On February 22nd Kristin, Ivan, and Fraser (a decently radical Canadian) hopped in (Tio) David's off-road machine for a road trip up to El Bolson. This small city boasts the greatest hippy-ness of any other city in Argentina, which makes it a pretty fun place for us to peruse and get dirty along with the other “dirty” hippies. After a short 2 hour drive, we arrived in downtown El Bolson and walked through the famed tri-weekly Mercado, which features food, organic fruits and veg, organic lotions and beauty products, jewelry and many other kinds of homemade trinkets. We found great empanadas, veggie quiche, fresh delicious berries and fruit, and artisan beer. We only spent a bit of time at the mercado because we were in a hurry to drop into the mountaineering office, find a hiking route and begin our hike. Once we found our route, we romped up a steep gravel road to a parking lot perched on the side of a mountain, which overlooked the city.
We started walking from the parking lot with 6 pounds of food and twice as much water, so we were ready for anything the trail threw at us - (Fraser and Ivan were well-matched eating buddies). Since we started at a high point on the mountain already, we were immediately gratified with a great view of El Bolson. After an hour or so of hiking we made it up to the Refugio, were you can sleep, camp, or grab an expensive lunch. Kristin decided this was a good stopping point for her due to her bummed knee and stayed behind and did a lot of yoga and exercises. It definitely was not a bad place to stop because she had the Refugio spot practically to herself with sunshine, green grass and an overlook of all the mountain ranges and El Bolson below! Que Bonita! And the lovely company of a nice kitty too!
Refugio
Meow! Kk's new hiking partner since Teigen is in SB
Our new pal
Ivan and Fraser continued up the trail past an antique chairlift, and abandoned metal bits. Within 20 minutes, they were past the Alpine-line and out on the exposed mountainsides with incredible views. We took several detours for photos and different vantage points off the main trail. Later, the trail went straight up a steep scree slope to the point of the mountain. With every laborious step up, we slid down a half step. The last 2 hours of our ascent was pretty determined and sweaty, but definitely a great reward at the top. Fraser, being the tough BC mountain man got to the peak first and nearly lost his balance when he realized we had hiked to a cliffs' edge!! Both tired climbers quickly sat down to allow time for their dizzy vertigo to subside - yikes! (it was about 300 feet straight down to the next outcrop, and another 500 or so to the ground).
Canadians think they are funny, eh? jk!
soooo steep!
After a quick snack and lots of breathtaking pictures within the clouds, we headed down. This was actually quite a bit of fun since running down scree is like clumsy skiing downhill. The 2 hour ascent was only a 20 minute descent!! Being the super studs that they are, they ran back most of the way to the Refugio so Kristin did not have to wait too long. After the boys joined Kristin and told her about their steep adventure she was greatly reassured that staying behind was the best idea as her knee would have been completely dislocated from the sounds of it ;) Tough guys!! The 3 of us headed back down the mountain and headed straight to the cerveceria artesenal de El Bolson!
Made it!!!
Wow! A bit of vertigo!
The cerveceria has an interesting selection of beers, but the best part is pairing it with their great pizza. We decided to split a veggie pizza with whole wheat crust (a rarity) and a pitcher of ale and rubia. A perfect way to reward ourselves for a day full of hiking! YUMMM! After our dinner we hobbled (less from drunkenness, but from sore muscles!!) to our tents and slept like stones.
The next morning we packed up and headed to the panaderia for some facturas and coffee. Once we felt we could face the bright sun, we drove to Lago Puelo or National Parque Lago Puelo and explored some of the shoreline there. We ate some lunch and enjoyed the scenery. After about two hours in the warm sunshine, we hopped back into the car and headed to Parque National Alerces.
Lago Puelo
Did you know Ivan is running as an independent!?!
The rain started up and we realized we were all pretty much starving after a long drive. Seeing a small sign on the side of the road, we pulled in to a ‘restaurant’ – someone’s kitchen that had a large window open at the back—and though they were incredibly slow to serve, the milanesas sandwiches were huge! We continued on to the park, thoroughly enjoying the drive. We all thought it was superior to the famed ‘7 Lagos Route’ (2 or 3 blogs posts down). The lakes were absolutely untouched, the water was crystal clear, and the greenery was only interrupted by the road we were driving on. An amazing park with nobody in it!
David's Beast!
Snack break
We did 2 hikes in the park, all totaling about 20 minutes each (and our legs were still pretty sore!), and both went to impresionante waterfalls. And, of course, no one around!
Do you recognize this? KK pointed out that its a native here in Patagonia, Argentina. COOL!
Instead of camping in the rain, we decided to drive the remaining 2 hours back to Tio David in Trevelin. We were grateful for a warm bed and a hot meal, and rested up for another hike in the morning to the southern part of the Parque Alerces (a mere half-hour drive from David’s doorstep).
The southern part of the park is just as beautiful as the northern, except for a huge hydro-electric dam that created a large artificial lake and completely changed the watershed. We decided to do a short 5 km hike up to a hidden laguna, which turned out to be a 10 km hike and over 800m of elevation change. We’ve since learned to read signs a little more carefully, and to pack more food – an apple and banana each didn’t seem enough! The laguna hike was pretty hot, but we were fortunately hiking under the shade of many trees and bush-whacking up the wild trail. The laguna at the top was beautiful! It was at the top of the 800m ridge we hiked up, and was framed by a huge glacial mountain behind it (to be hiked another day…). After our longer than expected amazing hike, we drove farther down the road to jump into some ice-cold pools to cool off and relax our muscles (Kristin was stoked to put her knee in some glacier water) and see the giant hydro-dam. We then bee-lined it home to eat a 2500 calorie lunch to appease our growling stomachs!
The hiking duo
Since this day in the park, we have been exploring different sites around Trevelin and Esquel, and enjoying very relaxing schedule with Tio David. Sunday we prepared quite an awesome Asado as a farewell to Fraser since he was taking off the next day(Monday). We helped cook and clean to prepare for this feast of 15+ people. Chicken kabobs, carne, pork and veggies al disco, salads and desserts! Ooh and you can never forget the good Argentine wine to go along with it. It was quite a Sunday Asado! Now that Frazer is gone, Kristin and Ivan are hanging out until Thursday and taking it easy with David. We have been cooking great food, having fun discussions with David, catching up one a few movies (The Kings Speech!!) and relaxing before we head back to the campo for one more week of work. We are both looking forward to Mendoza wine tasting in mid-March and then heading to Ecuador where we will spend a few months!!
Casa de David
L to R: Quincho (guest house), David's house and David's caretakers house.
A local concert in Esquel
Every time I think I have seen the best part of your trip, you guys find an even more amazing place to travel to! Then to top it off, I see you are running for Mayor in Argentina! Every time I read your blog I have to go eat something, your descriptions of all the foods drive my stomach crazy! Choms to both of you, take care,
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