DOUG’S RETIREMENT TRAVEL BLOG

“Fired up the rig” for the 1st time in a few days & drove the ripio road out to Lago Del Desierto. Spent the night in a turnaround at the bitter end of the road. Leaving the campground we were blocked, got to see how garbage pick-up works: It’s 22 or 37km out the ripio road (depending on which sign is correct, we didn’t think to measure it ourselves), in the glacier-melt Las Vueltas river canyon. There’s a narrow point with some wind: It gets more remote, and more beautiful,

Campground relatively crowded today, Sunday of a 3-day weekend. We are most of the way down the row, on the left: Sunrise from up the street (by the way, we’ve been doing Pimmsleur Spanish every day for six months now; my best time is first thing, I get up early & wander around with earbuds and talk to myself): Poked around a while, here’s the sign for the campground: Did the El Paredon - Las Vueltas loop trail. 5 miles, 1355 feet elevation gain, right across the river. Met

Triangle hike Chorillo del Salto with Devon, bush-whack & rock scramble & fear of falling to mirador Fitz Roy. Meat for dinner. To the base of the falls with Devon: From there to Mirador Fitz Roy (abandoned AllTrails route for fear): The return: Had the long-awaited slab of Argentine beef for dinner: Walked 9.8 miles

Friends left this AM, sad. We are now solo. Long, hard loop hike today: Mirador Cerro Torre to Laguna Capri & back down the Mirador Fitz Roy/Tres Lagos trail. 12 miles. The out & back legs were fine, the outlooks grand, but the traverse leg was treacherous: not well marked, overgrown, blocked by bogs in many places. AllTrails with GPS enabled us to find our way; I was watching my battery level closely. Sunrise over the campground: The ascent: The traverse: The return: Walke

OK today we began the hiking program in earnest. Hiked to the condor and eagle lookouts. No condors or eagles, but fantastic outlooks. The pic of us from behind was taken by a hiker who approached me after the fact & offered them to me. Lots of nice folk here: Some sculptures in town: Our friend Devon, who grew up with summer horseback treks in the wilds of Idaho, arranged a trail ride with Estancia Bonanza: Walked 12.9 miles!

On the road from El Calafate to El Chalten: Arrived mid-afternoon, joined the many 20&30-something hikers checked into Camping El Relincho (///polite.honeybee.helpful): [ gallery ] Walked up the river a ways: ...and crashed. 19th was bad weather, we stayed put. But we did eat:

Arrived in Calafate about noon 16th, checked into a campsite and struck out immediately to catch the 2:30 boat to the Perito Moreno glacier: Camped at Cabaña Camping Calafate - ///multipurpose.reacts.dunks ( what3words.com ): 17th, around town on my early AM walkabout. It’s windy, we’re hunkered down for a couple days: …that’s hail on the van’s little sunroof. Had laundry done here (no self-serve), tried to exchange $, ‘no pesos’: Stopped at the local YPF gas station on the w

On the road from Parque Nacional, the wind picked up. A front is moving through, winds sustained at 30mph+, gusts over 50. Hunkered down at Cabaña y Camping “Los pokes” outside of Gobernador Gregores for the night. You could feel the van being buffeted through the night: Much research & discussion next AM, Juan the van rental man recommended by WhatsApp that we divert to the east coast, bypass the infamous ‘73 malditos’ stretch of route 40 that lay ahead, so we headed south-

One of the Rewilding Argentina projects, nicely maintained facilities & infinite hiking. Camped 2 nights. There’s lots of wildlife: Day 1, Nov 11. It was windy: Day 2, AM - walked the Tierra de Colores trail: And Cueva de las Manos - 9000 year old wall paintings: Here’s the upside to waking up at 5:30 AM: Walked 9.1 on the 11th, 8.1 on the 12th.

Long driving day today ‘cause the road quality was atrocious. Route 40 between Gobernador Costa and Rio Mayo. Paved road completely filled with potholes (Baches), ripio (gravel) road on the sides. Your choice. No pics. Camped in Rio Mayo, where we were briefly entertained by a dance rehearsal: Morning 11th Pimsleur stroll (that is, I’ve been doing a Spanish lesson on a stroll each morning): Stopped mid-day to shop:

After lunch, set out for points south. Took a detour west on Route 71 through Cholila and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid's ranch, into Parque Nacional los Alerces. Camped on a little outlet off the road for campers, at Punta Mattos on Lago Futalaufquen: Morning 10th. These scotch broom line pretty much all the highways here:

Down the road to El Bolsón, a town of a bit more than 20k people. Camped at Camping Miranda al Cerro: Up early, took an 8 mile hike to Rio Azul: Back through El Bolsón: Nov 8 walked 4.1, Nov 9, 9.9 miles.

Drove into town to do some shopping & have a look around. Here’s what we did instead - light blue marks are where we looked for the car, red is where we finally found it after an hour: Met Robert & Devon at hotel Llao Llao for tea: Walked 6.6 miles.

Started laundry and hiked to Mirador Tacul and Lago Escondido. Coffee on the way, laundry drying in the van: Continuing the drive counter clockwise around the Circuito Chico Arturo Frondizi: To the Patagonia Brewery: And around to the Circuito Chico Mirador (the zoom-in in the middle is the hotel Llao Llao): Sunset: Walked 10.3 miles.

Sunrise on Nahuel Huapi Bariloche: …and off to San Carlos de Bariloche: Checked in to Camping Petunia, and 1st order of business: lunch at the trailer across the street: Drove out to the Llao Llao peninsula & hiked to the top of Cerro Llao Llao: Robert Anderson & I, in a 2-step process (mine failed, his succeeded), fixed the 220 volt wall plug: …and watched the sun go down over the lake: …and the super harvest moon rise (notice how the moon moves right-to-left?): Walked 6.5 m

We have arrived at the foot of the Andes, a town called San Martín: Parked the vans on the street across from the supermercado - didn’t bother anybody except the guy who’d be there another week and was afraid we’d draw the attention of the authorities. Next AM we hiked up to Mirador Bandurrias: “Glad that thing has udders and not horns” “Oh.” Lunch at the food trucks: And off down the Road of Seven Lakes toward Bariloche: Stopped for the night at Camping la Estacada, on

Picked up our van/camper in the western outskirts of Buenos Aires, stocked up on groceries, and headed west toward the Andes: Between BA & the Andes is the Pampas - flat, high plains, with 2-lane roads carrying cars @ 100-110 km/h and many trucks @ 80. You spend most of your time looking for opportunities to pass. [ video won’t load, fuckit ] first overnight by a lake, Club de Pesca La Loma Alta:

Taxi -> bus -> ‘nother bus -> plane -> uber to Buenos Aires. 11 hours, 900 miles, 81 mph. 1st order of business: hair work: Next; exchange currency on the black market to get a better rate. A long walk & an adventure, got 1460 rather than 1410, in lots of 1000 peso notes. Hmm. Met up with our Patagonia partners & took a bus overview tour of the city, got off @ La Boca: Dinner at Moshu Treehouse. We have met, and will be traveling through Patagonia with these two - long time

Had a nice breakfast at Maria Maria in the Destino Valparaiso complex - best croissants in town. Walked around Cerro Alegre some: Got some earrings while at Destino, the sales person talked about ‘weed’, the store also sells some stylish smoking gear. She talked about immigrants with a more brash, loud lifestyle. There is clearly resentment. Walked to a post office to mail a card, near Parque Italia. Had a Completo - hot dog with lots of shit slathered on, something of a sta

Why…is…this…SO…..HARD?: Walked out to Barón, there’s a pedestrian/bike way along the waterfront. At the far end there’s an abandoned streetcar turnaround barn, taken over by graffiti. Feels like a combo of RAW Gelände and Teufelsberg: There’s a passage through a building in Creeo Concepción where there’s a doorway with a sign that they’re selling alfajores cookies, ring the bell. We did, got some, ate them. Delicious: More Cerro Concepción. Have I mentioned, there’s street ar