El Cajon del Azul

El Bolson is a hippie spot 75 miles South of Bariloche. Hippie spots and their free-for-all, easy going slow pace are really fun... for the first ten minutes. Than it is all about people pretending to be really friendly so they can bum smokes.

Having lived in Berkeley, I am pretty schooled at how to avoid hippies, but some times they get on my nerves. Fortunately, El Bolson had something else other than hippies, it has El Cajon del Azul.

The Azul is a river and the Cajon is a gorge that was carved by the river. It was a spectacular place, even though the weather was really crappy.

The ascent up there was really, really beautiful. A four hour walk through beautiful forests, filled with birds and llao-llao covered threes, all accompanied by the soothing soundtrack provided by the river waters.

I walked up with these two sisters from Comodoro Rivadavia. They were currently living in Buenos Aires so they could go to college. We walked all the way up to the Cajon and there was much "onda". I was feeling very good about the attention I was getting from the ladies. Paula was the oldest one of the sisters and was what appeared to flirting with me. It wasn't your average making eyes and smiles but it was definitely flirting.

She was only going up the hill to the Cajon for a couple of hours, as she had to be back down that evening. We hung out for like 20 minutes and they had to leave. Paula gave me her number:

Te vas a Buenos Aires? (are you going to Buenos Aires?)

Bueno.... (well !)

Bueno, si te vas, hay que llamarme. Che, veni a Buenos Aires. (well, if you come, you have to call me... you should come to Buenos Aires)

I wrote her phone number 'cause even though I knew I was not going to Buenos Aires, it was good to flirt.

Unfortunately, it rained practically the whole time I was at the Cajon. I couldn't even camp out. It was awesome though, and really solidified my interest in trekking.