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Published: January 24th 2009
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....and then I rolled into Bariloche with an English girl behind me singing Christmas carols it being the 24th and all that. I was staying in Perikos in Bariloche which is on the side of a huuuge lake. Graham and Magda were out rafting near El Bolson when I got there so I hired a bike for half a day and was accompanied after a while by a kiwi who was a proffessional (is that too many f´s?) gambler. Anyhoo we did the circuito chico which was a bit challenging at times and took a few hours with a pitsop for a few beers on this beautiful warm day followed by more free beers at the end as my bike wouldn´t go into the easiest gear. Christmas Eve is the big night here so we had a big all you can eat and drink asado night though at 100 pesos it was an introduction to the pricier end of Argentina. Needless to say I tried to get every centivos worth out of it and was tottering back to the hostel after a foray into the local clubs. Christmas Day was spent lazily and quietly and you wouldn´t recognise it from home.
Town was quiet with only a few people out so i spent it at the lakeside sunning myself. Graham and Magda had made a trek to Laguna Negra staying at the Refugio Italiano and then managed to get lost on the trip from there over the mountains to Cerro Lopez so day 2 of their trek turned from 9 hours into something like 14 hours completing it with head torches and missing the last bus into town. Armed with this information I set off approaching it from the opposite direction in the afternoon and stayed at the Refugio Lopez hoping to see amazing arrays of stars but the clouds came in and screwed that up. I was the only person staying at the Refuge so it was a bit quiet but the clouds catching the sunset were quite cool. The temperature dropped a hell of a lot reflecting why there was still snow on the trek I had come up on despite the day having been warm enough to complete it in shorts and tee shirt which in my lack of experience was all the treking gear I had brought with me bar a pair of jeans and jumpoer to
change into. While I was relaxing after the trek two americans (Sara and his name escapes me doh!) got to the top and we got on famously so they kindly invited me to stay at their house on the lake two nights later. (The way the budget was going I was definitely up for it). The next morning I awoke to see the mountain I was to climb was already covered in a mist but emboldened by the replies to my questions regarding the safety of tackling it in those conditions I set off(in me shorts tee shirt and rain coat😊. (Is it safe in this vis? Yes...(I couldn´t see how that was but I took their word for it. However if it rained the rocks would be slippy and I was to come back (Isn´t that mist wet?). The climb was immediately a scramble and I was shortly crossing over snow. The markers were fairly obvious - I only got lost three times for about ten minutes a pieceish. It was blimmin freezing evrytime I stopped for a fag break 😉 or to eat my climbing provisions (two bars of chocolate😉 The walk passed between Cerro Lopez and the
pica turistica and then descended into a valley before coming up the ridge of cerro negra overlooking Lago negra. The views were stunning despite the bloody wind which was blowing ninety. After six hours I was faced with travelling around the lake on overhanging drifts of snow and using ropes to get up rocks which would have otherwise been impassable - it was all I needed at the end of the walk so i was happy out to get into the refuge over the last hurdle of the stepping stones where the lake was being blown off the side of the mountain. I was greeted by the lovely Natalia (whom /who? Magda had given me a Christmas card to deliver to her) with a steaming cup of hot chocolate and then later with a three course meal and bottle of wine. The descent down past waterfalls and through the forest for six hours was pretty to begin with what with seeing my first woodpeckers and watching the packhorse being brought up the mountain with provisions for the refugio but by the end of it I was hanging and could barely drag my butt up the hostel and then I could
barely walk the next day but it was a brilliant intro to the mountains and I was definitely up for more during the rest of the trip.
Met up with the americans and stayed at their rental cottage on the lake which was class and went rafting with them the next day in beautiful El Bolson which was followed up by an asado in a swiss descended Estancia which was over run by asado food of all ages 😊 Drove the americans rental home on the dirt roads and passed through three cop checkpoints before deciding my lack of a license (gone in 60 seconds in BA) or insurance made it a bit of a gamble so I handed the reins to ? who then told me that he had hired it on his expired us motor bike license !
The rafting was a good laugh though a lot tamer than New Zealand a few years back and we spent as much time swimming down the warm water in the river as we did going over grade 3 rapids.
I´m sure I got up to a bit more in Bariloche like New Years but that was more of the same
as such so I was happy to move on and head to Calafate after that but I made the mistake of passing Chalten which also wanted to see..doh - the advance planning is still much of a catch up game.
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