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Published: November 29th 2008
Now we are officially in Patagonia, albeit the northern end that looks more like British Columbia. We are in the resort town of San Carlos de Bariloche on Lago Nahuel Haupi. Thanksgiving is in the air. The flowers are starting to drop off the trees. The days are eating further into the nights. It gets dark at after 9 pm now. The warm summer air is starting to peak its head.
We passed through Bariloche at first, instantly excited for the lush forests creeping up the snow-capped mountains, the huge glacial lakes, the flowers. The next day, we took a bus 2 hours south to the smaller mountain town of El Bolsón for the weekend. El Bolsón sits in a hole, like Jackson, WY, with mountains on 4 sides. We stayed at a very cool hostel 1.5 miles north of town, in a cabaña (or cabin) we rented for about $30/night. This hostel, El Pueblito, was our favorite to date, filled with fun travelers from all over the world, and we ate dinner together in the common area each night, where we met Yiss, an Australian who joined us on a hiking trip. We hiked to our first refugio above
the Bosque Tallerdero, an area of burned out forest that has been turned into an official sculpture garden halfway up Mt. Piltriquitrón. At the refugio we bought some homebrewed beer and continued up. We will soon be hiking and staying at more refugios, which remind us our hut trips in Colorado. El Bolsón also has an active market three times a week, and excellent ice cream.
Now we are staying in the resort community of Llao Llao (pronounced Shou Shou), at a 250 sq. ft. casita overlooking the lake, owned by an internet friend. We are here for a week to hike and explore Bariloche, the larger town 24 km to the east. Mark even got in his first mountain bike ride. The hikes here are full of tall beech trees, bamboo and fern, with incredible views of country pock-marked with huge glacial lakes and valleys. The town is friendly with good eats and infrastructure.
We have arranged to rent an apartment for the month of January and study Spanish at one of the many institutes. We went to another--you guessed it--asado with 3 other American couples, 2 living here and one on their honeymoon. The latter couple,
Eric and Liz from California, celebrated Thanksgiving with us at a
parrilla, where the traditional barbecue feast consisted of
murcilla (blood sausage), sweatbreads (thymus gland), and
sesos--brains! Mark tried them, and Kati wished she would have because Mark was a bit smarter afterwards.
Our explorations into Patagonia proper begin on Sunday. We are taking an overnight bus directly east to Puerto Madryn to see the breeding Southern Right Whales and penguins! And from there we journey to the end of the earth.
We want to wish everyone at home a happy December. We love your pictures and comments. We are more settled into our travel routine- and are ready for about 3-4 weeks of backpacking before settling down again.
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lori roberts
non-member comment
Looks like you are having a great time. I love how you seem to find all the wonderful ice cream shops!Hope you had a good Thanksgiving... Love, Lori