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Published: April 4th 2007
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Cerro Cateral - Day 1
The beginning....aren´t we happy little hikers! So spanish class is out and the real adventures being in the Bariloche region. I have decided to do some hiking with the Australian couple from my course, Emily and Ben. Our first job is to head to the Club Andino, where you can get information on the tracks around the area. The guys there asks us what our experience is, I answer 'well we can walk...dah...we are kinda a little bit fit but we are no where near experienced hikers and carry no kinda gear' I did think that I emphasised the last part of the sentence. So he gives us some options for 3 day hikes and off we go to make a decision...which in the end is Cerro Cateral for 3 days and 2 nights. As per usual we are extremely organised on the morning we are meant to leave, not, and in the end manage to miss the bus and then have to back track to the bus station for the next one because we can´t understand what the lady is saying to us - good thing we did that spanish course hey! We catch the next bus and arrive at the drop off point for
Cerro Cateral - Day 1
Bumble bees and thistle the hike and we are off on the adventure. The first day was reasonably easy except for the last 2 hours which was a pretty big ascent, but we make it up and still are happy hikers even though there is some doubt we will be able to walk tomorrow due to sore feet and legs. Our first night is at Refugio Frey which is right on a small laguna and just below the top of the mountains. We pitch our tent and take in one of the most spectacular sunsets I´ve seen and spend most of the night pinching ourselves as to where we are. Once the sun is down the coldness sets in so after our wonderful meal of pasta its not long before tucking into our sleeping bags. Morning comes and brings with it a sunrise to rival the sunset and blows all of us away with its intensity and makes us forget about our hands that are frozen and the fact that we should of brought gloves. Breakfast done we head off on day 2 for our predicted 8 hour hike thinking that its just a easy climb up a path on our left.....deciding that we
Cerro Cateral - Day 1
Sunset at Frey Regugio should make sure of our way we ask and are bitterly disappointed when we are told that the rather steep high path on the right is the way for us. EASY? Up we go and all is rosy and we are still happy hikers taking in the view that surrounds us and we make it to the top of the first mountain and to the first time I am to see the Andes for as far as my little eyes can! MAGICAL!!! We are pretty stoked with ourselves and chuffed with our progress and convinced that we are definately hikers. Think that the view and all this bravado caused momentary lapse of concentration and the memory that we are to follow the red dots put onto the rocks. As this is the point that things go pear shaped and we decided that our path is just the one right in front of us. At the start we are thinking that its good because everyone else has to go this way and Ben is convinced that he is seeing footsteps (till this day Emily and I still say there were no footsteps) and we used what ever else we needed to
Cerro Cateral - Day 1
Moon rise at Frey Regugio convince ourselves that we were on the right track. After a good 30 minutes we are now convinced that we are definately not on the right track and there is some chance that we might make it on the news due to causing an avalanche and getting thrown down the mountain with the rocks we are dislodging. There was no way back so we had to take it slow and try not to think too much about where the hell we were otherwise we might just freeze and not be able to move. After two and a bit hours we finally are on the last bit of the descent and we have been overtaken by many groups of people who have taken the right path. By the end of the descent we are counting our lucky stars and wondering how close we came to being the stupid tourists that didn´t follow the red dots. We were pretty puffed after that one and personally I was limping like a retard with my sore hip that had just taken a hammering down the mountain, but we had only gone about a third of the way. We then had quite a leisurely stroll
Cerro Cateral - Day 2
Sunrise at Frey Regugio through the valley which was fully of trees changing colour with autumn and surrounded by mountains, again another beautiful sight. To make it to camp that night we had one more mountain to climb which by the end of it I was shaking and basically crawling up as I was getting the shakes and was paranoid of falling down causing myself to roll to the bottom. Again more wonderful scenery and another hell descent which was made a lot easier by following the red dots this time. We finally make it to Refugio San Martin for night 2 and really can´t believe what we´ve done for the day and praying that day 3 is a lot easier on the body. Pasta and tomato sauce has never tasted so good!!! Day three arrives and brings no warmth at all, now we are really wishing for gloves and completely envious of the people staying in the refugio with the fire. Only way to get warm is to start walking so everything is packed away in record time and then we are off. To our relief the walk is mainly down hill or flat and takes us out through a valley filled with
Cerro Cateral - Day 2
Sunrise at Frey Regugio red, orange, yellow and green trees and is absolutely wonderful. We walk for 18km that day and by the time we are at the end of the path we are well and truely ready for a good hot shower and the homemade pizza we have been talking about for the past 3 days. Our only problem is there is still a 3km walk to the road for the bus. Thinking that there is no way we´ll make it, Emily and I stick out our thumbs in hope of getting a ride to town or at least the bus stop. Along come a family from Uruaguay who put us in the back of their troupe and away we go....thank god for Uruaguay! They are the most lovely people I had met and were so excited to have some foreigners with them, we speak our bad spanish and the kids try our their english on the way to town. They drop us off at the door to the hostel and send us on our way with a kiss and a hug each.....a perfect way to end 3 days of adventure!!!!!
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Caz
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AMAZING!!
pics are great! I love the sunset. You have inspired me to get out of bed earlier more often!