Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

The next morning Erin had a sore leg so we decided to put off our walk till tomorrow.  We basically did nothing all day but wander the town, Erin wrote (a story she has been working on) and I went to "La Bolsa" a hostal we wanted to stay in (due to it having a wicked kitchen).  I made a reservation for the day we would get back from our 3 day trek and watched a football match with an Israeli guy who went crazy when Manchester United (his team) scored in the 90th minute.

The next day we got everything ready then caught the bus to the start of the trail, a ski lodge type area without any snow at this time of year.  The trail was at first a stroll round the base of a hill, alongside a lake and through a forest of scrubby trees some of which looked to be dead for some reason and some obviously burnt.

At one point we decided to stop for lunch, the bees in the area decided to join us much to our frustration.  We were having rice crackers (Erin can find food here!) tomatoes and cheese.

The trail climbed and descended the side of the hill a lot, sometimes we had to scramble over fallen trees or rock slides.  At this point a bridge was needed.

 

At the 3 hour mark the trail climbed into more dense forest.

Then proceeded to climb quite steeply for 45-60 minutes to Refugio Frey.

The refugio cost 25 pesos (NZ$12.50) each for the night (a bunk with matress) and included the use of the kitchen. We had brought rice, tuna, cheese and veges to fry up.  The local mountaneering club runs the refugio and you could also order meals here, though they were expensive (due to the cost of bringing the food in probably).

Our biggest surprise was the number of people staying here.  The area is full of great rock climbing spots and there were heaps of climbers either staying in the refugio or camping in tents nearby.  We met Ewan (Australia), an Irish couple, and an Argentinian girl travelling with an Israeli guy all with the same plan as us, to head to Jacob tomorrow.  We also met Katrin (Switzerland) who was heading back down to Bariloche tomorrow.

The next morning the weather didn´t look good.  There was fog/cloud around the peaks and it was a little cold.  We were told it was normal and usually cleared and so we decided to set out for the next stop Refugio Jacob (also called Refugio San Martin).

We walked past the lake and up the ridge to another smaller lake.

Then climbed (literally, the trail required us to clamber up steep rocks and round boulders etc) to a second ridge.  Ewan had left just before us and we eventually caught him here, waiting just below the second ridgeline hoping the weather would clear.  He joined us for the rest of the trip right back to Bariloche.  It turned out he was staying in La Bolsa too.

The view from the 2nd ridge was great.  This is the valley we have to walk down to the 3rd ridge.

We slid down the other side (Literally, there was a lot of fine sandlike stuff with larger rocks mixed in. Much like coming down from El Misti in Peru) and then walked down a stream bed (presumably where the snow melt flows) where a rock promptly gave way under me and I fell.  The rock then landed on me.  Luckily nothing more serious than a scrape or two and bruises you couldn´t even see.  Ewan gave me a hand up and I took it a little slower.  Meanwhile Erin with her walking poles was outdistancing the both of us, what a machine!

At the bottom we skirted the valley (it was a bog) to the 3rd ridge, at the base we decided to have lunch (same stuff as day one) without the bees this time, but with a spattering of rain instead.  After lunch it was up, up, up.

At the top we had a great view into the next valley where the refugio is located.

 

The refugio was run by a woman and her two daughters.  She is not here all year round but only for some months during the year.  The price was the same as the first and there was a kitchen and meals as before.  We had the same dinner and then at around 10pm three Israelis turned up, drenched and covered in mud.  They had come from Frey also but it had taken them twice as long to get here, apparently they had been lost and in the dark hadn´t seen the river crossing so had to wade up to their thighs.  Oh dear.

The next morning the weather was nicer and it was nowhere near as cold as yesterday.  We had a closer look at the lake then headed of for the longest day of the three (25km), but all downhill.

The last 7km is along gravel roads to the main road where we had a cold drink and I tried to get myself run over.  Then, it was back to Bariloche by bus and a nice hot shower.  Katrin had managed to get a room in La Bolsa but Ewan missed out (he forgot to book) so had to go across the road.  We all went to a local Parilla for huge steaks and huge plates of fries, mashed spuds and salad.