Out of patagonia and into the lake district
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
79
Trip End
Ongoing
Bariloche, Argentina
Friday, February 13, 2009
we checked into PUDU hostel (highly recommended btw) which overlooks the main lake... there we laughed, ate, drank and met really cool people... they even had a bbq one night and we had about 7 or 8 different cuts of all you can eat beef over a three hour meal.. oh and all you can drink vino!
in my opinion, we most definitely took full advantage of bariloche. in the three nights and four days we were there, we did LOTS of hiking, rented a car with our buddies from seattle, ate, cooked and enjoyed the town. the first full day, we took a long public bus ride to the base of Cerro Lopez. we braced ourselves for a full day of hiking. normally, people hike up to the refugio about 1000 meters up and hike down the next day. NOT US. we decided to do the round trip in one day. first off, it was a stunning day. you know those clear blue days with puffy white clouds that are so great for hiking? yeah, we had that kind of a day. the first 1000 meter ascent took us approximately 1.5 hours. it was literally straight uphill. the pics were stunning.. absolutely gorgeous! we finally got to the refugio (this is a sort of refuge or building that people pay a small fee and stay at for a night)... it had a wonderful view of the lakes and surrounding areas. one of the view points in that area was actually voted top 10 viewpoints by national geographic... once we got there, justin and i decided to summit the mountain. it would be another 2 hour round trip up rockes, boulders and over three more peaks. because we were limited on time, we left the girls with instructions to head down the mountain after about an hour at the refugio. Justin and I went straight up past an alpine lake, past glaciers and finally ended at the very peak which was another 800meters... very worth it...
on the way down to meet the girls, justin and i kept on slipping as the trails had a lot of dirt on it. so what did we do? stupid us decided to run down the mountain or gallop or skip or whatever... so, we ran 1500 meters of elevation and got to the base in approximately 1.5 hours from the summit... SORENESS for the next week! no joke SORENESS!!! anyways, when justin and i got to the bottom (30 mins before the last bus back into bariloche) we couldnīt find the girls! what the heck?! they had a 2 hour head start!!! we asked around at the base and no one had seen them! did they get hurt? did they get lost? the sun was almost down and it was getting dark. i ran (soreness and all) down the dirt road about 2 miles at another road/trail crossing... no sign.. i returned to the bus stop right at bus time to see the girls with justin ! relieve! they had taken a wrong turn and taken almost 3 hours to get down!!! well, at least they were safe!
phew... the next day, we rented this junky four door fiat and drove to Cerro Tronador... what an incredible area.. not too many people, incredibly green lakes, crystal clear waters, black glaciers, waterfalls and stunning forests... the park is wierd in the sense that because the roads are narrow, it changes direction of traffic depending on the day.. weird... anyways, the whole day was spent driving, walking clicking photos and just sitting with our mouths gaped wide open in awe at the scenery... we would highly recommend renting a car and coming out to this area...
last day was just relaxing, roaming around town and finally boarding another bus for Mendoza and argentinaīs wine district
