I thought this city deserved its own page because of the extensive amount of pictures I wanted to share. I made a new friend last week from California who told me all about the trail up to Refugio Otto meiling and how to get there. So after researching this for the week my roommate and I took the bus from bariloche (purchased tickets at Club Andino for $450 pesos = $30 American dollars) to a town called Pampa Linda. The ride here was not very smooth but absolutely breathtaking. We were riding on the side of a river, but not just any river... This river was turquoise and I found out this was because it was water from the glacier! I wanted to stop and snap some pictures of it so badly, but we couldn't so I managed to get an okay one from the bus. There was not much here minus a few hotels, chickens and of course the trailhead to Refugio Otto Meiling. There was also a view of the glacier we were going to hike to above.
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View of the river on the driver on the drive to Pampa Linda...
Pictures do not do justice as this water was bright turquoise |
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| View from the trailhead |
Refugio Otto Meiling
We planned to spend the night at this Refugio as they offer beds and hot meals to hikers ($20 to spend the night and $15 for dinner). It's also on the side of a glacier (NBD) which explains the high costs. Of course the first 1/3 of the hike was flat and very clear cut. At 2/3 is when we started to incline, but it still wasn't so bad as there were switchbacks we could use in lieu of the straight up incline that were meant for horses as we were soon to find out. After a cowboy somewhat yelled/told us we were on the wrong path we tried to find the other and eventually the paths crossed so we got on that one. We probably lost a half hour using the switchbacks, but we weren't in a hurry as the sun doesn't go down until 830 this time of year. The last 1/3 we started to get some great views of the glacier and realized we couldn't have had much longer. I forgot to mention it had been drizzling on and off since we got off the bus and there was also some thunder so we hoped it wouldn't get worse as we knew that could be dangerous for us. So at the 2/3 mark we saw a rainbow! It made for some nice pictures as you can see. Now we starting following a skeptical path made by white dots on rocks up to where the Refugio was supposed to be. These rocks were easy to grip so we didn't really have issues climbing and the view was great. Then we saw it! Wow We couldn't believe how much easier the climb was than Refugio Frey because this hike was rated a medium in diffuculty and Frey was an easy level. Maybe we're just getting really good at this.
We entered into the tiny shack that supposedly had 60 beds/ a bathroom and kitchen in it. Well it did indeed! The beds were all pushed together on the floor upstairs and it smelled really great inside because they were cooking. Of course dinner wouldn't be ready until 9 so we had lots of time to kill before this and didn't bring enough money to drink. So we explored the grounds and the glacier. We killed about an hour just throwing rocks down a hole on the side of a glacier that we had found to see how far they would go. We got close and realized if we tripped and fell into this hole we'd be goners since there was a huge drop off under the glacier with running water that went to the waterfall we saw earlier. It was so crazy to throw a rock and hear it hit the bottom seconds later. It must have been a 20 foot drop underneath. Just about 20 minutes before we were walking on the glacier in another area and realized we were really stupid for doing this because had there been a hole or a thinner area we would have been in a lot of trouble.
We got back and had dinner and really really wanted a whiskey on the rocks, but only had enough for a couple of beers before dinner. We could have easily packed a flask of alcohol, but didn't even think about how perfect that would have been. Dinner was sufficient and sort of tasty for feeding a couple of dozen of people. Our water supply was cut off after 8 because the pipes were on the verge of freezing. I woke up at 4 and could not fall back asleep because it was so cold. So I got up at 7 and went outside the watch the sunrise. This was the best decision I had made all week. It was an incredible site and probably one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen in my life. I did freeze my face and hands off... I think i may have gotten a taste of frost bite! I can honestly say this hike was the best one I had ever done. I highly suggest it for anyone planning to travel to Argentina.
Side note: I am cutting myself off from hikes until I get new shoes. I walked down the last half of the hike in rainbows because they were more supportive than my current beat up tennis.
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| We saw some interesting moss in this forest on the way up |
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| Rainbow on the hike! |
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| GoPro must! |
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| One side of the dormitory room that housed 60 beds |
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| View from the dormitory |
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Me jumping on the glacier like an idiot -_-
It was fun while it lasted though :) |
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| Konstantine was testing his theory of being able to walk on the glacier. |
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| This was the hole on the side of the glacier that we threw rocks into and realized it was a very far drop off |
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| Sun getting ready to set |
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| Some cheap German beer looking good in the sunshine |
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| Sunrise |
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This is the refugio we stayed in.
Doesn't look very big, but it really can sleep 60 people. |
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| Sunrise |
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| On the hike down |
Refugio Agostina Rocca - Paso De Las Nubes Hike
I rode the bus to the town of Pampa Linda once again to meet up with my friend Carl to do the Paso de Los Nubes hike up to Refugio Angosta Rocca and hike down to a lake to take a Ferry back to Bariloche which was known to be a beautiful Ferry ride. The hike was supposed to take up to 6 hours and we didn’t leave until 2. This timing ended up being perfect because it was a very hot day and the sun was at an angle so we had shade most of the way up.
On the way up we walked alongside the Bluest/Turquoise river I have every seen... for maybe 2.5-3 hours. We couldn’t stop talking about Gatorade Frost and finally dunked our heads in and i had never felt more refreshed. The river looked and felt amazing!! Most of the hike was pretty level up until the last 1/3 of course. We climbed hill after hill and crossed so many creeks along the way. We got to the Refugio maybe an hour and half before sunset so we checked in, had some beers and admired the view which was once again of a glacier with some waterfalls coming out of it.
I couldn’t believe how nice this Refugio was compared to Refugio Otto Meiling. I guess it was fairly new maybe made in 2012 so everything was super modern and there was many bedrooms instead of one giant bedroom like Refugio Otto Meiling. We had some beers and started making our ravioli that we had brought up. This ravioli was from a Pasta Fabrica that sold fresh pasta and Ravioli. It was all mushed together by the time I pulled it out of my backpack because of the heat so we had to throw maybe 1/4 of it away. Needless to say it ended up being amazing... Carl made it out of his camping stove/pot. After learning my lesson the week before of not bringing up any liquor I managed to remember to bring some this time! The night before i purchased a flask size bottle of Anis, which is alcohol derived from the Anis flower, for the equivalent of $1! We bought some sprite to mix it with and it was incredible! Anis and Sprite… Who knew!! I definitely recommend trying this combo.
Carl and I both happened to wake up around sunrise so we had a really early start. It was a beautiful red and pink sunrise and then the sun I shared my room of 4 beds with a couple so I ended up sleeping pretty well and didn’t get woken up by any crazy noises like the week before. We started to head down to make our way to the lake to catch the Ferry… This hike was predicted to be 5-6 hours. We started walking down the same way we came up from and realized after about 5 minutes that there was probably a different path to take to the lake since we hadn’t passed it on the way up. Good thing we realized this only after 5 minutes because the other path was on the complete opposite end of this path. Close call!
We headed down a never ending steep hill and finally got to the bottom of it with some amazing view of the side of the mountain the glacier was on. There were maybe 20 waterfalls coming out the side of the mountain and we even saw a few pieces of the glacier fall off the side of the mountain. It was amazing. We could see a valley/river and knew this went to the lake so we thought the trail would follow this and then we’d be at the lake. We were wrong and the trail ended up going up and down the side of a mountain instead of just following the river. It was pretty annoying but kept us in the shade. We crossed through many creeks and had many mud obstacle courses to get through. I failed really hard on one of these mud obstacle courses and my whole left foot/leg was submerged in mud. I had just bought new shoes this last week so i was kind of mad but shook it off since i didn’t spend a ton of money on the shoes. It was really funny to think about that happening for the next couple of hours. There was a couple walking in front of us and they saw this happen and kept laughing at me… They were really nice though.
We finally got to Lago Frias maybe 6 hours later. Thinking the Ferry would arrive on time at 4:30 we had some beers and waited patiently. Then a whole bunch of buses started showing up with tourists who had just crossed the boarder from Chile. The Ferry was running late of course and we didn’t leave until 6! we were kind of mad that we might miss the lakes glowing from the sunlight, but we still got to see the beauty of the lakes. They were super duper blue and it was a very beautiful boat ride. I was so drained by the time we got back to Bariloche.
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| Hiking Snacks minus meat |
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