Bariloche

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DAY 20 Today the schedule included a long gravel road drive towards Mount Tronador in an area known as ‘Pampa Linda’ an integrated national park facility with camping , horse riding, restaurant etc as a starting point for a 16 km day walk through forests and rocky terrain crossing streams and getting amazing views of Mount Tronador and its glaciers with waterfalls. The mtn views did not happen as it was completely out of view with cloud. Regardless the group had determined that the walk was out of the question. Too tired.

Instead we took a small walk to a very different glacier, the Cerro Volcanico (the noisy tower). The usual lake was at the base of the glacier and what looked like a wall of black rock right to edge of the water but with closer inspection it was glacial ice which has been stained by volcanic residue.

The noisy tower is well named as we heard many avalanches thunder through the valleys & then right on queue a large snow avalanche happened in view. Watching through binoculars it was like a white water rapid down a huge drop until it reached a more level area but continuing over several minutes the build-up kept pushing the snow until there was continuous fall all the way to the lower reaches where the pure white started to turn grey with the mixing with volcanic residue.

A small walk for lunch at a waterfall was enough for everyone and hopes for an early return but this was not to be as the access road is one way & only opened at 4 pm for return journeys. One needs to go with the flow in Sth America!

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