IloveBariloche.com

23.04.2010 - 29.04.2010 9 °C
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After Chalten we were off north to the the lake district, Bariloche. It is just on the top of Patigonia which meant a nice 30 hour buss ride north. Luckily we had been trekking so much that we were ok with sitting still for a while and just relax.

The busses in Argentina are really good quality, much better than Sweden, or Spain, where they dont even have a toilet onboard. They also kept on showing films, even non dubbed films, the whole way, so the trip went really quick in the end. Still we were happy to finally arrive in Bariloche and be able to strech our legs.

We got a hostel recommended called, La Bolsa del Deporte. Super cool hostel, where you felt like home...or better perhaps, as the staff kept making pancakes for us. Unfortunately we kept on postponing to take photos of the hostel, and in the end we missed it, but the website might give you a feel for the place www.labolsadeldeporte.com.ar ...they even had a wooden slide!

We really liked Bariloche and the sorroundings. Its basically a village the size of a city and it is located just next to a lake with moutains bihind it. After reviewing various trekking options, we decided to go for a three day trekk and stay over in the mountain refugios. The only pain is that this meant carrying around loads of food and stuff. I ended up filling my 65 liters backpack, though I did have two sleeping bags in there.

The walk was quite tough, climbing 700 meters the first day. We met the cutes little baby in the first refugio. She came over to us and started to steal our crisps. After that she just hanged out with us the rest of the night. I was impressed that her dad had managed to carry her all the way up. Laura simply just wanted to take the baby with her...
Laura made a small friend at one of the refugios we stayed over in.

Laura made a small friend at one of the refugios we stayed over in.

Second day was even harder as we had to get over two mountain ridges, in total 1400 meters up and 1400 down. Luckly it was only snowy and icy while we were climbing up, otherwise I am not sure we would have made it, as walking down 40 degrees in snow would not have worked without ropes.

This was my favourite trekk so far partily because it was a bit more adrenaline involved. One wrong slip and you might fall a long way. Also there was no real paths, it felt a bit like we were the first ones going there. Actually we did not see anyone else in the whole day. True wilderness.

Just before the second refugio there was an swamp area we had to cross over. I managed to avoid sinking down in the water/mudd, but Laura kept on messing up on the last step. Her boots were completely muddy, and as a grand final she managed to slip when we crossed the last river. She arrived with boots completely wet, but hey at least they were clean now..

For a moment we were the only ones in the refugio and we were very proud of our acomplishment. However, our glory was short as after a few minutes some hardcore trekking guys from Slovakia arrived and told us that they had walked here in only one day, where we took two days. Dag nabit!

Anyways, they were really funny guys and we hanged out a bit with them after the trekk as well. After a good night out in Bariloche we said farwell, but we are sure we will see them again as they are travelling the same direction as us.

Henrik happy to be up on the first peak!