Day 83 - Bariloche

Lago Nahuel Huapi - Bariloche

A day of cleaning the bikes, packing bags and other general chores squeezed between coffee drinking and cake eating. Had our last meal in the restaurant that we first visited the afternoon we arrived on day 28 (El Nuevo gaucho) where the staff were really friendly, the atmosphere relaxed and the food tasty. We decided after a few local (Colonia Suiza) beers that we didn’t want to go home after all!

Local Llao Llao brews

Day 82 – Las Cartas to Bariloche – 40km

Set off into a morning of clearing mist and decided to go the long way round the peninsular, just to appreciate the mountains one last time. The road was busy and we had a few close shaves with bus drivers who insisted on cutting us up at every other bus stop and cars almost brushing past us on the narrower sections. We arrived at Bariloche and booked into a hotel where they insisted we take their top floor penthouse suite overlooking the lake at a discounted rate. We advised we had bikes and they proceeded to remove a bed from the room so we could fit them in……even though we tried to persuade them we just wanted an ordinary room. The holiday season appears to end abruptly at the beginning of March and hotels are desperate to fill rooms.....even 2 scruffy cyclists with dirty bikes! There was a lot of space for all our stuff though and we relented especially as there was a great view of the mountains over the rooftops of the town centre.

Llao Llao hotel

Penthouse Suite

Good food!

Day 81 – Local circuit ride – 31km

The weather had turned cooler over night and it was a novelty to see clouds after such a long time. We cycled around to the Llao Llao peninsular where we stopped at the grand hotel of the same name, hoping to be allowed past the guards to sample their coffee. The guards were extremely pleasant and welcoming despite our disheveled appearance and directed us to the entrance where we were welcomed even more enthusiastically by smartly uniformed staff with genuine smiles. We apprehensively entered, expecting a stuffy wood panelled foyer where rich Rolex wearing gentlemen peered over their glasses (whilst nursing a shot of scotch) contemplating an afternoon round of golf. Instead we walked into a wood panelled hall where people of all ages, nationalities and dress chatted happily with smiling staff. As we paused, taking it all in, a member of staff approached and guided us onto their stunning terrace which looked over the lake and suggested we sit wherever we liked. We sat right in the middle opposite stone steps leading to a green lawn where ashy headed geese grazed and hotel guest strolled admiring the herbaceous borders. It was totally quiet…..so we decided to have lunch as well! The view reminded us of our own Lake District……..we were starting to miss home again. After spinning out a coffee we explored the grounds and jealously admired the infinity pool and its view to Cerro Tronador before returning to the hotel lobby to appreciate some beautiful artwork they had just acquired and had started to hang. We continued our ride around the lake shore and stopped at a quiet beach where John enjoyed a cold swim, whittled a knife from a piece of wood (inspired by the local craftsmen) and I sat and took photos for a change....but I did go in up to my knees. 

Day 80 – Local cycle – 29km

Woke to clear skies again! It was almost getting to the stage where we hoped it would be raining so we didn’t feel guilty about lounging around and putting our feet up. The 6,000ft of ascending and descending the day before had meant we now needed to use the furniture to help us walk around whenever we got up……we suddenly felt old. Spent the day writing up the blog, shopping at the local supermarket 12km away and sitting on our deck watching cyclists from the local bike hire centre passing on bikes with saddles so low their knees were up around their chest. No wonder they had to get off and walk their bikes up the hill. It was very common to see a man pushing 2 bikes up the hill ahead of a woman looking miserable about 100m behind. The bikes were probably responsible for hundreds of relationship woes during the summer season as we witnessed expressions from frustration to despair and loathing.

Day 79 - Cerro Lopez walk – 26km

Setting off early.

Woke early and set off at 8.00 am. We made our way up a steep path through mature beech woodland with clearings affording spectacular views across Lago Moreno and Nahuel Huapi sparkling beneath yet another clear blue sky. There was barely a breath of wind to rustle the leaves or distort the lake surface. At 10.10 we arrived at a deserted Refugio Lopez and tentatively pushed open the door to find an empty timber clad room. We slowly creaked our way across the floorboards to a counter in the corner where flies took flight from a variety of otherwise tasty looking cakes. The kitchen next to it was totally silent with dirty dishes in the sink and a blackened kettle on the stove….it was like the Mari Celeste. When lots of loud walking up and down the creaky floorboards didn’t unearth any signs of life we stepped back outside into the brilliant sunshine to admire the amazing view across the lake to distant mountains and volcanoes. Suddenly, like Mr. Ben, a man in a lumberjack outfit appeared from a side door pulling on his gloves asking if we needed anything. We felt a bit guilty asking for a coffee when he clearly had a day as a lumberjack planned. We sat on a bench on the empty terrace outside reading the local Sunday paper which said that Bariloche had suffered nothing more than shaking furniture and swinging lamps during the earthquake. After ½ hour completely alone outside the empty refuge, we wondered why some countries had a strong culture of mountain walking (most Alpine countries) and some did not, despite lots of mountains and beautiful countryside? Austrian refuges would be heaving with walkers in stout boots drinking fresh coffee and stabbing at great slabs of strudel after having already completed 15km. Was it the long history of transhumance and ancient trade routes that had created such a complex and well serviced network of paths and tracks through the mountains? We finished our coffee to the sounds of Lumberjack Man buzzing away at fallen trees further down the valley and returned our mugs to the empty refugio. The path beyond was more exposed with patches of snow and unstable slabs of fractured rock rearing up above us. We reached the summit of Cerro Lopez having met no one and enjoyed some amazing views down valleys filled with beech forest, distant snow covered volcanoes across the nearby border with Chile, the never ending flat expanse of pampas to the east and hundreds of mountain peaks in all directions. We decended into another valley down a steep scree slope passing our first walker who explained that he had walked up under a full moon the night before. It was very hot and we dunked our hats and bandanas in streams to cool down as we climbed up to the next col where we had a great view down onto Refugio Italia Laguna Negra. We stopped and enjoyed several cans of pop (no coffee) admiring a family of ashy headed geese feeding at the lake outlet close by. The path down dropped steeply through mature beech woodland, passing snowmelt waterfalls and mossy springs where wildflowers flourished. It was all a bit like a fairy tale, had it not been for the sweat and constant clumsy tripping over exposed tree roots! The path wound its way through trees, avoiding eroded river embankments and huge fallen trees that had blocked the way. We knew there was an infrequent bus, where the path hit the dirt road, due at 17.45 but didn’t know exactly where we were (due to the scale of our map) so kept up the pace in the hope of avoiding a 1 ½ hour walk along roads back to our cabana. At 17.40, with no sign of the wooded valley coming to an end, we started running as familiar smells of habitation started to waft through the trees. We had been out for nearly 10 hours when we suddenly spilled out onto the dirt road at 17.48! There was a bus stop sign hanging from a piece of wood above us and the sound of absolute silence. We were pretty exhausted and talked about walking back to C. Suiza for water when a cloud of dust and the clattering sound of a bus jolted us up and had us waving our hands frantically in the middle of the road. If we had been a minute later we would have missed it and the next was not due until 20.10! We knew that in 15 minutes time we would be enjoying ice cold drinks from the fridge and a big slab of marmalade cake. At 6.05 we had our feet crammed into the b-day filled with cold water drinking cold orange wondering how we managed to arrive just one minute before the bus instead of one minute after. It had been one of the most satisfying mountain walks we had done and we ended the day sat on our deck looking up at the first deserted refuge with the sound of thunder rolling up the valley from a distant flickering storm.

The Sunday Paper.

Where is everybody?

Time for a foot spa.

Day 78 – Las Cartas – 28km

Set off on another sunny windless morning (must be a record for here) and decided to explore a section of road that passed the start of a footpath up Cerro Lopez in the hope of finding a cabana as close as possible. Luckily, we found a beautiful spot about 3km from the path with a view across a grassy clearing to the mountain itself. They had space and, amazingly, it was just $125.00 (£21.00)……the same price as the mouse infested, gritty, wind lashed camping spot in Torres del Paine! We watched competitors, returning from a route taking in the 4 refugios on Cerro Lopez & Catedral, covered in dust and in various states of exhaustion. It was quite a big event with a film crew and crowds of people. We took our netbook to take advantage of the wi-fi in the local restaurant and only managed to return one e-mail before we had the frustrating problem of typing out replies, only for the’ session expired’ warning to appear after we hit the send button. This happened 5 times before we gave up…it may have been that local traffic was very high after yesterday’s earthquake? We returned to our little cabin and watched the 24 hour coverage of the earthquake on all the local new channels. It looked much worse than we had imagined and we were shocked to see places we had cycled through along the coast badly damaged. We hoped the people we had met in the beach resort of Maintencillo were OK. The cabanas were only 20m back from the shore and the lovely café terrace, where we had sat on Boxing day chatting to the friendly owner, was almost on the beach. Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar had also suffered damage despite the distance from the epicenter.

Back to our Cabana.

Day 77 – Peninsula Llao Llao – 48km

Had a friendly send off from Mr. and Mrs. Guemes who were probably delighted to reclaim their utility room where they had kindly insisted on storing our dusty bikes. Cycled along the busy shore road (last weekend before the schools go back) past expensive lakeside homes, pretty harbours and the ’Centro Atomico Reactor’ which must have been on alert after the massive earthquake in Chile earlier in the morning. We had caught a bit on the news as we left the B&B but didn’t realize how large and destructive it had been. The route was lined with chocolate shops, ice cream parlours, local furniture makers but no Café, so we cycled straight to Colonia Suiza where we hoped to camp. It was an historic settlement which had all the usual trappings of an attractive tourist destination, equivalent to Grasmere, but in a log cabin timber style! The first campsite had music blaring from reception, the second had been commandeered by a running event and the third was used by the public as a picnic, bar-b-cue spot with car door music. We were now suffering severe camp paranoia, which had developed to such an extent that we viewed even the most innocuous situations with deep suspicion: piles of wood and litter, groups of log seats, piles of cigarette ends, scorched tree canopies and beer cans outside tents with no fly sheets…..clear signs of young people enjoying themselves! We had turned into (or confirmed ourselves as) a couple of old fuddy duddies that just wanted to some peace and quiet and an uninterrupted, smoke free sleep. We cycled on through a beautiful landscape of still lakes, mature woodland and rocky cliffs and found a quiet picnic spot by the lake with just the echoing sound of two woodpeckers calling competitively and the splash of fish jumping out of the water. We cycled on through the Llao Llao peninsula and stopped to admire a golf course with (in our questionable opinion, having not played golf anywhere) one of the most beautiful views in the world. At 5.00pm we passed a cabana sign and stopped for a look….a modern timber building with a deck looking through a canopy of pine trees to the lake below. A bird of prey chick sat on a branch directly opposite and screeched, completely un-phased by the two open mouthed humans staring at it a few metres away. Apart from the sound of the bird it was silent. We had made the right descision.

Day 76 - Bariloche

Had a lie in and tried to avoid Mr. Guemes and his beckoning finger over a map spread before him. He was chatting to other guests at breakfast (with no map in sight) and we relaxed knowing we wouldn’t be tempted. We booked a coach, checked our booked accommodation in B. Aires (not affected by recent bad flooding) and arranged car hire from Heathrow for our arrival in 2 weeks time. Shopped for 5 days food and packed our panniers for a trip west along the lakeside for a holiday from our holiday.

Beef fest!

Day 75 – Cerro Otto – 13km

Woke with sore legs and decided to have a rest day. Mr. Guemes had a chat with us at breakfast and recommended a trip to Cerro Otto which could be reached on foot from the B&B. The weather was still sunny and calm so we set off and enjoyed a ridge type walk through mature woodland, past boulders and cliffs (where the army were training) and a small ski station. The sun was warming the air, rising up the face of the ridge and providing a group of 8 condors with a poweful thermal which they were enjoying directly above us. They circled the ridge and, once high enough, effortlessly glided east towards the flat pampas. When we eventually reached the rotating restaurant we were stopped by a man in uniform demanding an entrance fee whilst music blared from speakers above his head. We thought there was a mistake and asked how we got into the restaurant as we only wanted a coffee. He pushed his shades down and said, ‘This is the restaurant!’. We saw other people turning away and wondered how many customers they lost every day. We walked 100m past the cable car entrance next to the restaurant and discovered a quiet area away from the music where we could just enjoy the amazing view and paraponters gliding with condors directly above them. Later whilst having a coffee in town we decided that tomorrow we needed a proper rest that didn’t involve using our legs and we would try and avoid listening to Mr.Guemes attractive days out suggestions…they were too tempting to ignore!

Day 74 – Cerro Catedral walk – 17km

Had an early breakfast and caught the once every 1 ½ hour bus to the ski station base. Despite the busy season drawing to an end the bus was pretty packed and we wondered why they didn’t run more frequently. We were dropped outside the ski lift at 9.15am and then had to wait 45 minutes for the lift to open! At 10.00 the ticket windows opened and tour guide operators went straight to the front of the queue to pay for their clients who had just rolled up in a coach and had started forming a long line at the cable car entrance.
Fortunately the staff at the windows counted out the big piles of money so slowly that we just managed to get on a gondola before the now lengthy queue started to surge forward. The gondola was very slow so we had plenty of opportunity to admire the view from every direction. The weather was still totally clear and we had great views of Volcano Lenin (we cycling past in Chile, 6 weeks previously) and a network of lakes, islands and peninsulas. After a dramatic rocky walk we stopped at a high Refugio for coffee in a beautiful location on the edge of a still, blue lake and enjoyed a woodland descent past wild flowers making the most of the increased sunlight after woodland fires. Fire damage has been evident everywhere we have travelled, but the scale has been most striking on bus journeys, where mile after mile of dead grey trunks stand clear of low regenerating scrub. At first we thought there was some sort of disease affecting certain tree species, so widespread was the damage….but we have since read and heard about the woodland fires. From what we have seen, the obsession with fires at all times of the day in campsites, and at the side of roads and lakes during picnics, may have been the cause of many. We caught the bus back and had an early night to rest our legs which were complaining about the change in exercise!