Argentina, Part II - Feb 9-Mar 9

After the touristy center of Bariloche, El Bolsón - just two hours south - was definitely a nice change.  We camped, dealt with details at home and ate some good chocolate!

A bike ride out to a gorgeously blue-green river.

Old ford falcons are everywhere. Apparently they were made in Argentina for 30 years...

To get to southern patagonia, there is a long stretch of road south of El Bolsón.  We split it up by stopping in Perito Moreno/Los Antiguos and did the side trip to the Cave of the Hands - Cueva de las Manos.  Dating from 9,000 BC, these are some impressively well preserved paintings of mostly hands and guanacos.  I ended up being the translator for the spanish speaking guide...

This is what it looks like east of the Andes mountains.

About 24 hours south of El Bolsón by bus is El Chaltén - home of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre - both impressive pieces of rock that have some world class mountain climbing opportunities.  But most people come to do some straightforward hiking/trekking.  We first did the straightforward and beautiful trail up around the Fitz Roy range.

Fitz Roy was a ship captain who explored the Patagonian area back in the 1800's.  Somehow his name was later attached to this 11,000+ ft granite peak.

Then we got adventuresome and the weather conspired against us.  Our planned 4 day circuit was supposed to have 3 days of good weather and 1 day of rain.  Somehow that got flipped.  Thankfully, our gear held up....  This trail was well trodden on day 1, out to Laguna Toro.  Days 2-4 required a lot of route finding and guessing -- up to Paso del Viento and around to Paso Huemel, down to Lago Viedma and finally back to Chaltén

All was gloriously beautiful on day 1.  This is Cerro Torre - world renown rock climbing prize.

Day 2 started off with a brutally cold river crossing - the water coming off of a glacier.  We both were whimpering in pain.

The main reason for this trek was to get over Paso del Viento (Wind Pass) and see the Hielo Sur (South Ice).  This is the a massive ice field - and the largest hunk of ice outside of the poles.  The rain and clouds limited our view...

At times the wind was just simply nuts.

We broke the rules that night and stayed in the refugio.  It rained and howled outside all night!

Day 3 - looking down at a glacial lake with hunks of ice in it.

We camped here just below Paso Huemel on Day 3.  Overnight it was windy but dry, so our clothes dried out.

At the start of day 4 - trying to stay vertical in the wind.

Looking out over Lago Viedma - on our way down through the Lenga trees.

Lago Viedma in the background.  This was a bit before lunch.  Little did we realize that we still had another 8 hours of route finding and rain, slogging through marshes, and a crazy high river to cross.

The good thing about an experience like this is that you have some bragging rights... and you feel closer for having done something that difficult together.

After a couple days of taking it easy we continued south to El Calafate.