Bariloche... The Lakes District of Argentina

Well we made it to Bariloche after 6 days STRAIGHT on busses. 6 bus rides, 5 nights sleeping on the bus, 4 countries, and a week without a shower!

We were sure glad when we got to Argentina to the Lakes District and Bariloche. The town is known for it´s great ice cream and hiking. After a day of doing logistical stuff (and eating ice cream), we decided to do a hike. Tony told me a story about his last trip to Bariloche in which he went on the ¨hardest hike of his life¨. And he decided he wanted to share that experience with me! We were only able to do half of the trip because snow and ice conditions closed part of the trail, but the hardest part was still open (luckily, right? Always looking for a challenge ;) Anyway we packed up and headed out the first day. We hiked 14 km to Refugio Italia at about 6,000 ft. It took about 5 hours and it was mostly uphill, but not too bad. (In Patagonia they have refugios set up throughout the hiking areas to provide people with a place to sleep, food, etc. although they are usually pretty expensive, so we just camp near them.) It was beautiful, sunny, hot and we enjoyed a bottle of wine with the sunset (because we are so far down south the sun doesn´t set until about 9 PM around this time of year). We happily went to bed and woke up the next morning to rain/snow and dismal conditions! We knew that we could complete the rest of the hike in about a day because it was around 14 km, but up and down some difficult terrain. But we decided to play it safe and we spent the day hunkered down in the tent! See the pictures above... day one versus day two!

The third day was absolutely gorgeous! Clear and brisk, but sunny. Perfect hiking conditions. So Tony told me that we would hike up to a pass, then down into a valley and then up to another pass and then a steep downclimb to another Refugio. It was a little slippery with the snow so we carefully picked our way through rocks following the trail markers. Now South Americans are a little nuts in my opinion, because they decide to put trails in places that you would never even think a trail could exist! Take a look at the picture with the big mountain in the background and the rocks on the left, at the very top of the pile of rocks is Tony on the trail that I was following him on! That mountain is called Mount Tronodor and was an amazing surprise to see at the crest of the first pass!

Then we hiked down into a valley and that is when Tony started re-telling tales from his last trip of how the craziest part was up next. Take a look at this picture of the huge skree field.... the first picture shows what we hiked up and the second shows it from about halfway up facing down with Mount Tronodor in the background. If you look very closely you can see people in both pictures.



Man was this section was hard! And we had packs on our backs as well, so we were leaning in and stepping forward and falling back and sending rocks flying behind us while dodging rocks at time from people above us! Absolutely nuts!

But the view from the top was worth it! The lakes appeared on the other side and we saw condors flying, it was amazing!

Then we had to hike down...

Needless to say our knees, thighs, ankles, and feet are still recovering, it was one of the most challenging hikes and most rewarding at the same time. I am grateful that Tony took me there to see it!

We headed out of the lakes district on Monday and officially entered Patagonia... we are on the Island called Chiloe on the West coast of Chile right now. We will be here until Friday and then we are off to the Carretera Austral. More to come... hope all are well! love C & T!