Bariloche and El Bolson

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We arrived in Bariloche, only an hour late, and were blown away - literally - there was a chilly gale racing through the overcast day, quite a shock to the system after our incubated bus journey. We shouldered our packs for extra wind resistance and set off to catch a bus into town centre, our first priority to find a place to stay for the night. Of course we missed our bus stop and ended up in the far side of Bariloche, but as we walked back towards the centre, we came across one of the hostels we had tried but failed to contact to reserve with. The hostel was cosy and set right on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi, with a bar downstairs and a double room free it was perfect until they told us the price! A little bit over our budget, but for one night it would be fine. After much needed showers we set out into the blustery afternoon. We went to the Club Andino Patagonia (CAP) office to get hiking information, but they seemed to be on an extended siesta, and the office was still closed. So we focussed on finding accommodation for the rest of our stay, it took a couple of attempts but eventually we booked into a simple but comfortable hostel, and for almost half the price! Called back to the CAP office, this time open, and got enough hiking details to keep us occupied over the next couple of days. We rounded the afternoon off with a walk along the lake shore before heading back to our hostel to cook dinner. The evening was spent in the downstairs bar, with a very tasty local beer and amazing views of the moon rising over the lake.
Had to race a little the following morning to check out, but strangely the hostel staff didn’t seem that bothered about us leaving nearly an hour late….. Moved our gear over to the new hostel, a good sized double room with a view over the garden and the squeakiest floorboards ever! We spent the afternoon hiking up Cerro Lopez, weather was fantastic, clear and sunny. Most of the first part of the climb was going up, quite steeply at times, through the woods and every so often we would come to a clearing with stunning views of the valley and lakes. We reached the refuge and took a break for lunch and we decided to carry on further and try to reach the top. It quickly became hard work, we were climbing up the rocks and it was getting late in the afternoon, we wisely decided to turn round and head for the bottom. We bounded back down the trail, it was loads of fun, and at times the path was so steep it was actually easier to jog. Caught a bus back to Bariloche, swung past the supermarket and bought huge steaks for £2! Spent the evening relaxing at the hostel with dinner and wine, felt weird that it doesn’t get dark here until after 10pm!
Next day we spent the morning shopping and sorting, laughing at all the clocks in the banks being wrong. The afternoon we went to Campanario, we decided not to take the cable car and walk instead, it only took 25 minutes, but the path was almost vertically up the side of the hill side. At the top we were rewarded with ice cream and stunning views before bounding down the hillside. The evening we had an interesting time with our frozen pizza as there was no oven in the hostel kitchen, we kind of managed with the microwave and a frying pan - it was not to be our worst pizza experience! We kept the evening fairly quiet as we planned to be up early the next morning for an all day hike.
We woke at 7h30, and were down for breakfast at 8, though strangely there was no-one else around. Found the guy on reception to kindly ask if we could have breakfast, he kindly pointed out breakfast was served at 8, so when I showed him my watch, pointing out it was actually 8.00 he told me it was actually 7:00 and there was an hour time difference between here and Bs As. Oh and then all sorts of things started to make sense!
Our hike started at a ski station, and it took us a few minutes to figure out from where the trail started and making friends with Tram who would then join us for the day. Almost straight away we found a lost wallet complete with cards, ID and cash, we took it with us, hoping to find this mysterious Andreas and reunite him with his possessions. We didn’t find him, but had lots of fun stopping people to ask them if they were this Andreas! The morning was lovely, firstly gentle walk through forests, and then a steep climb in the open to reach the refuge Frey. At the refuge we stopped for lunch, and entrusted Andreas’ possessions to the refuge staff, and carried on. We circled the lake and then scrambled over rocks and over a ridge to a 2nd lake. We then had to climb up again, over another ridge till we finally reached the top. Again, amazing views down the other side into the valley with snow capped mountains in the distance. The next stage had looked quite straight forward, on the map, and although we were following the contours around the mountain it was very rocky and it steeply sloped off to our left, the last stretch we had to take very, very carefully, it was a long way down. So it was a relief when we finally made it round to the top, we found the sign which warned that anyone going to where we had come from was basically on their own, and gave the emergency numbers - very reassuring!
We took the cable car down to the bottom, and had time for a much needed beer before the bus back to Bariloche. We all met up again in the evening for dinner, but our 8.5 hour hike that day had finished us all of! And it was a quiet night and early evening to bed.
The following day we decided to give the hiking a rest, so instead spent the afternoon cycling around a 25km circuit of the area. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, we stopped a couple of times to swim in the lakes, nearly died going up an evil hill, and we took an extra long-cut around a section of unpaved road for an extra hour of cycling. Brilliant. The evening we spent again around the hostel and finished the evening in the garden chatting to a Chilean couple until the wine ran out.
Our last day in Bariloche was spent shopping and sorting, Barilche is famous for its chocolates so we had to buy a box to sample. The afternoon we caught a bus to El Bolson, a small town only 2 hours from Bariloche, which is famous for its organic local produce and for being a hippy haven. Have to say there was a definite smell of incense in the air, and a lot of dreadlocks around, but the town had a lovely atmosphere and very relaxed.
We arrived at our accommodation, several self catering rooms in a beautifully kept garden, fantastic! Settled in very quickly and were soon sat on deck chairs enjoying tasty local beer in the garden.
The next day we took a hike along the Rio Azul valley up to a canyon. It was a beautiful walk and a nice change not to be walking up a mountain, though there were a few steep climbs going up…. We also had to cross over two bridges that look liked they were barely holding together! We reached the top and stopped for lunch next to the river, amazingly clear water, you could watch the fish swimming. We dunked a toe and quickly established the water was very, very cold. However, not to be defeated, I changed into swimmers and dived in and came up gasping! I immediately climbed out, numb after 30 seconds in the water, but pleased I had done it. Good walk back to the start of the trail and to the bus stop, though the last stretch was a long steep climb up.
Spent another easy evening in the hostel, with food and El Bolson beer, Simon got a chilli flavoured beer and loved it!
The following day left on a 28 hour bus journey to El Calafate, so we spent an easy morning around the town, indulged in possibly the best ice cream I have ever eaten and had a wander around the craft market.
The bus journey was…. Long…. This time we were not provided any food, but this did mean we made several stops of 30 mins of more. Day 2 of the journey one of the guys realised his wallet and camera had been stolen from the over head storage racks during the night and as we hadn’t made a stop since it had to be someone on the bus. The police got involved and checked everyone’s bags and passports, in the end the camera was found, hidden behind a seat. No proof who it was, but at least the guy got his camera back and a reminder to us never to leave anything of value out of sight…..

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