el bolson, goodbye dear friend

hey, it is now the end of march and after a little extension of our time in el bolson, vida and i are now back in mendoza. the time in the mountains was fantastic. we did two multi-day trips into the andes near town, one to el cajon del azul and los laguitos and one to cerro lindo, and spent some time on vida´s friend´s farm in between. the whole thing was fantastic. el cajon del azul is a hardcore little canyon area on the rio azul, which by the way is one of the most amazingly pristine rivers i have ever seen, and los laguitos are a cluster of lakes further up the river valley from the cajon. both places are filled with mind-bending beauty. cerro lindo is a hell of a climb straight up for 12 kilometers to a collection of peaks and small creaks winding their way through alpine meadows. on almost all of the hikes around el bolson there are rufugios where you can camp or stay in the cabin and have access to a nice little rustic kitchen. all of the refugios are manned by refugieros who are wonderful mountain people often times homesteading there. many of them make homebrews and bring supplies up on horseback, grow as much food as they can, and make dulces out of wild berries. basically they are a bunch of badasses living in the sticks. it has been so nice to get some serious mountain time. the farm we were at was excellent as well. it is run by vida´s friend alex and they have been organizing the first csa in the area(which could potentially mean that it is the first in argentina) and holding natural construction courses, the whole nine yards. as far as the pictures go, the first two are from chile, the next two are of the cajon, and then one the second lake at los laguitos and a waterfall at cerro lindo. i am running out of time on the internet at the moment, but will post again soon, with more pictures and such. all my love.....................