Visiting Villa La Angostura

With the sun shining through my window by 09h00 and the sky looking clear, it was for sure a day for the bus trip to the town of Villa La Angostura. It's on the same lake as my town, Bariloche, just a bit more North and it seems a lot more protected from the wind that so often howls here.

Interestinly, despite only being about 80km North - as-the-crow-flies, from Bariloche, Angostura gets a lot more rain - like 2000mm/year (300 rain days/year) - than Bariloche (around 800mm/yr). All related to the Andes mountains.

Angostura is a pretty little town. Vastly smaller than Bariloche and looks to be purely a tourist town. Sweet little stores much like the main street here with bakeries, chocolate stores, knick-knack stores and restaurants. AND, lots of outdoor apparel stores with gear for purchase and hire.

I arrived in town after noon - it's a 90-min bus trip from Bari (I snoozed all the way - been really tired from this past week of lessons) and immediately headed for the tourism office (to get a map) and then to the forested peninsula, 3km out of town. At the office the guy said the peeps there wouldn't let us (an Australian couple also wanted to head down there) do the walk because it was too late. I decided to try my luck anyway.

Pretty, flat-calm little bay at the junction of the 'mainland' and the forested peninsula.

At the office the lady said I wouldn't be able to do the walk. I asked her why. Not enough time. I told her I couldn't do the whole thing to the 'Bosque Arrayanes' anyway because I had to catch the bus back at five. She said I could to the walk the viewpoints and that this was only about 1.5km and it was free (ARG$65 for the walk - around R130). And that if I wanted to walk a bit further, I could. So, I did ;)

BEAUTIFUL!

The main trail (there is only one - straight through the peninsula from the top to tip - is wide and immaculate.

View from a viewpoint.

Me encanta lops bosques!

The forest (bosque) here is absolutely stunning. HUGE, tall trees and lush vegetation. Bosque Arraynes at the tip of the peninsula (11km from the park office) is an attraction because it is a forest of a certain type of tree, Arrayan. These cinnamon-coloured trees do grow in the 'main' forest but the tip of the peninsula is a forest of mostly these trees - many up to 600 years old. I didn't get down here but did cover around 4km of the main trail, which was magnificent.

Interesting, smooth and patchy bark of the Arrayan tree.

The first few hundred metres of the trail is steeply up and difficult - not for old people or children. The rest seems to be like this - very wide and open. Biking is allowed - once you've carried your bike uphill, that is! Sun shining and blue sky above - still, cold enough for base layer, two shells, two Buffs, warm leggings and gloves... And to keep moving. If I stopped too long at the viewpoints I got chilled - fast!

Likin' lichen

Some arrayan trees in the forest - just off the trail. I wonder what kind of furry creatures live in this forest? 

I wanted to check out the town too so I gave myself a bit over an hour in town to look around and stop in to say hello to some of Brian Gardner's friends (ARer - Team Red Ants). The team took part in the Terra Viva AR here in Feb last year and Brian returned with his partner in Dec to vacation and travel around. 

After a friendly hello (Brian - I saw the whole family and they send warm greetings back to you) and a look around, it was back on to the bus to head home.

An impression of the town. Neat, tidy, touristy, sweet. Snowy mountains on one side; lake and forested peninsula on the other. Nice place indeed. But glad I'm staying in Bariloche, which is bigger and has more happening and it's easy to pop through to towns like Villa La Angostura for the day.

Walking back from the bus station to my hostel, I discovered another yarn shop... going to go back during the week once I've decided what I'd like to make using their yarn. A feast of colour!

When the sun shines, go run

Our first really stunning day since Saturday. During class this morning I saw some sunbeams coming through the window. That's the signal for, "Get home, get changed, go run!".

So, that's what I did.

I headed up my local hill, Cerro Otto. This is where I regularly run and where I went cross-country skiing yesterday. Initially I saw just going to run to the 'second bend' but as it was nice up there - blue sky and no wind - I decided to head ALL THE WAY UP. I haven't been to the top-top since I first arrived here almost three weeks ago.

We had snow two weeks ago and then not much until Sunday or so. The season is open and Cerro Otto too has snow on top. Knee-deep, evidently.

On Cerro Otto there are ski pistes (there's a ski place about 1km after my 'second bend') but they're very much for beginners (lessons) and children. Low degree of difficultly and short in distance. Right up top of Cerro Otto there's a restaurant (revolving, it seems) and 'slopes' for bum sliding. Being the winter season there were loads of school children up there. Can't say the top is very nice - with the exception of the view. I don't think I'll go all the way up to the restaurant again, even for the view.

From my 'second bend' the road got pretty muddy. There has been more snow higher up here and so the increased volume of cars has churned up the road. LOTS OF MUD!

And yes, that's a condor soaring top centre-right (not dirt on my camera).

Nordico is where I went for lesson's yesterday. The Confiteria is the top of the mountain.

After the ski place that I went to yesterday the road is closed off completely to vehicles - walking only.

'Camino' is walk.

That's the restaurant up top. I was trying to show you the foot-print track but I couldn't get the angle right...

The other option to get to the top of Cerro Otto is via a cable car from a main road down at the bottom (where the trail that I took three weeks ago starts). Once up there's another kind of connecting cable car (probably only 100m journey) that takes people from the 'station' up to the restaurant and seems to transport bum sliders back up too. I didn't have a ticket so I took the road around. Only one other set of foot prints - knee-deep in the snow...

At the top I took a look around, checked the view and tried to find another route down... no luck. Had to run around again the way I'd come. There wasn't any wind today (perfect conditions!) but it was still cold and so I couldn't hang around too long up there without running - too cold to stand around wearing run tights, thermal base layer and run shell. Perfect balance for running.

View was good. Nice and clear. Compare with the pics from my first run up here on 17 June.

There will still be LOTS more snow to come. We're only really a week into the season.

I think that I'd have to live in a snowy place for a long time to tire of the white-white-whiteness of the snow., especially when there's a lovely blue sky too. It constantly delights me.

I'm really glad I went all the way up today. Definitely good advantage taken of the conditions. It's around an 18km round trip from my hostel to the top. Half up, half down. Ba-ba-ba-boom.

I'm.a.natural.

I had my very ever first ski experience today when I went for a cross-country ski lesson. Let's just say that it's like I was born with skis on the end of my legs.

In my super-fabulous Columbia ski jacket. This jacket is incredible! Waterproof, windproof, warm, snug, great fit, awesome for activities... super wow!

Oddly, I've never had very much interest in downhill skiing. Sure, it looks awesome, it has got to be fun and I love watching crazy ski antics on the Banff Mountain Film Festival movies. BUT, I've always felt an affinity for cross-country skiing - being able to go from one place to another. Up and down and over and around. As a runner, it makes sense to me. And, I have this affinity for adventurer Fritjof Nansen, who also started out in zoology but ended up as an adventurer, cross-country ski pioneer, polar explorer and Nobel Peace Prize winner... (Roland Huntford's book "Nansen" is a super read).

I really enjoyed my session this afternoon ;)

Friends in snowy places, I need to come visit you in winter so that I can join you for lots and lots and lots of cross-country skiing!

We've had quite a bit of snow coming down the past few days - on the mountains. I'm hoping to get back to ski again in the next few days (weather permitting). They've got a 2km loop that I can play on (around and around and around) - I can see timed splits happening here. My ski instructor, Valerye (a Russian chap) says there is also a 3km loop that is more difficult (more up!). Sign me up dude! He says I'm very good for a first timer (not even a wobble at first and off like a greyhound!) and technically I'm spot-on. Obviously fitness / strength isn't a problem. Whoop-whoop ;)

With Ella. She has been in my Spanish class this week. She skis (downhill) but this was her first time going cross-country style (different skis, technique etc).

A dozen lessons in the bag

Since my lovely run of Circuito Chico on Saturday we've had rain, rain, rain! And some snow too (in the mountains). My regular running hill is covered in snow, although I haven't been up there since Thursday last week.

I've now had a dozen Spanish lessons and I don't feel much the wiser... OK, so I'm definitely understanding more and I'm able to read more and I'm writing better than a four-year old... but I just feel so... inept!

This week I'm back to four hours a day classes and I have two companions in my class: an Australian woman, Ella, who comes to South America to travel every year - doing lessons here and there while in towns; and a young (16yr old) Brazilian guy, Diego (from Sao Paulo), who is doing Spanish in school and decided to come here for two weeks to do Spanish lessons and enjoy the snow and mountains.

I also have a new teacher. She's pretty sweet but geez can she talk! In Spanish she outdoes me in English! Phew! She's from Spain but has been in Argentina for eight months so she speaks with Argentine Spanish pronunciation. Today was a bit frustrating (all the days seem to vary in degrees of frustration!) because she was explaining something in reponse to a question from Ella and she just bombarded us with like 10 minutes of non-stop Spanish - that we didn't understand much of - when she could have just said, "Because it is a rule in Spanish". Frikkin' hell!

Today I devoured a big whack of Spanish as we had a movie screening of the Argentine movie, 'El secreto de sus ojos' - the secret in their eyes. It's a major award-winning movie like at Toronto Film Festival and one in Spain... the main actor (Ricardo Darin) is reportedly the most famous actor in Argentina.

The movie was pretty good - although I didn't get all of it. Thank goodness they put on the Spanish subtitles 'cos the dude mumbles and they speak crazy-fast. I was delighted that I understood most of the words and could even figure out what tense (present, past perfect and past imperfect).

Tonight my homework for class is to read a newspaper article in Spanish and to write notes about it and to report this back in class tomorrow...

Still on the topic of Spanish... I'm a BIG, HUGE, MASSIVE fan of a band from Uruguay, "No Te Va Gustar" - translated the name of the band means, "You will not like (this)". Well, ME GUSTA MUCHO! One of the guys here got me on to them because the songs are great for pronunciation - clear and articulate (Buenos Aires pronunciation) - and working through the lyrics is a great way to expand my vocabulary. And it doesn't hurt any that the main guy, Emiliano - born in Buenos Aires but moved to Uruguay as a teen - is sweet on the eyes too... I like to listen to the songs while singing along to the lyrics.

The first song that I was introduced to was "Chau" (ciao - bye) - I've embedded the other one that I like below "Cero a la izquierda" - zero to the left. I've downloaded five of the official videos and have worked through them - going to grab more tonight! For more NTVG fabulousness, this is their YouTube Channel.


And finally, some pics from in-the-rain walks about town the past few days.

The wind was howling on Monday. I'm actually leaning backwards, into the wind. That behind me is not the ocean... No, no, it's the lake with big waves!

I went walking with Simone. She works at the hostel and is from Germany. She has lived in Argentina previously (for a year) so she speaks Spanish and will be heading home at the end of this month.

On our walk-about we found these stairs - there are more above the graffiti wall. Not the most desirable part of town....

Sniffing a flower... mural on a building here in the 'city'.

I found this exercise area last week while out on a run. I wanted to check it out again. There's a running track around basketball courts and a volleyball court (just to the left). And, it turns out this is a trim park setup as there is a run trail loop and here and there are 'obstacles' fr exercises like pull ups, tricep dips etc. I'll give it a go when the weather clears.