Took this while driving the last the 5 km into Cholila. There was another condor a few hundred meters higher. Cholila is famous for being where for Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Etta Place bought a ranch in 1901, and lived for the next several years. Their cabin is still there.
This was the only vehicle we saw parked in town. Note the water tank on top. There are no fatass American style RVs in Argentina. People convert old buses.
12 km west of Cholila is Villa Lago Rivadavia. It’s a small village of maybe 40 or so houses, a couple of super small mercados (‘dispensas’), and dozens and dozens of horses loose everywhere. There are ~6 cabañas, a couple of restaurants, and one hostel that runs fly fishing / float trips. We walked down a small wash to the Rio Carrileufu. It was very windy.
The Carrileufu drains Lago Cholila and flows into Lago Rivadavia in Parque Nacional Los Alerces. The area has minimal development / unpolluted water.
Around 8 km south of town is the entrance to PN Los Alerces. You can access the shoreline by pulling off 3 km after the park entrance.
Micael was asleep for most of the day. When he woke up in this place he seemed to be picking up on stoke levels.
micael miller, ~6 hours old, 12/15/10
lau and micael after the first full night in bed:
heading down from the confluence towards first rapid
This weekend was the closing for the local ski areas (La Hoya in Esquel and Cerro Catedral in Bariloche). My neighbor Federico, his son Juan, and I met up with two photographers from Bariloche and rolled down to La Hoya for a hot last day of corn snow.
Patagonian steppe heading south on Ruta 40 to Esquel
I explained during the ride how on closing days back in the US you’d see girls in bikinis or sometimes people riding down en bolas.
Looking east from La Hoya
The snow trailed off in this final run to a few meters wide. We turned it into a mini-boardercross.
Last few meters of snow at La Hoya
The next day the familia and I went to the Rio Azul which is quickly rising from snowmelt. We got right down to rock-throwing.
I told Layla, “This is all the nieve we played in before.”
Rio Azul, sonrisa
after 40-50 days of rain / snow, yesterday and the day before it was clear. layla and i hiked up cerro amigo. we saw a condor. that’s our word now, condor. super condor.
yesterday we walked out to the airstrip and looked back at the ridgeline where the condor flew.
cerro piltriquitron
layla kept looking at piltri and saying ‘mucha snow.’
it was clear but cold, maybe 40 degrees and windy. we all got cold after half an hour.
all the puddles that were in the shade were still frozen and layla got to break ice with her ‘stompers’. it was all super condor.
_______________
all photos by laura bernhein.