Thought I'd set up a blog so that any of you guys interested in/worried about what I was doing while on my trip(s), could keep up to date without mass emailing people who don't care. Don't worry if you don't hear from me for a while as at times I may be in areas without electricity for weeks at a time, not to mention no internet.
Rented a bike did a 60 or so km loop through some back dirt roads to get to lago Caburgua, a big lake with a huge sandy beach. First, I took a road that went to the other side of Lago Villarica where there was a very quiet and peaceful black sand beach with views out towards Volcan Villarica. After that I got back on the loop and my next stop was Ojos del Caburgua. This was an area that had 4 waterfalls all coming into a pool from different sides. While I was there, the sun was shining straight into the bowl shaped area with the pool and tiny gold leaves were falling off the trees and swirling all about. They were lit up against the daker water and forest and had the appearance of little fairies flying around. Reminded me a lot of the little fairies in the animation movie, Fern Gully, that takes place in Australia´s rainforest.
I had forgotten my lunch, so I was quite hungry and was very happy when this truck drove by with a little megaphone advertising fruits and vegetables as it drove by the farms and houses on this backroad. I definitely made sure to wave him down and get a couple of bananas.
When I got back into town, I stopped for one of my favorite snacks, a completos, which is a hot dog in a fresh roll with tomatoes on it and smothered in an avacado paste and topped with mayonaise. All for about 1 buck. I love it.
4-24
I decided to stay one more day in Pucon. It´s a nice place, and I like my hostel, plus I wanted to make it to the hotsprings. Pucon is known as the Queenstown of South America bc it is a big adventure and adrenaline place having everything from bungy jumping to rafting to canopy zip lines to canyoning.
I think I usually like being in Chilean towns more than Argentinian towns. Not for any huge reasons, but Chilean towns are a bit cheaper, they always have better supermarkets for cooking at the hostels, they seem less touristy and more real, and chileans speak slower, so they are easier to understand.
I spent the morning (and late into the night, partly bc the computer and internet is just sooo slow) working on resumes for Antarctica for next year and doing some other internet business. In the afternoon, I went to Los Pozones hot springs. It´s a developed hotsprings, but still very nice. It´s more like a strawberry park hotsprings in steamboat than a glenwood hotsprings in terms of development. There are 6 or so pools, that look very natural and are of varying temperature. They are set down in a little canyon next to a rushing river.
Tomorrow, or shall I see, later this morning, I am taking a bus to Los Angeles, from there I hope to catch a bus to a small village near Parque Nacional Laguna de Laja where I hope to do a trek lasting a few days around Anutco volcano.
Early in the morning, I took the bus over the pass Mamuil Malal into Chile. It was the coolest border crossing I have had yet. The was a dirt road and the frontier outposts were right at the base of Volcan Lanin, the tallest volcano in the area. Since we started so early, we got to see the sunrise on it as we were going through the Argentine border post. The rest of the bus ride was through Lanin NP with some nice lakes and then Villarica NP. I arrived into the town of Pucon, and explored it a bit including going down to a lake where I got a nice view of the famous Volcan Villarica. Also tried and checked out my gear for climbing Villarica. I´m staying at a really nice family hostel that has a satellite tv with movies, which I have to admit is nice. The owner of the hostel used to be on the Chilean national Kayak team and trained in Idaho during their winters while working and guiding out of Horseshoe Bend. He loves to talk about the Boise Broncos and when I asked him what his favorite things in Idaho were, he said McCall and Stanley were nice but it definitely had to be Dirty Little Roddy´s and Humpin´Hannahs. Haha...I think my brother might say the same thing.
4-21
Got up at the crack of dawn to climb Volcan Villarica. Drove up to the base of the Pucon ski hill where the hike starts before the sun was up. But it turned out to be very windy and also the gases from the volcano were being blown down the direction the route goes, so the guides called off the trek. Back down in Pucon we arrived at 845, and I just missed the 830 bus that goes to Parque Nacional Huerquehue. Not wanting to waste the day, I took a bus to the turnoff to the national park where it´s 15km to the park. From there I was able to hitch a ride to the next turnoff that was 7km from the park. There were no cars here at all, so I had to walk to the entrance. The Guardaparque (park ranger) there was very nice when I was asking about the trails, and he told me he had done a ranger exchange several years ago and had worked at Grand Canyon NP and Saguaro NP. The crazy thing is he speaks no English, but he said most people spoke spanish down there so it was no problem.
I ended up taking a trail called Los Lagos. A gorgeous loop like that went through some beautiful forests and passed 7 tranquil montane lakes (Lagos Tinquilico, Chico, Toro, Verde, Patos, Huerquehue, and Avutardas). The forest was a temperate forest and included the strange Araucaria tree (monkey-puzzle tree). It´s branches are just like very elongated tops of a pineapple. You could see how a monkey would be puzzled to climb it. Quite strange indeed. And from a distance it takes the shape of a palm tree. There were also some awesome views of Villarica towering in the distance over the lakes When I had decided to go to the park, I had wanted to do this loop plus an extension that goes up to a view point. If I had caught the bus that goes to the park, I would have arrived about 945, instead I got there at 1130 b-c of the bus, hitchhike, walk combo which was going to make doing the loop tough, let alone adding the extension, before the last bus left at 5pm. But when I got to the extension and the sign said 40 minutes, I was tempted. So I hid my backpack and ran to the viewpoint. Managed to do the out and back in under 30 minutes instead of the 80 minutes. I then pushed it the rest of the way back down to the entrance and managed to make it 10 minutes before the bus left.
4-22 Happy Earthday! and what a way to celebrate. Got up early again to try for the Volcano. This time we had luck with the weather and there was no wind. The first day we had tried, it was a group of 3, now it was a group of about 10. You had the option at the bottom of taking one of the ski lifts up which is what everyone wanted to do except myself, for a cost of 15 bucks. However, it turned out that the chair was closed so everyone had to hike up. I have to admit that the overall hike up all the way to the top was frustrating bc we had to go behind the guide the whole way and the pace was just so so so slow, frustratingly slow, especially when you are worried that maybe the weather will turn. It took 5 hours to go up, but I am pretty sure I could have done it in 2 hours. And the sad thing was how many people were breathing hard. I´m not even in that good of shape either. But the route is apparently dangerous (I didn´t think that dangerous unless you didn´t kn ow how to walk on snow, but 2 people did die in a fall this past march, but that´s not surprising considering how many novices in the mountains were doing it) About 1/2 way up we donned crampons, our helmets, and ice axes to climb up a glacier to reach near the top. THe last climb was back on volcanic rock to the top at 2847m (9340ft). The top had some sulfuric fumes, but nothing too bad, so we could hang up there for 30 minutes. At other times it´s really bad and you can only stay up there for a short while and must put on a mask. Villarica is famous because it is one of Chile´s most active volcanoes. It actually has an open crater, so there is a lava lake down there. The crater is too deep to see down to the lava and the sun to bright during the day to see a glow, but sometimes people see small lava eurptions. We just saw a lot of smoke and fumes, though the previous morning when we had first attempted the summit we could see a red glow on the smoke above. www.pavi.cl Of course from the top were amazing views, including of 6 volcanoes, the argentinian andes, and the lakes of the lake district. The way down was much quicker b-c we put on these butt protector things and then slid down the glacier using our ice axes as brakes. Bc such a large number of people go down and use the same track, there has actually been a little bobsled like track with a tube (similar to a bobsled track or waterslide) so that made things pretty fun.
I have now driven a vehicle on all 7 continents! I thought this was a pretty cool thing, especially for the ole CV of professional driver Shuttle Guy. I of course have driven at home in N. America. I drove a little subaru in Japan with Iwanosan as well as a plethora of motorbikes and scooters in SE Asia. I drove a Land Rover at Mpala Research Center in Kenya, Deltas Dawn and goode Ole Tina Marie in Antarctica (and who can forget the E-vehicle), I drove several rental cars around europe, the most memorable being a road trip with the Bison and driving an upgraded fast sportscar (for a long wait at the agency) on the left side of the road while trying to figure out how to get out of london city. I briefly drove a van for Dr. Walser in Australia but spent a week roadtripping with our campervan Connie Cup 2 in NZ. And today I drove a little manual VW gol (not to be confused with the superior Golf) through the backroads of northern Argentinian patagonia.
I met to girls at my hostel yesterday, Erin and Martiza who were going to be doing the famous Ruta de los 7 Lagos by renting a car. It´s really the only way to do it and I was thinking I wouldn´t get to do it as renting a car by myself is cost prohibitive. At the end of the route is San Martin de Los Andes which I needed to get to anyways as its where buses go to cross the pass into Chile to get to Pucon. So when I heard them talking about the rental car I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by going with them and seeing the famous Route as well as getting to San Martin. Both girls are 4th year med school students from Univ of Indiana. Every year they get a 3 month vacation and get to choose when they take it, so they are taking it now to tour S. America. Erin actually will be doing residency in Salt Lake next year. They were both really cool girls and we got along very well. Sometimes it´s really nice to hang out with Americans, especially ones my same age and with similar interests. And it was fun to hear all about med school. At the last minute we also took along another rando, Marcus from Holland.
The route is called the route of 7 lakes because well...there are at least 20 lakes. I think the number comes from the fact that we drove by 7 giant lakes. But there were many more small ones. We also stopped by a waterfall and visited two small villages...villa angostura and villa trafula. Along the way we found an apple tree just fully loaded with delicious apples. Of course the views the entire time were outstanding. Lots of mountains views and just unreal fall colors. A pallette of gold, reds, oranges, and light greens that would have made Monet pick up his paintbrushes and smile ear to ear. At other times we drove through dense forests with giant trees. Most of the entire road was dirt and you really felt like you were deep in the wilderness.
At San Martin I said goodbye to the trio, which was unfortunate bc I really liked them and we just all got along very well. But they were driving back to Bariloche and I have a 6am bus to Pucon, Chile manana. My hostel is really nice here and I´m the only one here. Which is too bad bc I need someone to play ping pong with as it has a table. San Martin is another cute little Andean ski town on a lake.
photos from the trip in no particular order or importance. just some that caught my eye quickly on the little thumbnails while i had some time on the computer
I am now in the Lakes District of Argentina, of which Bariloche is the main town 4-13 I started the morning out by doing some errands. I had ripped a hole in my favorite shirt and I needed it sewn up. It was a pretty serious hole so I couldn't just fix it with needle and thread and this shirt is the best b/c it's lightweight, dries in an instant, is easy to wash in the shower, and has a collar to pop up and keep the sun off my neck while hiking...so I couldn't just go by a new shirt. Unfortunately unlike asia, where you would walk by tons of people with sewing machines or whatnot out, here I had to go looking and then it was tough to find a store that would have it done in less than a week (all the siestas and days off get in the way, as opposed to asia where they would have done it right there in front of you). And of course here it cost 10 bucks instead of 1 buck in Asia.
After having completed that, I headed out on a bus towards the Lhao Lhao Provincial park. There I rented a bicyle (to again compare asia and argentina...20 bucks for a half day for a decent mtn biked here compared to 1 buck for a full day or an old clunker) so that I could bike what is known as the Circuit Chico. The loop took me past at least 7 gorgeous lakes and past countless cute little homes (yea, even I thought they were cute). They reminded me an awful lot like homes in little austrian or swiss or german villages. Gorgeous gardens and flowersr and just cute little homes. Some on lakes and all with the mountain backdrops. Also biked by the famous Lhao Lhao hotel which is reportedly the most expensive hotel in South America, but I am not sure I believe that considering Rio is in SA. But it was definitely very fancy and they only let people with rooms enter the grounds. The fall colors were out in full force as well and the cool crisp air and scenery again reminded me of good ole Colorado falls, not to mention the sparkling and deep blue lakes everywhere. During the cycle trip, I also took a couple stops to hike. One was to hike to the top of Cerro Llao Llao which had great views looking down on the lakes and another to Lago Escondido (hidden lake), which in the summer would have been so perfect for a swim. The super nice guy who had rented me the bike, gives out little coupons. One was to an artisenal brewery for free samples. I sat with an Israeli couple there and tried the beer. And truth be told, it might be the best beer I have ever tasted. The artisenal (not sure if the english of this word is spelled the same way as the spanish) breweries are like microbreweries back home, except even smaller. It's almost like the Jovial Bison's homemade beer set up. He could definitely set up shop here with the Jovial Bison Brewery. At the end, the really nice bike shop man gave me a fancy chocolate for completing the loop with a smile. The setting here in Bariloche and the surroundings is just so gorgeous. Add to that, South Amerida's largest ski resort 10 minutes away, one of South America's best national parks just outside of town, the lake (with it's windsurfing), all the moutnain biking access, the good food, the chocolate, the breweries, and the climate, and I could totally see this as a place I could live. Not many foreign places make me think I could live there, but this one does
One of the main reasons I came to Bariloche and the Lakes District was to do the difficult Nahuel Huapi Traverse which is 4 days of being almost exclusively above tree line as you cross the Andes in this NP.
4-14 Day 1
I rode the bus up to Cerro Catedral, the ski resort.The base area looked just like any ski area base back home and the mountain looked impressive.Lots of terrain and lots of lifts, and even a tram and a six pack…or as they call it a sextuplet.During the season now, the mountain was mainly used for downhill mtn biking.The guide suggests riding the tram to the top of the mountain to start the traverse, but I felt that was cheating, so I hiked and sweated my way up to the top.All around as far as you could see in all the valleys and the sides of the mountains were the gorgeous fall colors.Flaming reds and oranges!And of course from the top of the ski resort you had sweeping views of the lakes below.Once I left the resort I began a fun and challenging rocky traverse along Cerro (mount, if you haven’t figured that out yet) Catedral.I went over a couple passes and then descended a pit to the tarn of Laguna Schmoll and then eventually down to Laguna Toncheck where cute little refugio Frey sits.On this trek I wasn’t caring a tent, partly bc the refugios are much cheaper (13 bucks per night) than they were at Torres Del Paine (40 bucks per night) and bc it’s getting pretty cold out and my sleeping bag is only rated for survival to 35 degrees, let alone comfort.Though I did spend some okay nights at freezing temps in Torres Del Paine, and also bc they suggested having as light a pack as possible since this route is quite difficult, so taking the 6 pounds of tent and pad away would be quite helpful.
The refugio was great though. Downstairs had a fire and views of the lake and cats (to keep out the mice and to snuggle with the guests) and upstairs had tightly packed bunks with mattresses and extra blankets to add to your sleeping bag. This refugio stays open in the winter for backcountry skiers so even with the fire, it can probably get pretty cold. There is also a guy working there that can cook you meals and hot drinks if you want. The hut reminds me a lot of the little swiss challet that Bill and I hiked up to in switzerland. Camping is fun, but sometimes a nice warm and cozy chalet while in the wildnerness is welcome. I spent the evening with a purring cat on my lap and reading my novel and looking out the window at the lake surrounded by bushes with fall colors and with the Cathedral spires rising up in the background.
There was a french guy there that had this fancy knife from the french army. It was designed such that is was almost entirely hollow in order to save weight. He was proudly showing off how lightweight and such that it was. I pointed out to him, if weight is so important, why does it have a corkscrew on it? "well, how would zou open ze wine then" he said. I guess the french still drink wine in battle.
4-15 Day 2
I decided to get the Refugio breakfast since it was only a buck fifty, so I had fresh break made there and hot cocoa, which was quiet nice, especially since it was while watching the sunrise over the cathedral spires. After breakfast I hiked over two passes to get to refugio Jakob. It was a beautiful hike getting there with the flaming red and orange trees in the valley below. I very briefly descended into some of the trees before hiking up above them again. Refugio Jakob sits right on the picturesque Laguna Jakob which had the flaming red bushes all around it. After I settled in, I took a side hike up Laguna de los Tempanos and then up to Paso Schweitzer with more nice mountain views. It snowed a little bit that night. It was only me and a german couple and the care taker (who played guitar) there.
The next day was supposed to be the hardest and most dangerous portion of the trek. The club andino back in bariloche had tried to scare me away from doing it, but then again that is always the job of people in places like this bc they have to assume everyone is inexperienced (same issue we had in Zion NP with permits where they try to scare you). The people at the NP office in bariloche told me it was closed, which I was confused about b/c a. how can you just close a mountain? and b. usually when it's too dangerous it's bc there is too much snow and now being the fall, it's the least amount of snow. So I figured I would just wait to get there and see about it. The caretaker of the refugio spoke no english, but understood about 60 to 70% of what he said. He also told me it was closed and it also kind of sounded like he might call the NP on me if I went, or maybe it was more like he could call the park to get an update, I wasn't sure. Bc again, I figure there are so many mountains out there, how do they keep someone from just going up. I learned that it was probably more dangerous now b/c on the snowfields the snow had melted leaving only ice, which of course is harder to climb than snow. I still was sure I could do it. This traverse was totally my territory. I felt at home here. It is a whole lot like the terrain of climbing the peaks in RMNP. There are always ways to go up or down or around obstacles that are in the way. So I just new I could do it, so it hurt a bit inside to say no that I wouldn't and I was definitely bummed. In the end I decided not to do it bc I was by myself, so if something happened it could be a problem. If my bro or lucas or someone had been with me, I am sure we would have done it. And I also didn't want to break any rules. Instead, I opted for the much longer route through the valleys.
4-16 Day 3
We woke up to a very light dusting of snow. Today I walked from refugio Jakob down to Ruta 79. From there I walked along the road for a few kilometers until I reached Colonia Suiza (the swiss colony) from where I hiked up another trail up a valley to Refugio Italia. In order to continue on the traverse, I had to do this route which ended up beng 39km (24miles) Although I was bummed about not doing the traverse, the hike was gorgeous nonetheless as this time I was hiking amid the fall colors and along crystal clear rushing streams and rivers with waterfalls and all. The last hour up to Refugio Italia was very steep and it was in a strong storm of hail and sleet. At Laguna Negra, the wind and sleet were just ferocious as it seemed to be some wind tunnel. So it was very nice to again have a refugio there. It was actually closed for the season, meaning the hut warden wasn't there and all the food and stuff had been taken down, but you can still stay inside and use the fireplace and mattresses. There was another really young american couple (on an 11 month trip through SA), two girls from Argentina, and an American-Argentine couple. The girl was from Asheville, NC and worked for outward bound. We sat by the fire as the wind shook the refugio and shared Mate and peanuts.
4-17 Day 4
Weather was not great in the morning, but I still went for the traverse. Went over two passes in the fog and clouds but I could still see a bit down to the "red valleys" full of the fall colors and also to some lakes below. After a while the fog lifted a bit, and I got much better views. Even saw some condors flying about. At one point I could see this really steep and long chute I was going to have to climb up. It was even a bit intimidating for me. Much steeper than the trough on longs peak and I think at least twice as long as well and that same kind of loose scree. But once I had did it, I stood on the top of Cerro Lopez (2076m, 6850ft) with exhilerating views especially down towards Bariloche and all the lakes,including the giant Nahuel Huapi. Just fantastic. And the mountain seemed to drop straight down to the shimmering lakes below. Also nice views back behind towards the andes, although the highest ones were behind clouds. Up on the top of the mountain, the rocks on one side were layered in an icy snow that had apparently frozen on during the windstorm from last night. It was then a steep decent down to refugio lopez, where some people on the traverse spend the night, but I had enough time to make it back down Moreno lake and to the road from there and catch a bus back to bariloche where I finished the day off with a litre of Andes beer
I really enjoyed this trek. I think a lot because it was very similar to what I am familiar with back home, a lot like climbing along the continental divide in Colorado. And I also think I really liked it because it wasn't just hiking. It was more of an adventure and involved some climbing and thinking and route planning and was above tree line way up in the thin air almost the whole time. There wasn't even really a trail most of the time, just following cairns and red bullets painted on rocks. Always with great views and almost always exhilerating.
4-18
Just hung out in bariloche today kind of resting and reorganizing. Did some laundry and internet stuff and planning. I went to church this evening at the bariloche cathedral which is just gorgeous. Afterwards i headed to a buffet. It was a combination chinese place and asado. I needed to fill up after the big trek. It probably wasn't the best quality steaks you could get, but hey I am American, and sometimes you just need quantity (and cheap) over quality.
I had a 4 day trek planned in Parque Nacional Puyehue on the Chile Argentine border that ends up at some geysers, fumeroles, mudpits, and best of all hot springs. Apparently thought I hadn't been keeping up with the news much (this is what Antarctica will do to you) to know that since last July Volcan Puyehue had been doing some pretty serious erupting. So much so that Australia was dealing with the ash spewed out by it. When I found out that it had been erupting, I googled it and the possibility of going, and saw that it was possible now, thought not completely open. The volcano wasn't erupting as crazily any more. An interesting blog I found on a recent trek made me even more excited to go, and I feel is worth sharing here
4-10 I woke up to a beautiful morning and hiked up for 2 and a half hours to get to the very basic refugio right at the tree line. Basic it may be, but it had a little fireplace and although the bunks had plenty of boards missing and were not level, it was fine by me to not have to carry a tent. The beginning part of the hike was through rainforest type vegetation and bamboo and by the top it was ash-killed trees. 2 dogs from the farm followed me up. I tend to have lots of dogs follow me on epic hikes throughout my journeys. Whenever I do, I name them after local food specialties (a few examples, adobo in the philippines, chapati in nepal, masala in india, nasi in indonesia) I was thinking of naming these to Asado and Parilla (names for the famous bbqs here) but settled on Asado for the male and Pisco (Picso sour the national drink of Chile) for the female I dropped my stuff off at the refugio and then continued on to climb to the top of Volcan Puyehue. There was no trail anymore, on account of the eruption and the ash, so I just picked a ridge and a route and climbed it. It was quite difficult going bc erosion in the freshly laid ash had created at times deep and giant ravines and washes that were difficult to cross if they were too wide to jump. Sometimes they were as much as 30 feet deep and were impossible to climb down into or out of, so you simply had to walk straigth up or down the volcano until you came to a suitable place to jump across or climb down across. As difficult as it made the hiking, it was also a fun and interesting challenge. And it was such a cool landscape! Just like how you imagine the moon. It was pretty much ash as far as you could see with a few rocks here and there and some snow and some glaciers covered in ash. Just really crazy. From the top of the volcano rim you could of course see into the crater and then I had a 360 degree view of mountains and mountains and more mountains across the chile and argentine frontier. You could also see lots of volcanoes including Osorno (which I had just visited), Tronador, Choshuenco, Mocho, Puntiagudo, and another perfectly shaped one way in the distance that might have been Volcan Lanin. I could also see another one way off in the distance that was spouting some ash. I could also see the cool Rio De Lava, which looks just like a petrified glacier, but is just an old lava flow. Down below was also a small crater off the flank of Puyehue and this is where the erupting was ocurring. Every 30 minutes of so the volcano would grumble and you would see it spurt a big plume of ash and gasses into the air. It was always thrilling to watch it erupt and amazing how fast the gas and ash would rush up into the air from the crater. The eruption of course isn't near as big as it was when it was wreaking all the havoc in Argentina and elsewhere, but it was still totally cool to watch a live action eruption, especially from up above it. From the top I could also see a whole bunch of highly active fumaroles. I decided to circumanvigate around the large crater rim which was quite a distance and included a lot of ascents and descents. Asado and Pisco were of course still happily following me. When I had nearly gone all the way around, I realized that I didn't have my waterbottle and I must have left it way back at my lunch break. As I didn't want to lose it, I marched back in the opposite direction. Luckily and amazingly I hadn't left it, it had just fallen out and the amazing thing was that it was stuck on a little piece of snow right before it would have fallen several hundred feet into the crater. I had a spare plastic bottle, but this was my nalgene and I would have hated to lose it. And I was also glad I didn't have to go all the way back to where I had had lunch. Instead, I only had to walk an hour extra and a couple upds and downs. Once I had completed the loop, it was extremely tough navigation to get back to the refugio. Never ending ravines to jump over and go around, and I kept thinking I was getting close, but then there would just be another ravine or crest to go over. It reminded me a lot of the time when Joe Medley and I bit off more than we could chew in the Channel Islands National Park when we tried to go off trail in what looked like a short cut but had so many canyons and ridges to go up and down that we didn't make it back to our tent until 3 am. I have to admit I was getting a bit nervous that I wasn't going to make it back before dark (I did have my headlamp, but even in the light everything looked the same here...just like the moon), so I was relieved when the refugio came into sight. The dogs and I arrived to the refugio just as it got dark. Definitely nice to have a shelter with a fire up there even if it was all covered in volcanic ash.
4-11 I set out early on the trail that would normally have lead to the hotsprings. Both dogs were initially with me, but after going up a steep and long hill and looking like we were climbing the volcano all over again, Pisco decided to turn around, clearly not wanting to go through another long and epic day like the one before. The trail was of course mostly washed out and covered in ash and after 2 hours of walking and getting closer to the eruption, the bamboo poles marking the trail that were sparse to begin with, completely disappeared. Just such a completely crazy landscape. So totally lunar. Only ash and volcanic landscape as far as you could see (other than the andes and snowcapped volcanoes in the distance). I continued on just navigating by myself and negotiating all the crevasses and ravines and washes and doing plenty of ravine hopping. I was keeping carefull track of landmarks, but I was basically just walking out to nowhere (though in the direction of the eruption). It reminded me a whole lot of Littlefoot, Spike, Sara, Ducky, and Petrie in the Land Before Time as they set off through that desolate dead volcanic nothingness in search of the Great Valley. It actually really did. And thinking of the movie brought back fond memories of watching it with mom and bro. The other bloggers that I posted a link to above, likened it to Mordor from the Lord of the Rings, which I could definitely see, except this lacked all the fire. Eventually I climbed one last ridge in front of the currently errupting crater. From there, the Rio de Lava was right in front of me and you could hear the fumaroles going crazy, sounding like jet engines. At times new fumaroles would poke up through the glacier of old lava causing a piece to break off and make a loud claking sound that lava rocks typically make. This "petrified glacier" had more in common with the real life glacier of Perito Moreno than you would think, even parts of it were falling off. Of course the highlight was that I was right up and real close to the action of the current eruption. I sat with Asado for a couple hours and watched the eruptions and listened to the grumblings as we shared a peanut butter sandwich and some crackers. It was just so cool to sit there and watch a life eruption and hear the booms. On the way back I ran into a young dutch couple (who had biked the whole careterra austral...cool...bro we should do it someday!). They were happy to see me bc they had diahrea and were out of toilet paper and I had plenty with me. They were guessing they had upset stomachs from the ash in the water bc they had just been eating dried goods from camping. That night I watched a cool sunset over the lakes far below and then the 3 of us made a big meal together from some things left over in the refugio that other trekkers had left.
4-12 Hiked back down to the farm (if we are going to go with that lord of the rings theme, the whole farm area looked a whole lot like the shire with how green it was and the little buildings and all). Lots of blackberries around here too, which always makes the hike even nicer. I then hitched a ride in the back of a pick up for the 10km's or so to the Chile-argentine border. From there I waited for about an hour before I got someone to pick me up that was going to Bariloche. It was a gorgeous ride going over the pass, which was made even more unique by all the ash everywhere that gave everything the appearance of having fresh fallen snow. Of course huge swaths of forest had been killed by the ash as well. The last hour or so of the drive was along the 100km long Nahuel Huapi lake with the Andes rising up behind it. In some areas of the pass, over 6 feet of ash had fallen and some lakes were completely choked in ash. The first town in Argentina we passed, villa de angostura apparently had to shovel out and dig out quite a lot of ash (you should google image the pictures of all the ash from Puyhue, it's pretty crazy) from their yards and roofs. This town, however, reminded me a whole lot like a Colorado resort. Just had that feel and with the fall colors and perfect blue sky, reminded me of fall in the rockies.
The guy that picked me up was really cool. He is a tourist guide in the summer (he was coming back from showing some germans the careterra austral) and a ski guide and instructor in the winters. He's actually guided a lot in Europe as well, including Saint Anton, near where my parents ski bummed in Austria. He tried to visit the US for skiing, but was denied a visa and he hasn't tried again bc they charge 150 bucks everytime you try, even if you don't get accepted. He gave me lots of cool info and acted as a tour guide on the 3 hour drive from the border to bariloche. He joked how last ski seasn they got more ash than snow.
My first impression of Bariloche, which sits right on the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi and has Parquen Nacional Nahuel Huapi and the andes right behind it was that of a touristy ski town. I had to do some shopping for a ski hat bc I had lost mine on my last trek, so I got to experience all the shoppes. All I know is that Mary and Grandma would love it. Lots of fancy shops and then of course they are famous for their chocolate shops and lawn gnomes. They are also quite famous for their artesenal micro brewed beers. Bariloche also has a heavy german and swiss influence.
Just living the dream!
I read more maps than books...I'd rather create my own story.
I dream in my dreams.
I'm on a driftwood raft with a large sail. I go wherever the wind takes me. And it seems to take me to cool and varied places where I have met many awesome people. I have some big plans/dreams in life, but the ocean is large and dotted by many beautiful tropical, mountainous islands, so it will take me a long time to cross it. On my journey I love just chilling, I love being with my great friends, and I have also enjoyed the adventures.
I would say I am definitely "lost" in many senses of the word in my raft, but I think that is good.
