El Bolson

December 5 - 7

We arrived in the evening and without a prior hostel booking. We walked a couple of blocks down the road and Iñez spotted a hostel. Perfect! There was availability and we all ended up sharing a clean and comfortable dorm room with a private bathroom.

The next morning, while  sitting at a common dinning table and having breakfast, Taté and Inéz got chatting with another person from Spain. His name is Hérmes. We and the 2 girls were planning on hiking to Cajon del Azul after breakfast and they invited Hérmes to join us. Since it's often hard to mobilize a group with loose plans, it took a while for all of us to get ready to leave. After talking to the hostel owner, we decided that it would be best to postpone our hike to Cajon del Azul until the next day. Instead, our day went as follows:

- We went to a grocery store to buy some food for dinner that night and for a picnic lunch for the next day.
- We went out for lunch at a restaurant that was recommended by the hostel owner. There we tried some local beer. Taté, Hérmes and Iñez ordered a parrilla (Argentinean BBQ) with several types of meat. The parrilla was being advertised for two people. At first, Taté had suggested that we get 2 parrillas to share between all of us. However, since Rakesh is supposedly vegetarian (though, more like a pseudo vegetarian on our travels) we wanted to get something to share with less meat - a breaded veal fillet (aka snitzel). Thank goodness, we chose something different, because when the parrilla arrived our eyes popped out at the size of it. One parrilla would have been happily shared by 6 people (not just by 2)!!! Ofcourse, the others couldn't eat it all and the left overs went to a stray dog.
- We all felt sleepy and sluggish after so much food that we ended up in a cafe for coffees and hot chocolates. At the cafe, we whiled away a little more time chatting away.
- Next, we finally embarked on our plan to a walk to an area where one can see the "Cabeza del Indio" or Indian's Head. It was a lovely walk along quiet roads for a couple of hours or so, in total. At one point we walked high above a valley with a river flowing through it. The vistas were gorgeous. We then walked through a wooded area to get to the Indian's Head. We stopped to take some pictures and then slowly made our way back to the town.
- Back at the hostel, we cooked our own dinner. Rakesh made some Indian food: raita (cold yoghurt salad) and a rice dish, whereas Iñez and Taté made a vegetable medley. I, on the other hand, opened up a bottle of wine and poured it (the hardest job of all!). Well, ok, I did get my hands a little messy as I cut up raw chicken fillets to be cooked up for the next day's picnic sandwiches.

The following day we all (us, Iñez, Taté and Hérmez) had breakfast together and took way too much time to get going on our hike to Cajon del Azul. Regardless, we went ahead with our plan. The problem was that Rakesh, Taté and I needed to catch a bus that night to get to our next destination, El Chalten. The total hike to/from Cajon del Azul was about 7 hours and by the time we left, it was around 10am!! We had to get taxis to get to the starting point. At t the taxi stand, we bumped into another couple (Argentinean/Columbian) from the hostel who were heading in the same direction. We shared 2 taxis between all of us and hiked to Cajon del Azul together.

The hike ended up being a little rushed due to our time constraints, but nevertheless it was a breathtaking experience. We hiked mostly through forest, walked over a couple wooden suspension bridges (a little trecherous), we climbed ladders along rocks and we were able to sight the Azul river several times along the way. The river water was nothing like we had ever seen before - a tourquoise colour! It was magical. We visited a lovely refugio and I felt like I was living in the past. The refugio was a wooden shack by the river, it was dim inside and the people who were living there were burning a nice wood fire. We quickly moved on to get to the end of our trail and encountered a second refugio at the base of the mountains. It was similar to the other. There we sat at a picnic table to eat our lunch and had some beer. Taté, Rakesh and I said our "good-byes" to the others in the group and hiked back down as fast as we could. Hérmes quickly caught up and hiked back with us. Toward the end, after crossing the last suspension bridge, Iñez arrived out of nowhere. We all shared taxis back to the hostel and said our second "good-byes" to Iñez and Hérmes before Rakesh, Taté and I hurried off to the bus station to board the bus to El Chalten.