Advertisement
Published: November 21st 2007
Edit Blog Post
After an overnight bus trip from Trelew (with Mar y Valle - recommended) we arrived in cold and crisp El Bolson. We loved El Bolson from our first day - beautiful location surrounded by mountain peaks, great food and drinks, good value, friendly locals... you get the idea. The main reason we liked El Bolson so much though was its proximity to the mountains and excellent one-day hikes. A first day starter hike was up Cerro Amigo, a hill overlooking the town with lovely views. However, by our second day we were ready for more of a challenge. First stop was the "Cabeza del Indio", a rock formation said to look like a head. The place was empty as we are here early in the season, but the weather was perfect for hiking. From the cabeza we followed a relatively new path which leads across forests to the Escondida Waterfalls. Certainly they are not Iguazu, but still very pretty and in a beautiful location. More than that, we had them to ourselves (definitely not like Iguazu!). The final part of our hike took us through more forest, back towards El Bolson. We were accompanied for this section by a friendly dog
from the waterfalls but he had to turn back at the final fence as he couldn´t jump the barbed wire (which we had to do!). In the whole 5 hours of hiking, we only saw 5 other people. It seems that we have arrived in the "lake district" at just the right time. The weather is improving but there are not yet too many tourists.
For our third day in El Bolson we decided we were ready for a big hike. This was to the top of Cerro Piltriquitron which towers over El Bolson at an altitude of 2,280 metres. The first part of the hike is from the Piltriquitron Platfoma on a pleasant but steady uphill through forest to reach the Piltriquitron refuge. At the refuge we were met by friendly Manuel who gave us an excellent cup of tea and directions for the continuation of our hike. After 30 minutes we set off again and soon hit the snow-line. From there on we were walking over (and in!) pristine snow pretty much all the way to the summit. Some of the going was very tough - when the snow became more like ice, when the angle we
were climbing got steeper, when my legs wanted to give up, when we thought we had lost our way...! But we kept going and under 3 hours after leaving the refuge we were at the summit, enjoying tremendous views down to El Bolson, across the valley and to the many mountains beyond in all directions. I don´t mind admitting that I was pretty proud of myself at that moment! Although it was snowing a little at the summit, we took our time to enjoy the views and ate some lunch before starting the descent. As always, the descent was of course easier than the ascent. However, this was particularly true as we decided to put on our waterproof trousers, sit down and slide our way home! Too much fun... And the truly amazing thing is that we were the only people to climb (or even attempt to climb) Piltriquitron that day. I don´t know what all the other tourists in El Bolson were doing, but they really missed out on a perfect experience.
So, after a few days in El Bolson we moved on to explore the surrounding area with a hire car (from Iglu Rent a Car, El
Bolson, good value company) to the Parque los Alerces. This is one of Argentina´s least visited national parks, but once again we were dumbstruck by the beauty. Driving alongside the lakes that stretch for the length of the park, we had to continually stop the car, jump out and go "wow"!! Of course the photos do not do justice to the scene, but they give some idea of the views. We took a particularly enjoyable walk around Lago Verde, where there is a well-marked path giving more stunning views, epsecially of the surrounding mountains including a very impressive glacier. That night we stayed at the most expensive hotel of our trip. But, it did include a great dinner and our room had views over the lake, so we just sat back and enjoyed.
We explored more of the Alerces park the next day. This is such a pretty place, and made more perfect by its relative inaccessibility. Once again, we were the only people around for our whole hike. We had hoped to reach the summit of Cerro Dedal but bad snow conditions made it impossible. However, we still made a good ascent to the snow line, with nice
views back down to the lakes. That was enough hiking for one day and so we drove on to the town of Trevellin, another Welsh settlement. Trevellin was established as an offshoot of the Welsh towns further east but soon came into its own as a mill town. We spent an enjoyable afternoon there where we went for a Welsh tea (well it was bound to happen eventually). Luckily (I am sure it was due to my charm and welshness), the man in charge let us share a set "welsh tea" rather than having to eat one each. There was
plenty for the two of us including at least 10 cups of tea! Very good tea by the way. Anyway, the picture explains better than I can... We also went to the local museum, housed in an old flour mill, which had plenty of interesting artefacts about the town's history. In a small museum a few blocks north we also met the grand-daughter of John Evans (the town´s founder) who gave us a very interesting guided tour.
Finally, we returned to El Bolson for a couple of days. We enjoyed being back to have more ice-cream (if in the
area, you have to go to Jauja for the most perfect "helados" and yummy food! We also visited nearby Lago Puelo, where we hiked a mountain (Cerro Currumahuida) overlooking the lake and took a nice walk along the lakeside. This is such a gorgeous part of Argentina and we are sad to leave. But, we are only moving 2 hours up the road, and we will definitely return one day!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0231s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Stephen Paul
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Welsh Wales
Looks like fun! You always manage to find some link to Wales or Welsh-ishness dont you. :) There's still lots of snow there- I wish it was spring in California!