El Bolson and over the border!

As hippy places go, El Bolson is not very hippy-ish. It is, however, surrounded by snow-capped mountains ripe for climbing!

We found a beautiful place to stay just outside town with large gardens and a log fire. On closer inspection, a big barbecue was discovered. The laws of Argentina dictate that the grilling of a huge piece of meat is required whenever a barbecue is available. 2.2kg between four people seemed a respectable amount.

It took over an hour on the grill but somehow it came out perfect.

The whole thing was consumed in about 43 seconds.

El Bolson is in the middle of a valley lined with Andes mountains. On one side there is the impenetrable rocky wall that separates Argentina from Chile. On the other side some equally rocky stuff is just asking to be climbed. We decided to head up to the top of the snowy peak of Cerro Piltriquitron.

Halfway up we discovered El Bosque Tallado (the carved forest), where local artists showcase sculptures they have carved out of trees from the forest. It was quite good fun and the carvings were spectacular, but I was a bit surprised that anyone would choose 1,500 meters up the side of a mountain as a location to display their art.

The climb started easy enough, with great views across the valley.

Four hours later we made it to the top and were greeted by spectacular views, and even a couple of Condors!

The next day myself and Simon headed off to Esquel on our way across the boarder to the Chilean side of Patagonia. One quirky fact about Patagonia is that a large group of Welsh people settled there in the late 1800's. If you keep your ears pricked up, you can still hear Welsh being spoken in places like Esquel today.

Next up is a detour to a little visited corner of Patagonia on the Chilean side, where transport is scarce and the weather is wet. I'm not really sure what I was thinking. I'll leave you with some pics from the mountain climb.

After getting above the treeline it got cold and snowy. If you look really closely, you can see two hippys in the bottom-left corner of this picture. Some joker had told them the top of the mountain was a light 90 minute stroll. It was actually a strenuous four hour hike. The girl was wearing a dress and the guy had sandals on his feet. They did not enjoy themselves.

Finally, we make it to the summit!

Nice views from the top.

That is Chile in the background. I waved to my friends Consuelo and Carla but I don't think they saw me.