The river we ate our picnic lunch by.
The river the second path ran along.
Walking to the glacier.
The view of the valley looking away from the glacier.
The black glacier - pretty cool stuff.
Today we set off to see the black glacier - Ventisquero Negro. As we didn’t know how to get there by ourselves we thought we would go on a tour that encompassed three, one hour treks (although strolls is probably a more accurate term).I was relieved to see our fellow tour companions included some older, slightly overweight Argentineans – probably too much steak.¨Good I thought. They surely can’t be as fast at walking as Germans¨.
Cerro Tronador (the mountain where the glacier is located) is only about 20 kilometres as the crow flies from Bariloche. Naturally, the road travelled is a lot longer and it takes over two hours to get there. I am sure the scenery along the way is lovely as you drive through national park, but I fell asleep.
I woke up at our first stop. I needn’t have worried about not being able to keep up. I could have crawled faster then the pace our guide set. The first waterfall we visited was nice enough but nothing that spectacular. I was more concerned with the clouds that were setting over Tronador in the distance.
Next we stopped for lunch at a restaurant – hotel – camping ground. Jon and I had made our own lunch so we sat at a picnic table and proceeded to eat. However, just as we took our first bite, a guy popped up out of nowhere demanding three pesos for eating there. Our guide hadn’t informed us of this fee so Jon refused to pay. He argued that the guy did not look official enough to be collecting money on behalf of the hotel (he was not wearing a uniform or badge) and that because we had already paid a national park entry fee (it didn’t matter to Jon that this was a private property) he was not going to part with $1.50. Talk about being Dutch! In order to avoid a showdown and possibly having management (Jon had asked to see them) escort us off the premises, I packed up our food and dragged an unwilling Jon to the edge of the property where we ate on the other side of the fence.
After our riverside picnic, we sent on our second walk for the day. This one was far more scenic. The track made its way through a forest of bamboo (bamboo here is solid rather than hollow inside because of the cold) that grew alongside the river. It was quite beautiful and at the end of the path was another waterfall that drenched you with its spray if you got too close. It was a pity we couldn’t spend more time here as it was very tranquil and I would have liked to explore the bamboo more.
Our last walk was through the snow and around the edge of a lake to the black glacier which is just a dirty lump of ice, albeit a pretty one. It is black because the snow picks up a lot of dirt and rocks as it slides down the mountain into the lake. The glacier was a lot smaller then the others we have seen but every one is so different it is hard to get bored of them. Half of Cerro Tronador is shared with Chile so we found ourselves standing very close to the border. I was hoping to witness an avalanche (Jon was hoping to photograph one) but I didn’t get my wish. I wouldn’t have minded seeing someone other than myself fall into the lake (the snow was rather slippery along the edge) but that didn’t happen either. Despite this, it was a great day.
Once back in Bariloche, I rewarded myself for all that hard strolling by sampling more chocolate!
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