¡Buen viaje!: Northern Argentinian patagonia

After saying goodbye to Kat and Mike, Elise and I said goodbye to eachother for a couple of nights. As of that point we had been together 24 hours a day for five months and needed a bit of a break. Quite normal we think. Elise went to Bariloche and me to El Bolsen before meeting again in Esquel, which are in Argentina´s northern patagonia region. Elise will write about her time in Bariloche a bit later.

Entering Argentina the weather and vegetation immediately went drier than in Chile. At points there were also lots of patches of ash on the ground from recent eruptions in Chile´s volcanoes. As an Argentine told us months earlier ¨Chile has the volcanoes and we get the shit¨. It looked like snow, complete with ashbanks on the sides of roads. El Bolsen is described as the ´hippy capital´ of Argentina so I was expecting to see lots of dreadlocks, guitars, flutes and baggy cotton pants, and no surprises, I saw lots. The town is in a mountain valley next to a fairly dirty river. I spent two nights there camping, and one day hiked up the mountain to a refugio pretty high up. It was a gorgeous hike, on a brilliantly sunny day. I figure I walked over 30km that day so my legs were pretty hurtin´ a couple of hours after returning to my campsite. After El Bolsen I happily rejoined Elise in a city called Esquel which was originally just supposed to be a one night stay to wait for Buenos Aires friends of ours to make it to their mountain home. Well, apparently the day they were leaving, in fact the minute they were leaving, Guillermo broke his foot falling down their attic stairs, so they weren´t coming for at least another three weeks. However, Guillermo got in touch with a friend of his who, with his wife, have a ranch in the mountains pretty near the town of Corcovado. Raul and Ele were more than happy to not only host us but to come and get us. So our one day stay turned into two in Esquel. We hiked up to the local lake which is in a beautiful setting but wasn´t so enticing for swimming. We stayed in a really nice hostel in Esquel and we were the only two guests there. I think the owner, a 30-something guy from Buenos Aires, is feeling the pinch.

The view near El Bolsen, on the way up to the high refugio

At Laguna La Zeta, near Esquel. It was nice to see Argentine families hanging out by the lake.

The day we got a ride from Esquel to Raul and Ele´s Ranch called ´Poncho Morro´ started with a surprise as a beat up Russian pick-up truck came to the hostel and a man with what appeared to be an eye patch got out to meet us. Turns out the ´patch´ was one lense of sunglasses because he had just had some eye surgery, and the truck, well apparently they can´t be beat for cheap offroad vehicles. We hopped in and some hours later we arrived at Poncho Morro, high up the mountainside near Corcovado. The main house is under construction but one bedroom with ensuite bathroom was ready for us. We were treated to incredible views from our room (especially the bathroom!), walks in the woods to a pond and waterfall and excellent homemade food. We can´t wait to make empanadas when we head home. The only bad part was when we walked over a bee´s nest and Elise got two stings and I one. They itched like crazy after a couple of days! The place has no electricity so nights were spent reading by candlight and getting astrology lessons from Ele, who is a passionate amateur physisist. We spent three nights there before getting a ride back to Esquel and a bus to Bariloche. We spent two days in Bariloche in the rain (saw Merryl Streep as ´The Iron Lady´ - great!) and then took a 29 hour journey to Santiago, Chile across the Andes mountains. Along the way we passed the highest mountain in two hemispheres (south and west) and drove along one of the craziest switchback roads I have ever seen down into Chile from the border.