happy trails

Well, I'm back. I can't believe how quickly those ten days went... Alie and I really packed it in -- 50 hours on buses ridden; 45 miles hiked; 15 miles of mountain roads biked; six new kinds of micro-brews tried; lamb ravioli, goat-milk ice cream, and berry-topped Belgian waffles consumed; hundreds of photos taken; lots of fresh air breathed; and countless magnificent views soaked in.

It was an absolutely incredible trip.

We started in San Martin de los Andes, followed La Ruta de los Siete Lagos (The Route of the Seven Lakes) down to Villa Angostura, headed through Villa Traful to El Bolson, and ended up in Bariloche. Each place was more beautiful than the next. I'll give you a rundown of my "trip favorites" from each day, which I think should suffice to paint a nice little picture of the magnificence that is Argentina´s lake district.

Day 1: Cruising out of BsAs in the front seats on the top-level of a double-decker first-class bus... fully reclining seats, a hot dinner of meat and potatoes, wine, champagne, movies, and (singing along to) cheesy music videos from the 90s.

Day 2: A 13-mile hike up the side of a mountain, through Patagonian forest, and along one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen. The first view of it was one of my favorites of the trip... all silvery and ominous, laid out before us. Plus, we got to see wild horses and lots of sheep, and end the day with beer, brick-oven pizza and hot chocolate.

Day 3: Taking a tour of seven beautiful lakes, strung along the Andes, then hiking to an overlook and sitting for an hour, taking in the view -- two turquoise lakes, forest-covered mountains rising from their edges, eventually becoming snow-capped and forming the Chilean-Argentine border. As I looked out into the space before me, it felt as if my soul was soaring.

Day 4: Exploring the tiny, lakeside village of Villa Traful... eating lunch by a cozy, stone fireplace; sitting on a rocky beach, crystal-clear waves lapping against an old wooden dock; and climbing a windy overlook to watch the sun set over the lake. Then later, as I lay in bed, looking out the window at the most incredibly star-studded sky, falling asleep under the foreign skies of the Southern Hemisphere.

Day 5: Following the most beautiful, blue-green river I've ever seen as it snaked between mountains, all the way from Villa Traful to Bariloche, then winding along mountain roads looking out into rocky valleys below all the way to El Bolson... and eating a delicious dinner of lamb ravioli in a wild-mushroom-and-cream sauce, washed down with cold, hippie-brewed beer.

Day 6: Eating a breakfast of Belgian waffles and ice cream, then hiking up a big hill and along a ridge, taking in one of most fantastic views of the trip -- a stunningly blue river winding through a green valley, dumping into a lake surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Day 7: Taking a day off of hiking to eat excessive ice cream and watch The Motorcycle Diaries in our hostel.

Day 8: Hiking on a cold, rainy day through an eerily alien landscape of charred trees along a rocky mountainside, breathing in the smell of wet, green things and hearing nothing but the wind whipping all around us.

Day 9: Biking 15 miles, up and down hills so big I thought my lungs might explode, through a national park that looked like it could very easily house the Loch Ness monster... cruising down hills with Andean Condors swooping above me and mountains rising up endlessly next to me and crystal-clear lakes in front of me, thinking to myself, "I'm in Patagonia. Look at all the beauty around me. Look how lucky I am."

Day 10: Sampling delicious chocolates in Bariloche's Swiss-inspired chocolate shops before boarding the bus back to BsAs, then having an entire bus ride to reflect on all the places we saw, and all of the adventures that lie ahead.

A truly incredible, lasting-memory-making, photo-opportunity-packed, good-for-the-mind-body-and-soul trip.

Lucky am I indeed.


(A note on photos: my dinosaur of a computer is being obnoxious, so unless I can coax it into behaving, you all might have to wait for photos until I return to Mpls in a few weeks...)