after leaving bariloche and refugio frey, we traveled 2 hours south to el bolson. its a quiet little town in the rio azul valley. seems like lots of hippies ended up there. we took a 3 day hike into the andes to the west of town. spent 2 nights at refugio cajon de azul.
Ver rio azul en un mapa más grandefrom the trailhead we hiked past a few farms, then towards the valley with the refugio. before we were really into the valley, we got some good views from the trail looking back towards the east (towards el bolson and the smaller mountain range behind it).
as we hiked further into the valley we found tons of frosted forest. it was strange... we had just been in hot and sunny t-shirt shirt weather, then found ourselves hiking in a white forest. you can see how the forest on the other side of the valley changes from white to green... pretty crazy.
it was awesome hiking in the frost... everything was still and illuminated.
got to the refugio about 3 hours after we started. a short hike with a big payoff... the refugio was really a working farm, with a huge main house. atilio was the owner and farmer. he built the house some 30 years ago, mostly out of the wood in the forest.
the house had plush accomodations as far as huts go. there were 4 iron heating stoves: one to cook on, 2 for heating the house, and a 4th for heating water. the place had hot showers!
atilio was great- he took us around the farm at feeding time and hung out with us for the evening. played some dice and had some of his homemade beer (hoppy but with lemon flavors).
took a hike the next day to next refugio on the trail. it was empty but open... so its free, but its also freezing at night.
we had a dog hiking with us all 3 days. he actually met us at the trailhead on the way in. he lead us along the trail, stopping and waiting as we ate and took detours. for a little mop of a dog, he was an amazing trail dog.
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