El Bolson and Trek to Hielo Azul

Pictures from Villa La Angostura: waffle with dulce de leche, me with the town and the mountains, and me and Lauren with the Arrayanes trees!

Last night was the lunar eclipse, and I couldn´t help but think of all of those all over the world who I love. It reminded me that we are all under the same sky, and that I was seeing the same moon you all see. A comfort being so far away from home!

So, my last blog ended when I was trekking through the forest of Arrayanes in Villa La Angostura. Both Lauren and I spent a day resting, and I attempted to start reading Brida by Paulo Coelho in spanish. Its going... slowly =). We hitch hiked on Feb 12th from Villa to Bariloche (RN 231) with an amazing view of Nahuel Huapi Lake. The mountains here are spactacular. The crystal blue lakes meet up with the massive rocky mountains which are the craziest colors! Grays and browns meet reds and even blueish colors. I would say in comparison to CO moutains, there is less vegetation... but all in all, i feel at home. We didn´t stay in Bariloche... but I got an awesome view of Cathedral Mountain. The summit is a line of sharp points that reach for the heavens. We couldn´t believe it! Beautiful. (Anyone from CO would know what I mean when I say it looks like the church on the airforce base).

We hitched from Bariloche to El Bolson, the place we´ve been waiting to settle down in. Villa was in the province of Neuquen, and now we lie in the border between Río Negro and Chubut provinces. El Bolson is the hippie capital of Argentina. The place everyone flees to if they are sick of the city life of Buenos Aires (where the greatest percetage of Argentines live). Vegetarian food, artisanal beer, yoga (finally!), and Lauren is excited to get some ´green´. We settled down in the house of this guy named Federico (who we found on couch surfers), which is 4 km from town. He lives there with his daughter Mika, and mother Sally. It is located in Subida Piltriquitron... at the base of Cerro Piltriquitron (a mountain of incredible beauty that seems to rest on top of the whole town of El Bolson... the name means something like, ´peak in the clouds´). There is a great health food store we´ve been buying all of our food. Its so relaxed here, and we spend some days just talking to the locals selling crafts at the ´ferria´(an outdoor market every tues, thurs, and sat), and eating dulce de leche helado (ice cream). We share alot of meals with all the people staying with Federico. Its silly because he is basically running a hostel that is free. One night there were 19 people in total staying there! They are incredibly generous. One morning i woke up and realized that both Mika and Federico had given up their beds and were sleeping in the livingroom!

On the 15th, a group of five of us (Cate from Canada, Zoe from Maine, Gerard from Spain, Lauren from South Africa, and me) woke up early to start a 4 day trek in the mountians. We crossed Rio Azul on a really sketchy bridge that only one person can walk across at a time... yes, i´m still alive to be typing this. The water is incredibly clear, and drinkable.... strait from the glacier which we were going to see the next day. Beautiful vegetation and trees (in spanish: ñire, rodal, cepres, lauda). We reached Mirador Mallin, and Mirador Raquel. From both, we could see for kilometers upon kilometers around to all the surrounding peaks (many of which still have snow on the peaks). We stayed at Refugio Azul for the night, and made the trek the next day to Hielo Azul. It is basically bouldering the whole time... so we left our big packs at the refuge. It was tiring... but worth the view of a giant glacier that lies inbetween two peaks. Below the glacier are two different lakes... one is a greenish tint (kindof pastel, and the other is an amazing bright blue). We didn´t have to bring waterbottles because all along the path you can drink the water that is falling from the glacier. The following day we didn´t walk to much... just hiked to another Refugio and drank Tedere... which is mate with juice instead of hot water. We found a place in the middle of the woods to sleep for the night. Right next to the river, and a silent retreat! The following day was a hike to Refugio Natacion where we played in a Lake (well, bathed for the first time in 3 days). AND... we saw what was probably my favorite view of the trek... a water fall that fell into, and ran through a giant space of snow that is in a sun-shadow. The water drains into two different small streams that run through a section of pampa... an area of grass (almost marsh). At first sight of this, I thought surely I had fallen into heaven. We walked on the wet grass, and watched a family of ducks walk on the snow.

That night we found another great place in the woods to camp, and saw a beautiful sunset over the mountains that hugged us in the middle of Patagonia. It was amazing to go from 5 strangers, to 5 people attached at the hip by the end of the trip. We made our journey down on Feb. 18th. from Natacion to Warton. It was steep and tiring... but the entire time was a spactacular view of Piltriqutron and the surrounding mountains. We hiked through a section of forest that had a ton of pine trees... and one breath in, I smelled the sun-warmed pine, and was transported back to CO. It was nice =)

So, i´ve had a couple of ¨días tranquilas¨. Yoga, doing laundry, studying spanish, and eating food from Verde Menta (the healthfood store). I decided to take a couple days to myself.... to be in my own head... so i´m at Refugio Patagonica staying in the hostel (thus i´m able to write a really long blog!). El Bolson is treating me well... am i´m in my 10th day here.

Life is.... fabulous.

Sending my love,
Linnea

San Rafael, San Martin, Villa La Angostura

1. Me and Lauren at a wine vineyard called Lavaque in San Rafael, Argentina.
2. Me at the Alfajores place in SR... very excited!
3. Me at the clearest lake I think Ive ever seen, Lake Lacer in SR
4. The view I had from our campsite at Lake Falkner while writing in my journal.




Since my last blog I have done so much! Lauren and I left the farm together on Feb. 1st. We ¨hacimos dedo¨ (hitch hiked) from the farm (Vista Flores, Arg) to San Rafael, Arg. The majority of the time we were with Leo, who was on his way to the vineyard ¨Lavaque ,¨ just outside San Rafael. When we arrived we got a personal tour of the vineyard. We decided to save some money on paying for a hostel that night and just take a bus to Neuquen. We bought our tickets and had 5 hours to wait for it. We ate in a park, and a woman randomly came up to us and asked us, in english, where we were from. She ended up inviting us to her house for a shower. What was an invitation for a shower turned into a shower, dinner, and great conversation with the whole family (Stewert, Maria, Mark, and Andy). They really wanted us to stay the night, and paid for our bus tickets to be changed to the following day! We felt like were, what Lauren and I call... Karmically Blessed. Such hospitality and love from strangers! Stewert took us on a ride to see some of the town. We saw all the sycamore trees that line the streets (which are watered by a series of channels that run by gravity). We also went to an art show at the vineyard ¨Bianche¨were we drank champagne and listened to live piano music. I felt like I was scooped out of the farm, and spit into an alternate universe! We ended up falling in love with San Rafael the next day (Feb. 2). Biking in the large park downtown, eating dulce de leche icecream, eating alfahors, and just walking the town. We took an overnight bus to Neuquen, and then hopped on the highway to hitch through Zapala to the Lakes District. We ended up getting a ride from Javier, who was travling to the lake district to take pictures for BMW. This made for an awesome trip stopping for breaks to take in the amazing views. Those of you from CO can have an idea of what this was like to be driving from dry, flat Neuquen... to mountainous Zapala and Junin de los Andes. And those of you from MN, could appreciate the glorious lakes!! This area (Lakes District) is such an amazing combo of my two US states. Mountains and giant lakes in the same place! We saw, from a distance, Lanín volcano... very impressive! We drove all the way to San Martin de los Andes, were we remained for 3 nights. San Martin was beautiful. We hung out a lot at Lake Lacer. Stayed at this guy Ruben´s house who we found on couch surfers. Our days were filled with eating alfahors and rice and beans, going to the ferria to awe at all the crafts and eating ice cream at Abuela Goya. Our favorite experience was going to Lake Lacer and hiking a bit away from the crowds. We found a spot on a cliff to picnic and read and journal. We kept seeing the same guy going back and forth in his boat giving people tours of the lake. When we were ready to go we decided to see if we could hitch a ride on the boat. We stuck out our thumbs... and sure enough he turned the boat around. First time hitching for a boat ride!
On Feb. 6th, we hitched with a guy named Junio through the Siete Lagos Rute (7 lakes route), stopping in Lago Falkner for a night of camping. We found a really nice place on the river, surrounded on three sides with water... and gorgious views of the mountians. I´m pretty sure I slipped into heaven for a day.
We tried to hitch a ride the next day, but ended up on a bus to Villa La Angostura (7 de Feb). We saw the rest of the lakes, and amazing mountain views on our way. Hey Maisie... upon arrival I bought the brand of alfahor you told me to try ¨Terrabusi¨... mmmm, it had lots of dulce de leche! We have loved it so much that we are still here (10 de Feb.) We found this amazing hostel with a backyard that has hammocks and a garden with herbs and veggies to eat! It is my favorite hostel so far on this trip. We´ve treated ourselves to amazing meals which we prepare ourselves... and have tried 6 different Argentine wines. We happen to be here during the Festival de los Jardines. Each night there has been great music, and I saw ¨Miss Villa¨in the parade yesterday =). Yesterday we walked 24 kilometers (round trip) to see the Bosque de Arrayanes on the Quitrihue peninsula. It is a forest of the most indescribable trees! Please google for pictures... these things are AMAZING! The bark is the most beautiful carmel color, with white streaks. The Arrayanes are at the end of the hike, but the whole hike was gorgious. The vegitation was constantly changing on our way there... with great views of the mountians surrounding us (Cerro Bayo, Inacayal, Belvadere, and Filo Belvedere), and also the lakes (the largest is the lake the surrounds the peninsula which is Nahuel Huapi). We also saw Carpenteras Patagonicas (Patagonian Woodpeckers)... which i guess is rare to see! So we were lucky!

SO... as you can see, it has been a really laid back 10 days. It is really crazy to be doing whatever I want, whenever I want... and in a BEAUTIUL country!... Some days spent trecking around seeing new things... and some days spent in the quiet of a hammock reading in Spanish. For the first time in my life I have a tan (well, freckles) in February! =) Lauren is a great travel partner. We always seem to be on the same page when it comes to deciding what to do next (like... should we go buy another alfahor?... some how we always agree we should!)

So, yeah, my life is paradise right now. So much so that i forgot my dad´s birthday.... SO, I take this sentence to publically apologize for being the worst daughter ever! (love you daddy)

Entonces... I don´t know when I´m going to leave this beautiful little mountian town... but it will be on to El Bolson when I finally do. As far as pictures... still dont have a camera... but Lauren is taking pics. You can visit my facebook page for a few that travel friends have shared.

Peace.