After the usual morning routine we went down to the meeting place (Club Andino) to catch the bus. Hop into a nice Mercedes 20 passenger bus and off we go. We travel for about an hour on pavement (Route 40) and then 2 hours on a very twisting logging road (Laura says think Franklin River out to Bamfield, but narrower).
Our best view of Tronador. We will get closer to it, but are below the cliffs around the glaciers.
We arrive finally at the refugio at Pampa Linda. It looks like a nice place to stay, if you are so inclined. Here we are, gathered about. A lot of the people aren't really prepared and have to order lunches and water.
Our first stop was at the “Black Glacier.” Chunks of the glacier above, Manso Glacier, calve off and tumble down the cliff, taking a lot of rock with it. This accumulates on below, re-freezing and forming “Ventisquero Negro” or the 'Black Snowdrift.”
An interesting trail improvement. I'll bet a number of the participants today would have been very squeamish about using the log, especially if it was damp. No problem, the river wasn't more than knee deep, but straight off the glacier.
Our hike consisted of an easy 7 km walk up a trail to this amazing waterfall with a glacier above. The whole area freezes and stops flowing in the winter.
While the hike was nice, I had hoped to get above the treeline for endless vistas. That will have to wait. Back down we go and in the vehicle for 3 hours.
On the way back I have a discussion with the guide about Club Andino. He is valiantly trying to explain things in English - between his soso English and my terrible Spanish we communicate.
Club Andino is an outdoors club in Bariloche. They run many (all?) of the Refugios in the area and conduct tours to support the club activities. One of which is a local volunteer rescue service. This of course prompts more discussion, and a Canadian lad in the seat behind pipes up that his parents are involved with SAR in the Ottawa - Gatineau area. Small world. Both of them are very jealous when they find out that BC SAR groups can use helicopters in their searches. Very interesting.
Comments about Canadians – we are taking over down here. There was Laura and I, the Canadian lad (I forgot his name), Patrick from Vancouver staying in the hostel who is off to Santiago today, someone with a Canadian flag on his pack, and at least one other who has a MEC water bottle on his pack. We went to dinner with Tara from England who is only down here for two weeks, so is squeezing every activity possible in before she leaves.
One advantage of staying in hostels – meeting people. Hotels are just too sterile. When was the last time you struck up a conversation with somebody in a hotel just because his Lonely Planet book was in English?
Last photo today. I noticed this tree (one of half a dozen) with the goofy knitting around its trunk. When we were getting off the bus I asked the guide, “Why do these trees have sweaters on them?” His reply, “Because they are cold.”
E'nuf said.
The trees with the sweaters, this is referred to as 'Yarn Bombing'
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