Bariloche - the finale

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After arriving back in Bariloche (and a much needed shower) I wandered up the road to my new homestay. Not quite believing my luck, I was welcomed to the biggest house on the street by Bernado and shown to MY OWN room! Dora and Bernado had 3 other guests staying (english, french and canadian) and my spanish was severely stretched over a delicious home-cooked supper that night. The double pronged attack will hopefully improve my language skills, although remembering and using what I´d already learnt was difficult enough without adding more...

Mid-week we went out for a birthday drink, and were perfectly postitioned to see the lunar eclipse from our seats in the pub. Luckily it was a completely clear sky!

Venturing further afield for my weekend hike, this time I went to Mount Tronador - the highest in the vicinity. This involved a boat ride down Lago Nahuel Huapi and then a quick overland before another ferry crossing of Lago Frias - whose green waters are a result of sunlight reflecting off glacial sediment. As we turned the corner, Mt Tronador slowly came into view, dominating the skyline and so distinctive with it´s brightly shining glaciers .

I set off on the Paso de las Nubes at about 1 o´clock, following a narrow trail through dense bamboo jungle. Fallen tree trunks were made into river crossings (including one huge one rigged with steelwire hand rails which plucked my flipflops from my rucksack and deposited them in the fast-flowing river! A quick scramble rescued them and saved my feet later that night while mooching around the refugio. I did wonder what my colour sergeant might have said...). A bit further on I turned a corner and abruptly left the greenery to be confronted with Glaciar Frias towering above me, hosing meltwater down dozens of waterfalls to start the river I´d been following up to that point. The change was so sudden I couldn´t help but grin - and then start the steep climb over the pass itself. I zigzagged up the hill, followed by the occasional sound of ice or rocks falling from the glaciar behind, until I (finally) reached the meadows at the top. It always amazes me how quickly this landscape changes!

I dropped back down the far side of the pass with a decision to take: whether to camp at the bottom as per my original plan; or push on to the refuge several hours further on. Even the first boots-off-wade-across river crossing didn´t hold me up too much (and gave me a chance to fill up my waterbottle with the delicious water) so I decided to carry on. A decision I regretted on the climb to Refugio Otto Meiling which was longer and steeper than my legs would have liked. Reaching the ridgeline as the sun was getting low, I started the race to get to the refugio before it set. Above the tree-line the views were fantastic and the evening light absolutely stunning; the rocks, though, were hard going on tired feet. I just beat the sun, arriving as it slipped behind distant mountains, but had plenty of time to relax and eat before the real sunset coloured the sky in bands of yellow, orange and red.

I had a lie-in the next day and a hot chocolate (strongly reminiscent of skiing!) before setting off down the mountain to Pampa Linda from where I would catch the bus to Bariloche. Bumping into Carlos (a porteño from Buenos Aires) on the way, we had an amusing conversation in spanish which started off discussing the surrounding mountains, views, hikes done and planned (which I followed and was able to respond) before moving through the British Monarchy, Argentine Presidency and on to macro and micro economics (which I didn´t and couldn´t). The 10% I understood only meant I knew when I was expected to respond, so I just guessed and nodded or grunted - and got some very confused looks back! In the bus on the way to Bariloche we got back onto safer ground, as we wound along the bumpy tracks pointing out lakes and mountains.

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