El Bolson

Tonight will be my fifth and last night in El Bolson. El Bolson is a small town nestled in a valley with beautiful mountains nearby and several rivers created by glacier water. It has long been a hippie Mecca and preserves that kind of vibe - great hand made arts and crafts and lots of organic foods. It also produces 75% of Argentina's hops, so the beer here is excellent.

My first day here I arrived in the afternoon so I didn't have time to do too much - just a 2k walk up a small mountain called "Cerro Amigo" with a good view of the valley. Here's a pic from the top:

The next day I biked a total of 40k with a Dutch girl named Johannah to Lago Puelo, which was absolutely gorgeous with pristine water. I went for a brief swim - it was nice. Here's a pic:

That was tiring enough. The next day I met up with a wonderful Scottish girl named Heidi and we went biking again to another spot with a nice view. At the top, the people who work there told us it would be an easy 40 minute bike ride to a nearby waterfall. They have either never seen that path or they lied through their teeth - after a vigorous and, for me, extreme two hour bike ride we made back in time to turn the bikes in. The next day we set off on a two day trek up to a mountain refuge in a place called "Hielo Azul." The main attraction is a glacier at the top. After a six hour hike up a pretty steep climb, we made it to the refuge. My life was flashing before my eyes but Heidi was just fine. The view was definitely worth it:

Towards the left of the tip right there there is a path up the mountain that leads to a small lake up at the top created by glacier water. Also, all of the water in that shot comes straight down from the glacier and it is colored a milky white with the minerals scraped off the earth by the glacier. We stayed at a small cabin overnight that was about 30m from where I took this picture (and where I got bit very badly by bedbugs) and climbed up to the glacier the next morning. That night, the stars came out and I can't remember ever having seen them so clearly- they were absolutely breathtaking. The climb the next morning was rigorous and steep over very rocky terrain - it took 3 hours total up and down over ground that was sliding underneath our feet. But it was a well used path that was just a bit tricky, so it wasn't much of a risk. A fall would have been some bruised, not broken, bones. At the end of it, in a crater at the top of the mountain-chain pictured above, there was this:

Here's a backward view at the valley from the top of the mountain before we descended towards the lake:

So, it was worth the effort. After that we climbed back down and hitch-hiked into town. I hadn't been so tired in a very long time.

Tomorrow I'm off to El Chalten.