El Bolson - The city of hippies

March 10th

Hippies. Hippies?

Somehow something rings between peace chains, white doves, 70s-80s, VW buses, and flower power.

Well, the 20,000 inhabitant city doesn't completely embody the clichés. I mean, a city of hippies?

My first impression told me:

Nice, but no sign of hippie culture yet.

Florian, wake up! You have other senses!
There was something. Something in the air.

My nose couldn't quite identify it at first, but then the unmistakable smell of marijuana reached my long-term memory.

Well, at least one hippie cliché fulfilled.

With the help of my offline map (for all travelers: Google Maps offline maps are a great help!), we found a large selection of possible accommodations.

This time, however, we were not primarily looking for camping sites.

The weather for the next few days was expected to be bad according to the weather report.

Almost exclusively rain... 😫

By chance (although I don't believe in coincidences), we stumbled upon the first hostel that was nearby.

Bullseye!

Strangely enough, we didn't even really negotiate, and the hostel owner immediately lowered the price to 200 pesos per person in the third sentence.

Well then, let's go!

A very nice hostel, we found. With a huge garden, partly covered and a good room with bunk beds.

Just as we unpacked our stuff, we made our first acquaintance.

Patrick. A Swiss.
A very pleasant companion with whom we shared a room.
He worked with symbiotic mushrooms and had already been through a lot.

Including a patellar fracture, in the first week. Tough thing!
But as he told us, he fought his way through and didn't let himself be defeated in any way.
That's the most important thing after all...

Satisfied and with a feeling of security, because we had a roof over our heads, we fell asleep in our warm beds.

March 14th

We have the Andes right on our doorstep.
What could we do there?

Of course! A hike to the summit of a mountain. In our case;

The Piltriquitron.

The first part wasn't really worth mentioning, it was just a breeze up to the Refugio.
Well, we also started from a platform, slightly below the Refugio. Juan, the hostel owner, had driven us there for the price of a remise (similar to a taxi).

Before we reached the Refugio, we passed the Bosque ..., for which you had to pay.
Total nonsense, as the path leads right by it and you could still admire the wooden sculptures.

After a short refreshment in the Refugio with cookies, mate, and chocolate, which later turned out to be cooking chocolate, we started the actual ascent to the summit of Piltriquitron.

Over a larger plain, scree fields, and even a mix of scree and snow.

A proper climbing tour, which also held a few pitfalls, especially when the snow and scree formed the ground at the same time.

After a pretty exhausting climb, I also reached the top, the others had already reached the summit.

On the way, you didn't really notice it, but when you stood on the summit of Piltriquitron without moving a bone, it slowly crept into every little corner.

The cold!!!

Quickly take a few pictures, snag a Corona beer from nice hiking companions, and quickly go back down because you couldn't stand it for long.

The wind was icy...

After an hour and a half descent, the Refugio came into sight. That was a good thing because we had only had breakfast and 2-3 cookies.

A late lunch and that with a beautiful afternoon sun.

We're doing well!