Chilling In the Lakes District

Buenos dias! Hope everyone is well. Erin and I are winding down a relaxing two weeks in the Lakes District of Argentina. This area has been in the news of late due to the volcano that has erupted in Chile across the border a few hundred kilometers away. We´re reasonably close but a safe distance away. We did witness the massive plume of smoke from the volcano last week over the valley of El Bolson where we were staying. Then last night in the town of Bariloche where we are now we had a brief rain of ashes that put a covering of ash on everything. And the night before the volcano first erupted we were staying at a backcountry hut, and I think I felt tremors - even before we knew that a volcano had erupted. So that has been pretty wild.

Smoke Plume from Volcano in Chile

Looking back now, I haven´t said much about our trip to the deep south of Patagonia so wanted to add a few thoughts. Erin did a great job with the play-by-play so I´ll just add some color commentary. Last time I wrote on the blog I gave you a sense of how we were feeling before setting out to Torres del Paine. The morning we were to catch our bus to the park, over breakfast we were staring out the window at the pre-dawn pitch black air with rain cascading down the windows and literally discussing a ¨feeling of doom¨ about our impending trip. It was that grim. But as Erin revealed, it turned out to be an incredible odyssey with its requisite ups and downs. Difficult and challenging times of mean weather interspersed with incredibly awe-inspiring vistas and dramatic ever-changing scenery.

The same basic themes were repeated the next week in Los Glaciares National Park. On the first day of our first backcountry trip we got crushed by rain on our way into our campsite. We spent a bleak night trying to stay dry and warm while fending off the voracious mice who were attacking our tent. Not fun. Erin said something like, ¨I hate this¨at one point. The the next day dawned perfectly clear and we caught one of the most glorious sunrises on Cerro Torre that one could ever see - all by ourselves no less, owing to the bleak conditions we faced the night before. The price we had to pay for this amazing moment, in my view. We were on cloud nine and had an awesome day, catching the vibrant fall colors against the snowy mountain scenery, sighting Magellanic woodpeckers in the beech forests, and then laying our eyes on the titan of the park, Fitz Roy, as we made our way to the next night´s camp. This day Erin was back in the ¨I love it¨mode, as was I. The next day our attempt to catch sunrise on Fitz Roy was foiled by rain and wind and snow and sleet, and we retreated to our tent for the whole rest of the day and night while the rain and then snow incessantly pounded our position. At this point, Erin - our environmental educator for young children mind you - stated that we were ¨screwed again by nature.¨ I had to laugh. The next AM, we retreated back to town for a few days before heading back our for a glorious second trip in the park, this time with better weather and enjoying a high degree of solitude. So Patagonia turned out to be exactly as it´s described. Amazingly rewarding but also peppered with some of the worst and most changeable weather you could imagine. Its rewards are only gained through desire and fortitude to fight through the difficult times. It´s a worthwhile challenge and a place with a well-deserved mystique.

After our marathon 30-hour bus ride through the emptiness of southern and central Patagonia, we arrived in northern Patagonia which is also known as the Lakes District. We found a really cool town and hostel in El Bolson (pictured here) and so stayed there for over a week. It´s a town for those who love the outdoors and arts, surrounded on three sides by mountains and boasting a lively feria (fair) three days a week. It also has multiple local craft breweries, an organic farm that makes the best cheese, and lots of homemade jams and marmalade. We were enamored with the hostel in which we stayed. The people who ran it - two young guys, one Argentine and one German - were great, and we hit it off with them and the other like-minded guests who were digging this mellow town. We enjoyed two asados - or Argentinian barbecues- which are these massive feasts of red meat featuring seven or eight courses of beef and sausage along with salads and bread and, of course, local vino tinto (red wine). We also found the energy to scamper up Cerro Piltriquitron, one of the taller peaks in the area, and to complete a three-day trip to a backcountry refugio (hut) situated in a snowy cirque below a glacier.

On the way up to Piltriquitron

Refugio Hielo Azul where we stayed for two nights

After El Bolson, we came up the road to Bariloche for some more hiking in the Lakes District. We´ve done two day hikes here to the summits of local peaks for vistas over the lakes and volcanoes and mountains that line this part of the Chile-Argentinian border. We found an amazing deal where we have been staying at what is essentially a 2-bedroom townhouse (pictured here) with our own kitchen and bath and cable TV for the equivalent of about US$11 per person per night. Argentina´s amazing that way - good quality of travel with very modest price tag. In the evenings, we have enjoyed some great meals with two Argentinian guys who have been the only other people staying in the hostel part of this place. One is a chef and has made homemade bread and gnocchi, and last night we treated them to lomos which are the most choice cuts of steak - steaks they can´t often afford, they informed us, even though the prices are so cheap to us - the equivalent of US$10 for four big tenderloins. Speaking with them has greatly improved our Spanish (which remains somewhat remedial but improving every day) and it also provided us a great window to understand the challenges of the working class Argentinian. By now we´ve had quite a few opportunities to talk with and get to know Argentinian people and generally find them to be quite warm, friendly, and ingratiating.

Lakes District, as seen from Tourista Peak

Volcano vista from hike in Los Lagos (looks like Mt. Rainier)

So we´ve had a very enjoyable and comfortable stay here in Los Lagos region of this country. But it continues to get colder as winter approaches so today we pick up our bags and move north. This time it´s an 18-hour bus ride to Mendoza - the area that produces 70% of the country´s wines and is also the access point to Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere. Mountains and red wine - sounds like my kind of town. Should be a good place to spend my 32nd (doh!) birthday on Sunday. And of course, Sunday is also Mother´s Day so Happy Mother´s Day to all the madres out there, especially mine. Love you, Mom!

I can´t upload photos on this machine so at the next opportunity I´ll add the accompanying pic´s to this post - volcanoes and smoke and ash and more! Go Celtics!

Ciao!
Drew