Back again

Leaving Chile for the last time we waved goodbye to volcanos, rapid speaking Chileans, very tasty dark beer and being millionaires because of the currency! We´d decided to go back to Bariloche having changed our plans because the area we had wanted to visit was under a cloud of volcano ash and currently inaccessible – not that Bariloche is a bad place to go mind! On our first day we hired some bikes and rode a circuit out of town that followed Nahuel Huapi Lake taking you through some lovely pine forests and small villages, plus offering some spectacular views. We stopped in a small Swiss village to have our picnic lunch. On the way back we jumped on a chair lift (first time for Shona and she was very excited!) up to a view point out over the lakes, it is meant to be one of the best views in Argentina and you could see why! On the way back down we managed to just catch the sun starting to set. That evening from our hostal window it suddenly looked like it was snowing, a thin white layer covering the pavement and cars, so just like children we excitedly went out to explore but on closer inspection it turned out to be volcano ash!! (Ashball fight anyone?!) The eruption in Chile had now spread its ash as far as here over 400km away! The following morning with the town sprinkled in ash we headed into the mountains for a days trekking. The views yesterday were good but from Cerro Catedral they were even better, I won´t even begin to try and explain them because it just won´t do it any justice! From the top of Catedral we followed a rough path (random spots of paint of boulders) for about 3 hours across the mountain ridge and then traversed the adjoining mountain until we finally (having thought we were a little lost!) reached the plateau we´d been looking for and our path back down. From boulder hopping in the sun shine on one side of the valley we were now slipping and sliding our way down ice and snow which made for an interesting decent! Reached a small refugio set on a lovely lake after 2 hours and from here it was all downhill through a forest (covered in ash and looking bizarre) and back to the ski village at the bottom of Cerro Catedral – made us definitely want to come back here and ski. It was possibly one of the best treks we´d done and it was such a shame that the coldness at night stopped us from attempting a 4 day trek in that region because it is so beautiful – oh well next time!