Deep Water Soloing and Rainy Days!

After Villa Llanquin Bob and I unpacked our things, recouped from our last adventure, and bought 1 kilo (~2 lbs) of beef tenderloin steak (56 ARG pesos= dirt cheap) and cooked it up in celebration of our trip along with some Argentine Malbec (an average bottle is + or - 40 pesos). The next day we only had a few hours before Bob left on his bus back to Mendoza to begin his guiding season on Aconcaqua. After realizing that we missed the bus that would bring us to the climbing area close to town, we were sad to realize that without a car, we would be spending the day at the Hostel. Soon after, I got a Facebook message from a local climbing club that included detailed directions on the whereabouts of a Deep Water Soloing or Psicobloc area on a regular bus route!! Woohoo lets go Bob and I said and we quickly packed our board shorts headed out! After a bit a tricky bush wacking and navigating, we found it!

It was beautiful! The spot had a nice swim deck/dock, a beautiful overhanging rock wall to climb, and crystal clear deep dark blue/green water to fall into!!

The spot was a great last min suprise and a good end to a very fun stint of my trip with Bob!

My Argentine friends I met at Frey, Santiago and Marcos or The Bash Brothers as Bob and I called, are back in town and are down to climb with me for the next week or so! We managed to sneak out before the storm hit on Monday and climb at Morenhuapi, a small limestone crag close to town.

The Bash Brothers and I rigging up to climb!

Getting pumped in the crux!

Santi sending hard!! 7c (5.12d for all you USA climbers!!)

Marcos layin out the smooth moves!

Unfortunatly, Bob seemed to have brought the sun with him when he came and it has been raining and very windy the past two days. Time to drink some mate rest and let the rain pass. Santi and I managed to fish for 2hrs yesterday evening and today the Bash Brothers and I are going to head to the desert for some climbing and hopefully dry conditions! Although its bad today the weather is supposed to shape up tomorrow and be nice for another week+! Woohoo!

Ciao for now!

Villa Llanquin!!! Rio Limay Fly Fishing and Sport Climbing!

Off on our next adventure to a small "Gaucho" (cowboy) town named Villa Llanquin for volcanic rock sport climbing and fishing, Bob and I were faced with a predicament of transportaion. The town is only located 40K from Bariloche, but is in the middle of nowhere, no buses go there, and hardly anyone has heard of it. Between the only 2 options of renting a car, and hitchhiking, Bob and I chose the only sensible option and decide to hitchike!

A hot day and full of groceries, trying to get a ride!

Finally an hour later, after trying mutiple techniques of dancing, thumbing, and waving, we got a ride! It was from a tatoo artist from Buenos Aires, who used to live in the area and had actually heard of the small town! He said he could not take us there, but instead would get us to a much better spot to hitchike toward the highway we needed to get there. He dropped us off and again, we bagan thumbing! We were reluctant to come upon a semi driver, who just had stopped at a check station, and decided to give us a ride. I had never been in a semi truck before, but the bed/backseat is super plush for hitchhiking and Bob and I made good conversation with the spanish we know. Luckily, upon coming to an intersection, I realized he was turning the wrong way and misunderstood our final destination, as it is a very small town. Bob and I, saddened that we were going to have to hitch another time in the heat were reluctant to find out that the trucker immediatly radio'd the truck behind him and got us a direct hitch to Villa Llanquin, no thumbing needed! We finally arrived and walked aross the foot bridge since the ferry across the river only runs a few hours a day. 

WE MADE IT!!

The foot bridge, from the Villa Llanquin side of the Limay River.

We found a beautiful campsite on the river owned by Pancho and Clari (or Lefty as we wished her name was). They had a nice lawn and cooking area and we could pitch our tent under the shade of cherry trees which ended up being our nemesis. But the cherries were delicious (just don't let Lefty see you eat them... she will charge 1 peso per cherry)!!

We were even able to buy 2 dozen fresh eggs from Lefty for breakfast!

The town was very Gaucho as people told us, and had a church, a small grocery store, and a school, not even a bar! Many of the people in the town were ranchers and rode around on horse.

We climbed most days on the very featured red volcanic rock.... 

....and fished in the late evenings (after a siesta in the afternoon).

We caught many small fish and drank many big beers. Although we had no problem cathing the small fish with our montana fly boxes, we later learned from a fishing guide that the larger fish escape the Limay River in the heart of summer to the deep lakes and return again in the fall, oh well, we still had a hoot wet wading, watching the little guys sip our dries off of the crystal clear blue waters!

Sadly though after 5 days, our time in Villa Llanquin needed to come to and end. So we set off to hitch a ride back to Bariloche, which we hoped would be a much easier hitch since it is a very large town...

We were right!! and after only 5 min we had a ride in the back of a ranch truck all the way to Bariloche, PERFECT!

Or so we thought....

Aparently it isn't legal to ride in the back of trucks. (I guess were not in Montana anymore).

Back to hitching after a 1/2 way ride and we got a ride quickly within 10 min once again! This time we threw our bags in the truck bed and piled in the cab, to find out that our driver was the resturant owner from the meal the previous night! Crazy! He was headed to town to get more beer and saw us thumbing our way home! 

What a fun adventure!!!

Back in Bariloche it is time to catch up with society and start planning the next 2 weeks of my trip, Bob sadly leaves tomorrow, and once again I will be on my own out to try and find climbing and adventure partners! It is full on summer here though and too hot to climb today, maybe some deep water soloing... who knows?

Caio for now!

Newly aquired chaco tan... a good sign of summer!

Frey/ The Cathedral Spires! Holy Awesome Climbing!

Bob and I just got back from the Refugio Fray and the Cathedral Spires, the climbing and scenery was spectacular! We met many fun climbing friends along the way and climbed many towers including most notably the tallest in the range Torre Principal (twice)! I will definitely be back wether it be this trip or another! Here are some photos from the past 5 days.......

It is finally summer and HOT here now! Off to Villa Llanquin and the Limay River for some sport climbing and fly fishing!!!

Ciao!

7 Lake District, San Martin, and Beyond Roadtrip!!

This past weekend some friends from my hostel and I decided to make a roadtrip to the 7 lakes district and San Martin to swim and check out the scenery! The photos from the trip are below!

A Beautiful river inlet

The town of San Martin

Chachin Falls

lunch spot swimming pool!

the beautiful desert rocks on the way back

The view of the Cathedral Spires of Frey on the way back to town! After I post this blog, I am heading there to rock climb and hopefully get on top of the big one in the center Torre Principal! Bob Goodwyn comes tomorrow to join me! 

Got Luggage and Argentina is Beautiful!!!

My luggage finally caught up to me a day after I got in, but was completly soaked... oh well at least it was all there! Must have been left out in the rain... no clue. While I was waiting for it to come in, I walked around Bariloche got some guide books and saw a few sights. 

 

 

the view from the hostel

the town christmas tree

Cathedral de San Carlos de Bariloche

Today I went on a hike to refugio lopez with some friends, swam in a high mountain "pool" and hiked to the top of la mountain de tourista and saw an incredible view of La Tronador. 

La Tronador

Happy New Year!! Hola Argentina!! Where are my Bags?!?

Dreading the first 10 hour flight to my trip, I was pleasantly found with my own "private row of seats" on the flight! Complete with hot dinner, wine, a pillow, large fleece blanket, sleeping mask, and headphones, I was sitting pretty plush. But, just as I finished my dinner and was about to catch a few zzzz's the flight attendants decided to celebrate New Years on Chile time, since Santiago was my first destination. They all gathered in the back of the plane donned hats and noise makers and danced their way to the front! Everyone on the plane then started greeting the other passengers into the New Year with a kiss on the cheek and the flight attendants supprised us all with a glass of champagne! Sometimes its the things you don't expect, that really make an ordinarily long boring flight on New Years Eve away from your friends exceptional! My next two flights went off without a hitch, or so I thought...

When I arrived in Bariloche, I went to pick up my baggage at the claim to find out that my bags (with a long confusing mulit airport bagage tag) did not make it on the same flight as me :( Hopfully the airline will deliver it to my Hostel tonight.

So far the Hostel is great! Beautiful views and nice accommodations! The weather isn't great, but its supposed to improve the next few days!