Bariloche, first stop in Patagonia

The day I arrived in this small look-a-like Swiss city, it started to rain and the longer it rained, the harder. I found a bed in a popular, but low budget hostel called La Bolsa. It is very close to the center and has a big living room with open kitchen and a patio. Very cosy. The next day it was still raining hard, so I decided just to figure out the activities here and I visited the Museum of Patagonia, in that way I already saw the animals living in this region. ;) It was good that it rained, in that way the ashes fall down, which makes the view after the rain much better. So I was lucky to hike on sunny days after the rain.

My first trip was to Bosque los Arrayanes, which is on an Island that can be reached by land via Villa La Angostura or by boat from different ports. I decided to go by my own and not with an travel agency (though they try to tell you it is not possible on your own).
So I took a taxi from the hostel to the bus terminal, there I took a bus to Villa la Angostura, from there I walked 3 km to the entrance of the park and at that moment I could start the hike of 12 km to the extreme point of the Island. There I took a Catamaran back to Villa. It was a nice walk, as there were almost no people in the park and the only thing I heard were birds and the wind in the trees. This hike was what I really needed, rest in nature...on my own.

The day after I booked a hiking trip to the Vulcano Tronador. It is a Vulcano who exploded and now has three summits and seven glaciers. We started the hike at the foot of the Tronador, called Pampa Linda. The way up was through a forest of coihue trees, these have big bals around the tribe, which is used for handcraft. The forest is green and humid, bamboo everywhere! The Rio Manso here is grey, because the water wears away the rocks. This water is not drinkable, it first has to go to the lake, where all the minerals fall on the bottom. That gives the lake a beautiful color! The weather was perfect, no rain and a bit of sun. We hiked to the front of glacier Manso and I felt like standing in front of an altar. It was impressive and it is only my first glacier in South-America. After the hike, we went by bus to another glacier: el Negro. I was so tired after these two days of hiking, that in the evening I just cooked some rice and baked an egg...and it tasted well!