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Published: October 15th 2009
The bus ride from Puerto Madryn to Bariloche was a total disaster. The bus was fully booked as it was a national holiday on Monday and everyone was on the move for a long weekend. The bus had the worst leg room I have encountered, the toilet had been trashed by someone and it was 17 hours of hell. I couldn´t sleep, my legs hurt and they didn´t even feed us, just throw us a shitty sandwich at night and a biscuit in the morning. Needless to say I will not be travelling with Mar Y Valle again. The only highlight of the bus ride was hitting the lake district region of Patagonia. The landscape changed from flat, dry and barron to a scene of lush forests, snow topped mountains and the bluest lagoons you have ever seen. It was magical.
When I pulled into the bus station at Bariloche I was so relieved to be off the bus I consulted the map and decided to walk into town to my hostel. It didn´t appear to be that far! So I strapped on the old back pack and set off down the road. As soon as I left the bus
terminal a cold swind slapped me straight round the face and there was snow fluttering around. But I kept walking. The road I was walking along was directly beside lake Nahuel Huapi so I had a lovely view. What I didn´t count on was the road going for 45 minutes before I reached the hostel. By the time I got there I had gone from being freezing cold to baking hot, and I was totally shattered. Luckily the girl on the desk realised this, and told me to chill out on the couch where we shared so Mate. I was fucked!! Doesn´t bode well for my hiking days to come! I put it down to the lack of sleep and severe lack of food over the prior 24 hours.
So my hostel, it is called Hostel Inn Bariloche and it is situated up the hill from the lake. The front of the hostel is all glass windows and we have the most amazing view over the lake and the mountains in the distance. The beds are the most comfy I have come accross yet. They are long, the mattresses are think and the pillows plump. My first night here
I shared with an English couple who are travelling around South America for 3 months before going back to their jobs as lawyers in London. I went to get my free dinner with them so they could show me the ropes. The free dinners are ok but nothing to write home about. We shared a few beers and then we hit the local Irish bar, Wilkenny´s. While sitting in Wilkenny´s the waitress comes up to me and says I know someone who wants to know your name, age, where you are from and whether or not you like Argentinian women. About 30 minutes later she comes back and says that girl over there wants you to go join her for a drink but she is too shy to come over here. So we all checked her out, and wow she was cute. But I didn´t go over as I thought the language barrier would be too awkward. Anyhow, an hour later my room mates wanted to leave but I wasn´t really tired so I went over and chatted to her. Now the basic conversation was ok becasue she knew some english and her friend knew a lot of english so
she was our translator, but when her friend left and the conversation got a bit more in depth it was awful. We must have chatted for 3 hours speaking bad english and even worse spanish. But it was quite good fun, I picked up some spanish words along the way. When I looked at my watch and saw it was 3.30 I had had enough so went to bed. I think she was quite glad I wanted to go as she had to be up at 6.30 to go on a trip! But all in all a good night.
On Sunday I treated myself to a nice lay in before I went walking round the town and got some lunch. In the afternoon I had booked to go kayaking. We drove to Laga Gutierrez, which supposedly was protected from the strong winds and therefore shouldn´t be too rough. However, when we pulled up at the lake there were big waves breaking all over it. Not a good sign considering I haven´t done this for over 15 years. All the equipment was included in the trip, so they gave us the waterproof gear and the skirts to seal ourselves into
the kayak. After a quick lesson of what and what not to do we set off. We went in two man kayaks with the tour guides sat in the back. As soon as we hit the water I found out why they sat in the back, the waves were so large they came right over the front of the kayak and hit you full in the face. The girl who was on the tour with me was drastically shorter than I and she took a wave totally over her head at one point. Now seeming as all the water in the lake is from snow melt, you can imagine just how cold it was. So we paddled up the lake until we got to a turn in the lake where we were told it was too dangerous to carry on as the waves would roll us, and being rolled into water this cold is not good. So we stopped on a beach and had the most amazing croissants and some Mate. This was also a good opportunity to wring out the water from my clothing, turns out I hadn´t done my sleeves up properly and my top was soaked. After
this we went back to where we started and walked through the forest to see a small waterfall. It was a really good afternoon. Pablo and Chris were really good guys.
In the evening I went and got my free dinner and ended up speaking to a bunch of American kids. Oh my god I have never met such a bunch of cocks in my life. They were so opinionated and immature, it really tested my patience to the full. My saving grace was an Irish guy who I played some pool with. When he left to hit a club I saw it as my excuse to leave and go to bed and leave the American twats behind. How can Canadians be soo cool but Americans twats?!!
On Monday I went hiking up to Cerro Otto. This is a small mountain just down the road from Bariloche. It is about a 750m climb to reach the top via a winding road that is 9km long. But being me I decided not to take the road and took the trail through the forest that cut most of it off. Boy what a mistake. The terrain was all fine sand
and loose rocks and the climb was so steep it hurt the legs big time. I had to stop half way up to take off layers and get my breath back. When I did reach the road the layers quickly went back on. The temperature never got above 2 degrees celcius today, and the windchill was incredible. Walking up an exposed road to the summit was hard going, and bitterly cold. But the view from the top was worth the effort. At the top of Cerro Otto there is a revolving cafe where I stopped for lunch and took in the surrounding views of the lakes and mountains. I also done a few mini hikes around the top, one of which had me walking through a hill full of snow but which took me to a good lookout point of the lake I kayaked on the day before. On my way back down it started to snow again, luckily the wind was behind me so it blew mainly overhead. In the evening I went to the supermarket and got myself some dinner, pasta with veg and fresh chorizo. It definitely hit the spot after a day hiking.
On Tuesday
I went in to the Nahuel Huapi national park on an excursion. This national park was the second one ver created, the first being Yosemite in the states. Our day started off with some pictures at Lago Mascardi before a short hike to a lovely waterfall. The views to be had from the top of the waterfall were amazing. The mix of rock faces, forests and mountains was perfect. After this we had a short drive to Pampa Linda where we had lunch. In the summer Pampa Linda is where the main hikes start, but the routes are all currently closed due to snow on the higher ground. Another short bus ride and we were at the only black glacier in the world. We didn´t go to see it at first, instead we done another short hike to the base of Cerro Tronador, the highest mountain in the national park and the mountain which separates Argentina from Chile. The views from the bottom were spectacular, looking up the rock faces and seeing the glacier on the higher parts of the mountain. Where we stood was dominated by large boulders. This was the aftermath of a big storm that hit in
May of this year that had totally wiped out the village where we were standing. It also wiped out a complete valley of all its trees, apart from one lonely survivor, and had washed away all the tracks. It took 3 months for the park rangers to clear away enough debris for the tracks we hbad driven along to be reopened again. So Tronador, this mountain is so called due to the thundering noises the glacier makes when the ice thumps into each other high up on the mountain. It is an incredible noise. So then it was down to the black glacier. I am still convinced it was just rock and not ice but the tour guide was adament it was a glacier. The reason it is black is that when the glacier in the mountain comes crashing down it mixes with all the volcanic ash that is in the region and makes the ice black. It was beautiful to be standing there, but the wind chill must have been minus 15 at least. It was breath takingly cold. the shorter people on the trip took to hiding behind me to get out of the wind. I was told
that 20 years ago this black glacier reached out as far as where we had parked the bus, this was almost 200 metres away. This is how quick the glacier is receeding. SO i would say in the next 50 years or probably less, the whole black glacier will be gone. Sad when 20,000 years ago it was 80km down the road where I had been kayaking!
On Wednesday I was up at the crack of dawn to get a local bus down to Cerro Campanario. Here I hiked up the mountain, only a 400m ascent, but once again bloody steep. The views from the top were awesome though. The weather was much warmer today and most of the clouds from previous days had gone so the view was unspoilt. It took 45 minutes to go up and down, later in the day I wish I had taken my time as my legs were feeling it. Once at the bottom of Campanario I walked half a km up the road a rented a bike to cycle to Circuito Chico, a round route about 30km long. Cycling around mountains is a really gorgeous thing to do, but it does make
for a hilly ride. I spent half the day cycling with two dutch girls before one of them got so tired they ended up fighting. One wanted to stay and carry on with me, the other wanted to go crawl under a bush and die. So they left to go home. The first part of the route was mainly down hill to a bridge crossing the lake. Then it was a steep climb uphill to a look out point where you got a really good view of the Llao Llao hotel. This is the most expensive hotel in the region, but its setting is idyllic. Also it has a really good golf course that weaves it way around the lakes. I was jealous I couldn´t have a go. But was glad to see their standard of golf was no better than ours back home. There is hope yet dad! Next I stopped at the Cementerio Del Montanes, a graveyeard for all the hikiers and climbers who have died on the peaks around Bariloche. The most current plaque was from a few years ago when an avalanche killed two people hiking. Then it was on to Bahia Lopez where the lake
was such a deep blue. I tried to capture it on camera but it just didn´t do the colour justice. From here I went of the route for 3km to Villa Tacul, a lake side setting where locals go in the summer to swim and picnic. It was a lovely area but I could never imagine wanting to swim in a lake this cold! The last part of the route took me past the Llao Llao hotel and back to where I started. By this time my bum was so soar, the saddles we so uncomfy, and my legs were feeling it. But being me I decided to go round again (not all of the way) to see the Swiss Colony, a small town in the middle of the woods. By the time I got there I sat on a bench and died. I didn´t really see much of it as due to some school event or something most of it was closed. The cycle back was intense. Up gravel hills where the back wheel just span. I had to get off and push, but my butt was glad for the rest. So after an additional 12km I returned and
dropped my bike off. Another group of riders were just returning and I was glad to see they looked as fucked as I did. The evening was spent collapsed in front of the tv watching the most bizare film ever that none of us had a clue what it was about. So we all went to bed.
So this brings my trip to Bariloche to an end. I totally love it here and really don´t want to leave. I have been offered a job in the hostel so I can stay but told them I really have to go. I have spent most of today trying to decide where to go next. I have 16 days until I need to be in Santiago to fly down to hike Torres Del Paine and I have so many options I don´t know where I´ll end up inbetween. I´m just going to go to the bus terminal tomorrow and see where I end up. So watch this space.
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Jack
non-member comment
hello
Jack here, how are you, I have been looking at the photos with Nan, is it cold where you are? Ive fishing and caught a Skimmer Bream and a Roach, and a Rudd. Ive eaten your piece of Nans birthday cake, it was nice.