Patagonia Instalation #1: Let There Be Snow

When I first got down to Patagonia, I emailed Ueli, a Swiss guy Hana and I had a great time trekking with in Nepal, and told him how excited I was to be here. Ueli emailed me back (he´d traveled southern Argentina and Chile before) and the last line he wrote was: "Have a good time and enjoy the southern sun. There will be wind and rain too:-)..." In my first days of summer sun in Patagonia, I brushed off the "weather warning." However, it was only a few days later that I realized how right Ueli was! He knew that even though the sun was shining for a moment, there would soon be wind, rain, (and snow!), too.

I´m currently back in Bariloche, after two nights in the mountains. I was trying to do a traverse, over a few passes, but the weather turned bad the first night I was out. It was actually a great introduction to the unbelievable ability of the weather to change around here at a pace unknown to me (and I thought the weather changed fast in Colorado! Patagonia takes it to a whole new level). I hiked up about 12km, and set camp around a lake, near a refugio where there were other people, and a bunch of climbers, hanging out. The afternoon was all sunshine, but towards evening, the wind and rain picked up. When I went to bed, it was raining. When i woke up..hahaha...i thought "Oh, it´s quiet out. So nice. The rain must have stopped." But then i heard soft touches on the roof of the tent...tk tk tk tk...and thought, uh oh, that´s not rain! Unzipping the tent, and getting powdered with snow in the process, I also found about 4 inches of whiteness outside... Really, it was beautiful, and I love camping in the snow. But not with summer-like clothes! I didn´t have the right equipment to continue an icy/snowy scramble over the pass alone. So, instead of heading down the mountain (what would I do down in the city I couldn´t do up in the mountains?) I decided to stay and hung out with some people. I drank the day away with coffee and mate (Argentine tea, passed around between friends), and reading a bit as well. It ended up being really pleasant. However, the second night I found myself curled up in my 32 degree bag in definitely less than 32 degree weather, wearing everything I had on. In the middle of the night, after dumping my back out, I curled up on top of in search of anyway to insulate myself from the ground (oops...didn´t have a sleeping pad). The following morning after a leisurely breakfast of rice noodle soup (I definitely learned that in Laos), I headed back down the mountain to Bariloche, admits the freezing rain and wind (this is summer...hahaha...).

The hostel I´m at is pretty sweet - it´s filled with lots of super chill Argentineans and Chileans. I was planning on taking off today for El Bolsón, but I decided to hang out and read a bit, cook dinner again with some Argentineans, and catch up on the "administrative part" of traveling (i.e. this blog). While I´m not trekking through the wilderness at the moment, I am connecting to local travelers, which fits into what I´d hoped to find in South America. Headed south...more to come (soon).