Hiking to Laguna Negra

To get our hiking legs back we decided to do an easy flat day on part of the tourist route, the circuito chico.  Then a hike up to Laguna Negra and back.  A bus dropped us at the edge of Llao-llao regional park and we set off, partly on trails and partly on the road.  The wind was pretty unpleasant, especially at the viewpoints, but the road sections weren't as bad as we'd thought - very little traffic and all sealed, bar the last 3km, so no clouds of dust.

In Llao-llao park with the broom and a tourist doing the circuit the usual way; by bike

There were gorgeous wind battered views

The best road walking we've done - quiet roads, no dust and great views!

Eventually we rolled into the small village of Colonial Suiza but struggled to find somewhere to camp.  There are plenty of campgrounds, but only one was open as it's not the summer season yet.  So with an extra couple of kilometers needlessly walked we finally set up the tent and managed to get inside, out of the freezing wind.

As if to make up for the wind, the next day was gorgeous - hardly a breath of wind and not a cloud in the sky.  Only 1km back up the road to the trail head to Laguna Negra, then it was all proper hiking - only 14km to the refugio!

The trail wound gradually up through beautiful beech forests . . .

. . . until at the end of the valley we could see Cerro Negro and we knew we had to do some serious climbing.

The first 4hrs of the hike was pretty cruisy, then the last section more than made up for it, with a steep switch back trail climbing sharply out of the forest and up into the rock.

We were very glad to see Refugio Italia on the shores of Laguna Negra

A stunning, wind swept location

We were undecided about whether to camp or stay in the refugio - until we reached the laguna!  The wind was howling across the lake - well, ok, it really wasn't that windy, but boy, it was cold!  The refugios here are a bit different to back home - you can get a fully cooked dinner for AR$100 (about NZ$25), which sounds expensive when we've been spending that much on a whole day's food in town.  But of course it all has to be carried up and the person living in the hut has to cook and do the dishes.

The refugio itself wasn't as nice as I'd expected for somewhere you can have all your meals cooked for you and is almost as expensive as our hostel in town.  It was freezing cold with only a little heater and the fire didn't get lit.  The other thing that surprised us was how late people arrived at the hut - it was a Saturday night so there were lots of locals, many of whom didn't arrive until well after 7pm.  Dinner wasn't til 10pm though - pretty normal for Argentina.

Ben spent some time outside setting up for this great night shot

Another beautiful day greeted us, time for a leisurely breakfast and some more photos before heading down again.

The refugio shows the vastness of the mountains

There were a couple of snow traverses to negotiate

Of course it was much faster heading down and before long we were back in Colonial Suiza, waiting for the bus.  Sunday is market day there, with lots of artisan stores open and plenty of day trippers from Bariloche.  What this means is that the bus doesn't come to the bus stop . . . so we missed it after waiting 45min.

We decided hitch hiking would fill in the time til the next bus (3hrs away) and luckily for us Ana, the owner of the campsite we'd stayed, drove past before we'd even really started trying, and gave us a ride back to Bariloche, much faster than the bus would have been!