I have just got back from El Bolson and Mallin Ahogado, so it is here that i'm going to tell you all how i went about and spent my 20th birthday, which i have to say was probably the best birthday i've had!
I walked out with a pack that probably weighed in the region of 12 to 15 Kgs or 24 to 30 lbs. I got a bus to the top end of Bariloche, where all the "council estates" are. This is also the area where the Ruta 40 road heads out of town through 126km of mountain pass style driving to a town called El Bolson, it is mostly a southward direction that this road takes, but a slight approximation towards the west and Chile is apparent on the map, by the time you get to El Bolson, you are just a couple of Kilometres from the
42nd Parallel South.
I got off the bus before it turned off from Ruta 40 into one of the neighbourhoods and i started hitchhiking along Ruta 40 Southwards, i wanted to find a spot just past the big roundabout so that the traffic that goes past would be almost all going to El Bolson with the exeption of a few fully loaded
1114's heading to the dump a few metres away. I walked past a couple of lads from Buenos Aires, in the exchange of a few words i found out that they had been waiting for over an hour an a half, things didn't look good for the three hitchhikers trying to get out of Bariloche. I knew i had a better chance of getting picked up than them because i was one person instead of two, but i never imagined that by walking 100m further down the road and waiting for just 10 minutes, i would be in a car with three french students heading towards El Bolson in a hired Fiat Palio, sorry guys... but looks like one is better than two here!
If i remember correctly the french students were Nicolas in the driver's seat, Maria in the front, and Laura on the other side of a couple of rucksacks on the back seat. They were heading down to Esquel to visit Los Alerces National Park and had a small bit of room to squeeze a happy hitchhiker in their car. I was very happy indeed!
We spoke in a mixture of french, english, and spanish for about two hours until just after midday i was dropped off at the entrance of Mallin Ahogado, a dirtyroad circuit that gives access to many farms and more to the point, the Perito Moreno mountain refuge which i was hoping to stay at to start a hike to other shelters around that area of the mountains. A sign on the right read "C. Perito Moreno 31(km)" and this was going to be a long walk. I tried to hitchike whilst walking but none of the three cars stopped, although one of them spoke to me and had a good enough excuse for not doing so. I walked and walked, then walked some more, i was very familiar with this stretch of road because this is the area where i used to live at before my family and I moved to England, and one of the reasons i decided to walk this instead of getting a bus to a much closer location to Perito Moreno was the fact that i wanted to experience the area once again, not with the amazement and naiveness of a nine year old, but with the more experienced eyes of a nearly twenty year old. It turns out the area is just as beautiful as i remembered it, a few more houses have been built here and there, but it looks pretty much exactly the same as when we left it. I took some photos along the way to show my parents, my dad used to drive this road every day and drive the 126km daily to get to work, so im sure he will appreciate seeing it all again, even if a few photographs will be as close of a 50th birthday present i can give him being over 10,000km away.
I arrived at the Perito Moreno refuge about six hour after leaving Ruta 40. I paid 30 pesos for a bed and my feet ached like never before. I fell asleep shortly after collapsing on the hard mattress of a very squeaky wooden bed.
I wanted to summit Perito Moreno, but the snow this year is still way too much, i will need to come back one day with crampons and a bit more experience in order to make a safe ascent. I rested for a day before setting off to the Warton's farm, from here a path goes up the mountain to an area called "El Cajón Del Azul" referring to the pools formed on the Azul river. I walked about 10km and finally arrived to the start of this path, from here i started the 3 hour walk to paradise. I went past a group of people, we didn't speak much but i found out that they were from Neuquen. I kept walking steadily on, and at the bottom of a long hill i found a small bar by the river side, it was then that i decided that a Quilmes and
choripan would be much appreciated. I sat at a table with a spectacular view of the river, it was already paradise.
Whilst i waited the people i had previously passed caught up, i started walking with them and found out their names, and that in fact they were two groups of people that were merged into one by the wonderful thing that is friendship. Noelia and Santiago from Rosario were travelling as a couple and with them was Paolo from La Plata and Pablo with Mariano from Neuquen, the three were travelling as one group of friends, and now the six of us were walking up towards El Cajon. We walked for what must have been about 20 minutes when we started hearing a loud noise struggling up the narrow, steep track. Sure enough after about five minutes a Mercedes Benz
Unimog truck belonging to the Gendarmeria Nacional Argentina came around the corner, I was with Pablo and Mariano, and as the truck went past and we realised that the rest of the guys were on the back of the truck, we threw our packs on and also climbed on - despite the initial "no no no we won't make it up with so many people" from the two guys from
Gendarmeria. We were very happy to know that this truck was in fact heading all the way to El Cajon, something that is very, very unusual as it is only accessed by horse or foot. The truck climbed and climbed along some very extreme terrain, it was incredible how this machine was tackling anything and everything that was on its path, better than any other 4x4 i have ever seen. After talking to the guys we realised that they were in fact going up to bring down a body of a young lad that died on the river a few days ago, something that has happened only twice in the last twenty nine years - this was a very unique way of heading to El Cajon, and we were fucking stoked to be part of it.
We sang a few songs, the guys had a couple of guitars so music from that point on was also part of the six friends that were heading up the mountain to spend a few days in one of the most beautiful places nature has to offer.
We finally arrived and set-up camp by the shelter or refugio, we stayed up there for a couple of days, singing songs, drinking wine, sharing stories by the campfire, walking down to the river and diving or swimming in the purest waters known to man. The people i had found were excellent friends and we had an amazing time up there. When it was time to go after about two or three days up there, we headed down the mountain in the evening, Santi Noelia and I paid up for our stay at the campsite. We separated from the other guys and nightfall came soon after. We decided to camp by the river at a place we found halfway down. It is prohibited to camp out in the wild, but we were not about to let civilization and commercialization ruin the joy of camping out in the wild with no one around, and an amazing night it was, only the sounds of the odd animal could be heard, and of course the constant roar of the water rushing down the river. Rice and tuna was once again the meal for the night.
Early in the morning we headed down to town, to El Bolson. We bought some meat and a few more essentials such as wine and bread to spend the night and celebrate my birthday down by Lago Puelo about 15km south. Fate would not let this friendship break, and it was so that we met the three guys again just before getting the bus, they had basically no money and were about to hitch back home, but we - although it didn't take a lot - convinced them to come with us to Lago Puelo. That night the six of us camped out by the lake and had an
asado cooked with just a fire and a few sticks as there was no parrilla or grill. The meat tasted incredible and the wine was delicious. We sang a few songs, and had a very fun night even though the weather was getting from bad to worse. That night, when we finally got in the tents, it rained a lot. The next morning most of the peaks in the area around the lake were snowed. Later in the afternoon, after getting kicked out and told that we can't camp without paying for a campsite, we went back to El Bolson, the guys had no money so they hitched but as we still had some left Santi Noe and I decided to take the bus as it was just leaving. We had no plans of meeting with the guys again, as we had said our goodbyes, but fate had it that we met once again in El Bolson, and before they parted we shared another day's happiness. They eventually hitched back to Neuquen, Santi and Noe hitched south to Esquel, and i went to my aunt's house in El Bolson to celebrate my little cousin Jasmin's birthday. She was 10, and before i arrived back in the area a few months ago, i had only seen her as a newborn baby, it was incredible to return to this place 10 years later and celebrating her birthday. A few more of my cousins where there, Selene, Triny, and Lupe. We spent the night at my aunts and the morning after went our separate ways, Lupe was going to get a bus because it would be more comfortable with Kimany (her 4 year old), but Triny and I hitched back to Bariloche on the back of a 4x4 pickup truck. It was raining, and very cold, but we couldn't complain as we only waited about five minutes for the ride. Hitchhiking here is definitely worth it!
And so that is more or less how the past few days have been, and how i celebrated the start of my 7306th day in this life, this beautiful life. No doubt the six of us will be meeting again, perhaps for some more wine or another asado, but it just goes to show how amazing it is to meet new people and not just stay at home, because there is a whole other world out there where by being spontaneous you can enjoy life on a more basic but richer level full of friendship, laughing, spending little money, seeing beautiful scenery and as Chris Maccandless said, living everyday with a new and different sun.
I hope i didn't bore the hell out of you with this long post!
Thanks for reading.
Santiago.
Zamba De Mi Esperanza.El tiempo me va matando y tu cariño será, será. El tiempo me va matando y tu cariño será, será. Hundido en horizontes soy polvareda que al viento vá. Zamba, ya no me dejes yo sin tu canto no vivo más. Zamba, ya no me dejes yo sin tu canto no vivo más.
