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Published: February 3rd 2009
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Hah! You didn't think I was serious when I said steak was off the menu did you? With a blog title relying on it, and also needing to provide Chris with his first Argentinian steak, all we were waiting for was a place to cook it, and luckily our campsite in Bariloche provided that.
I mentioned in the last entry that Villa la Angostura felt touristy, but mostly Argentinians. Multiply the number of tourists by about 100, and make them gringos, and you get an idea what Bariloche is like. To be honest, I wasn't overly taken by the city itself, but it did have the saving grace of being situated on the beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi, and also being the centre for excellent walking in the National Park.
I spent a couple of days muddling about and getting stuff sorted, as I intended on setting off on a 3 day hike that Beth had recommended to me from when she was here last week. Meanwhile, Chris did some scouting on day 1 of the hike for me, as he didn't have enough time to do the full 3 days. When he arrived back that evening proclaiming great views
and great weather, it seemed only appropriate to celebrate with the aformentioned steak, and accompany it with some fine Argentinian wine.
The next day, Chris buggered off to El Bolson, and I was left to pack up camp, and set off for my trek in the rain. Yup thats right, the day I start a 3 day hike, it rains for the first time in a month. Typical. Anyway, I met a couple of Israelis, Nil and Noam, at the trailhead, and they were to be my walking companions for the next 3 days.
The first days walking was alright, even if we did have to take shelter from rain and various points, and even snow towards the end of the day! Approaching the refugio though, the sun came out, and we were rewarded with some of the great views I'd had a sneak preview of. The weather didn't hold though, and when the time camp to pitch tents, it was snowing again. This, and the fact that the ground was basically rocks, convinced the others it was worth the 30 pesos for the refugio, but I manfully continued, and amazingly the tent was dry inside. It wasn't
the best nights sleep ever, but it didn't cost anything.
I awoke on the second day to blue skies, so really had a chance to appreciate what a wonderful setting the refugio was in, backed by a lake and beautiful mountains. These mountains were less beautiful when climbing up them an hour later however. The entirity of the second day was a tough uphill and downhill slog, with the only good things being that the weather was good, and the views were out of this world. Still, when Refugio Jakob appeared after climbling the 500th hill of the day, it was a very welcome sight, and I practically sprinted back down the other side (i.e. I slipped and fell).
Another fine day awaited on day 3, but I had a problem. I'd booked a bus to El Bolson for 7pm, and had been told the days walk was 8 hours. After this, I'd need to get a bus to Bariloche, sort out all my stuff, then another bus to the station. We set off walking at 10am. In theory then, I would have had an hour to get from the end of the trail to the bus station,
which just wasn't enough.
We set a fierce pace, as I was desperately trying to save time, and I was rather amazed that just 3 and a half hours later we arrived at the end of the footpath - a point from where there was only 1 hours walking left. This left time to celebrate with lunch, before I left Nil and Noam to continue with their trek for another couple of days. Luck turned my way again, when I managed to hitch a ride back into town, and I arrived back in town at 3.30pm. What was I worrying about?
Of course, now I grew lax, and faffed about on the internet for a bit, went to the supermarket and so forth, and so nearly ended up missing the bus anyway. But I wouldn't do it any other way would I?
Til next time,
Stewart
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