El Bolson

El Bolson is a town that is famous in Argentina for its counterculture vibe. The hippies moved here in the sixties to escape the big cities and to start a new life. It’s a small town, another one without a traffic signal, and the vibe definitely is here, with its street art fair three days a week, public art, alternative healers, and its beautiful plazas. “El Bolson” roughly is translated as “Big shopping bag.” The town is on a flat valley floor, completely surrounded by steep mountains. The town is the bottom of the bag.

We stayed in a beautiful little hostel called “Casa del Arbol.” It’s a house with about five rooms, a kitchen, and a big back yard. We met people there from France, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, Argentina, and a couple from Switzerland who are traveling around the world. They had already been gone for 18 months.

One night we built a fire in the parrilla, and we shared an asado for dinner. Everybody who was interested chipped in, and we went shopping, with Pau from Catalunya. (Please, not Spain, but rather Catalunya.) Estafania was a pro cooking up the dinner.

Another evening, we contributed again, and nine of us shared a meal. It was fun going to the supermarket with two chicas from France and a chico from Catalunya.

Our highlight in El Bolson was the kayak trip on Lago Epuyen. We told Sergio, the owner of the hostel, that we were interested in renting a kayak for the day, to go out on the lake. Lake Epuyen is a big, glacier-fed lake pretty close to town. Sergio said that he would call his friend Miguel, (another Miguel) who lived near the lake and had some kayaks. Miguel would meet us at the bus stop, drive us and the kayak 15 kilometers on a dirt road to the lake, drop us off, then pick us up later in the afternoon. Sounded great. Soon, though, our solo trip turned into an outing with four double kayaks and eight people. Sergio, Nadia, and Pau from the hostel, Miguel and his son Francisco and their friend Fabian decided to come along also. It was fantastic. The five of us from the hostel drove to Miguel’s house, where we got organized. Who would paddle with who, etc.

We drove to the lake, loaded up, and took off. It was a brilliant sunny day and the water was deep deep blue blue. Before we actually took off, Sergio and Pau went to a store and made sure that we had plenty of food and wine for lunch.

Paddling was a dream. The water was so so clear, so so clean. We drank cupfuls of it as we paddled. We paddled to a far shore and stopped for lunch on a beach.

 

 

Six of us went for a hike up a small canyon to a spring that gushed out of the mountainside into a waterfall, while Fabian and Sergio stayed on the beach, built a fire, and started cooking steaks on a steel disk. When we returned from our hike, we sat in the shade, eating steak sandwiches and passing around the bottles of wine. Not like most of our hikes in Oregon.

 

 

After lunch, and a rest, we paddled to the other side of the lake, to another beach, for a mate break. Argentinos can’t go too long without mate. It’s a drink kind of like tea, that you make by steeping leaves in a mate bowl, then sipping. Another fire was built, enough to heat a pot of water, then the water was poured into a thermos. We all shared some mate and cookies before loading up the kayaks again and beating into the headwind, back to the truck.

Another successful outing!