Patagonia Argentina

Reislogger

Taking the patagonian train sounded much more romantic than it actually was, I thought I had booked a seat that could go backwards like in the buses. But instead I was in the most basic class with no space what so ever, chairs that could not go anywhere, a few fans on the ceiling (so really hot) and lots of people. I was the only foreign backpacker😐 But after a long night we arrived in Bariloche and the hostel was very nice… Real community feeling and serving vegan breakfast😊Met some nice people in my dorm and we hiked quite a few trails together.

At christmas the hostel had bought lots of food and drinks and everyone contributed with either a dish they made themselves or they bought something. It was one big table full of nice food and about 1/3 was vegan. After the food we danced till early in the morning. Christmas eve is much bigger here than christmas itself.

I wanted to rent a car to see the road towards san martin its quite a famous road, I did find 4 more people which made it cheap and we had a lot of fun. The road is very scenic with mountains and lakes, we also found a hike to a waterfall which was beautyfull. On the way back a big eagle was sitting on the side of the road and I noticed him when we passed him, impressive…

Two hours from Bariloche is a town called El Bolson, which I wanted to visit and I decided to hitchhike this part, another backpacker wanted to do the same so we hitched together. It took us 3 rides to reach El Bolson, so that was good. The hostel was a bit weird, rules everywhere on the stairs and in case you would forget them in your room as well, and than some more rules on the door… Check out was early and if you were 2 minutes late she would come knocking on your door, in the shower we had mushrooms growing out of the wall and it wasn’t cleaned in the 5 days I was there. It was a shame as the hostel really had some potential, but the people staying there were nice and I met a french guy that is helping me with my spanish. And as we are going the same way (he is one day ahead of me) we keep meeting in different places. The same happens with an israelian guy I met in puerto madryn. In El Bolson we hiked to “Bosque Tallado”, its a forest that has burned down years ago and artist made sculptures out of the dead trees, its amazing. After that we hiked to the refugio and some of us hiked to the top but i just hiked to a mirador where I saw 2 condors😊

On another day we drove to one of the rivers and just hiked along the river which was very beautyfull and the guys decided to go for a swim. Just to get the picture right; everyone was wearing hats, gloves and winterjackets. I decided I would be the photographer, hahaha.

The weather was not good every day and than there is not much point in hiking as you do not get the views, so I would just visit the market and walk around town. I was here for new year, and we asked around what was going on. Apparantly there was a big trance party going on at a camping by the river with DJ’s from Mexico etc so a serious party. As I am not that much into electronic music and it was a big party i decided to look for something else. We talked about hiking up the mountain and spent it there with a campfire but also this plan failed. In the end we stayed in the hostel and ended up making food with and for 25 people, which was really nice. At 12 we wished everyone happy new year with cidre and than a dance floor was created and the argentinian cumbia was put on😊

The next day I took a bus early in the morning and stumbled into lots of drunken people hahahaha. The bus took me to Los Antiguos where I wanted to go and see the “cuavas de los manos” (the cave of the hands), I managed to find a tour that went on the day I wanted to go and I do not regret stopping here. Most people continue straight to El Chalten. We hiked into a canyon which was very peacefull and nice (something diferent than climbing a mountain) and while we were hiking we saw the caves. After 2 hours we reached them and had a tour of the caves. The paintings are around 9000 years old and are mainly hands but also hunting scenes, animals and some lines and dots. It was very interesting. And on the way back we stopped in the land of colours, we followed the guide and after a while we all started “oooh” and “aaah” as red, yellow, goldenbrown and grey hills appeared. This was the place were the indiginous people came to collect the colours for their paintings. Very impressive. I was dropped off at the busstation as i had a night bus to El Chalten.

I actually slept in the nightbus and when I woke up the views were amazing, sunrise over the mountains and glaciers. The national park here is called los glacieros and the town is in the middle, so the hikes start from the town, which is nice. The weather can change very quickly and the forecast is not very reliable. On the day I arrived I saw the famous Fitz Roy mountain peaks from town, not realizing that was special. That day I did 2 short hikes to 2 miradors, which were nice. The next day I started a 18 km hike but after 2.5 km I decided to turn around as it was very cloudy so the views were not so good. Luckily I did as after a few hours it started pouring down with rain. On the Sunday I had a mission though as it was the 6th of January (the memorial of my mums death) and there was a hike called “madre y hija” (mother and daughter). I started with a busride to the beginning of the hike and than we were just a few people on the trail which was nice. After a few km we passed a lake and glacier, which were nice. It started snowing and the clouds came in and crazy winds, when we got to the point were the climb to the fitzroy becomes difficult, I looked up did not see anything because of the clouds so I decided to continue to my mission. I went of the fitzroy trail onto the madre y hija trail . When i reached the look out point i just sat down and enjoyed the view, but it was so cold i could not sit down for very long. I returned the same way and went back down again on the other fitzroy track. It was 18 km in total so was broken when I got back but also very proud😊

Even after a night sleep everything was hurting, so I decided to take it really easy and treat myself to a massage. It was a massage chair which was a really weird experience and today i feel bruised all over, hihihihi… Luckily today I only had to get a bus to El Calafate.

I found really cheap accomodation in el calafate and i soon found out why, hahaha it was a tiny room with 2 bunk beds and if you were in there al together 2 people had to sit on their bed so the other 2 were able to move. But for the rest it was fine and I did not complain. Me and the french guy hitchhiked to the famous Perito Moreno glacier. It was beautyfull as you can see on the pics. And we saw the ice falling a few times and that makes a lot of noise after the ice has hit the water. We had a sunny day and the colours were amazing.

The next day we took a bus to Chili, Puerto Natales...