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
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
4 comments:
Dreamy!!! Love your descriptions, and I can almost taste helado. My friends stayed at the couch-surfing spot, too. What a coincidence! The weather here has been warmer than usual, which makes for great walking to and from work and friends' houses. I got a job with Denver Urban Gardens - relaly excited about that! Be good to you! tori
It all sounds amazing! I'm glad you are having such a wonderful time. Just an FYI...my classmate, Savina, is from Bariloche. I will have to tell her you were there, if only for a short time. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Hey Linnea!
nice to read your stories! where are you now? are you still with lauren? we are in bolivia and it´s fantastic!!
have a nice trip!
tessa and bram (villa)
Hey Tessa... Lauren and I split up and i went to Puerto Madryn, El Calafate, El Chalten, and now I'm at the End of The World in Ushuaia, Argentina! Glad to here you are having a great time in Bolivia! Thanks for reading my stories =).
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