Ruta 40

At last I got on the bus at 6.45am yesterday morning... The trip was two day long (yes, on the bus). The landscape was not as boring as I would have thought (I had been told several time "Patagonia is the same all the way long, steppa, and some rabbits or flamingos"). It was also a real adventure since the road is unpaved most of the way. A rock literraly destroyed one of the bus window after 6 hours on the first day (so we had to stop about 30 minutes to tape the whole thing).

A couple hours after that, the petrol tank fell on the ground (which meant another hour stopped on the side of ruta 40). The number of cars we saw passing during this hour would fit on the fingers of one hand!

The good thing about this second stop is that it occured right during sunset! We then arrived at the hostel in Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz at 11pm.

After a really good night of sleep, we left at 10am for the another 700kms offtracks... The scenery was changing a lot. To the fans of beep beep : I DID see roadrunners!!!

The arrival on El Chalten was fantastic : another wonderful sunset, this time with mountains in the background....

PS : I am writing all this from El Calafate, and my computer is really bad, so I just picked up randomly some pictures (the preview is worse than the one on the mini-screen of my camera!).

Bariloche, last day...

I stayed longer than I would have thought in Bariloche because I wanted to wait for the first bus going down "la Ruta 40"... The last day I went trekking to "El Refugio Lopez". The scenery was very different from the one I saw two days ago from Refugio Frey, but was as great... Here are a couple pictures taken from the top.

I cant wait to head South tomorrow, although these last couple days were le-gen......

Some more chilling in Bariloche...

I really hope Gustav is getting better in Mendoza (but I have to admit that I have very limited information... I decided to stay longer in Bariloche because the place is very nice and I met incredible people here. On Tuesday I went for some class III/IV rafting. It was - too short - but great since the snow melting makes the river really big. For safety reasons I did not take any picture, but I now it's printed somewhere in there!

Yesterday I woke up at 7am to go trekking with three girls met on the way (dont worry Gustav, I have good company). I was warned at the guides office that it was a really hard trek - at least 5 hours for the climbing part - and that there was snow blablabla... The four of us made it in 3hours something :-). The scenery was spectacular.

This is the place where we ate a small picnic before going down an alternative trail (way longer, but we made it to the 6.45pm bus...).

I just love trekking... Today I was feeling a bit tired (maybe the party yesterday did not help), so I will just chill on the beach next to the lake. Tomorrow I will go trekking with two british girls this time (dont tell the second one she's british cause she's actually scottish...). The scenery is supposed to be even nicer, but the trek is shorter :-(.

I stayed here quite a while because I wanted to take a bus down "Ruta 40", but the first one was going on Saturday, so I had to wait. I have booked all my buses down to El Calafate where I should be by Tuesday night. With some luck, Gustav will feel better by then and will meet me there. On the way there, I'll stop in El Bolson (a nice national park), sleep in Perito Moreno (the city - not the glacier next to El Calafate). I should then stay a couple days in El Chalten...

When planning this trip I thought I would have a lot of time, and until now I thought so, but the closer I am to Ushuaia, the more carefully I need to plan!

Another temporary split up

So I have given up, my stomach is not getting any better. Thus I am now in Mendoza (civilisation) hoping to find a decent medic and get well again. Pierre will have to do the waching of glaciers etc. for now!!

San Carlos de Bariloche

Today we went to "el Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi"... It is very close to Bariloche (about one hour bus ride). It is the first national parc in Argentina - and believe it or not - it is really nice!

We trekked in three different places in the parc : the first trek was about one hour walk to this very nice waterfall. Okay, it is not as big as Iguazu, but once you know that the trees in ths parc are about 30-40m high, you realize it is not that small afterall...

The landscapes reminded very much of the French Alps (home sweet home...). The mountains are relatively low (2500-3500m). Just like anywhere else, the glaciers are recessing (apart from one glacier that we'll see further South). The U-shaped valley shows the extent of the former glaciers.

The main attraction of this national parc is the black glacier. It is visible on the right of the next picture. The huge rock in the middle of the picture is in fact ice. Since this glacier is on a volcan, the ice gets very dirty along its path, due to the contact with basaltic ashes.

And now the 100-dollar question... Why is the color of the two rivers soooo different? I think all the necessary elements are in this post!