El Bolson and Bariloche

From BA we jumped on a bus (26 hours in total - backpacking is a glamorous life) heading South, to a little town called El Bolson. The Lonely Planet had described it as “Hippies rejoice: there’s a must see destination for you in Argentina, and it’s called El Bolson” so naturally I was keen for some hippie spotting (and to ask them where they got their happy hippy pants).

El Bolson is a sleepy little town, surrounded by stunning snow-capped mountains. We stayed for 2 nights in a lovely family run hostel, where we ran into John and Julia from the UK who had been staying with George and Coops a few nights before!

The moutains surrounding El Bolson

We borrowed some mountain bikes, and went for a bike ride to a chocolate shop about 12km out of town. There are a lot of dogs around. And they like to chase people on bikes –incentive to pedal faster. On Saturday we went to the local markets – this is where all the hippies came out of the woodwork. Oh and Mike watched the All Blacks but they lost. I stayed in bed. And then we got on a bus back to Bariloche. El Bolson, it’s charming but not much happens – bring a board game.

The chocolate shop in the wop wops

Bariloche was an interesting town – there is a clear divide between rich and poor here. On the bus out of town there are lots of run down houses, whereas near town and the ski-fields there are plenty of large, swanky looking places. The town was mostly full of tourists skiing and snowboarding. Unfortunately the weather was absolutely poos when we were there, so we didn’t get to have a look at the mountain or go to the National Park. Bariloche is also known for its multitude of chocolate shops – so when it constantly rained we went there instead.



Bariloche - the weather really doesn't do the mountains justice



On the way out of Bariloche.... stunning



The remnants of the ash-cloud.... ash. Not so stunning.



From Bariloche we headed onwards to Pucon, our first glimpse of Chile!