Monday 4/6/15 -
On this complete experience of a bus trip from El Chalten to El Bolson, I was sitting on the isle next to an Asian girl, and we exchanged 0 words. When I asked the lady at the office, she said there was going to be food and movies. I didn’t think to ask about there being heat on the bus, but she probably would have lied about that too. Needless to say, it was a cold night sleeping on the bus. I actually slept fairly decent in my jeans, sweatshirt, beanie, gloves, hood, eye cover, and iPod. But looking around, there were people clearly miserable and people in their full sleeping bags. Everyone seemed to be cuddled up in some way, it was absolutely freezing. We also seemed to make a lot of stops as people were dropped off and other got on, and that bothered me because these were not short stops, probably 20-30 minutes each.
Finally morning came and someone finally notified the bus driver that the heat was off. He claimed he didn’t know. No breakfast was served, but we had the option to buy things at each of the many stops. During the day, we asked the driver to put on a movie, but the sound was so bad, he turned the movie off after 15 minutes and I wasn’t even mad about it. Finally, at about 1pm, “lunch” was served. A saran wrapped, Styrofoam plate of a ham and cheese sandwich (literally one slice of ham, one slice of cheese, and bread), a small pie of potatoes and veggies, and some yellow pudding for dessert. As people entered and exited, I moved to sit in an open 2-seater near Gabi, and we ended up making friends with a Mexican girls named Same and a French girl named Marine. We all bonded over the torture we were being put through. At one of the stops, Sam told the driver she was going to the bathroom, and the bus started to leave. So she ran back to the bus as it was pulling out and yelled at the driver before proceeding to her seat.
End all, be all, we survived the bus. We really weren’t bored or completely miserable to tell the truth, it just was far from a comfortable trip. And the fact that it was so expensive (about 120 USD) really amplified the experience. We arrived in El Bolson at 8:30pm (supposed to arrive at 7:15), and Gabi and I walked 10 minutes from the main square and found Hostel Pehuenia, recommended to me by a buddy Kolin, who had traveled Argentina briefly a year and a half ago. We rang the bell, a lady answered the door, and when I asked if there was availability, she blurted a very excited “Si!” Gabi and I were about to find that our karma was already paying off because turns out the dorm rooms in the hostel were full, but she offered us a sweet cabana in the backyard for the same price. The cabana was awesome and just what we needed after that bus ride. It had a double bed and a triple bunk bed, a table and chairs, sink, mini fridge, and private bathroom. Oh and a TV with direcTV. Almost the whole cabin was made of cozy wood, and we were immediately excited to get food and beer and do nothing besides hang in our room, relax, and watch the NCAA national championship game. She also brought us towels and toilets paper, beyond luxurious.
The nice lady who checked us in also told us there was a guy named Bryan from Chicago lounging on the couch in the main room, so we met him and invited him to hang with us and watch the game. Turns out Bryan just graduated from Wisconsin (who was playing Duke) 3 months earlier, and was set to start his job in San Francisco (where Gabi was planning to move) in June when he got back. So it was not hard to find conversation. We went to the mini market next door, got a bunch of salami, cheese and bread, and some side items, and made ourselves a very convenient and comfortable dinner as we really enjoyed the rare cabana and opportunity to watch some American sports.
On this complete experience of a bus trip from El Chalten to El Bolson, I was sitting on the isle next to an Asian girl, and we exchanged 0 words. When I asked the lady at the office, she said there was going to be food and movies. I didn’t think to ask about there being heat on the bus, but she probably would have lied about that too. Needless to say, it was a cold night sleeping on the bus. I actually slept fairly decent in my jeans, sweatshirt, beanie, gloves, hood, eye cover, and iPod. But looking around, there were people clearly miserable and people in their full sleeping bags. Everyone seemed to be cuddled up in some way, it was absolutely freezing. We also seemed to make a lot of stops as people were dropped off and other got on, and that bothered me because these were not short stops, probably 20-30 minutes each.
Finally morning came and someone finally notified the bus driver that the heat was off. He claimed he didn’t know. No breakfast was served, but we had the option to buy things at each of the many stops. During the day, we asked the driver to put on a movie, but the sound was so bad, he turned the movie off after 15 minutes and I wasn’t even mad about it. Finally, at about 1pm, “lunch” was served. A saran wrapped, Styrofoam plate of a ham and cheese sandwich (literally one slice of ham, one slice of cheese, and bread), a small pie of potatoes and veggies, and some yellow pudding for dessert. As people entered and exited, I moved to sit in an open 2-seater near Gabi, and we ended up making friends with a Mexican girls named Same and a French girl named Marine. We all bonded over the torture we were being put through. At one of the stops, Sam told the driver she was going to the bathroom, and the bus started to leave. So she ran back to the bus as it was pulling out and yelled at the driver before proceeding to her seat.
End all, be all, we survived the bus. We really weren’t bored or completely miserable to tell the truth, it just was far from a comfortable trip. And the fact that it was so expensive (about 120 USD) really amplified the experience. We arrived in El Bolson at 8:30pm (supposed to arrive at 7:15), and Gabi and I walked 10 minutes from the main square and found Hostel Pehuenia, recommended to me by a buddy Kolin, who had traveled Argentina briefly a year and a half ago. We rang the bell, a lady answered the door, and when I asked if there was availability, she blurted a very excited “Si!” Gabi and I were about to find that our karma was already paying off because turns out the dorm rooms in the hostel were full, but she offered us a sweet cabana in the backyard for the same price. The cabana was awesome and just what we needed after that bus ride. It had a double bed and a triple bunk bed, a table and chairs, sink, mini fridge, and private bathroom. Oh and a TV with direcTV. Almost the whole cabin was made of cozy wood, and we were immediately excited to get food and beer and do nothing besides hang in our room, relax, and watch the NCAA national championship game. She also brought us towels and toilets paper, beyond luxurious.
The nice lady who checked us in also told us there was a guy named Bryan from Chicago lounging on the couch in the main room, so we met him and invited him to hang with us and watch the game. Turns out Bryan just graduated from Wisconsin (who was playing Duke) 3 months earlier, and was set to start his job in San Francisco (where Gabi was planning to move) in June when he got back. So it was not hard to find conversation. We went to the mini market next door, got a bunch of salami, cheese and bread, and some side items, and made ourselves a very convenient and comfortable dinner as we really enjoyed the rare cabana and opportunity to watch some American sports.
Tuesday 4/7/15 -
El Bolson is a small town about 1.5 hours south of Bariloche, the touristy ski-resort city in the northern part of Patagonia Argentina. Bolson is known for it’s local feel and tremendous hikes/views, as well as some adventure sport opportunities. We had all heard good things and were excited, but we were admittedly a little bit hiked-out as we had hiked like 9 of the last 14 days.
Soaking in the cabana as much as possible, we slept in until about 9, grabbed some breakfast (bread and jam), and then hung in the room until 10:30 check out time. As the nice hostel lady had warned us the previous night, if we wanted to stay another night, there were going to be availabilities in the cheaper dorms, so we had to move to the main house. We had no problem with that though, we were grateful she let us stay in Cabana Paradise for a night.
At about 12, Gabi, Bryan, and I headed to the street market, which was supposed to be one of the best in Argentina. Well, spoiler alert, it wasn’t. it was not great weather and April is low season, so it makes sense that the market was “down,” but we were a little disappointed. Since not everything was fully set up at 12:15, we went to one of the adventure activity offices and asked about their events, but basically nothing fun was available unfortunately because it was the low season. A lot of times there is no way to know this stuff ahead of time too, I have found that a lot of things are hit and miss in this country. So we went back to the street market We checked out all the of the artisans, some of them were pretty cool, got some food from various stands (the waffle mini food truck was tremendous and we had some of the best empanadas we’d experienced) and moved on with our day. Gabi went to hang with some Californians at their tent spot and I went with Stephanie (the third member of the girl group from El Chalten that didn’t get to camp with us because she had to take the bus to Bariloche. Turns out she actually had to mandatorily exit at some small city and ended up spending a day helping a random farmer in order to pass time before the next bus came the day after. A very South American experience, and she met up with us in Bolson) to find the hidden waterfall.
I had a weak map, and it didn’t help much. We ended up giving up on the hidden waterfall and just hiking along a creek for a while. It was very fun hiking though, we were constantly climbing on rocks and ducking under tree trunks. At one point we climbed up a very steep pass and Stephanie decided it was too dangerous to go back down. In her defense, it was extremely steep; I was on my hands and feet on the way up like I was climbing a ladder. But once we learned that there was really nowhere safe to go up or sideways, talking her into going back down wasn’t too hard. We basically slid down and I really enjoyed the thrill of knowing that a quick slip could be very bad news. We kept going along the river for a while, but once there was no end in site and we had to be back to meet Gabi for dinner, we turned around. It was really a fun/adventurous/different hike.
I got back to the hostel at about 5:45, Stephanie came to meet us, and us 3 went to dinner at Juaja, apparently one of the better restaurants in El Bolson. Gabi and I shared a pizza and a chicken dish while Stephanie enjoyed a glass of wine. She had already eaten because she had food at the hostel and she was strictly watching the funds. The dinner was good, but I have to say, the ice cream shop next door (same company) afterwards was better. It was torture deciding which flavors to get but the classic chocolate and mint chocolate chip never disappoints. We then went back to the hostel and played cards (hearts) until probably 11:30pm, far after the rest of the hostel had gone to bed.
El Bolson is a small town about 1.5 hours south of Bariloche, the touristy ski-resort city in the northern part of Patagonia Argentina. Bolson is known for it’s local feel and tremendous hikes/views, as well as some adventure sport opportunities. We had all heard good things and were excited, but we were admittedly a little bit hiked-out as we had hiked like 9 of the last 14 days.
Soaking in the cabana as much as possible, we slept in until about 9, grabbed some breakfast (bread and jam), and then hung in the room until 10:30 check out time. As the nice hostel lady had warned us the previous night, if we wanted to stay another night, there were going to be availabilities in the cheaper dorms, so we had to move to the main house. We had no problem with that though, we were grateful she let us stay in Cabana Paradise for a night.
At about 12, Gabi, Bryan, and I headed to the street market, which was supposed to be one of the best in Argentina. Well, spoiler alert, it wasn’t. it was not great weather and April is low season, so it makes sense that the market was “down,” but we were a little disappointed. Since not everything was fully set up at 12:15, we went to one of the adventure activity offices and asked about their events, but basically nothing fun was available unfortunately because it was the low season. A lot of times there is no way to know this stuff ahead of time too, I have found that a lot of things are hit and miss in this country. So we went back to the street market We checked out all the of the artisans, some of them were pretty cool, got some food from various stands (the waffle mini food truck was tremendous and we had some of the best empanadas we’d experienced) and moved on with our day. Gabi went to hang with some Californians at their tent spot and I went with Stephanie (the third member of the girl group from El Chalten that didn’t get to camp with us because she had to take the bus to Bariloche. Turns out she actually had to mandatorily exit at some small city and ended up spending a day helping a random farmer in order to pass time before the next bus came the day after. A very South American experience, and she met up with us in Bolson) to find the hidden waterfall.
I had a weak map, and it didn’t help much. We ended up giving up on the hidden waterfall and just hiking along a creek for a while. It was very fun hiking though, we were constantly climbing on rocks and ducking under tree trunks. At one point we climbed up a very steep pass and Stephanie decided it was too dangerous to go back down. In her defense, it was extremely steep; I was on my hands and feet on the way up like I was climbing a ladder. But once we learned that there was really nowhere safe to go up or sideways, talking her into going back down wasn’t too hard. We basically slid down and I really enjoyed the thrill of knowing that a quick slip could be very bad news. We kept going along the river for a while, but once there was no end in site and we had to be back to meet Gabi for dinner, we turned around. It was really a fun/adventurous/different hike.
I got back to the hostel at about 5:45, Stephanie came to meet us, and us 3 went to dinner at Juaja, apparently one of the better restaurants in El Bolson. Gabi and I shared a pizza and a chicken dish while Stephanie enjoyed a glass of wine. She had already eaten because she had food at the hostel and she was strictly watching the funds. The dinner was good, but I have to say, the ice cream shop next door (same company) afterwards was better. It was torture deciding which flavors to get but the classic chocolate and mint chocolate chip never disappoints. We then went back to the hostel and played cards (hearts) until probably 11:30pm, far after the rest of the hostel had gone to bed.
Wednesday 4/8 -
Gabi, Stephanie, and I left hostel Pehuenia at about 9:30 in a cab and headed up to Bosque Tallado, an area where artists had carved designs into already dead trees. The hike up would have been almost 5 hours, so we decided a cab was a more economical idea. After a 40 minute drive on the dirt “road” (it really wasn’t a road, more of a bumpy path), the cab driver dropped us off and we hiked up the final steep kilometer. The area was vacant when we got there, so we showed ourselves around. We wandered through the sculptures and some of them were pretty cool. Some I probably could have done myself, but others did catch my eye. My favorite part was probably the view over the city. Even though it was fairly cloudy, we were pretty high up and you could tell that if there were no clouds, the view would have been incredible.
After admiring the carvings for a little over an hour, we hiked up the final 20 minutes of steepness and found the refugio with a great view and benches to relax. We ate a few cookies and then started the walk down. The plan was to walk on the dirt car road and hope that a cab drove by so we could flag them down. We didn’t want to pay in full for another expensive cab and there was no way to call one anyway, so this made the most sense. Turns out there was a walking path that drastically cut down the transit time, so we made it down to El Bolson in about 3 hours (as opposed to 5). During that entire 3 hours, 2 dogs were following us as if we were their parents. Dogs do that in South America. There are a lot of stray dogs, so they follow people in hopes of food/love. We aren’t sure how/why they were at the top of the mountain in the first place, but as soon as they smelled us, they were on our heels until we finally got in a cab just outside the city to save 30-45 minutes of walking.
We bought our bus tickets to Bariloche for the 5:30 bus and had some good junk yard food at Willy’s, recommended by the cab driver. Went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, chilled for a bit, and then hopped on the bus. We checked into our hostel in Bariloche called Penthouse 1004 at about 8pm. It’s called penthouse because it is literally on the top floor (10th floor) of a building with an incredible view of the lake and mountain range surrounding it. We read the reviews and it was supposed to have the best kitchen ever and amazing “sun-downers”. Those both proved to be true. And with the best kitchen ever at our hands, we raced to the grocery store down the street to get some materials to cook dinner that night. Stephanie is a vegetarian so we agreed on a massive salad for dinner. I did the lunch shopping for the next day for everyone as well. The salad turned out amazing. I boiled a potato from the “free” shelf and Gabi made some abstract, last minute dressing which ended up being very tasty. We definitely made the most of this hostel’s offerings. After some pictures and the festive meal, we hung out and then went to sleep in preparation for the Circuto Chico bike ride the next day.