Las Peresosas

Translation: the lazy girls!

Rough day today! Ha!

Up at 9:30, down for a delicious breakfast, a wander around the property, a trip to the pool, a massage, a late lunch, some reading/journaling, a yoga class and happy hour. What can I say? We deserve this! ;o)

Not much to report today really so I won't. I'd rather go be lazy!!! Here are are some pictures to give you an idea of why that's the order of the day!

Our table for breakfast is the one in the sun:

The big hall:

Around the grounds:

Goofing around:

Guille at the pool:

Llao Llao Hotel - the lake side:

I gotta see it for myself!

When we did the math, we couldn't quite believe that we'd actually spent five nights in the same place! Lago Puelo was a real gem. I could imagine that given masses of people it would be a zoo, but the fuel shortage, rumours of volcanic ash and mixed weather kept a lot of people away. Lucky us. It was an unspoiled gem and we enjoyed our time there very much.

Today it was time to hit the road again and we began our drive north to Bariloche shortly after noon. The drive was incredibly beautiful. I can see why this region is so well known. Bariloche is apparently THE tourist destination in Argentina.

Despite that title, we were advised NOT to come to Bariloche. The winds from the north and west were blowing volcanic ash from Chile and apparently the visibility in the area was poor. That argument worked in reverse for me. I wanted to see it more, not less, for four main reasons:

1. I've never seen volcanic ash and as a geoscientist I was rather curious to see it.

2. That news may in fact keep the crowds away and the town may not be as crazy which is appealing.

3. My plan was to hit the spa as a treat. If it was crummy outside all the better, I wouldn't be missing anything.

4. They might be wrong.

And they were wrong. Or maybe they were right for the day before. The ~50km/hr winds were fierce and what little ash there was was quickly clearing out!

It was certainly the wrong day to wear a dress with all the wind but all my other clothes were in quarantine! The first thing we did as we pulled into town was look for a lavadero to take care of nearly two weeks' worth of stinky camp clothes.

As we pulled up to the fancy-schmancy 'Llao Lloa Resort and Spa' , 25km west of Bariloche town, I wondered out loud if they'd even let us into the lobby. This place features in the 'Leading Hotels of the World' book. It's expensive but after 35$ (~$8) per night of camping for 10 nights, it averages out quite reasonably.

Guille has the most amazing luck/karma out of anyone I've ever met. Things just happen for her. I've christened her 'Horseshoe Willy'!!! I can't go into all of the examples I've witnessed on this trip but she has a charmed life and she is deserving of all of it. So it came as little surprise that we got upgraded to a suite with a balcony overlooking the lake!

Once we walked into our room and saw how gorgeous it was we literally did a happy dance! This place is a real treat and we were so appreciative of being here. Pictures can't do it justice but here are a few attempts:

The front of Llao Llao Resort and Spa:

The view from our room:

Mate and a hike to Chile leads to further wanderlust

In my 'Che Boludo' book, the explanation of Argentinian mate culture is two pages long. In my Lonely Planet book it's only one. It's hard to capture all the subtleties and nuances of this daily ritual that is a fundamental part of an Argentine's day in any number of pages in a book.

Today Zach got a crash course from Guille as he christened his new mate gourd. He'd been curing it for a couple of days in preparation for its first cuppa!

She covered the preparation of the yerba herb including the shaking of the yerba in the gourd to get the powder to the top. There was mention of the ideal temperature of the water (apparently 82'C is best). The straw is not to be moved nor held. There is an ideal amount of water to pour and a deisred 'frothiness' to the wet yerba. Then there is the cebador. This person serves all those partaking in the mate ritual. S/he serves her/himself first to make sure it's okay for others, before serving to others. Those being served are not to take too long with it (or else they're reminded it's not a microphone!!!). People are served in a clockwise fashion. You only say 'gracias' once you've had your last round. Phew...lots to think about! But that's how we started our day. It's all very fascinating!!!

Following mate and a slow, lazy breakfast, we set out from the campground for a hike. The four of us, Zach, Ann, Guille and I headed for the pier to arrange for a boat ride across Lago Puelo to start our hike on the Los Hitos trail. The trail goes all the way to Chile but we stopped about 5km from where we got dropped off at the park ranger's residence at Arroyo Las Lagrimas.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we all walked and talked and got to know each other better. Zach told us a bit more about the charity he cofounded. He's doing his drive across South America to raise more money for it. We also started to figure out how Guille and I might be able to join Zach as co-pilots for his end-Match leg up through Chile. We also were eager to tag along for the early April Bolivia stretch. Plans are vague at this stage but we're both eager to make it work. What fun it would be!!!

It could have been worse.

No hurry to do much of anything today. We thought about doing the Los Hitos hike along the lake but it was windy and well... mañana. We have the luxury of time to move things around as we wish. In that sense Guille and I are well matched. Some people are more rigid about plans. 'But you said we'd go for the hike today' might be the reaction of some. We're both a bit more of the kind of travellers to come up with a bunch of options, choose one, possibly change our minds and do something else! In many ways it's refreshing not to care too much. We're both just happy doing anything.

Instead we read and chilled at the campsite in AM and then headed out for our hike at La Pasarela at 15:30. On the way we pulled over to the side of the road to rearrange the contents of the backseat. Guille had reminded me that it's best not to do that at the parking lot of your destination in case someone sees what's inside. Good call.

We move everything except for some dry food and some camping gear we hadn't been using. I left my flip flops and some odds and ends like my little perfume, my funky sunnies and the umbrellas. To make things look particularly unworthy of further attention, we left a roll of toilet paper and paper towel on top of everything. Below our seats we stashed our iPads which have been making our day bags just that much heavier and more awkward.

The hike over the pasarela was lovely and the waters of the Rio Azul were indeed a beautiful blue colour. The hike was between Mapuche (native) farms on roads lined with berry bushes and apple trees. There were cows and sheep and the sun came out and warmed us up. It was great....until we got back to the car.

Guille got in on the driver's side and exclaimed that it was slightly open and not locked. Initially I thought she'd left it open but then she got out to confirm her suspicion that in fact the lock had been damaged when someone had broken in!

Our hearts resumed beating once we confirmed that our iPads were still there. Then we assessed the situation more carefully. The bags with camping supplies, food, my perfume and the toilet paper (?!?!) we're gone. I guess it could have been worse. Obviously the robber had been in and out quickly. Had he looked more carefully he would have found other, more interesting goodies. We got off lucky. In my 'Che Boludo' book, the expression for that is "La sacamos barata".

We knew thefts like this happened. We'd heard about one two days prior in the same parking lot. We'd thought to move our stuff out of site and into the trunk. We'd seen the police patrolling the parking lot as we started our walk. We thought we'd be okay. I guess you can only do so much.

When we got back to our campsite, Zach and Ann were there all set up in the campsite next to us. They're traveling together on this second leg of his journey around South America in Babe. It's such a small world as I know Ann from the Shell office in the Hague and she knows Zach, whom I met in India. Now they both know Guille and the world is even smaller!

Great things are just around the corner...

El Bolson is known for being a hippie haven. They've chosen a beautiful spot to chill out, for sure. It's nestled between some amazing mountain ranges in a wide valley north of Lago Puelo, south of Bariloche. It reminds me of a more artsy version of Canmore. With our visit on a Saturday it meant that we were able to take in the feria artesanal.

The feria is a market around the Plaza Pagano in the centre of town that has handmade everything - jewelery, soap, jam, carvings, clothing and of course, mate gourds. We wandered through and picked up a few things. What proved to be the most fascinating aspect of the market was not buying but rather observing.

Out of all of the sounds I heard, there were maybe six people not speaking spanish. Out of all of the smells I smelled, I should have been high on pot! The smells of the food were amazing too, particularly near the Waffle King stand. Of all of the people I saw, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't possibly be a hippie as I like to shower too much, I like to be able to brush my hair and while I love the clothes, I'm just too hippy to be a hippie! They do nothing for me!

We bought several varieties of empanadas and some locally brewed beer for lunch and sat in the main square for a picnic and listened to the live bands playing. It wasn't long before we were approached by some children begging for food. They had quite the act and afterwards Guille pointed out that they're the ones to watch out for because they're taught to beg and while one distracts you, the other will steal from you if you're not careful. Fortunately we were on high alert anyway but it made me realize how easy it would be to be distracted despite my best efforts to be careful.

After we were done exploring around the town of El Bolson, we went for a drive to the Mirador Del Azul in the car. It gave us an incredible view of the Azul valley.

We decided we still had time before the sun went behind the mountains for sunset so we just kept going in the car. The roads were bumpy and steep. We weren't overly sure where we were going or where we'd end up but it didn't really matter. We just wanted to go 'splore.

Along the way we found some idyllic little farms and orchards, some notros flowers (the emblem of Patagonia).

We then discovered the Camping Hue Nain located on the banks of the Rio Azul. It was down a steep, long road that was very much out of the way. The sign on the side of the road was nothing special but we had time to kill and we were curious to see it. It turned out to be one of the most amazing campsites we'd ever seen. That's the beauty of exploring! You never know what you're going to find.

As we were winding down the car tour we rounded a corner on the road and both gasped. The sun was setting and lighting up the mountains on the east side of the valley. Judge for yourself, and maybe pictures can't do it justice, but it was an amazing scene.

I spoke too soon!

Friday morning. Not at work. A moment of gratitude for my time off. Ahhh...

After breakfast Guille and I went to check out the beach on Lago Puelo. It was amazing to see how much the water level of the lake has risen because of the rains - signs and picnic benches underwater. It was nice in the sun once we found shelter from the wind. We sat and read for a bit which was good to see Guille sit for a bit - she's go-go-go!

Later in the afternoon we went on a hike to the mirador overlooking Lago Puelo. A kilometer hike in the sun turned into quite the adventure. There was the option to extend the hike by another two or three kilometers which we opted to do; it felt good to be getting some exercise after all the eating and lazing.

One minute the sky was blue and clear. The next minute the valley between the mountains was socked in with ominous gray clouds. No sooner had I spotted it and said 'I don't like the looks of that' did the first drops come down. It started out as a light, pleasant sun-shower but then the wind picked up and it got cold. Because the walk ended up in town, we were able to hitch a ride back to our car just in time (!) for the skies to open up and absolutely POUR!

We went in to a coffee shop with wifi to wait it out and we were there for two and a half hours ordering coffee, biscuits, tea, etc just to justify our loitering. It was nice to catch up on some news from home (both my sisters are accomplishing some impressive achievements and doing me proud!) and my journaling but it was so frustrating to be stuck with all the rain. Again!

The good thing that came out of our refuge there was a recommendation for a restaurant for dinner in town. We ended up at this small, cozy, local restaurant. Not only was the food, the wine and the service wonderful but it was incredibly cheap. Argentina isn't as cheap as I heard it once was but 140$ (~$40) for appetizers, a bottle of wine, a big steak to share and two desserts was an INCREDIBLE deal! Yay!

Not a cloud in the sky!

Finally! Sunshine! Not a cloud in the sky! Guille and I sat by the lake and defrosted from another cold night while eating our breakfast. It was wonderful. It's a day not to be wasted. Lago Verde is almost ours alone and it's so still and peaceful here.

Since it's such a beautiful spot and it's summer here, the obvious question is 'Where is everyone?'. We've heard the weather is keeping people away. Yes, the rain and wind aren't fun but surely there's more to it. It turns out the Chilean volcano is having the biggest impact on people's travel plans. Flights to Bariloche and Esquel, the nearest large towns, are hit or miss depending on the direction of the wind and whether or not they can fly. Interesting! It's not really affected us yet but it sounds like we need to take the winds into account as we get closer to Bariloche in a few days' time.

The drive to Lago Puelo today wasn't long distance-wise but took a long time as a good chunk of it was on some ugly gravel roads - good thing it's a rental car! Along the way, we stopped and did a hike up to a lookout from which we saw three of the lakes and the Rio Rivadavia, plus our campground. It was a great little walk and ensured that we earned our lunch on the shores of Lago Rivadavia. I think of all of the lakes we've seen, it was my favourite. The sunshine and warmth of the day no doubt helped with that impression.

View from the mirador of our campground (see the white pier?) on Lago Verde:

Guille and I being shutter-bugs. (given the time I take fussing with pictures, I'm grateful she's interested in photography too!)

Lago Puelo is a small touristy town in a valley between the mountains. It's a lot like the Okanagan with all of the orchards. There are noticeably more backpackers here and both Guille and I remember our days in their shoes.

We both 'did our time' traveling on the cheap-cheap and now we've got the ideal situation. We're both grateful to have the car. We do feel a bit odd hauling 4-wheel suitcases into the tent though! We rough it and save when we can. We splurge when we want to. I'm already getting excited about the idea of a pedicure and a massage in Barioche. I love the range in the style of travel we are doing in this 2 1/2 week trip!!!

My journaling on my iPad needs to be done carefully now that we're around more people. When we both hauled out our iPads last night at dinner to briefly take advantage of some wi-fi and electrical sockets, the restaurant owner mentioned to Guille that we need to be very careful here. People will follow us if we take them out and flash them around. Fair enough. We need to lock them up in the car and be more vigilant about our possessions now. While I know you're not supposed to travel with anything you're not willing to lose, I'd sure be sad if this toy of mine ever disappeared!

Sunset over Lago Puelo: