The Lakes Regions

From Puerto Natales I took the long journey to Puerto Varras. This is a sweet little community situated on a gorgeous blue lake with a volcano Osorno (2652 m) visible on the horizon. I was hopeing to climb the volcano but all hiking was cancelled due to falling boulders. I settled for a stellar 3 hour bike ride through the rural area to the little town of Fruitillar with Oran (from Ireland). After getting somewhat lost we made it to the town and enjoyed the chilled out vibe and great view of the volcano. After some coffee, cake, more coffee, nap time on the beach and making friends with a stray dog we convinced the bus driver to let us take our bikes on the bus instead of biking 3 grueling hours home.

From Puerto Varra I took the bus for 9 hours to Bariloche. This is by far my favorite city so far. The city looks like it belongs in Europe with beautiful colonial buildings (German and Swiss influence). It is situated on a gorgeous lake and surrounded by mountains. Bariloche makes world famous chocolate and ice cream which we sampled everyday! That is my idea of a perfect day, a long scenic hike or bike ride followed by a large icecream! I hooked up with Sebastiaan (the Netherlands) and David (England) to bike the ¨Circuito Chico¨. The Circuito was only 25 km but had a ton of side trips including a nice hike, beach and lots of lookouts of the lakes and mountains. The views were pristine and we laughed the day away. These two are a riot.

The next day David, Sebastiaan, Monica (Austrailia), Carole (France) and I tried out the canopy trip. This was so much fun and involved being clipped to a wire and guilding from tree to tree. That night we went out to one of Bariloche´s best restaurants. In Argentinian style we ate at 11pm and I had the best steak of my life.

Monica, David, Sebastiaan and I then headed on to El Bosen, a sleepy hippy mountain village 2 hours south of Bariloche. We hit up the farmers market, ate our daily ice cream and chilled at our great hostel outside of town. The owners had a traditional Argentinian bbq with goat and pig grilled over the fire. The food was amazing and it was a lot of fun to wine taste and play fooseball with the locals of El Bosen.

Sebastiaan and I decided to do the 3 day Cerro Hielo Azul trek. To start we had to cross a really old and scary suspension bridge. The path wasnt that well marked and we managed to get two hours off the main path! It was a little scary but we managed to find our way back and arrived at our gorgeous refugio (shelter or hostel) after 7 hours of straight up hill hiking the first day. The refugio had warm showers, a fire lit stove to cook on and matresses to sleep on. It was such a treat not to have to pack a tent and we had a lot of fun playing cards with other trekkers. Although getting lost was frustrating the sights made up for it! The fall colors were stunning and the mountains beautiful.

The seond day we hiked 1.5 hours straight up to view a glacier. It involved some scrambling to get to the top and was a lot of fun. Another 1.5 hours back down to the refugio, followed by lunch and another 5 hours of hiking. We were sure to follow the dots marking the trail today but unfortunately they also marked another trail and we managed to get another 2-3 hours off course. When the trail ended and we sorted out on the map where we were we decided that a.) we were not meant to trek together b.) we should never go on Sebastiaans word that he knows which way to go without first consulting the map and c.) we were too far to head back to the second refugio and we should just hike out and finish a day early. It was a long and quiet hike out with two hours straight down the mountain. We finshed the long day with a cold beer and a bus ride back to Bariloche. We had some good laughs at ourselves and our lack of navigating skills (the next pic is us when we realized we were lost again!).

Once in Bariloche we were happy to meet back up with David and the three of us decided to head to Mendoza together. I´m in love with Argentina so far. With great company, new friends, amazing food and sights I can´t wait to see what else Argentina has to offer!