Lake Gutierrez
Petunia's
The beach at Petunia's
Another day started with some organizing again: went to check out the tourist offices (with such massive queues that we gave up before we even started), found info on trekking possibilities and also found a flyer of a campsite-hostel called Los Coihues with a CLIMBING WALL!?! We had to check it out...the place was situated in Villa Los Coihues, next to the lake Gutierrez, some 15 km from the city. We found the place easily and fell in love immediately! Diego and Eugenia, a young couple working in the place, welcomed us in such a manner that we wouldn't have wanted to return to Petunias at all. One more night there though before we could move to this lovely former refugio (camp hut) that had been turned into the cutest and CLEANEST hostel ever! And they even had a climbing wall that we couldn't wait to try out.
We had had big plans for the evening to make some nice BBQ at the campsite but Chris forgot his hat and didn't drink enough water so the result of that day was a sunstroke and early bed.
Moving to Los Coihues
Next day was considerably better: Chris was feeling better and we packed our stuff and continued to Los Coihues. Moving was not the only cause of excitement for the day though!!! Our dear friends Matti and Laura were about to come to Bariloche so we headed to the city to pick them up! How cool it was to meet up again. They told us all about their former travels from Sao Paolo until Bariloche and we started immediately planning on future hikes and travels. We rented mountain bikes for the next day and decided to go for a 3-4 day trek after that. In the evening we celebrated this great get together and the future travels by making a massive BBQ dinner in the grill of the hostel. Amazing!
Welcome dinner
Circuito Chico
On Sunday started the active life: after the great hostel breakfast (with their homemade bread and jams!) we headed to the bike rental and started to ride 25 km around the Circuito Chico. It was a hot day but on the circuit there were many stopping points: a beautiful old and famous hotel Llao llao, a beach place with the most crystal clear water called Villa Tracul located in the end of a crazy dirt road, a secret lake Lago Escondido and a little local brewery Gilberts with some special beers! The route was not easy with some looong up hills. It also had scary but nicely exciting looong down hills, the flat parts were scarce. There was an alternative ending to the route: another 20 km more via some small dirt tracks and you'd end up in the Los Coihues. Me and Laura decided to take the easier way out and return the bikes to the rental but Chris and Matti wanted to test their stamina and headed for the alternative route. It had not been easy, but they managed - tough guys as they are! In the evening we had another beautiful feast with our own home made gnocchi and true Argentinian BBQ. We had some help from a Argentine Jefe chef whom spoke no English but prepared our meat while we were attentively watching and learning.
Matti and Laura at Llao llao
Beach at Villa Tacul
More birdies
Lago Escondido and Matti's jump
View break
Happy cyclists
Posing
and more posing
Dinner before the trek
Parrilla Los Coihues
Nahuel Huapi Traverse
Next day started our hike. First thing in the morning we packed and then went shopping for the food for the trek. The trek was called the Nahuel Huapi Traverse. It usually goes from Bariloche to refugio Frey, then second day from Frey to refugio Jakob (or San Martín) and from there to refugio Italia and further back to Bariloche. There were different options for the first day: you could take a cable car and then hike from Cerro Cathedral to Frey or take a route from Los Coihues up all the way to Frey via river Arroyo Van Titter. Since we were in Los Coihues, we took the second option.
The first day was supposed to be an easy 4 hour hike, some 12 km and mostly flat. I was happy about that because even with leaving half of my stuff to the hostel, my backpack was still as heavy as before (about 16-19 kg). Warm clothes, food, water and camping gear...it adds up. Chris was carrying the most weight though, I already felt sorry for him. With all the packing and shopping and taking our time we only started walking at 14.20.
After looking at the map a bit more closely and doing some quick calculations we realized that it was actually 14 km and it would take us a bit longer! Also, it wasn't quite as flat as we had hoped hahah. The first kilometers were just a basic route to the beginning of the path. There we entered the national park and walked in a beautiful old forest. After climbing up some while we entered a very exposed valley with a dusty terrain and only some bushes, so there was no escaping the crazy hot sun. We were sweating and putting on blister plasters, taking water breaks and hoping for the trail to dive into shade some what soon.
Kilometer signs said 8 km at least 3 times, one after another and it made the hike seem a bit never ending. Finally we entered the woods again but the trail started to climb up constantly, so much for the flatness. Soon the signs didn't mention kilometers anymore, but hours: three hours to go, two hours to go...we were always faster and our hours tended to be approx. 40 minutes. The last stop we had was at an old abandoned refugio where we ate the our last snack sandwiches and continued to refugio Frey. The trail got pretty steep in the end, we got out of the forest and saw the valley behind us. Refugio Frey stood next to massive and pointy teeth like peaks where we could still see some batches of snow. Refugio was next to a clear water lake on a highly exposed area with only some rock walls as a shelter from the wind.
Sweating and exhausted (but happy and in high spirits) after a total of 5 hours of walking we started setting up our tents, went for a wash in the lake and wondered about the views. For dinner we decided to cook the most heavy stuff so the backpacks would get at least a wee bit lighter (tunapasta it was and oh-so-delicious!).
The night sky was full of stars and full moon (or close) lit up the mountains around. The night was surprisingly warm but the wind was INCREDIBLE. It felt as if someone was shaking the tent with full force but of course our Akka tent (or actually dad's Akka tent, thanks Jari!) stood proudly. Only the noise was so insane that it was very difficult to sleep. I took a video of this, let's see if I can add it.
Start of the trek
Scorching sun
And protector solar
Finally some forest
Waterfall
Abandoned refugio and one hour to go
The new boss Matti
Views!
Tired but happy and almost there
Refugio Frey
Hemuli aka Chris swimming
Sunset
Full moon shot
Moon light on the mountains
Morning and sunrise
In the morning we packed our gear after a light breakfast and started the day two's hike around 11.00. The first short part was just flat, crossing the small valley to the other end from Frey and then the climbing started! A route led up to another small glacier lake via steep steep rocky path where one really had to climb on all fours sometimes. The massive backpack didn't exactly help but still somehow the ascending felt quite good! We admired the lake for a bit and then continued still up again on all fours until about 2000 meters. From there, the view was marvellous! One could see the peaks of Cerro Cathedral as well as far across the Nahuel Huapi lake and all the sharp mountain ranges behind the next valley. Wow!
This is where the tricky part started though. We needed to descend and it was at least as steep or possibly even steeper than the ascending before. The loose rocks, and slippery sand, the heavy backpacks and the manymany meters below you made the descent super sketchy. Every now and then I would grab a massive rock or step on one imagining that it holds just fine only to notice that it would come off and almost make me fall. After some time (which felt way too long) it got a bit better and one could just kind of ski down in the small landslides on the loose rocks. My shoes were FULL of rocks when I finally got down. We had a well deserved snack break with too many horseflies trying to feed on us and some extremely tame and fat lizards feeding on the flies.
The trail continued descending till the bottom of the valley and then followed in a forest until the end. In the shade of the forest we cooked some risotto for lunch before starting another steep and long ascend. I found a really good pace for going up and I actually just climbed up with out a single break from the bottom of the valley all the way to the high peak of the mountain. The end of this ascent was even steeper and more difficult than the first one and as a climber I felt that hmmm some might even want to use some ropes and belaying for this (well maybe not - but the big backpack was weighing you backwards and that surely didn't help). I was so happy to be up there, and you could already see the refugio Jakob and it's lake far below!
Far below also meant another crazy descent. This descent was such horror that I'm not sure I want to think about it a lot. It seemed never ending. Really. Steep, rocky, slippery, it took all the focus one could muster to come down alive and well. I could already feel the muscles of my legs stiffen while coming down, I didn't even want to imagine the next day. Finally I managed to come down to the level of the refugio where Chris took my hand, I wasn't quite sure if my legs would still hold me. Pheww.
First things first: washing up in the lake! Laura and Matti came a bit later so we promised to set up their tent too while they went to wash up. Crazy day indeed that took us about 8 hours altogether. We enjoyed some more tunapasta after consulting the refugio's staff about the next day. They told us that the route to refugio Italia was closed because of melting snow and some loose rocks because of that BUT one could enter in their own responsibility - you'd have to sign a 'Deslinde de responsabilidaded' - 'waiver of liability' before going. What made the route even more difficult was that it wasn't marked properly and so it would be easy to get lost from the path (which is a bigger problem if you're ascending, but then can't continue and have to climb back down etc.) A group of four would be going the next day but quite collectively we decided that maybe it was too hard core for us. Well, Chris really wanted to go but since we were too lame, he wouldn't go either. :(
Start of the day two
Ascending
Another small lake
More ascending
Fantastic view over the next valley
Conquerer
Start of the descend
Steep it was
Finally down
Fat lizards
Ascending again
The last steep climb up
It's always windy on top
Refugio Jakob
Yihuu
Tired Chris
Even more tired Inka
The way down?
Laura had massive blisters in her heels, and I had massive ones on my toes. The campsite was probably the origin of all the horseflies in the world and the muscles in our bodies were quite sore from all the exercise. We decided to take the alternative ending for the hike via the valley back to Bariloche but before packing our gear we hiked about 3,5 km to another pretty glacier lake where Matti and Chris did some freezing skinny dipping. After lunch we started off again. Of course to get to the bottom of the valley we had to descend. My thighs were very much against this and every step hurt. It was easier just to run down all the way. The trail went pretty much half in the forest and half in the sunshine. I was very unmotivated and the trail seemed to just go on and on. First we thought we'd camp one more night just in the nature next to the river but the horsefly army, our superduper dirty dusty and sweaty skins and exhausted bodies kinda missed home Los Coihues already. So we continued and continued and continued...when would we be there!?!? Altogether we hiked about 18 km that day, which was more than enough. We finally made it to the street and I had already celebrated in my head that now I could just sit in a bus and head home for a shower. Little did I know... The road was apparently closed so there would be no bus. Nor much else. The nearest bus would go from about 5 km further. I nearly started weeping.
Instead we kept on walking. And hitchhiking. And then the third car stopped: a miracle named Diego (not the same guy from the hostel though) with a massive car took Matti, Laura and me in the back of the car and Chris in the front and he drove us ALL the way to our nearest shop where we bought dinner and then headed to Los Coihues. Thank heavens, and Diego, for that. I couldn't believe our luck!
Day three side trip to another little glaciar lake
People sitting on the snow
Refugio Jakob
So dusty, so dirty
Hitchhike
The day was saved
Our luck continued: Diego and Eugenia told us that they had space for us for three more nights in the hostel! So we took it easy: did some laundry, ate well (in the center in a fantastic restaurant called Manush and in a vegetarian one too called Ren or Ran or something), went to the city to organize our future travels and met our friend Julio and Romina from Buenos Aires whom came for a vacation to Bariloche.
Our plan had been all along to rent a car with Matti and Laura and drive down south by legendary Ruta 40. Everyone told us that it would be too expensive and that it wouldn't work out but by sheer luck we stumbled in an Israeli travel agency where they had an affordable car for us for seven days with even a drop off in El Calafate! Usually the drop off part is the expensive part (also in this case) but gladly their price was a lot cheaper than we thought! Our last night, yesterday, we spent with Julio and Romina who invited us for a dinner in the beautiful Hostería! Thanks again guys!
Today we pack our things and head off to Ruta 40! Wish us luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment