Patagonia Road Trip!

What a weekend! Tate and Shawna picked me up Friday afternoon in Bariloche and we drove around the Circuito Chico, checking out lakes and views all afternoon. A great dinner in town was unfortunately preceded by some "cerveza artesanal" from hippy El Bolsón - left us all longing for the generic run of the mill Quilmes, as hippy beer tasted sweet and flat and not very beer-like. Saturday we drove the 50 or so miles through mountains and valleys to El Bolsón, where we wandered through the crafts fair, ate fresh boysenberries and strawberries, and generally blissed out at all the beautiful fresh organic produce on display!

In the afternoon we found a horseback riding outfitter named Martin who lived on the most beautiful farm I've ever seen in the Rio Azul Valley near town. We spent 4 hours with him riding around the valley and checking out waterfalls and rock formations - and learning a new word, "cabalgatas," which apparently means horse-rental. In the evening we found a beautiful little cabaña on a hillside south of town to spend the night, watched the sun go down over the mountains with a bottle of wine, and rolled back into town under the full moon for the best mate flavored ice cream in Argentina (kind of like green tea).

Sunday we spent exploring the valley in a hunt for a place to spend the night, as the cabaña we had arranged fell through... driving up long dusty roads to farms and little mountain refuges, speaking with the owners, learning a bit about their lives making jam and hosting tourists, I found myself longing to move down here, build a cabin, and get a dog or two. Life is good in El Bolsón.

After securing lodging, we made the long dusty drive down to Lago Puelo which runs into Chile and out to the Pacific, crossing the 42 parallel into Chubut Province and Patagonia proper. Lago Puelo was beautiful, with a huge long beach filled with about 100 Argentine folks enjoying the hot sun and cold water. It felt like a day at the beach, complete with volleyball and barbecue grills. As the sun went down, we drove back up the valley along the bumpy gravel road, bought some $8 peso bottles of wine, and watched the sun go down and the full moon come up. Magical!

New photos from the weekend are on flickr.

I leave Bariloche maybe tomorrow, maybe Wednesday, with plans to arrive in Villarrica, Chile on Thursday to visit Forest Ethics' Chile campaign director Aaron Sanger, an old colleague from SF and Green Corps alum. Will spend the weekend with him and then head down to Chiloé for a while with Sergio... Stay tuned!