From Esquel we caught a bus to El Bolson. After our last bus experience ("low-quality, but at least it´s expensive") a return to the quality, luxury and air-conditioning of ViaBariloche was a relief, including lounge-style seating, meals provided and dubtitled (overdubbed AND sub-titled) ´Valkyrie´ on the screen. Unfortunately it only lasted 2hrs.
El Bolson is set in a beautiful fertile valley fringed by the snow-capped greenery of the eastern Andes, but by the time we got there we were pretty much sick of those types of settings. It is touted as the hippy capital of Argentina. For me this conjured images of a mix somewhere between Nimbin and Maleny - in reality though it appears to have succumbed somewhat to the lure of tourism, with Coke sponsored shops, large chain supermarkets owned by known Mapuche (southern Andean indigenous people) killers and more accomodation for tourists than locals. It seems the notion of "being a hippy" takes on a different form here. The town seems to have just as much automobile transport as any other, and while they do separate their organics and non-organics, recycling is non-existent. What they do celebrate is a love of nature, democracy and art. The feria artesenal (artists´market) happens four days a week all day, and as such I think the regular vendors/artists might become more mass-producers of what sells rather than producing art for its own sake. However the market contains a range of wares from tacky Eumundi market-style crap to yummy calzones, fresh juices and home-made beers and through to excellent craftwork and artistry in the form of sculptures, jewelry, clothes, music and local organic produce.
After arriving we caught a taxi to our hostel, well out of town in the hills. While a fantastic and well-kept hostel, being 4 or 5km walk from el centro made it difficult. We walked back to town, and after much tooing and froing I found a local clothing repair lady who promised to fix a hole in our tent fly and sew a carry case for us - she ended up only charging us AU$4 - I paid her $6. We also discovered 2 health stores with such comforting products as quinoa, brown sugar, rice pasta, coconut milk and tahini. The tahini cost AU$11 for a 400g jar - in comparison a litre of milk is about AU60c.
The next day while Michelle rested I rented a mountain bike to ride to a permaculture village that seemed close to town. Bip bourrr. Two and a half hours later after riding on a consistently uphill, rocky dirt road I arrived. On the way I passed the two Italians, Giacomo and Dario, who were hitching to the same place. We all arrived around the same time - then explored the CIDEP village. About 5 years ago these vegetarians started constructing their permaculture systems - beautifully designed and decorated adobe homes, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, native plant interpretation walk and homemade solar hot water systems. I also saw for the first time in operation a solar cooker - a hemisphere of mirrors focussed on a hanging billy boiling up their lunch - brilliant! A resident showed us his tiny but functional house and space including a quite basic grey water treatment system and living roof (a layer of soil on the roof with grasses, herbs and weeds growing). Later in conversation with Marvin (mentioned below) I realised they had no animal systems (except for a few chooks) or anything in the way of an income spinner. However the idea is fantastic and to know this way of life is a worldwide phenemonon is very heartening indeed. After a while I rode back to town, discovering I had fried my lower thighs in the sun.
By the next day I was starting to feel sick with a bug of some kind - probably a result of my steady diet of chocolate, tea, mate, sugar, bread, milk and chocolate biscuits. I elected to turn back after trying the steep uphill climb to Mount Piltriquitron while Michelle continued and visited the Bosque Tallado (sculpted forest). After a bushfire had destroyed a large section of forest, local sculptors responded by carving the remaining timber into beautiful and surreal shapes. Note the cat hiding amongst the rocks in the forest. She ascended a high viewing platform for views of the surrounding valleys east and west, then returned to the hostel catching a lift with a couple of Aussies on the way.
Where we stayed at the Altos del Sur hostel we have met some fun and interesting characters. Fernando mans the post most of the time there and is originally from Buenos Aires but recently spent 6 months in the wilderness at a remote refugio. It was essentially a hermit lifestyle and a bit of a soul-finding mission for him as, in his own words, "I was fat, lazy, shy and closed off, worked at a computer all day". A very funny and witty young man.
Marvin and Perla are two American travellers in their 60´s. They have spent a lot of their lives practising their own form of permaculture as organic sheep and cow farmers and more recently have travelled widely and continue to look for new adventures and work as Agriculture consultants here in Argentina. Very gentle and open-minded people.
El Bolson is set in a beautiful fertile valley fringed by the snow-capped greenery of the eastern Andes, but by the time we got there we were pretty much sick of those types of settings. It is touted as the hippy capital of Argentina. For me this conjured images of a mix somewhere between Nimbin and Maleny - in reality though it appears to have succumbed somewhat to the lure of tourism, with Coke sponsored shops, large chain supermarkets owned by known Mapuche (southern Andean indigenous people) killers and more accomodation for tourists than locals. It seems the notion of "being a hippy" takes on a different form here. The town seems to have just as much automobile transport as any other, and while they do separate their organics and non-organics, recycling is non-existent. What they do celebrate is a love of nature, democracy and art. The feria artesenal (artists´market) happens four days a week all day, and as such I think the regular vendors/artists might become more mass-producers of what sells rather than producing art for its own sake. However the market contains a range of wares from tacky Eumundi market-style crap to yummy calzones, fresh juices and home-made beers and through to excellent craftwork and artistry in the form of sculptures, jewelry, clothes, music and local organic produce.
After arriving we caught a taxi to our hostel, well out of town in the hills. While a fantastic and well-kept hostel, being 4 or 5km walk from el centro made it difficult. We walked back to town, and after much tooing and froing I found a local clothing repair lady who promised to fix a hole in our tent fly and sew a carry case for us - she ended up only charging us AU$4 - I paid her $6. We also discovered 2 health stores with such comforting products as quinoa, brown sugar, rice pasta, coconut milk and tahini. The tahini cost AU$11 for a 400g jar - in comparison a litre of milk is about AU60c.
The next day while Michelle rested I rented a mountain bike to ride to a permaculture village that seemed close to town. Bip bourrr. Two and a half hours later after riding on a consistently uphill, rocky dirt road I arrived. On the way I passed the two Italians, Giacomo and Dario, who were hitching to the same place. We all arrived around the same time - then explored the CIDEP village. About 5 years ago these vegetarians started constructing their permaculture systems - beautifully designed and decorated adobe homes, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, native plant interpretation walk and homemade solar hot water systems. I also saw for the first time in operation a solar cooker - a hemisphere of mirrors focussed on a hanging billy boiling up their lunch - brilliant! A resident showed us his tiny but functional house and space including a quite basic grey water treatment system and living roof (a layer of soil on the roof with grasses, herbs and weeds growing). Later in conversation with Marvin (mentioned below) I realised they had no animal systems (except for a few chooks) or anything in the way of an income spinner. However the idea is fantastic and to know this way of life is a worldwide phenemonon is very heartening indeed. After a while I rode back to town, discovering I had fried my lower thighs in the sun.
By the next day I was starting to feel sick with a bug of some kind - probably a result of my steady diet of chocolate, tea, mate, sugar, bread, milk and chocolate biscuits. I elected to turn back after trying the steep uphill climb to Mount Piltriquitron while Michelle continued and visited the Bosque Tallado (sculpted forest). After a bushfire had destroyed a large section of forest, local sculptors responded by carving the remaining timber into beautiful and surreal shapes. Note the cat hiding amongst the rocks in the forest. She ascended a high viewing platform for views of the surrounding valleys east and west, then returned to the hostel catching a lift with a couple of Aussies on the way.
Where we stayed at the Altos del Sur hostel we have met some fun and interesting characters. Fernando mans the post most of the time there and is originally from Buenos Aires but recently spent 6 months in the wilderness at a remote refugio. It was essentially a hermit lifestyle and a bit of a soul-finding mission for him as, in his own words, "I was fat, lazy, shy and closed off, worked at a computer all day". A very funny and witty young man.
Marvin and Perla are two American travellers in their 60´s. They have spent a lot of their lives practising their own form of permaculture as organic sheep and cow farmers and more recently have travelled widely and continue to look for new adventures and work as Agriculture consultants here in Argentina. Very gentle and open-minded people.
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