6 months To See The World: Bariloche Part 2

I spent a day in Bariloche sleeping (finally), wandering around town, trip planning, and prepping for my trek back to the Lake Region. I rented a tent, a sleeping bag, and bought a sleeping pad for under the sleeping bag, all for about $35. Another $20 at the supermarket and I was set for 3 days.

Bariloche resembles a Swiss town

complete with St. Bernards . . .

Bariloche is also known for their chocolate and microbrews

The itinerary was to hike to Refugio Frey, stay the night, hike from there to Refugio Jakob, then hike back to Bariloche. I got a late start on day 1 because I tried to participate in my brother's Open Defense, which was scheduled for noon Argentina time. Although I didn't get to join due to technical difficulties, I am still so proud of Dr. Briley!

So when I caught the 1:15 bus to Catedral, it was well after most people set out for this hike. There was only one other trekker on the bus usually crowded with backpackers. He was obviously headed to Frey because he was carrying this humongous pack. We made it approximately 300 yards into the trail before striking up a conversation. Pablo doesn't speak English, so I got to practice my broken Spanish during the 4 hour trek. By the time we topped the hill to the Refugio, we had less than 2 hours before dark and were already good friends.

Halfway up the hike to Frey

Birds everywhere!

Pablo Sebatian and Julie

A view of Refugio Frey
from my tent
The face popular with
Rock Climbers is
in the background

Refugio Frey sits on Lake Toncek and is extremely popular with rock climbers. It's also a popular day trip, but by the time we arrived, only the campers were still there. The cold cold water of the lake felt amazing and cures almost all ills for sore feet and legs after climbing for hours with a full pack. We also got an amazing sunset in the mountains.

Lake Toncek

A view of the mountains at 9:30PM

Pablo turned out to be the most extroverted person I have ever met in my life. This really came to light at the Refugio, where everybody shares the big common room during dinner. Everybody at Refugio Frey that spoke Spanish was his friend by the end of the night, and I got pulled into most of the conversations just by association. The refugios ended up being a cross between a hostel and a restaurant. I like the refugio culture a lot. There was a public kitchen where you could cook your own food, or the tiny refugio kitchen would happily serve you homemade pizza or a lentil stew for a price. (I saw one of the refugio guys kneading a massive roll of dough the next morning). Everybody eats together and we even found a couple of card games stashed in the corner. It turns out Cards Against Humanity is really hard to translate.

Card games with Artentines and 1
German

The common room in Refugio Jakob
The entire room was full of
Argentines at dinner time

I turned in early, mostly because my brain can only handle so many hours of non-stop Spanish. I was playing with my Stars app, when Pablo wandered outside and we saw the most brilliant shooting star I have ever seen - it burned on forever.

Pablos's extrovertedness picked us up two more backpackers early the next morning. Jan and JuanChi are two twenty year old long time friends. The four of us were inseparable for the next two days.

Pablo, Julie, Juan and Juanchi

We hiked up and down two mountains to get to Refugio Jakob, taking much longer than average because of our tendency to stop, admire the views and take water breaks. I actually really enjoyed the part of the hike through the forested valley in between the peaks. The views from the top of both mountain passes were amazing! But in my humble opinion, they were not worth the 9 hour slog or the 3 hours spent sliding (literally) down sandy scree on the back side of both mountains. Plus, we were speaking Spanish all day. By the time we reached Jakob, I was both mentally and physically exhausted. Good thing Lake Jakob is crazy beautiful. Again, cold water cures most ills with feet and aching legs and we celebrated the last minutes of sunlight by basking in it along the lake's edge. Dinner was simple, and we happily compared pictures from the previous 2 days before turning in for the night.

Refugio Jakob sits on the right of
this lake.
This view was the pay off for
climbing the 2nd mountain

This is the rest of the view that
was the pay off for
climbing the 2nd mountain

Lake Jakob at sunset

Relaxing by the lake

The next day, we woke early to clouds and packed up as fast as possible to beat any rain. The clouds eventually parted though, and we enjoyed a warm and easy-going 5hr trail back to the road. The return trail from Jakob followed the river sourced from the lake, and it yielded waterfalls, bubbling rapids and cool, inviting pools all day long. We finally made it to the road, 5km from the closest public transport, and again lucked out with hitching a ride. Argentinians really are very nice people.

One of the
many waterfalls

A view of the valley
we "hiked" down

Our lunch spot

The four of us parted ways, exchanging WhatsApp numbers. After 3 days on the trail, the simple things in life feel so good . . . like a proper shower and proper bed and hot empanadas served with a cold beer. That night was spent prepping for my trip to El Calafate the next morning.

When I returned from El Calafate, I took in one more day of hikes around Bariloche, that ended up giving some of the best views of the lakes (versus the mountains). The short trecks to Cerro Llao Llao and Cerro Campanario were undemanding and I ended up relaxing by the lake on my own for the first day in a while.