A little down time

After several days of walking some of the main trails in the area, we decided to give ourselves a break.  In the morning we chose to cross the puzzlingly spanking new bridge that crosses the Rio de las Vueltas and essentially immediately dead-ends.  The host at our B&B said that turning left and following the path would bring us to the original homestead of Andreas Madsen, who was the original colonizer of the area and his home still stands.  We set off at a leisurely pace along a track which skirts the vertiginous rock faces covered with high desert plants, and after a turn in the path came close to face to face with a band of wildly barking dogs.  We were rather taken aback and weren’t sure if it was safe to go on, but we picked up handfuls of stones and kept walking—feeling better prepared for the encounter…. I suppose.  As we walked we discovered that along the river there was a pack of about 30 dogs, all shapes, sizes, colors, madly barking at us, but as we approached they fled further up the river bed.  We left them behind, looking at us from behind a wire fence that extended as far as the eye could see.  Kept walking, even after we saw that the house in the distance was off-limits, and that we could instead trespass elsewhere…. The trail kept going down the valley, along the riverside, and we walked for a while, but eventually turned back and returned to having our standard lunch of cheese, crackers, apples and water—this time in the luxurious situation of a table back at the hotel.  (Usually, it’s a standing fest, fighting off flies….)

In the afternoon we walked the dirt road out of town that heads north to a lake called Lago del Desierto.   That is about 37km, but we only walked the first 4-5, which lead to a nice waterfall, called Chorillo del Salto.  Besides eating the dust of the handful of vehicles that came by—it was Christmas day, so lots of locals were out and about—, we looked down the same valley as in the morning, but were closer to the very rapidly flowing Rio de las Vueltas (River of the Turns) and on the opposite side of the water.  We picked up a friendly canine companion about 5 minutes into our walk.  He seemed to be having a grand excursion all his own, would regularly bound down some steep path to the riverbank and then rejoin us, always in a good mood.  He stopped to play with some of the children who were playing in the mud at the side of the river, then rejoined us, until we hit the short trail off the road that leads to the waterfall.  We literally told him to go home, and after making sad doggy eyes, he eventually trotted back in the direction of town.  We walked the final kilometer and arrived at a bustling scene of all sorts of locals as well as a handful of tourists, enjoying the sun on the rocks below the falls.  Some had picnics, and sadly there were the group of young men acting simply nuts, splashing, falling, and later breaking a large beer bottle.  After collecting the pieces they eventually wandered off, and the place became a sort of family haven, with little kids playing in the ice cold water.  The usual stray dogs partook in the fun and games, catching flies, and simply watching the world go by.  One small dog took a particular liking to Andres!

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