Christian, a porteño hitchhiker from my campgrounds, and I took off toward La Hoya, the wintertime ski mountain 12 km from downtown. The day was perfect, blue sky reaching from the snowcovered Andes to the west to the deserty hills to the east.
12 km is a lot. Especially when it´s all uphill. Up up up. Past the Cañon de los Bandidos. Up up up. Filling up our water bottles with chilly snowmelt. I couldn´t believe it when we reached the 6km sign. Only half way?!
We got to the ski mountain´s base, but didn´t want to shell out the AR$25 for the chairlift. So more walking. Up up up. Getting more and more sunburnt as we continued. Until... we came across some guanacos!!!!!
We got up to the base of the third chairlift. Only one more pitch to the top, but by then we were so wiped out. We ulimately didn´t make it to the tippy top, but I had a fantastic time anyway! As seen in this photo.
A friendly man let us take the chairlift down for free!
We walked for a bit towards Esquel, until a friendly family picked us up. I´m really sunburnt and my legs will hurt tomorrow, but I´m so super happy. I really like quaint Esquel with its short buildings, friendly people, and scenic views! I could stay here for a while, but tomorrow I head towards Puerto Madryn... :-)
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