It`s snowing, hold me!

The mountain
see all photos »

By a stroke of good luck, I was reunited with some friends I made in Ushuaia, Wietske and Erwin. By a stroke of bad luck, our plane was delayed about 10 hours. We had a lot of time to catch up.

After arriving in Bariloche at 4:30 AM, we slept most of the day away at a really nice hostel (Hostel Alaska), which was super cute with a wood a-frame kitchen and common area. Then there was the great chocolate binge. Instead of buying everyone tacky souvenirs they wouldn`t really use or like, I decided to buy a massive amount of chocolate to share. 60 pesos of chocolate later, I`m ready to start handing it out. I`ve been tempted many a time to chow on the stuff myself, but no, I`m saving it for all you Minnesota amigos.

The refugio
see all photos »

After another day to relax, we decided to do an overnight hike to a refugio (Otto Meiling). We didn`t bother doing much research about the trek and figured we`d see what we`d see. It was a steep four hour trek, but with a half empty pack, it was actually fairly easy. As we neared the Mount Tronador, in became windy and then, oh yes, then it started to snow. So I started complaining loudly that I had LEFT the snow in Minnesota and could not possibly understand what it was doing here in Argentina during the summer. Then I demanded the Dutch couple hold me. It was cold. But man alive, was it worth it. Being above two glaciers (one on each side) was made for stunning views. The refugio was cozy with hot chocolate and an amazing vegetarian friendly gourmet dinner. When we finally got off the mountain, we had a nice jacuzzi waiting for us at the hostel!