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After finishing the second leg of our 42 hour bus journey from Iguassu, we were happy to have our feet on solid ground again. We had a hell of a time understanding how to ride the local bus. You had to buy tickets or charge a card since they were privately owned rather than the state-run buses we´d been used to. Over the course of a half hour I ran around the small terminal trying to comprehend how and where to buy a ticket. My proficiency in Spanish did not help this time, either because people were not specific or helpful, or perhaps because I was still very tired. In any case, we made it to the center of Bariloche and searched for a hostel recommended by a friend, Steve Mcgill, by the name of Penthouse 1004. At first sight, both inside and out, it looked like a 1970´s college dormitory. With a simple concrete fascade, drab dark red and brown carpet and curtains, and fake wood paneling. The real tell all was the disco ball in the living room and colorful paper butterflies pinned to the ceiling. Yet on further inspection, we saw an industrial scale kitchen and a view
over Lake Nahuel Huapi that stretched forever. We booked one night and thought maybe we´d find something cheaper and more modern for the following days. As we walked through town we passed a variety of chocolate and pastry shops, outdoors stores, bars, and parrillas. We stopped at four other hostels and although they may have had more charm or been a few bucks cheaper, at the end of the day none of them had the view or space that Penthouse 1004 had. So when we arrived back we immediately booked a few extra nights as we watched the sunset over the mountains behind the lake.
The next morning after talking to the mountain club about the different trails, we decided to head to Refugio Lopez, a 24 km hike out and back. We caught a collectivo out 45 minutes to a point where the bus driver told us the trailhead was. Unfortunately, we were dropped off at a crossroad and the driver didn´t point s in the direction of the trail. We chose the gravel road over the paved one but after 10 minutes and no trail, we decided we must have chosen incorrectly and turned around. Back at
Midpoint bar/cafe
On the Refugio Lopez hike.the crossroad, we followed the paved road and in 200 meters, found the clearly marked trailhead to Refugio Lopez. The trail began in a covered forest passing a stream, but soon climbed steeply and relentlessly over tree root steps and along loose rock and dirt. Chloe wondered how she was going to get down the precarious trail with her bad knees, even with the help of the hiking poles her great boyfriend bought her. Less than halfway up we passed a great viewpoint occupied by a rundown bar/cafe that waqs closed probably due to the down season. After taking in the view over the expansive lake, we continued on a trail. I say ¨a¨ trail since before too long, it had become overgrown with bushes and spiky weeds that we had to squeeze through. We pused on, steadily climbing the steep path , until Chloe complained abut hot spots on her feet. Fortunately I had brought some moleskin and put some donuts over the blistering areas. Eventually, after 3 hours of climbing, we arrived to Refugio Lopez, and were rewarded with sweeping views over the intense blue lake and jagged granite peaks behind the refugio. Inside the refugio they were
View from midpoint bar
On the Refugio Lopez hike. renovating their bar top and wood floors, but one could tell it would be pretty tranquil and pleasant to stay the night with the small family that took care of it. While enjoying the views, we met two hikers that were finishing a four day trek between the various refugios. After chatting for a bit, we learned they just graduated from Western Washington University, the same school as I! They had even heard of Polecat, a popular bluegrass band my friend Aaron had started. They took off 15 minutes before we did, and must have kept a good pace, since we didn´t see them until we caught the bus at the bottom. Our pace was a bit slower because although I was running down half the time, Chloe had to take her time so she wouldn´t slip and risk tearing her MCL again. We still made good time to the bottom and caught the bus back to town after a 20 minute wait. Back in town we made a market run and prepared for the next day´s hike to Refugio Frey, where we planned on staying the night.
After breakfast, we caught a collective to the ski resort of
Chloe duck
Natural tree bridge Refugio Lopez Bariloche, El Catedral. It was a very cloudy and windy day, and had a persistent threat of rain. The ski resort was pretty big, but was next to closed due to the season. We decided to save 3 hours of hiking up ski runs and took the gondola, which dropped us at the top of the mountain. Along the ride, I noticed downhilll mountain bikers and swore I´d come back in the following days to rage down the Andes. The start of the hike led along the ridge of the mountain, before traversing away from the resort along a talus slope that fell all the way to the river in the valley far below. After walking along the scree, we reached a boulder field that neither of us had read about. The trail was marked with red and yellow paint on various boulders. For about 2 hours we scrambled around the boulders, constatly searching for trail markers. Eventually we made our way past the boulder field and began a steep trail down to where the regugio was located. On the way, we passed a beautiful small lagon tucked away on a small plateau before decending further to the large lagoon
where the refugio lay. The meadow alongside the lagoon was vibrant with color and contrasted with the jagged peaks and gray rocks that rose all around us. Regugio Frey itself was well built and fairly large for its remote location. However, it was packed with people, mostly climbers, more of which you could see on the rock faces surrounding the refugio. ALthough we had clothes for the cold, we saw that the main room for dining was being renovated and the small kitchen was packed, so both waiting to cook and eating would be outside in the cold night air. Upon inspection of the sleeping quarters, Chloe had vivid reminders of bed bugs with the run down foam mattresses. This wasn´t the refugio experience I had been looking forward to sharing with Chloe. Maybe if we had a tent things would have panned out differently, but with the situation we were presented with, I decided that we should head back to town and hope the hostel still had room for the night. Regardless, the location was gorgeous so we ate a late lunch while taking in awesome views down the valley and all around us. The hike down seemed endless,
dropping quickly at first through the forest, but then rolling alongside the backside of the mountain we had began on. After 3 hours of a rolling descent, we arrived back to the resort, one hour before the last collectivo was to come. We recognized a guy from our hostel who was at the stop as well and struck up a conversation while waiting. Kabir, from London, Canada, would end up becoming a good friend over the next few days. When the bus came, it was starting to get cold and we were ready to go. Before we took off, a French girl in a huge backpack came running up to the bus and asked the driver if he would wait 10 minutes for her friend. The driver shook his head and said no way, so she had no choice but to get off and wait for her slow friend and share a long taxi ride back to town. As it turned out, it was a good thing they didn´t make the bus since Kabir, Chloe and I secured the last beds in the hostel and a few hours later the French pair showed up searching for a hostel. That night
after a late dinner, we went out for St Paddy´s Day with a group from the hostel. The first bar we chose was a packed Irish pub with loud electronic pop music blasting. After slamming down a car bomb (Chloe´s choice) we hit the dance floor. We found our groove and had a lot of fun. It brought me back to when we first got to know each other as dancing buddies in Barcelona. After the pub, the group wanted to head to a club but Chloe was tired from the long day of hiking so she headed back to the hostel while the rest of us moved on. Upon arrival to the club, Kabir demanded to skull a beer with me. I obliged, but didn´t realize I´d opened pandora´s box. For the remainder of the night, Kabir kept buying beers and we kept skulling them. At a point I told Kabir I´d wingman for him but it seemed my wings had been clipped by inebriation. This was my sign to go, so I said goodnight and stumbled back to the hostel around 4 am and crashed out.
Waking up was painful; the hangover persisted all day. Chloe wasn´t
in bad shape like myself, but was somehow hungover from the glass of wine at dinner and car bomb at the pub. We did make it outside though, to tour around the various chocolate shops and try free samples. Although bascially a wasted day, I thought we had done very well to make it this far on the trip without wasting one before. The next morning we were determined to do something, even though it was a perfect day to do nothing with the socked in rainy weather. We chose to hike up Cerro Camponaria since it was close to town and not a big commintment. Kabir came along with us and we had a decent hike up the steep but short hill to to a lookout point over the lake through the rain clouds. We trekked back down after short time at the top and caught the bus back to town, whereupon we headed to Cerveceria Gilbert for a tasty brew. After a couple quality rubias, Chloe and I headed to the market and Kabir went back to the hostel. On our way, I caught Chloe as she slipped down a flight of stiars, saving her a cracked head.
I don´t know how she hasn´t hurt herself with the amount she trips, slips, and overlooks obstacles in the roads. After safely making it back to the hostel, I cooked up some steak and potatoes, while Chloe made a salad, and we enjoyed a bottle of wine while staying warm inside listening to the rain.
For our sixth day in Bariloche, we decided to rent bikes and ride a decent 65 km circuit around part of the lake. Kabir teamed up with us again and we rode a collectivo out to the bike rental place. Our first stop was at the big Llao Llao Hotel, which Chloe and I had seen from the Refugio Lopez hike. As Kabir and I rode a bit faster than Chloe, we had taken the turn into the entrance of the big hotel on the hill while Chloe rode right past it a minute later. So as Kabir waited, I took off after Chloe to wrangle her back to the obvious turnoff. As it turned out, the view wasn´t that great and the hotel wasn´t that impressive so we stayed for a couple minute and rode on. As we headed to the next point
of interest, a German shepard and another dog came out of a driveway barking and snarling causing me to swerve into the road and ride back down the hill away from the dogs. Kabir and I waited for Chloe, then we all walked our bikes past the territorial dogs. They followed us for a bit, then turned back to their property. Once past the distrustful dogs, we rode the bikes to Villa Tacul, a secluded part of the lake down a dirt road. Although much of the scenery reminded me of rides along Lake Tahoe, Lago Nahuel Huapi was far more spectacular. With clear turquoise blue glacier water, thick cypress and beech tree forests, green meadows, and dominating mountains all around and in the distance, we were very happy to sit and enjoy the view for a while. As we ate lunch, we became suspicious of a pair of sharp beaked falcons that stalked around us fearlessly. Fortunately they didn´t attack us for our food but kept a short distance and waited to move in once we left. After Villa Tacul, we cruised along the rolling hills, stopping periodically to check out different vantage points. The best one along the
route came about towards the end, but not till we had two important stops. The first at the brewery Gilbert, the same brand as the cerveceria the day before. Their roja was as close to an IPA as I´d seen thus far in our travels, so 2 pints was a must. The second stop was at a restuarant mirador, where we had another local brew, Berlina, while gazing out over the lake and watching the sun fall. The best viewpoint came a short distance after the restuarant where the road bent around a curve and opened up to 270 degree view. From here we watched the sunset over the huge lake, islands and inlets before deciding we should get a move on before we had to ride the last 7 km in the dark. We got the bikes back to the shop as it began to get dark then caught the collectivo back towards town. We hopped off early however to check out the most reputed local brewary, La Cruz. What we didn´t know beforehand was that the brewery was a 2 km walk up a road from where the bus dropped us. As we already had it set in
Top of gondola
Refugio Frey hike our heads, we took the walk and arrived pretty chilled by the evening air. The beers was good though, especially their hoppy red lager. I saw they made a double IPA seasonally, but unforutantely not during the season we were there. After a couple pricey half pints, we walked back down the hilll in the even chillier air and caught the bus into town where we made it to the supermarket 10 minutes before it closed. Back at the hostel we cooked dinner and drank some wine before turning in around 11:30, surprised by how tired we were. It had been a while since using bike muscles...
The next morning we said goodbye to Kabir as he was off to finish his travels. After breakfast, we got ready for a long hike to Refugio Segre at Laguna Negra. We rode the collectivo out to the national park and were conveniently dropped off in front of the trailhead. Before we got off, I asked the bus driver what time the last bus to Bariloche would pass by, and his response meant that we´d have to hustle if we wanted to complete the 28 km roundtrip trek and not have to
Top of gondola
Refugio Frey hike get a taxi to come pick us up. Of couse, if we had gotten an earlier start like we´d planned, we could have walked at a more leisurely pace. The beginning of the trail started off steep, but then mellowed out at a steady incline along a river that traced up the valley to some tremendous mountain slopes. The river part of the trail was very pleasant, allowing us to walk at a quick pace while enjoying the beautiful scenery. When we reached the end of the valley, the trail steepened sharpily but the scenery grew more dramatic and spectacular. During the entire walk but especially now, I kept checking the time to judge whether we´d have time to make it back to the trailhead for the last bus. As we climbed up the steep switchbacks, I wondered how far we´d walked so far and how much farther the refugio was respectively. We kept a good pace, but it proved to be a bit much for Chloe, who had a near meltdown from lack of food/energy. We had a quick pit stop to eat something and I gave Chloe a pep talk to motivate her since we were so close
to the top! It worked because as we climbed the final 400 vertical meters through vibrant fall colored bushes and up a steep rock face, we were rewarded with commanding views of the forested valley far below with steep rock faces on either side, even bigger mountains in the distance and Laguna Negra with a Matterhorn type jagged mountain rising above it. We ate our lunch (finally!) and relished the view we had worked so hard for. THe moment was short lived though, as we had a long way down to return to the trailhead. The initial decent was quick, but the river trail and beyond seemed to never end. We made it back in good time though, with time to spare before the bus was to come. We were absolutely beat after 7.5 hours of hiking, but when the bus didn´t come at the time we were told, we became worried. Thinking we could meet it along the way from its origin point, we walked along the road to Colonia Suiza, a small village 2 km away. The bus never passed and we learned from a local police in the village that we´d have to wait another hour for
the last bus to leave. Fortunately not everything was closed in the off season, and we stopped at a cafe where we split a coffee and a real hot chocolate, quite a treat after the grueling hike. When the bus finally passed we rode 45 minutes in the dark back to Bariloche, where we happily relaxed at the hostel, cleaned up, and made a bonified take and bake pizza with all sorts of extras that I sauteed up. Full, tired, and happy, we slept well that night.
The following morning I awoke with anticipation of going downhill mountain biking in the Andes, at El Catedral ski resort. Ever since I saw the bikers on the day we hiked to Frey, I was envious of the experience. I had researched it a bit, and both the resort and the rental company said on their respective websites that they were open for the fall season. Upon arrival to the resort after a 40 minute collective ride, I found the gondola running and a pair of restuarants open but nothing else. I asked around about a bike rental place, and learned that they had packed everything up and closed until next summer
Talus slope fall
Refugio Frey hike only 2 weeks prior. Stunned and disheartened, I wandered around, not knowing what to do. I decided a choripan and a pint of beer might cheer me up so at 10:30 am I indulged. Two hours after arriving I caught the bus back to town and surprised Chloe. The rest of the day we chilled at the hostel and I attempted to catch up a bit on the blog. The savior to the disappointing day was a spectacular sunset. With clouds in all the right places, the colors became deep and intense and played off the lake and mountains. The view from the hostel terrace could not have been better; this was by far one of the best sunsets I´d seen, and Chloe concurred. Even while denied the opportunity to downhill in the Andes, I finished the day with a big smile on my face.
As we had continued extending our stay in Bariloche, it had become obvious we were pretty comfortable here. This would be our ninth day, and we had next to exhausted all the day hike options. The evening before we had talked to our friend "Che" or Fernando at the alpine mountain club who had
Path?
Refugio Frey hike recommended that we get on the excursion bus heading to Pampa Linda, at the base of the glacier capped Troneador mountain. The 2 hour ride in the van left at 7 am, so we were up early. Once off the highway, we weaved along a 1 way dirt road past a separate lake. The driver told us that the road worked one way in the morning until 2 pm, then switched for the remainder of the day. Also he said that his transport would leave that day at 4 pm and there wouldn´t be another for the next 2 days, so once again we had to be on schedule. The view on arrival to Pampa Linda was beautiful, with Troneador towering above. However, I could tell this place could be overrun by tourists, as there was a 5 star hotel on the lake we had passed on the way and a gaucho ranch and restuarant where the bus dropped us off. Fortunately it was the down season so it wasn´t packed and there were only a pair of girls with us in the van. The beginning of the hike was in the freezing morning shade through a forested meadow. Chloe
Path??
Refugio Frey hike had arrived frozen from the ride so before we had walked a kilometer we had to stop and warm her feet up. Eventually we got hiking, and compared to the other days, the scenery and trail weren´t that exciting or stimulating. Once we got deeper, we passed along some huge old growth Coihue trees that towered above us. Halfway through, a platoon of Argentine soldiers passed us, I guess in training up at the refugio located mid-mountain on Troneador. After they thundered past (in a very casual and disorderly fashion, smiling and greeting us), we continued on, eventually reaching a clearing where numerous waterfalls cascaded down from a glacier perched on the edge of the cliff. The location was very peaceful and romantic; as we were the only ones there to appreciate the beauty, it made it that much more special. As we ate lunch and admired the beauty we were sitting in, we looked at each other and expressed how grateful we were to be able to share such a location with someone so special. After an hour hanging out in the meadow below the glacier we had to get going in order to catch the mini bus back
Backpacking!
Refugio Frey hike to Bariloche. We made it back with time to spare and I napped in the sun until it was time to go then napped on and off the whole ride back. That night, after mellowing out at the hostel for a few hours, we got dressed up (as much as we could out of a backpack) and went out to dinner. We chose a place called El Boliche de Alberto, since we had heard and read great reviews from a variety of people. It was a simple menu parrilla place, so we ordered an empanada and chorizo to start and followed it with a salad and a bife de lomo (filet mignon) which was accompanied by a mountain of thin fries. To wash it down we ordered a bottle of Postales malbec. Everything was cooked perfectly by the grill master who also doubled as the food waiter. The highlight was the bife de lomo, by far the best steak I´ve ever eaten. No sauces or mariandes added; this simply was a melt in your mouth experience, one for the ages. For dessert, we ordered the house specialty, a vanilla ice cream base with a swirl of dulce de leche and
Steep drop
Refugio Frey hike fresh rasberries and homemade whipped cream to top. This dining experience was gluttony at its finest. The kicker was the bill - $40 for the whole meal including wine - expensive for our budget yet pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things. To make it even better, Chloe´s mom Marisa had offered to cover the expense of treating ourselves to a dinner out. This was a great one, thanks again Marisa! So, completely stuffed and happy, we left the restuarant by 12:30 and crashed into bed back at the hostel.
Our last full day in Bariloche we hung around town, passing a parade of people protesting and promoting various causes and political factions. We learned that it was the anniversary of the end of the last military dictatorship in Argentina. It was interesting to see all the various parties marching together in peace. After passing it by we went to buy some chocolate and artesan ice cream at Rapa Nui, one of the famous chocolate shops. When we were heading to the market to pick up food for the night and next day of travel, we ran into Ben, the British guy we partied with for his birthday
in Itacare, Brazil. We chatted for a bit and learned that we´d be in Pucon, Chile at the same time so we made plans to meet up then. We bought our groceries and cooked a simple meal that would provide enough leftovers for lunch the next day on the bus. The following morning we had time for breakfast then caught a cab over to the terminal. This bus would only take us as far as San Martin de los Andes, whereupon we hoped we´d be lucky enough to grab a pair of seats on the 1 daily bus that crossed the border to Chile in order to get to Pucon, a town in the lake district of Patagonia where Chile´s most active volcano, Villarica, is located!
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