Where we've been: Trip Progress Map & Resources

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M A R C H / 0 6

Wednesday March 29 2006

Scenes from the Road

Near Lago Llancanelo, Malargüe, Mendoza province.

Heading north, the days are getting warmer but shorter. My favourite time to be on the road is around sunset, which happens these days at about 7:30.

Near Zapala, Neuquén province.

This week we reluctantly left Patagonia after four months in the region. March brought on shorter days, colder nights and poor weather, making camping and being in the outdoors a rather nasty affair. We weren't the only ones migrating north to a warmer climate. The Ruta 40 was clogged with gauchos herding their goats, cows and horses down to winter pasture.

Tuesday March 28 2006

Land of Volcanoes

The Reserva Provincial Peyun near Malargüe in Mendoza province contains the world's largest concentration of volcanoes, over 800 (big and small) in a 400 sq. km area. The area undulates with cones, fields of black lava and swashes of yellow tussock grasses.

A line of dust reveals a truck crossing the lava fields in high winds.

Overlooking Lago Llancanelo, near Malargüe 

Volcan Lanin, Lanin National Park, near Junin de los Andes.

We had perfect weather for a walk to the base of Volcan Lanin. With it's elegant cone shape permanently capped with a dollop of ice and snow, Lanin is a mesmerizing volcano. At over 5500 meters altitude it dominates the Andean skyline on a brilliantly clear day.

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Friday March 24 2006

"nunca mas" (never again) 

Today marks the 30th Anniversary of the last era of dictatorships in Argentina (beginnning in 1976 with the sadistic General Videla) and start of the "Dirty War". Argentineans often refer to the eight years under dictatorial rule as a time of "sombres oscuros" or or "dark shadows". Since the last dictator General Galtieri (who started the Falklands War) left in 1983, the country has been on the long and diffucult road to rebuilding democracy.

Above, agit-prop posters provoke passers-bye to remember the "Desparecidos", government detractors (some were leftist guerillas) who were taken by police "death squads" and killed, or put in detention centres and tortured. The message - on the street and in the mainstream media - on this day of rememberance is that it will never happen again.

Thursday March 23 2006

Today's Flavour

Ice creams Paola!, Junin de los Andes

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The Refugio Frey on Laguna Tonchek

Saturday March 19 2006

Holy Mountain Scenery! A Trip to Cerro Catedral

Just a short bus ride away from Bariloche, the Circuito Chico trek in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi is part of the longer five-day Nahuel Huapi Traverse. The trek started with my favourite approach to steep climbs: a ski-lift to the top where there is a chalet serving beer and fries.

Feeling happy on the chairlift to the start of the trail

For the first two hours the trail skirts below the Cordon Catedral. It's a goat-track along a precipitous slope and through craggy bluffs. With a full pack and gusting winds at my side I began to wish I had four legs and hooves.  

At the summit before a steep drop to the Refugio Frey

Laguna Scmoll drains through a creek lush with succulents.

Hardy rock plants cling to a scree slope

The lovely "mutisia" vine thrives in hot dry valleys.

Thank God for bullseye trail markers on the trail to Refugio Jakob on day two. Cerro Catedral's three "Gaudi-esque" spires can be seen on the far left. Later on we descended a scree-slope (boot-skiing most of the way down) into a valley where we were met with a light snowstorm. As we ascended the valley and began to climb steeply to Paso Brecha Negra, a raging blizzard developed. We were grateful for the vibrant trailmarkers although they were slowly being obscured by snowfall. We arrived late at the post and beam refugio soaking wet (what's so great about Goretex™ anyways?), cold and relieved. That snowey night it felt like Christmas while we celebrated my 40th birthday by candlelight with trekkers from around the world.

Leaving the snow behind on a descent into the Arroyo San Martine.

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Tuesday March 14 2006

Those Crafty Folks

There's not much more I love more than Festivals and Crafty Farmers Markets. El Bolsón's Saturday "Feria de Artesania" is a market of local produce and art that feels like a earthy woop-up festival. There are buskers, artesenal food stalls (about 6 of them selling fruity beers) and lots of trippy looking folk decked out in the latest in tye-dye and handspun llama-wool threads. Wafts of Patchouli, tabacco, fried bread and fresh strawberries infuse the crisp Bolsón air. Hippie-dippie locals mingle with tourists in zip-off trekking pants and Teva sandals, kids run around with ice-cream smiles and puppies mooch around for spilled delicacies.

The concentration of talent in Bolsón is incredible. Carvers, leathersmiths, textile artists, candle makers and jewelers sell a dazzling array of one-of-a-kind goods, while guitarists and jugglers entertain the hordes. Here are few images from the Fair....

Left: carver incorporates a Merino Sheep motif into a platter. Right: a Performance Artist's ethereal statue comes to life with the drop of a coin in her cup.

Famous fine fruits of El Bolsón's micro-climate.

Imaginative handcarved kitchen tools and cutting boards are a staple at the Fair.

"Coronas", or crowns, and purses made from fabric scraps by FlyPapi.

The troupe "Luz del Circulo" from Buenos Aires fuses a hilarious mix of juggling, fire-spinning, garage rock, folk ditties, and classical riffs (here featuring a duet by a platinum-haired cellist and a clown playing a wood saw).

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Monday March 13 2006

Red sky on Argentina's Ruta 40 between Esquel and El Bolsón

Tuesday March 07 2006

Little Known Places in Chile

Another day, another textured Patagonian sky. Here, as seen from the San Lorenzo Valley during a day of wind, rain, sun and more wind.

After a month in overcrowded National Parks (Torres del Paine, and the Fitzroy range in Los Glacieres in Argentina) Frank and I were keen to spend some time in remote places. We chose the San Lorenzo Valley with towering Mount San Lorenzo at its headwaters just outside of Cochrane, Chile. Although not far from the town, the road up the valley to the Fondo San Lorenzo was horrendous and put the Rhino to the test on an especially nasty bit over a boulder field. The San Lorenzo Valley is dotted with estancias owned by members of the same family, two which have grassy campsites near their farms. Sitting by our campfire, Gauchos cantered by on horses with their family or hustled past herding sheep, lead by eager dogs (tails wagging furiously) urgeing the wooly animals into their carrals. Rivers raged past, snowy peaks poked though clouds and we had the trails to ourselves.

The remote Fundo (or farm) San Lorenzo, owned by hospitable Lucy Gomez and Luis Soto, sees to an intrepid bunch of mountaineers and trekkers from around the world as they begin an attempt to climb the 3400 meter San Lorenzo summit. Chickens, dogs, sheep and cats forage around the farm while frigid winds rip down the valley from the massive Northern Patagonia Ice Field

Left: the original rustic refugio at the San Lorenzo Base Camp, built by the legendary climber and Man of the Cloth, Father de Agostini and maintained over the years by mountaineers. Agostini, an Italian Priest and avid mountaineer who worked as a missionary in Patagonia, made first-summits of many Patagonian peaks and climbed San Lorenzo at age 60 in the early 1950s. Right: the new cozy refugio built by Lucy Gomez and Luis Soto, and dedicated to a swiss climber who perished on the mountain in March 2000.

Daisies at the side of the stream in the San Lorenzo Glacier flood plain.

More daisies, these ones without furry "lambs' ear" foliage.

In anotherwise barren area, plants take hold where they can along a glacier-fed stream. Nestling into multi-coloured rocks and surrounding gurgling streams, mosses, tussock grass and wild flowers form marshy gardens that animate this land of ice and wind.

Lago General Carrera. South America's second largest lake (after Titicaca in Bolivia) and a real stunner. The drive along the lake's southern coast to the border town Chile Chico must be one of the most scenic and hair-raising drives in Chile. Pot holes, blind corners and precipitous drops compete for attention with scenic deep blue waters and soaring peaks.

Our second venture into remoteness was the Reserva Nacional Jeinimeini (hi-nee-my-nee). Nobody in the town of Chile Chico knew much about this place. We were told only that there is a good gravel road along the Rio Jeinimeini that winds through red-rock canyons eroded by wind and time. We read in our guide book that it was possible to walk and bike in the area, so headed off with our new pal Tuathel, an Irish cyclist we met in a campsite. Lago Jeinimeieni, at the centre of the Reserva is a pool of blue in a plateau of burnt orange and ochre. Erosion is the dominating theme here. Representing milennia of glacial activity, pebbles along the lake shore are remainders of what were part of the multi-coloured cliffs and mesas surrounding the lake. Unfortunately the apalling weather in the Reserva forced us to spend more time around our campfire than out exploring the trails. Summer ended unseasonably early in Southern Chile, and after a few days of waiting out the weather, we decided to bail out and head back to sunny Argentina.

While we waited for good weather at the start of the Cerro Castillo trek (it never came) I snooped around town taking photos of typical Chilean shingled houses in Villa Cerro Castilllo, Aysen.

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Thanks for visiting.

all photographs lindsay simmonds ©2005/2006