Hielo Azul Glacier

Trip Start Jan 20, 2005

Trip End Feb 20, 2005

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Flag of Argentina El Bolson, Argentina
Sunday, January 30, 2005

After a day and a half of recovery (ie. lots of good food, beer and chocolate) and getting our food bags organized for the weeks ahead, we picked up our rented car (Suzuki FUN -that was the name of the car, no joke!) and drove off to El Bolson for the start of our next hike! Small little shiny red manual car, Theo could often be heard saying "a hamster has more guts than this car!". Ironically at that point Nadine also realized that her watch had been ahead by one hour for an entire week, we wondered why many restaurants still weren´t open for dinner at 8:30pm - people in Argentina generally eat late and at a true 9pm the downtown of Bariloche is filled with people trying to choose a restaurant for the evening. It was Nadine´s birthday (January 27th) as we left for El Bolson and she couldn´t have asked for a better present than this trip to Argentina and soon Chile! El Bolson was a great hippy town, artisans selling their crafts and lots of fresh fruit for sale. After finding our camp ground (Hue Nain), we went back into town and found some El Bolson pepper beer (and some other cool flavours) and headed back to the campsite to drink and settle down for the night. We met another travelling couple named Gabbie and Shawn from England who were travelling in SA for 6 weeks. It was overcast as we started hiking the next morning, and this was helpful as the first day was spent walking uphill entirely (or so it seemed). We got caught in the rain for the last 3km before the Refugio Hielo Azul, and while most hikers hung out in the hut that night in the rain we decided to make food in the vestibule of our tent and play some mean games of scrabble!

The next morning we got up to do a day hike up to the Hielo Azul glacier, and although it was quite sunny most of the day the winds near the glacier were quite fierce at times and we counted on our toques and gortex to keep us warm.

a) Our FUN car, despite not having much guts!

We met a tame cat quite a ways up to the glacier, turns out it lives at the Refugio. The glacier was stunning, with chunks falling off of it into the lake below it. We ate some of the small icebergs and played with the pieces, and then hiked up the side of it for a ways until we were concerned with rock fall from above and the integrity of the glacier itself. We ended up spending close to 6 hrs for our day trip, and we decided not to hike on to the next hut as planned.

Back at our tent we met up with Simon and Solveiga again from Australia! The evening was spent hanging out in the Refugio, playing scrabble and drinking great homemade beer, and chatting with Shaun and Gabbie and the Australian couple. We were so drunk that we couldn´t get back to our tent to make dinner in the dark so we ended up eating a tasty meal (steak and mashed potatoes, homemade bread) made by Lukas who runs the hut (the hut was handmade from the trees in the area by Lukas and others). Off we staggered to sleep and to dream of mountains and glaciers.

We woke up at 7am the next morning, a little tired but no hangovers (good beer with no preservatives!) to start our hike out, we had decided to hike down to the next hut and then hike out straight out the valley back to near El Bolson (about a 20km day). The day started out cool as we hiked uphill, but as we got out of the trees and started to descend it had warmed up considerably. The descent on this section of the trail was a killer on the knees, and our hiking poles were very useful in preventing a tumble down the trail. The flowers were in full force as we hiked out and the views were stunning every way we looked. We made our way to the end of the trail to a little store to hail a taxi to our campsite (the thought of hiking another 10km down a dusty road was not appealing!) and bought some onions and garlic and sausage to add to our meal that night. Not to be forgotten was a jar of raspberries in syrup that went wonderfully with the El Bolson beer cooled in the river at the campground. That night we slept well again with the sound of the Rio Azul river beside us (best white noise ever!).

Back to Bariloche the next day to get ready for our third hike down south near Califate, happy that our feet were looking better now and getting some great calluses!

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b) Stanwee enjoying El Bolson pepper beer!	c) Crossing rickety bridge across Rio Azul....	d) Hiking in the woods...	e) Too many flowers wanting their picture taken!
f) Needing a rest after walking for hours uphill!	g) Theo´s moss man creation!	h) The refugio Hielo Azul, homemade beer!	i) Light snow as we headed up to the glacier...
j) Surprised to see cat on way to the glacier!!	k) Chilly up to the Hielo Azul glacier	l) More pretty flowers on the way up	m) Stanwee hitches a ride up to the glacier
n) Looking back down the valley	o) Stanwee tries taking a picture	q) What a view!	r) Stanwee finds a buddy!
s) Getting close to the glacier	t) Sending icebergs free!	u) Stanwee takes a ride	v) Hiking up the glacier
w) Looking down from the glacier	x) Snow angels!	y) Simon and Solveiga from Australia	z) The start of our hike out the valley
z1) Only 19 km to go!	z2) Laguna Natacion in early day light	z3) Hiking through the trees	z4) More cats on the trail!
z5) Even the trees are a view	z6) Hiking downhill in the sun!	z7) Looking back up the valley	z8) Looking down on El Bolson
z9) A final rickety bridge before the end!