A Train, a Bus, and Buenos Aires

After six weeks in Bariloche we finally escaped. We took the Patagonia Train from Bariloche to Viedma which was a cool 24 hour trip. We had a sleeping car and got served traditional Patagonian fare by waiters in tuxedos in the dining car.

In Viedma we caught another 12 hour bus to Buenos Aires. In BA we checked out the graveyard of Eva Peron, ate at some Parillas, and went to some bars and night clubs. It was a fun time. A few pictures are below . . . now off to Peru.


The old train we took from Bariloche in the Patagonia to Viedma on the Atlantic Coast

Sean and James make eyes at each other in the train dining car

Trying out my artistic black and whites at the Buenos Aires graveyard with Eva Peron's grave

The view down the street our hostel was on in B.A.

Climbing Mount Tronador

So post Spanish school in Bariloche I hunkered down in the Marco Polo hostel with my buddies Sean and James from Colorado to plan our ascent of Mt. Tronador. The peak you see below in the front right foreground is Pico Argentina, which is actually a little shorter then the international peak to its left. However, because of increased rockfall from melting glacial ice during this hot summer, we had to choose to summit Tronador's Pico Argentina.

It ended up being all we could handle. On the first day we hiked up to a refugio, a mountain hut, at the base of the huge glacier that covers Tronador. We ended up forming a summit team there with a very nice couple who were park rangers at Yosemite in the US. The five of us started at 5 in the morning and traversed across the glacier in rope teams until around 10 when we reached the saddle between the two peaks. The glacier was gorgeous and we saw some huge crevasses to remind us why we were tied into ropes.

The only technical part came during the last 20 meters of climbing. Here is was a nearly vertical wall of loose rock and ice mixed together. Not great climbing conditions. A guide who was taking up a client that day turned around in front of us unwilling to take the risk. Chris, the husband in the park ranger two-some we had linked up with, was willing to lead this section of this climb and set up some protection by using some ice screws. We were all able to make the climb without falling but the shear exposure was terrifying, ice screws or no ice screws protecting us.

We all peaked out, repelled down the ice/rock pitch, and then traversed the glacier back home. It was an amazing climb, an a totally unique experience to be surrounded by such an alien landscape as a glacier. I was super lucky to have a great group of friends willing to take me.




A view of Pico Argentina, front right, from the glacier below



Climbing up to the saddle between the two peaks

Chris leads the way climbing the last vertical pitch


James and I celebrate on the summit

The beginning of the repel down from the summit

Some steep snow, but so much easier coming down

Crampons help, but you don't wont to slip . . . the drop off is pretty sheer to the right


A last stop on the snow before reaching the refugio


Let me introduce you to the staff which had a hot meal waiting for us back at the refugio.

Spanish School Bariloche, Argentina

Bariloche has been an amazing experience and as such I have not update my blog in nearly five weeks. Here is the whirlwind tour though the past month !

First to orient you guys check out the map below of Argentina, where you will find Bariloche in the southwest in the Lake District of the Patagonia along the border with Chile.




Looking down from the Cerro Otto hill to the town of Bariloche and the giant Lake Naheul Huapi

I spent the first three weeks attending Spanish class 8:30 to 12:30 Monday through Friday at the A.I.E Patagonia Spanish language school. For those of you wanting to improve and live in an awesome place check out the school at http://www.patagoniaspanish.com/. Class for the first week was one-on-one and for the second two weeks there was only one other student.

Learning Spanish with my teacher Carina

While I was in class I was living with a family. My Senora was an incredibly nice woman who has one grown son and two beautiful grandkids. Her granddaughter Delfina was always at the house and was a wonderful three year old playmate and Spanish teacher for me. We were fond of watching Discovery Kids in Spanish together, with our favorite program being Backyardagins. I had my own room in Teresa's house, got a homemade dinner every night, and even got to join in on a festive asado (BBQ) at the lake side house of a family friend of Teresa's.

Delifna rolls her father down the hill at the asado while Teresa looks on at her son and grandchild at play.

During the weekends Bariloche offered tons of opportunites for play. We had a great core group of students that got along really well. There were my two mountaineer buddies from Colorado, James and Sean, and the adventurous Allesandra from Italy. The four of us did lots of activities together including trekking between Mountain huts, rockclimbing, relaxing at the many lake beaches and even wakeboarding.

The whole crew of Sean, James, Alessandra, and Me before our two night three day trek through the mountain refugios (huts) of Bariloche

The view from Refugio Frey looking out at the Cathedral Spire

James, Sean and I before hiking down from Lake Jacob

Working my way up the rockwall

Sean and I pose with our wakeboarding local friends German and Mario

A glimpse of relaxing on the beach of Lake Nahuel Huapi