling near a glacier in Argentina

After an uneventful border crossing, we arrived to El Calafate, Argentina! The only real reason to visit El Calafate is to see the beautiful and ginormous Perito Moreno glacier. It was born to be a tourist attraction with its huge glacial peaks, beautiful blue and white colors and potential for huge ice chunks to fall at whim, crashing in to the ocean water below. The peninsula extends very close to the glacier end and so we spent many hours walking around the walk paths and enjoying the glacier from all angles. Unlike many glaciers around the world, this one is considered stable and sometimes even grows right up to the peninsula. It was quite a sight to see!  

There were many km's of these raised walkpaths to see the glacier (and also protect the vegetation).

The English translations are always funny.  Though I'm glad that they warn us to avoid the violently thrown ice pieces!

We watched these two woodpeckers for a long time.  The female clucked the whole time that they male pecked.

That is a small boat in comparison to that huge glacier!

That evening we enjoyed a local dinner of lorco stew and steak.  The food was so-so but the waiter was nice enough to wish me a 'Happy Women's Day' and even gave me a free dessert to celebrate.  However, even with the 'blue rate' money exchange rate that is 35% more than what we would get at an ATM, prices here are more than Chile so we will be cooking in more often now! If interested in the financial problems of Argentina (and why it's acceptable to exchange money at a higher rate than the banks), google some info on it.

Day 1 (2/27): Puerto Natales to the park entrance to Campamento Seron (12 km, 7.5 miles)

We walked to the bus station with our bags (good warm up at 7 am) and then slept the whole 2 hours to the park.  After getting dropped off at the Refugio in the hot mid-day sun, we couldn't find the sunscreen so Mark ran to the hotel and bought more (which we of course found later that evening and really didn't need at all the last 6 days).

And we are off!

These owls are actually quite rare to see in the park and we saw one feasting on a mouse right next to the trail!

Eventually, we walked the 4 or so hours (12 km) to Campamento Seron which was a slightly hilly but easy first day.  This camp had hot showers and a really nice camp host. We socialized with a Chilean couple on their first ever camping trip.  I was impressed that the 100 pound Pami was carrying a pack much bigger than mine however, I don't think she was happy with it on our longer day 2.  We also met 6 Israeli's on their post-military travels.  They were all very fit and hot (Mark agreed too) but definitely on vacation because they took hours to hike between each camp (more on them later).  Great first day!

Stickers went on the tent to prove we paid... don't want to be woken up in the night to show proof!

Day 2 (2/28): Seron to Refugio/Campamento Dickson (18 km, 11.2 miles)

I slept so great and after a delicious granola and apple breakfast, we were on our way to Dickson.

The trail passed beautiful streams (I hear the fishing is good here Dad!) and climbed one decent hill but then the rest of the trail was a flat and long but beautiful trail to Dickson.  Since we are on the backside that only those doing the full circuit access, we practically had the trail to ourselves as we met no one going the opposite way and passed just 2 other groups going our direction.  It was sunny and just wonderful!  

The best part of trekking here is that the river water is safe to drink and plentiful!  Some people trek with only cups and fill up as they go!

Two thumbs up to a great lunch spot!

We ate salami and cheese wraps on a beautiful perch overlooking Rio Paine and Lago Dickson which is fed by the Glacier Dickson.  The camp spot was on the end of the peninsula.

The view coming in to camp (down there on the right side of the peninsula)

As it was a warm day, I decided to shower but the one with hot water didn't have a door so at least I accomplished laundry and a shower at the same time!  Pami and Ignacio arrived very late so we shared our fajitas and rice dinner with them as they still had to set up camp and it appeared rain was coming.  Unfortunately, just as we transitioned in to March, so did the weather and it rained all night. 

Day 3 (3/1): Dickson to Los Perros (11 km, 6.8 miles)

Our plan originally was to relax and walk around the lake to view the glacier this morning but the residual morning rain (and clouds blocking the glacier view) meant we relaxed in the tent until nearly 9 am.  It finally cleared some and we left camp at 1130 to hike up through the beautiful green (and muddy) forest.  

The view looking back at Lago and Glacier Dickson

The mirador of the Valle de Los Perros was breathtaking.

We stopped by a quiet stream for lunch with only a slight sprinkle overhead.

However, as we kept climbing (we gained 400 meters, 1300 feet today), the sprinkle turned to rain which turned in to a windy downpour.  We knew we were close to just kept going which unfortunately meant for very wet feet (while my gaitors were dry in my bag... kicked myself for that one!).  Thankfully, Los Perros had a pretty large enclosed cooking shelter with a fire and soon, all 25 or so trekkers had lined the rafters with wet clothes.  

Our tent was soaked so we opted to rent a pre-set up tent in hopes that would also assist us in an early departure in the morning to get over the pass. 

However, we later learned that the river past the next camp may be too full for those at Paso to leave so we had to wait until 9:30 in the morning to see if they left before we could head that direction.  So that was somewhat futile but we did enjoy the bigger and dry tent space.  We cooked and mingled with a Swiss guide whose client was a German woman on her first big trek.  He was super prepared for any weather option (he is also sponsored by Adidas) so we figured she must be paying a lot of money to have him fly from Switzerland to lead her on this trek!  But it offered me peace of mind we would be hiking over the pass with an expert!  We fell asleep with crossed fingers that we wouldn't be stuck another night at soggy Los Perros!