Pampa Linda and Cerro Tronador (Day 32)

It was cold last night. Really, really cold. You would think after a day I had, I could have slept through anything. But I woke up in the night cold. Not freezing, but definitely not warm. Since I already had on everything I had in Argentina, I could only close up the top of my sleeping bag and try not to suffocate myself in order to keep warm.

Although I only slept on and off for the rest of the night, I didn´t dare stick my head out of my bag until I could see lots of sun and luckily it was sunny. Despite the full 10am sun, there was a thick layer of frost on everything. We made breakfast and just drank pot after pot of hot water- in mate, in oatmeal, in wierd "essence of ham" soup. It didn´t matter, at least it was warm. And despite the freezing weather (thoughts of my water-logged camera turning to ice), my camera was finally back to working! When the tour buses started arriving, we wandered over to see what hikes we would do for the day. I had to laugh- the trail we had been on for the last 2 days getting to Pampa Linda was in fact closed. I laughed because they thought had occured to me a number of times when walking through the water and bashing through bamboo, "if this trail is open, what do the closed ones look like?". Now I know :)


Pampa Linda is a pretty developed area. There are two big barns for trail riding horses (who are grazing and wandering everywhere!) and pack mules for re-rationing, at least two beautiful log cabin restaurants, two lodgings- a hosteria (hotel) and albergue (hostel), shower buildings, a tourist info centre and a Guardaparque building. And the area is really, really pretty- you can see Cerro Tronador from anywhere here.



Since our feet were really in no shape to do much and most of the interesting trails were closed for the season, we slowly headed off through the woods on the trail towards Refugio Otto Meiling. Once you crossed over the Rio Castaño Overo,



this trail was mostly a road (likely for re-stocking the very full-service refugio). The forest was chalk full of huge, beautiful old lenga trees. These are some of the biggest trees I´ve seen anywhere, ever.


The down-side of this trail was that it was pretty plain. The forest was beautiful, but when you´ve been in the mountains seeing what we´d been treated to for the last 4 days, even impressively huge lenga trees get tired fast. And, we had a bus to catch to get us back to Bariloche, or risk another freezing night in our tents. So, we found a sunny spot and sat down for some lunch. More hobo sandwiches. This time, with boiled eggs instead of tuna. Yum!

As gross as the spreadable processed sticky cheese product is, it tastes surprisingly good. There is NO way I would even consider eating it under any other circumstances (if it hasn´t already started to rot through my digestive system...or maybe it just doesn´t digest), but at this point, it tastes mighty good. We packed up and high-tailed it (as much as foot-possible) back to the camp area so we could pack up and get a seat on the bus back to town.

Driving back down the road we had walked the day before, I felt vindicated that it took the bus about 45min of crawling along to drive what we had walked. While trying not to be motion sick from the winding, bumpy road, we had some great views of the river and Tronador the whole way back to the main road.

I entertained myself the rest of the 2.5hr drive back to town by watching the spectacle that is highway driving here. The province of San Martin should save the money they spend on road paint. Cars pull in and out at will, regardless of oncoming traffic or what the road ahead is like. If they can squeeze into a spot further up the line, they do it. Crazy.

Back in town, Britton and I checked into a hostel, got some wine, ordered take-out steaks and these fantastic baked empañadas, and had the best meal I´ve had yet in Argentina. The steaks were amazing (I´ve finally figured out that you have to order hugoso- rare, in order to really get something good). Warm, belly full and tired- this is as good as it can get! We had a wild ride these last few days hiking in Parque National Nahuel Huapi and now that we made it out in one piece, the celebration was the crowning piece.