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Published: June 11th 2007
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Nahuel Huapi NP - Descending Cerro Lopez
To complete the climb, the cloud lifted as we desended to reveal the lakes and islands of the national park in all their glory. El Bolson Before we hit the sensory overload that is Buenos Aires we had a bit more mountain action to enjoy (hurrah - more up!!). We continued our travels from the last blog by heading to El Bolson, a little town nestled in a valley in the Andes, not too far from the Chilean border. Glorious weather when we arrived, which we celebrated with 2 bottles of very nice Argentinian red wine. We've been very impressed with both the quality and price of wine here in Argentina (if consuming quite a bit of it makes you an expert...) and have therefore been doing our part to keep the industry bouyant. Rob has grown a little concerned that we're polishing off a bottle between us most nights, but we may as well make the most of it while it's available. Such luck may not continue...
We spent the remainder of our time in El Bolson checking out the weekend market, walking to several lookouts, and a couple of waterfalls (one worthwhile, one not). Rob received a haircut courtesy of Cath's excellent hairdressing skills as he's been looking a little woolly round the edges (very, very brave man). We can
Here be Hippies
Apparently! Nestled in a narrow valley, this view of El Bolson from one of the surrounding hills gives an idea of why people decided to make camp and settle here a few hundred years ago. report that both he and his ears survived intact. The South American 'man beard' continues to grow at full force. He's getting approving looks from all the ladies! Cath is taking bets that the beard doesn't last any longer than the onset of warmer weather despite his new appeal.
Bariloche The largest town in the Argentinian Lake District is just stunning. We spent a week there trying to fit in as much mountain walking and scenery viewing as possible. Our hostel (1004) was a very laid back, friendly affair with a great kitchen and communal areas. Best of all it was on the 10th floor of one of the tallest buildings in town, so we had unparralled views of the lake and mountains.
Our best climb was to Cerro Lopez. We had a guy called JP with us, a fellow traveller who we'd originally met back in Puerto Natales. We ascended 1200m to a 2000m peak. When we started there was cloud cover over the whole area, but after an hour we climbed above it, and the view - just amazing. Snow capped mountains stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction, all glistening
Walking in El Bolson
With no handrails for support. under the beaming sun and seeming to float on a bed of cloud. The last 400m saw us scrambling up snow and rocks til we reached the peak and settled in for lunch with a view of the Andes in all directions to keep us company. The cloud cover dispersed on the way down giving us additional views of the lakes and trees as well. Cath made the most of the snow and her waterproof trousers on the way down, sliding like a kid and clearing the way for Rob who did the same in his shorts!
Our second last day in Bariloche saw us cycling on some very good Trek mountain bikes (again with JP) on a 60km circuit into the Llao Llao national park. All was going well (if not that exciting) when suddenly at km 28 Rob hit an icy patch. Having experienced oil slick crashes in London he knew instantly that he was going to hit the ground and so resigned himself to the inevitable forces of gravity; executing quite an impressive motorbike style slide on his butt for about 10 metres. The first Cath knew of this was when the sound of metal on
Waterfall - El Bolson
The camera timer only gave us 10 seconds to compose ourselves for the shot. We think we did well road rang out. Cath turned her head to see what had happened to her husband, hit her own special patch of ice, went into a skid, stayed upright for a little too long, then crash. No slide, just a meeting with the surprisingly hard ground. Several bruises and scrapes later (all on Cath - slightly loaded roll of the dice there... Rob... hmmmm...) and the realisation that Cath's left opposable thumb no longer did what it should, and we were on our way again. Luckily the scenery improved on the second half of the trip... Note to selves for the future... when admiring the nice crunchy frost at the side of the road, realise that this could mean ice on the roads as well...
We tried our hand at tango because the hostel put on a free class for the guests. There's no way of being kind about it - we suck. We are quite possibly the most un co-ordinated tango dancers that our instructor had ever seen. She very kindly remained smiling, rather than gritting her teeth, which would have been a completely understandable response to our 4 left feet. We should never, ever try co-ordinated dancing together
Nahuel Huapi National Park - View from Cerro Catedral
There was a 15 minute cable car ride to the top, but, we fancied an afternoon walk and ascended 1100m (2 hours of steep!) to the top for this wondrous view of the lakes which make up Nahuel Huapi National Park. again (big box, little box doesn't count) especially not when there are other people watching. Brilliant fun, and the others in the class didn't have too many collision injuries!
We were very sorry to leave, a lovely little town, wonderful walking, beautiful lakes / mountains, very friendly people and an overabundence of nature for Rob to hug.
Buenos Aires Ahhh Buenos Aires... An assult on the senses (and nose) after 6 weeks travelling through small towns and up every mountain we've been able to find. Our hostel luck failed us and it took 4 attempts to find a good one. It was pretty cool, had an old style lift and 5 floors (Ostinatto in San Telmo district). We started the party life on our first night with Rob asleep in bed by 8pm (those 22 hour bus journeys can be a killer) and Cath making the most of the free internet... Luckily things improved otherwise our partying credibility may have been called into question.
We felt a little as if we'd lost the knack of city living and kept saying things like 'look at the building!', but got into the swing of being tourists again, making
Condors - Cerro Catedral
We sat for 20 minutes watching five Condors (black dots in pic) as they circled majestically on the thermals our lists of 'sights to see', getting lost and missing half of them, and finding some other just as interesting sights because of it. We have been a little disturbed by the sheer volume (and frequency) of dog poo on the streets here. Seriously... It's not the kind of observation we'd usually send on mass to people but it's quite staggering and dodging it takes about 70% of our attention. Mind you, when we went to Palermo in the posh north part of the city it all surprisingly disappeared. Guess they know where their taxes are going. BA has many comparisons to Paris (in guidebooks and it's history) but this would be one they wouldn't be so happy about!
Went to a tango show with Tessa and Simon from Ushuaia (they of the R2D2 Irish pub night) and had a ball. Nice to watch some professionals with the ability to do what we couldn't. Continued drinking with them and ended up in a cafe under the 'Obelisk' (a 67m tall white obelisk), finally getting to bed at about 3am. Our ongoing partner in crime, JP, arrived on day 3 of our time in BA. We thought it only fair
Bariloche - Hostel with a view
Taking up the penthouse of the highest building in Bariloche, Hostel 1004 had a panoramic view of the mountains and lake to die for. And all for $10 a night! to reward this by going out clubbing on the Friday night and forcing him to stay out 'having fun' until 6.30am. Let's just say that the Saturday was a write off.
Other highlights of Buenos Aires included wandering around the barrio of La Boca with it's brightly coloured buildings, walking along the renovated canal, the Banco de la Nación Argentina (a ridiculously large bank well worth a wander around), the Recoleta cemetary, the antiques market in San Telmo, and the briliant veggie restaurant we found in Palermo.
The stylish Argentinians of BA put us and our grubby backpacker attire to shame (a particular highlight being our woolly hat / bike helmet combination during our bike tour of north BA)! Scruffy, scruffy backpackers!
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Dylan
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Hair
Cath. When did you ditch bob and decide to do your travels with David Bellamy?