After well and truly hitting the town for Paddy´s day, we took a day off to recover and then headed to El Bolson on wednesday. Its a 2.5 hour drive south of Bariloche thru lovely, forested hills and great views to the mountains in the distance. Pretty winding road all the way so not much chance for reading on this trip.
El Bolson is famous for its micro and home brew beers and for its markets as well as having a pretty setting in the middle of a large valley surrounded by mountains. Its also renowned for its large hippy population hence the markets and beer I suppose. We found an ok looking hostel in town altho the better ones are outside of town but we were being lazy as wanted to be near the supermarket for buying hiking supplies. The Albequrque Valle del Sol where we stayed had the potential to be a really sweet little place to stay but in reality it was a smoky, dirty, badly managed place. At least we only spent 2 short nights there. We did find a great restaurant tho (Vatto) for steak and local beer on tap. Droool for both!! There´s also the famous Jauja icecream chain here. So delicious and so many varieties to choose from. They sell it in quarter, half or litre tubs and its really cheap as well. Tempting to go back again and again and again.
The markets are the typical markets you find anywhere in the world with plenty hippy shirts, jewellery, paintings, woodwork, etc altho there was some original things for sale and I guess if you like shopping it was pretty interesting :) We did find some yummy paprika cheese, brown bread, fantastic raspberry jam and amazing alafajores (which are an argentian speciality like a biscuit sandwich coated in chocolate with some kind of filling like raspberry, choc mousse, etc - droool fest going on here, my mouth is watering at the memory altho eating more then 1 a week per person would probably have you in cardiac arrest within 6 months!).
The Club Andino Pilquitron provided us with really good info and a basic map (would have been better to have a proper topo) and were really friendly and helpful. They also register all hikers and really do keep an eye on you and make sure you always get to your destination. At each hut we had to sign in and also tell them where we were headed next and if we didn´t show up within a certain number of hours they would be out looking for us. The double benefit of this is that obviously if ya get hurt or lost then you know help will turn up at some stage and it also prevents people wild camping (as a lot of the area is privately owned and also very dry and fire hazardous) which keeps the area much better for hiking thru.
Armed with our hippy supplied lunch and full backpacks we headed for the mountains to the west of El Bolson.We got a taxi out to the start which is near a camping area called Hue Nain which we reached after 40 mins hike north along the Rio Azul. The first obstacle was the ´bridge´across the Rio Azul which was a kind of cable bridge about 10m above the ground-river. There was missing and broken wooden slats all the way across it and it swung from side to side ridicously. Now this river wasn`t very deep so if ya fell into it from that height it would hurt alot. After watching Dunk crossing with some very large steps across some of the gaps, I choose the wetter but safer walk across the river (which was only calf deep all the way). From there it was a 3 hour hike straight up a steep ridge followed by about 1 hour along a valley to the Refugio Hielo Azul. In total about 10kms and a 1000m ascent so hard enough on the lungs and legs! It was very pleasant walking tho in the forest the whole way with glimpses of the valley below us all the way and the mountains ahead. The hut is probably one of the best we have ever seen. Really well maintained and managed and we almost were tempted to stay in there but opted for the tent since we had carried it all the way. We tried out a new camping recipe of instant mash with onions, hotdogs, capsicum and sauce - it tasted great - my Irish spud heritage did turn purple at the thought but hunger overcame that little obstacle pretty quickly. I think soon our hiking will come to an end as if this type of food is beginning to be palatable then I worry about how low we can go!
The next day we hiked upto see the glacier in the valley above the hut under Cierro Azul. Quite a strenous climb and scramble over rocks and scree but good views of the glacier and also back down the valley where we had hiked from the previous day. I think we were the only non-Argentians to stay at Hielo Azul as well which was really a novelty for us (and them). Its a very pretty area and whilst the glacier didn´t have the drama and size of the glaciers further south, its still very beautiful and charming. From here we hiked on for about 10kms up and over a ridge to Lago Natacion and then onto Cajon del Azul. This took about 4 hours and it was a steep 30 mins to start with, followed by about 30 mins of flat meandering thru the forest and then a very steep, roughish descent (800m) down to the Refugio Cajon del Azul. The poor ole knees were suffering at the end of that descent but the sight of the beautiful clear, turquoise, blue waters rushing thru the steep canyon made us forget the pain (til the next day anyways). There is a 3 metre `bridge` across the narrowest (and highest) part of the canyon (we couldn´t see the bottom) and I did nearly brown pants it going across cos the logs were just scary bendy and felt like they would snap any time. Once again, the refugio was very well maintained, much better then some of the hostels we stayed in and the camping area was glorious so we called it a day here. They grow all their own veggies, brew beer and slaughter their own sheep or cattle. Decided to splash out and have dinner in the refugio (for about 4.50 euros each). Got a massive feed of salad, bread, dips (really tasty and spicy), rice and milanesa (like a schnitzel). We also tried the home brew but sadly it tasted somewhere in between vinegar and acid so didn´t have too much of that. Mostly all Argentians staying again which was great except for one crowd of yobs that woke us all at around 5am and kept up a racket til about 8am when they finally left (I think they were told to leave).
We hiked up the Rio Rayado thru amazing forest, valley views and thru a good variety of different types of trees. Some really big beech, cypress, etc and just beautiful weather as well to show the mountains and steep valley sides off to their best. We also passed thru a stand of alerce trees which are really amazing, old pine trees that are quite rare (as they are hard wood, very straight and really big) which was the highlight of the day. The hike ended (18kms and 5.5hrs , 800 ascent later) at Refugio Los Laguitos which has an incredible setting at the edge of Lago Lahuan. The hut was more rustic then the others but the guys were friendly altho they had run out of homebrew (or maybe they had for foreigners as all the argentians staying at the place seemed to be drinking beer later - another case of one rule for argentians, one for the foreigners - kind of irritating really). The lake was stunning as its really calm and deep and reflects the surrounding mountains perfectly. The sky was stunning, the mountains all around us covered in forest and jagged rocks and scree at the top and it was another perfect weather day. The nighttime reflection of the mountains lit up by the full moon was indescribably beautiful.
With a large lump of regret that we hadn´t planned for more days out, we headed back to El Bolson the next day. Took us about 4.5 hours to reach the cajon del azul (where we checked in as requested as all the hut wardens tell each other who is going where) where we quite surprised at the number of day trippers. Ah well guess it was Easter sunday and a glorious clear skies day at that so no wonder really. The 12kms hike out was a but tedious as its mostly horse track (for the less enthusiastic hiker you can get a horse all the way to this refugio - would highly recommend it) which was very dusty, and clambered up and down steeply for the entire way down plus the dust was exaberated as we were keeping pace with a group of horse riders but we had to keep going as didn´t want to spend all night getting back to town. Eventually got to Wharton where there was a very, very, very tempting beer garden from where we called a taxi back to town.
El Bolson was heaving with tourists which the taxi driver heaved and sighed and mumbled about all the way back in. Quite amusing really - what did he think we were! We also saw a horse in the back of a ute - seriously it was just stupefying seeing this ute with a horse in the tray and a guy holding his head so he wouldn´t jump out. Nuts!! Pretty tired that night as it turned out we had hiked about 32kms in about 7 hours. In hindsight we should have planned a bit better and spent a couple of more nights out. This whole area is outstandingly beautiful, understated and one of the most fun and interesting hikes we have done. We might even go back (if the legs have the heart to walk back up those hills! ignorance is bliss sometimes) for another few days in April. Once again we got stupendously good, unexpected weather so no complaints there either. Most of the people we met were local argentians, really friendly and obviously this hike is not on any gringo checklists which makes it even more novel and fun. Despite lacking the drama and size of the peaks and glaciers of some of the hikes we did further south, we enjoyed this walk every bit as much if not more then the more famous Torres del Paine and other such walks. Its people busy but well managed, its cheaper, easy to get to, safe and friendly and beautiful forest and shade all the way. It was more like the hiking we did in Australia and NZ rather then some checklist walk where everyone asks ya how far you have hiked, what your pack weighs, etc turning the hike into some mini competition. The whole bariloche/El Bolson area is turning out to be the best area/base for hikes we have been to and its really good fun and easy plus great food and beer near at hand to help the post hike recovery (very important). I´m sure in peak season this area is jammers, there´s probably stacks of mossies and horseflies and its pretty hot as well but it has to beat paying heaps to join the queues around Torres del Paine and Fitzroy (altho these are still class). Ah well there´s me humble opinion now for ya!
We´re now back in Bariloche where we had major hassles finding a place to stay last night as its still the easter rush (staying a nice very cheap, clean, little place called Nomads on Salta st which turned out to be a great find except for the dumb ass, selfish group of israelis who got up at 5am for an early bus and woke everyone in the hostel this morning - did you really have to shout your heads off and annoy everyone - sigh think its time to start heading home as hostel annoyances are beginning to wreck me head!). Think we´re going to do the Nahuel Huapi 4 day traverse next and then ... only 3 weeks til we have to head to Buenos Aires so aggghhh what will we do with the last 3 weeks .... what a dilemma ;)
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