Bariloche

Thursday January 3, 2008

We arrived in Bariloche some time in the Afternoon. After figuring out where exactly the bus is going to the center, we took the bus to find a place to stay for a night. So we looked into my guide, found several cheap ones and off we went to get our beds, only to find out that everybody else was faster (or more prepared?) than us :-( ... the first Hostel didn´t have anything for us, the second place just shrugged of their shoulders ... finally we found a nice little hostel with a decent price, where their were able to offer us two beds in two different rooms, but we didn´t care at all. I shared my room with three really nice!!! Israelis (I knew, they were out there somewhere! :-) ...), Jens shared his 4 bed room with four other people ;-) ... how that worked? Well, apparently the hostel overbooked one bed and at the end a girl slept on the floor in the utility room.

Buh, lucky us :-). So we went out to check out the center. Bariloche is a nice city (located next to the Lake Nahuel Huapi) just for tourism. In winter it is a big ski resort, in summer a popular travel destination for Argentinians (we can confirm this!). We visited a church built in 1946 (but it looked way older, they copied the style from the 17th century and they did a really good job doing that), walked around for a little bit and found a nice restaurant to sit outside. The weather here was just perfect ... sunny, blue sky, 77 degree F (25 Grad C) and a nice breeze :-) ... just the way I like it :-). Afterwards we checked out the supermarket (bought some cheese and wine) and walked back to the hostel.

By the time we arrived there, it was already after 10PM, but it sure didn´t feel like it! The sun was still shining (sunset is around 10:30PM, is doesn´t get really dark before 11PM at night) and we were still wide awake! So we sat around until 1:30AM in the morning and enjoyed Jens little Blackberry (OK, it is not real blackberry, but I forgot the correct therm for it! ... ok, Jens just informed my, that his little computer is called "internet tablet", the model is a Nokia N800) before we finally went to bed.

Friday January 4, 2008

Next morning we got up early, because we wanted to get a good campsite nearby. So we took the bus (somebody told us about a nice campground near a little river couple kilometers south of Bariloche - thanks to Jens here are all names: the town and also our Campground called "Los Coihues", the lake "Lago Gutierrez", and the little creek "Arroyo Gutierrez") and checked this campground out. It was really nice right next to a little creek (to call it river would be a little bit too much!) and so we pitched Jens tent right next to the creek. We even were very lucky to have our own wooden bench and table! Hardly anybody had that there! :-)

When we were satisfied with the way everything was done (by then it was already after Lunch), we took the bus back to the city to get the return bus tickets to Santiago for Jens first and then find some nice tours for us to join. The tickets were no problem (well, at least not at the end ;-) ...), so we looked around for organized tours they offer here a lot. We finally picked two nice tours out of a dozen (I didn´t want to spend too much money on it). One tour, we would do a day later, would bring us to a black glacier and some other things, the other tour would be a boat trip over one of the lakes with some nice waterfalls ... but I will tell you about them later ...

We had also a little snack (nice restaurant where we sat outside again) and shopped around for some food for our trips and for clear tape. My South America Guidebook is falling apart and I wanted to fix it by taping some pages back into the book and also want to prevent it to fall apart even more (which is still possible ;) ...) But I couldn´t find any tape. I mean, such a simple thing like tape! On the way back to our campsite, we got some cheese and wine again and enjoyed it in front of our tent. The weather was just great, in the sun almost too hot, so we put our food in plastic bags and hung them into the tree next to our tent, because our tent was almost the whole day in the bright sun. Eventually, we went to bed, because the next morning we will get picked up at 8:40 for our first tour to the glacier.

Saturday January 5, 2008

Yeah, Jens wrote the entry for this day - THANKS :-)

Cerro Tronador and Glaciar Ventisquero Negro:

Since the small bus was supposed to pick us up at the turnoff to Los Coihues (the "town" where our campground was), about a 5 minute walk, we made sure we were there ahead of

time. As we arrived at the street, already a small Mercedes Sprinter bus stopped and the guide on the passenger seat told us to wait for the second bus, that would be here in about five minutes. Whoa, great organization, and  unctuality! Once on the way, everybody introduced himself, and we figured out that Jenny and I were the only "gringos" on the trip, barely speaking a work of Spanish. But we each had a

friendly couple on the bench next to us, who started to translate the most important bits and things to us. The guide actually spoke a very slow and clear Spanish, so she was able to also understand more - much to Jenny's delight. People in this area seem to just cut off syllables and sounds of words, making it hard for foreigners to understand, especially if they speak fast (a simple example: "Buenos Dias" sounds more like "Boeno Dia").

Since the guide also spoke a lot with his hands (turned towards us on the front passenger seat) also I was able to figure out several things he explained without the help of the girl next to me. We drove into the National Park Nahuel Huapi past a chain of lakes (Lago Mascardi, Lago Guillelmo) with a few "Kodak" opportunities. Our first highlight were the Alerces Cascades

(Waterfalls) of Rio Manso. During the whole drive over the small curvy and sometimes gravel roads of the park, the guide explained a lot about the park, the area, volcanos, glaciers, and plants. The couple on the front seat with me, shared their mate with driver and guide. About half the Argentinian population seems to be carrying their mate and a thermos with hot water around all day. Mate is a small vessel made out of wood or a calabash, in which the yerba mate tea is brewed, and drunken with a special straw called bombilla. It's a national staple, but also enjoyed in other parts of South America with some variations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Mate_(beverage) . Anyway, we enjoyed the ride through the mountainous park with the beautiful backdrop of the the snow capped Andes. After a lunch stop at Hosteria Pampa Linda, we hiked to the next waterfall called "Saltillo Las Nalcas" and came across some wild horses on the way. This waterfall drops down a couple of dozen feet from a rock ledge. Some more driving, and we finally arrived at the Black Glacier, right under Cerro Tronador! The upper part is actually a normal, while glacier. However, as it flows over a large ledge, the ice breaks off in chunks, and reassembles to a glacier below. In the process,

the ice melts down somewhat and picks up dirt. The dirt from inside and outside the glacier ice eventually makes the ice so dirty, that it is almost black. Hence the name. It almost looks like rock, but since it floats in the lagoon at the base of the black glacier, it couldn't be. Another pit stop, and we made our way back home. Before reaching the campground, the guide had the bus stop at a house of relatives: It featured a marmalade shop! The lady of the house apparently cooks various and very yummy marmalades and sells them. We tried them all, and several people bought glasses. Once back at the Los Coihues turnoff, Jenny and I bought some dinner at the grocery store (along with beer of course), headed to our tent. We went to bed

not too long after it got dark (i.e. around midnight, since dark:30 is around 23:00). It was a long but interesting day, and our plan was to sleep in the next day and do .... nothing! It was Sunday, after all!

Sunday January 6, 2008

No alarm clock!!! Yeah, after several morning getting up because my cell was ringing, today we slept in! :-) ... so when we got up eventually (I had to pie ... *mistaberauch*), Jens went to take a shower while I was just enjoying the fact that we had no agenda today. I wanted to prepare breakfast, but realized, that Jens put our plastic bags with food somewhere .. they weren´t in the tree anymore (we hung them up there so the dogs couldn´t get to it and also because that was our only shady area we had around our tent ... When Jens came back from the baños, I asked him, where he put the bags, but he looked very surprised and swore, that he had seen them last night in the tree and that was the last time he had paid attention to them. So where were they?? Also my new little towel Jens brought with him for me (I "lost" my old little one in Peru) was gone. Who cares about the bananas and bread!! My Swiss pocket knife was in one of the food bags!! Normally, I always put it back into my little backpack, but sure enough, that night before I was lazy :-( ... Jens had the great idea, that they maybe collected trash and thought, that our bags in the tree were trash as well. Mmhh, that could be! Our "real" trash bag was gone as well (was under the table), but everything on top of the table was still there. So I went to the owner of the campground to check this thought out. And sure enough, they confirmed Jens thought. But unfortunately, the trash was already picked up by an external company (on Sunday!!), but the owner insisted to call them so they could come back with the trash! OK, I loved my knife, but that was a little bit too much! I told him, that would not be necessary at all, but there was no way! Whatever I said, nothing persuaded him.

While Jens went to the supermarket (thank goodness, we had a little supermarket five walking minutes away from us) to get us some food (I was not willing to share my licorice or my Haribo with Jens, "da hoert jede Freundschaft auf!!"), I waited for the trash man to return. How embarrassing! :-) ... I was so glad, when the owner informed me, that for some reason the trash would not return! :-)

We had a nice brunch (so around 2PM :-) ...), prepared some sandwiches and hiked to the lake named something (Jens, you took all the maps ... HELP!!). We found a nice little shady spot right next to the lake without any neighbours (later on, some families rested nearby). I really wanted to swim, but there was NO way that I would get into that antarctic water!!! Freezing cold! Also Jens just stuck his big toe into the water and announced that he wanted to listen to "Die drei ???" (he only read the books when he was a child, so it was about time for him to get educated ;-) ... Thanks Kerke and Sven! I think, you left them on my computer when you visited me in Richmond and now I enjoy them on my IPod). So we did hang out there for couple of hours and even watched couple of wind roses over the lake and over our head (pretty sandy situation ;-) ...)

On the way back we stopped at the supermarket again, got some cold beer and went back to the campground. Later that Day we checked out one of the two restaurants near our campground. Jens had a steak and I enjoyed a salad. We took some pictures of the lake (later on, this will be our proof, that we had snow ... see below) and went back to our tent and into our sleeping bags ... What a relaxing day!! Just perfect!!

Monday January 7, 2008

Puerto Blest and Cascada de Los Cantaros Another day that we had to get up early, to catch the local bus into town.

We had booked a boat tour across Lago Nahuel Napi to Puerto Blest, including

a hike through the temperate rainforest to a waterfall. We made it in time

to the pickup place in town, and were transferred by bus to Puerto Panelo. The weather today was overcast, slightly rainy and windy. However, we still

got a seat on the upper boat deck to enjoy the scenery. After a while of

enjoying (more or less, since it was cold) the mountain tops in clouds and

sea gulls flying around, we decided to go under deck. To our surprise, we met

one of the couples we did Saturdays tour into the National Park with! What

a coincidence. The boat dropped us of at a landing, and we started hiking up through the

forest along the waterfalls (Cascada de Los Cantaros) up to lake Los Canataros.

The boarded walkway offered splendid views on the cascades that stretched

about 800 meters (0.5 miles) up to Los Cantaros. On the way, several trees

and plants were pointed out, like a large type of local conifer (up to 1500

years old). Back down at Lago Nahuel Napi, we had the choice of taking the

boat to Puerto Blest, or walk around the bay to meet the boat there. Of course,

we opted to walk, as the weather had warmed up a little, it wasn't raining,

and the bay was better protected from the wind. It was a nice about 30 minute walk

along the shore, with more flora and fauna to see. Puerto Blest just seems to consist of the boat landing, a hosteria (small

hotel) and a small fast food place. Jenny and I had a small lunch there,

and tried to find some wild life at Rio Frias. But we just met another

couple from our National Park trip two days ago. They had chosen the longer

option of this trip, and were just starting their 3km (1.9 mile) hike along

the river to Lago Frias. Jenny and I made our way back to Bariloche, and got seats under deck, where

it was warm and sticky, and I dozed off for most of the boat ride. Back in

town we hit an Internet cafe and I skyped my dad to congratulate him for his

birthday. Some grocery shopping, dinner at the camp ground, a few games of

Cuarenta, and we hit the sleeping bags.

Tuesday January 8, 2008

Ok, while I tried to catch up with all my emails (still not done, but it is starting to look much better in my inbox :-) ...) Jens wrote about our day yesterday. Thanks a lot, Jens :-) ... I will write about the other days in "Bariloche" as soon as possible. I promise!!!

Staying with our rhythm, we took it slow today and slept in, had some breakfast at the campsite, showered and geared up a bit after noon. We took the bus towards the city, but switched busses and went out into the direction of Llao Llao again to Cerro Campanario (Campanario Mountain). We had heard that it provided a great view over the lake and the surrounding area, and where shocked that everyone else knew about this, too: A fleet of busses were parked all around the base station of the chairlift, and the line of people waiting to get up was really long. They wanted about US$ 7 for the round trip to the top, which seemed somewhat high to us. Jenny asked the cashier about hiking up the mountain, but the person only knew there was supposed to be a track somewhere a bit down the road, and had no idea how long or far it was. We still passed all the buses parked on the highway, found a col de sac going uphill and decided to try our luck, by taking another turn into the woods on a small narrow path. We hike up a steep incline, pretty  much straight towards where we thought the top of Campanario should be. I tracked with the GPS that we didn't stray to far away from the base station. After about 25 minutes or so and 350 vertical meters we reached the tree line, found a single radio antenna station and heard voices above us - we had reached the top, and it wasn't as bad as we thought! The gorgeous view paid out our hike! I think the pictures (once posted) will tell more than words.

We spent probably about 2 hours on top, taking pictures, enjoying the views around, and having a pick nick in a sunny and less windy corner. They did not check for tickets for the ride back down, but we still decided to hike back. Some inconspicuous signs led us down the official trail,

which was wider but also way more dusty.

Back in town, we did some necessary business and shopping. Jenny bought her bus ticket south, we bought groceries, and tried to replace the lost Swiss Pocketknife. We visited most outdoor and camping stores in town, but the either did have only very simple ones (missing can openers and corkscrew), or sported the latest expensive ones with gadgets like built in electronic altimeter, which Jenny didn't want to pay for ....

Back at the campsite we made some sandwiches for dinner, and prepared some for out planned hike the next day, up to Refugio Frey (a mountain hut). The weather had turned, we already had some sprinkles in the afternoon, and it looked like it was starting to rain more seriously any minute. So, being prepared for getting up fast the next morning for the 6 to 8 hour hike, we slipped into the cosy warm sleeping bags and play a round of Cuarenta or two and turned around to sleep at 23:30ish, when the rain was already hitting our tent.

Wednesday January 9, 2008

This is now my own entry again :-) ...

At 7:30 in the morning the alarm clock went off ... and we even didn`t have to take our ear plugs (very important equipment if you are ever plan to camp at the high season in Argentina - the young Argentinian love to party the whole night) to hear the rain hitting hard our tent. Jens opened his side of the tent and informed me that the mountains were gone ... after checking out "my side" of the sky I had nothing better to report than him :-(. We, being positive thinking people, decided to wait another hour and check on the weather again. Well, after another hour of sleep (always good ;-) ...) the weather changed!!! Just not the way we wanted it! The rain started to become more intense, so we used the time expediently. We played Cuarenta (the card game I learned in Ecuador, thanks to a inspiration I bought a card game a night before!). But after a couple of hours it became uncomfortable on our mattresses, the game started to annoy us (if Jens would have had another Ronda, I would have started to scream ;-) ...) and we were ready to do something outside of our little tent!

And what can you do if it is raining like dogs and cats? Right, we took the bus to town and went to a museum! It called "Museo de La Patagonia" and like the name already said, it displayed things about and from Patagonia. Was actually not bad at all.

Afterwards we had to try an Argentinian Steak. You cannot go to Argentina without having a steak. So we did! And it was so good!! Not just because Jens paid for it ;-) (thanks again, Jens!). Well, and after having a beer (the size of a bottle here would be sold as a barrel in some parts of the world) and some Pisco Sours (gosh, they were really strong ... I mean, I bought myself a vanilla yogurt with M&M´s to put into it while I was tipsy ...) we had really a good time and everything was just so funny ;-)

We took the bus home (since it stays light forever (until 22.30 - 23.00!!) it never really felt like we stayed out that long - we always were surprise, when we realized how late it was, when we hit the hay (or mattresses)) and listed to rain hitting our tent and we (or should I say "I") could feel the cold creaping into our tent. The temperature really dropped in the last 24 hours. According to weather.com we are suppose to have a mixed day tomorrow ... hopefully they are mistaken!!! We want to do the hike!

Thursday January 10, 2008

Same old, same old ... next morning the rain wasn`t that intense anymore, but it didn`t really look fantastic either. So we had no idea what to do. Well, great moment to rest for a moment (or two, or three, or ...). The night before was a little bit too cold for my nice thin summer sleeping back and so when Jens decided to ask the campground owner about his opinion about the weather I took also Jens sleeping back and finally my feet and legs started to revitalize! It felt so good to feel comfy and warm ... I mean, there was no reason for me to get up ;-) ... but eventually even I got up and after a nice hot shower we took the bus. On the way to our bus stop I suddenly realized that the surrounding changed ... the mountains had snow caps. I mentioned it to Jens, he looked around and after couple of seconds came a very surprised "you are right, that wasn`t there before!" ... no wonder I froze off my butt!!

Our goal for today was to get to Cerro Otto, a nice hill, where you can take a cable car (rain) or hike up (dry condition). After missing the bus stop (we both could have sworn that the cable car entry would be on the right side of the street, but somebody tricked us and put it overnight to the left side ;-) ...) we hiked back to the entrance and checked out the prices and so. It was a cold wind blowing and we decided to take the cable car up there and hike down towards the city of Bariloche, if the weather would let us.

The cable car took us up to above 1400m ... which means, we were above the snow line (crazy!)! Up there, clouds obstructed the view down to the lakes and valleys. And the wind was so freezing cold! But it didn`t just feel like winter, it also started to snow up there while we were wandering around! It suppose to be summer in Patagonia! Especially, since we are still in the northern part of Patagonia, this weather didn´t feel right to us! But after a time X we were able to see the lake and the valley - the clouds moved on! So we stuck to our plan not using half of our ticket and started to hike down. The path would have been a ski slope if we would have had a little bit more snow ;-), at least that is the purpose of this path. A nice hike (at least this way we had a hike!) with really nice views and with sunny moments (yeah!!) ended after 9km right at the street, which brought us right into town. There I burned some CD´s for Jens to take back to Richmond and then it was time for us to eat. We shared a Pizza and were wondering, where the two weeks Jens were here went? Well, I guess, time flies by when you having fun!! How true.

After a round of Cuarenta we finally went to bed ... tomorrow we have to get up early because it will be a travel day for both of us ... in two different directions :-(

Friday January 11, 2008

When the alarm clock went off I was sooo glad!!! Yeah, you read right!! It was so freezing cold, that I woke up at 4:30 and couldn´t go back to sleep because of my cold feet and legs and nose and everything! Gosh ... We packed our stuff in our backpacks ... interestingly my backpack seemed to be fuller than before and Jens ones seemed to have more room ... but he was taking some of my stuff back to Richmond, so it should be exactly the other way around! Weird!

When we were done (including showering), we hiked to our bus stop (not without fuzzing about the cold wind!!! Well, OK I grumbled, but since I did it enough for both of us, it is OK to say we fuzzed ;-). The bus took us to town (one last time) and there I wanted to check out if I would be able to bring my lovely IPod back to life! So we went to an Internet Cafe and plugged this piece of cr... into the PC, but it was dark!! Nothing! Not again! It happened already couple of times to me :-( ... mostly it was the cable, but there were already two situations, were it was just pitch black and no way to reanimate it! Eventually it came back to life! Never really figured out why! I hate technical stuff sometimes! Actually only if it doesn´t work ;-). If anybody has an idea, you are more than welcome to throw in your two cents worth!

Anyway, we couldn`t get the IPod fixed, we couldn´t find a nice Cafe and the wind was still freezing cold, so we decided to get to the bus terminal and wait there for our buses. We arrived there at 10:00 AM, found two seats next to each other and got our cards out. Cuarenta time! :-) ... When it was time for Jens to catch his bus, we went outside. He got rid of his backpack and after thousand hugs for pretty much everybody in Richmond (so expect a hug from me through Jens!) Jens absconded into the bus (I am not sure if it was because of the cold or because of the hugs ;-) ...). I waited in front of the bus until the bus with Jens left ... 20 minutes later than scheduled! We waved to each other one last time and than I ran inside to get my fingers and face back to life! It was a real great time with Jens and I will most definitely miss his company (and also his tent, no doubt!)!

Just 40 minutes later my bus towards Esquel (4,5 hours south) were leaving. When I arrived in Esquel, I experienced the high season again :-( ... I hate to plan so far ahead. I mean, I plan for the day or for the next, but in advance for more than that!? Buh!! Plan A wouldn´t have worked out before next Wednesday (not enough to do in Esquel), plan B had nothing available before next Thursday (worth!), Plan C was really complicated and expensive, Plan D seemed like to work, so I decided to get a ticket to Los Antiguos, Argentina and get to Chile from there ... I didn´t plan to go that far south for now, but it looked like the best alternative! So I purchased my ticket for a night bus (leaving time = 1:30 AM), went to the City of Esquel, looked around, grabbed something to eat and waited the rest of the time at the bus terminal. An hour later than scheduled the bus showed up and I was so glad to finally go to sleep ... the night before had been short and so I slept relative good in the bus. It was the first time in Chile or Argentina, that I had an old crappy bus with no comfort and dirt roads ... good thing I was really tired - didn´t bother me!