Onwards and Southwards to El Bolson

Now it´s my turn to write on this blog thing so excuse the sp mistakes and general rambling!

We are now back on the road good and proper, having left Mendoza on Sunday. Coach journeys over here are becoming more random each time and after a ropey nights sleep onboard we woke up to a crackin game of bus bingo! There was still another 6 hours to go so we thought it would pass the time. The excitment from the rest of the passengers was overwhelming as the coach porter handed out the bingo cards and got out his petite bag of bingo balls. "Eyes down for a full house" he shouted in spanish and then picked up his trusty microphone. Numbers aren´t my strong point in english let alone spanish, however, there was a prize at stake so this bit of fun suddenly became serious! It was the longest 10 minutes of my life and the tension was nail biting; after 13 hours on a bus anything is. Before I knew where I was with my seisenta and setentas Han had one number left, suddenly ¨doce¨ was called out and she shouted BINGO! From a random game of bingo she/we had a lovely cheap bottle of plonk/paint stripper as the prize.

El Bolson is a beautiful little town and surround by mountains. Our hostel, ´Refugio Patigonico´, was great, loads of space, incredible views and surrounded by countryside; a nice change from city hostels. The hostel told us about Lago Puelo, a lake about 30mins south by bus and is gorgeous. Set against snowcapped mountains it has a couple of small beaches which we headed for on Tuesday. An afternoon of sunbathing and having a swim in the lake (with the mountains in the background) was just what we need after that 18 hour bus journey the day before.

Obviously lazing around is great but as we are surrounded by mountains it would be silly not to climb a couple. Well, now that I´m back from doing that I´m not so sure. We caught yet another bus, north this time, to the begining of a trail which would take us to Cajun del Azul. The canyon is one of the area´s great sights and after a 30 min walk we were at the beginning of the trail head, next to the Rio del Azul. The river at this point is very wide and there´s a lot of rapids so to cross it you have to use the Índiana Jones´style rope bridges, avoiding the missing wooden slats. We then hiked for about 3 1/2 hours through the alpine forest and reached the canyon at about 4pm. Whilst you are hiking you meet the river a few times and it looks so inviting and refreshing, however, its a glacial river and freezing at this time of the year. The final stage of the hike goes over bolders and up wooden ladders to another bridge which crosses the Cajun del Azul which is an incredible sight below you.

It was late afternoon and we decided to stay the night at a Refugio which was a couple of minutes from the river. Refugio Cajun del Azul, as it´s known, is an amazing place and really in the middle of nowhere so pretty much self sufficient with a large kitchen garden small holding and homemade beer! By night this large wooden cabin is lit by candels and a couple of tiny bulds running off a car battery. The refugio cooked us a amazing meal of spicy lamb patties, potatoes, salads and chutney, oh my god it was lush!!! After another couple of bottles of homemade beer we headed up stairs for our sleeping bags and what had become the biggest bed in the world. Not because of the beer but because we were on mattresses on the floor with nine middle aged argentinian men, every square inch of floor was taken up with either backpacks or bodies. Needless to say we slept well and were back on the trail by 9am and after an hour of walking the aches and pains were subsiding.
From El Bolson we are heading to Puerto Madryn, whale watching country so catch you later for more longwinded explanations!!!!!