About 800km south of Barriloche is the national park Perito Moreno. It is sometimes confused with the small nearby town Perito Moreno but more often it is confused with the glacier called Perito Moreno in the national park Las Glaciares which is the famous glacier that is on every top 10 list of things to do in Argentina. I only know of the place because the owner of the hostel in Barriloche is an avid hiker as well and when I told him that I am here for the hiking he immediately suggested this route and said that it was one of — if not the — best hikes he ever did. So I quickly told the park administration about my plans and reserved a 3 day hiking round trip in the park that involved visits to 3 distinct refugios (shelters) in the park. Very cool that this is completely free.
The drive to the park
On the 80km gravel road into the park you could already see the andean mountains towering over the grass plains. Many herds of guanacos and ñandus live in these plains and only start running away after I come very close with my car.
After getting announcing my arrival to and receiving a briefing from the local park ranger about the awesome weather that I am going to have with only minimal wind and no rain I drive to the trailhead where I cooked dinner before walking the short distance (3km) to the first refugio.
Having arrived at the refugio, I was greeted by a cozy hut and the calm lake.
I later discovered that I had forgotten my lamp at the car which meant that I needed to go back the next day and get it. It would have been very difficult without it.
The first day
Refugio Tucuquere
On my first visit to refugio Tucuquere I met Lucas, a half-German Argentinian who studied in Karlsruhe but grew up in Buenos Aires. He was travelling in the region for a 2 months before returning to Germany. We talked all evening about life, our journeys in Argentina and he gave me some tips for the northern region as well. Cool dude. He had to leave early the next morning so I was alone for breakfast again.
Puesto del 9
About 3km from refugio tucuquere is an old refugio that has been there for much longer than the newer ones which were built in 2017. This old refugio looked way less comfortable but is still usable. There was even still food in one of the shelves that was not past its off date.
The rest of the day was “just” hiking to the next refugio and enjoying the view. The trail did not go along the shore anymore so there were a lot more trees and even some swampy sections but it is fall so the trees were already turning red which made for a very lovely scenery too.
Refugio Azara
The way back
On my way back I stopped over at refugio tucuquere for one more night. In the morning I took a bath in the (ice cold) lake for a couple of minutes which left me super refreshed for the day. Luckily the sun was in full blast (~20°C) so I warmed up quickly again. The hike back to the car did the rest.
When I cam back to the car and wanted to drive off already, I discovered to my shock that my battery had been almost completely drained. I wondered how that could be because I thought that my auxiliary battery that powered the fridge only charges while I am driving. So I checked under the hood and discovered to my dismay that the rear battery charger is directly connected to the battery poles. Those idiots had built the system so that the front battery will always be tapped even though the car is not running!
That meant also that my second battery is not empty however and so I started connecting the battery charger that I bought back in Chile. It is powered by the 240V AC inverter in the back and can charge 12V batteries. Good plan, didn’t work. The cables were too short; it did not reach from the inverter to the battery. So I started disassembling the box and the cabling to extract the inverter and move it further to the front. Luckily I had bought some screwdrivers in Barriloche otherwise this would have been impossible. That plan worked and I got the battery charger connected.
In the mean time some other local hikers had rolled up in a Land Rover Defender. I asked them if they had jumper cables to we could jump start my car, because I had none. Sadly, they too did not have jumper cables and because my car is an automatic and uses gasoline not diesel we can not start it by pushing it either.
Luckily, while my battery was already charging, I dug around some more in the side compartments of my trunk where the cables from the front battery emerge and found some jumper cables! (as well as a tire repair kit — lets hope I will never need that). The other guys were still there so I asked them if we could jump start my car with theirs. So he rolled up his defender next to me (for some reason the battery of a Defender is under the driver’s seat) and we got my car going. Relieved and leaving the engine running I started putting my car together again.
