Los Años Que Vienen.

The Monday past we packed our back packs tight with only the essentials, stripping out anything

that would cause extra weight. We filled plastic grocery bags full of toothe brush and dental floss, blow gun, books, power adaptors. The owner of the Alaska Hostel in Barlioche agreed to hold on to our baggage while we made the 2-day trip up Cerro Catedral where aside from selling pizza and ice-cream a wooden cabin offered a refuge from a tie with the busy society and also, beneficially, with a constant outflow of money. We had excitment to set-up camp on top of this icy-peak where we had been told by previous adventurers that after fighting through sheets of frozen pools left over from the glaciers that the view would be one described only at the same time as giving proof to the presence of God.

Our bus broke down 15 minutes in to the gravel road. By the sound of the thumping Trevor

called out that it was a displaced rear drive shaft, but regardless we found our selves in the next moment stranded on the side of this scorching dirt road with our thumbs propped up right.

When hitchhiking I imagine it is easier to get a ride when you are in obvious trouble, such as standing next to a derelict bus, but in this situation the next number 50 on the route was the first to give us any attention more then a hand gesture. The driver was generous and let us finish our ride for free.

The bus came to a stop at a cross roads but rather then making a forward decision it began backing up, and turned around to head in the opposite direction. We recalled the directions that Javi the hostel owner had given us - Take the number 50 bus until the last stop on the route- so in a panic I began hastling the old scarf wearing lady in front of me to tell me if this was the last stop. I don´t know what she was trying to say, but after enough of me pointing back and shouting the same question over and over she finally aggreed that this is where we wanted to get-off, and it was at this moment that we lost all hope of reaching the trail head.

The road went in many directions, but the path didn´t seem that complex in the instructions. - Where is the lake that we are supposed to walk by? Maybe the map wasn´t accurate, I´m sure this is it. - Trial and errors of exploration and return led us to sitting slumped at the bus stop

without hope of success. A young kid in a Boca soccer jersey came running down the road and I jumped out in time to catch his attention. ¨Sabes donde esta Cerro Catedral? Sabes donde esta el trekking a Refugio Frey?¨ He checked the time and told us that it was 15km away on the other side of the lake, but that by now it was the beginning of Siesta and no busses ran for some time. We kicked into gear our high hopes and tied our boots and hit the road by foot. Our singing spirits gave us moral as we poetized about the people we had met and the places we had seen, turning all our bad situations into an enjoyable memory that could be laughed at.

Through the cracks in the forest ahead we saw a bus pull out of a side-street onto the main highway, and back tracking its path we found the place that matched the description of the lakeside road and final bus stop where we had intended to go in the first place. With a final boost of energy we made a kilometers distance up the road until an acceptance of defeat lingered collectively in our minds. We returned to the bus stop and waited for the number 50 back into town where we would pack our bags and move on to El Bolsón.

DETENTE Y DISFRUTA De La VIDA

No sólo te pierdes el paisaje

por ir tan rápido, también

estás perdiendo el sentido de

ADONDE VAS Y POR QUÉ

WAIT AND ENJOY LIFE

You don´t only miss the scenery

by going to fast, but also

you are losing the sense

OF WHERE YOU GO AND WHY

This Grafiti on the concrete back of the bus-stop spoke more life into the every moment of our journey. We didn´t need to go Cerro Catedral any more, it wasn´t apart of this trip. In the most positive sense, it became one more reason for us to return in the years that come. En los años que vienen.