Las Noticias de Patagonia: April 2006

THERE'S FINALLY SOME PICS ON THIS ONE (have a look down the bottom).
From El Chalten we decided it was time to head north, like 2 days bus ride north to warmer climes and the Argentine Lake District. Well, warmer relatively speaking, positively balmy by previous standards - only 2 layers of clothing required while standing still, absolutely tropical. After a day killing time in Comodoro Rivadavia, which was the main culprit for the length of the last couple of blog entries, we took the second of two overnight buses to El Bolsón, a cute little town full of Argentine hippies, or more likely quite well-to-do ex hippies, nestled among some fairly inspiring granite peaks. As the sign reads in the main square, El Bolsón is a ¨Zona no nuclear¨. El Bolsón was a cool place to kill time either side of a 3 day trek we did into Cerro Hielo Azul. Argentine hippies have no qualms about brewing and selling their own beer. In fact they brew bloody good beer. Pilsners, darks, bitter reds, fruit beers, ciders. I´m not sure what the licensing laws are about selling home brew in Argentina, but it´s good that it´s fairly loose because it´s bloody good parking off next to the hippy markets and sampling brews in the warm autumn sun. Oh yeah, and one dude made the best spinach empanadas.

The trek itself was a bit of a change for us. We went light and ditched our tents and cookers for the first time on the trip and decided to live it up by staying at the funky wee refugios that have been built and are lived in by alternative lifestylers up in the hills. Oh and of course they brew and sell their own beer in the hills too. All dirt cheap and very funky. One guy has been spending 25 years building his wee piece of paradise in the hills. And HE brews all kinds of stuff.

It was quite different scenery from the far south. Lots of autumn colours and much higher alpine lines so a lot more forest with higher set glaciers and mountain peaks. The final place we stayed was particularly sweet, set by a canyon carved by a deep, deep blue crystal clear river which lead us out of the mountains on day 3.

From El Bolsón we took a very scenic 2 hour bus ride deeper into the Argentine Lake District to San Carlos de Bariloche, the premier mountain getaway spot for Argentinians and, as touristy as it might be, it is one incredibly beautiful part of the Patagonian Andes. Luckily we were in low season so the place was pretty quiet. Activities near Bariloche included a trek up onto the ridge tops of Parque Nahueal Huapi. We only did 2 of the 5 days you could do, but it was classic alpine trekking. It would be nice to come back and spend more time around the area checking it all out. The autumn reds were even more abundant than El Bolsón. We also went for a whopping great bike ride round the lake edge in search of microbreweries (hmmm, there´s a theme here) only to find (after about 50km) that all of them were right back where we started. Luckily it was a loop ride and after 50km we found ourselved back just 10km from home where the breweries were. Blest does a bloody good raspberry beer and apple cider.

Unfortunately a few days later after resting it up in the hills it was time to say goodbye to Brett - or to Nick and Jane depending on your perspective. For all of us though it´s goodbye to Patagonia. It´s such a vast mountain region and yet just a small part of the Andean Cordillera. 7 weeks just feels like a recon mission really. You could happily get lost for weeks in just the smallest parts of it. And it´s all just mint.

So, Brett´s off home after checking out Buenos Aires and Mendoza (and Ancocagua? He said something about a solo attempt of the South wall in jandals...). Nick and Jane are currently in the Atacama desert about to head into the Bolivian Antiplano. A loooooong way north of Patagonia. Our CDs with pics are in Santiago from this bit so might have to wait till we get home at the end of April until we put them up. .....
UPDATE 30 AUGUST: Ahem ... ok maybe a little longer than that, but here they are: