It’s a little town in a low mountain valley. Some time the 70s, hippies wanting to escape Buenos Aires life found this place and started moving here. Today it is still beautiful, I suppose as a result of the forward thinking and conservationist attitudes of the transplants who don´t want a McDonalds or high-rise buildings. They also have supposedly the biggest artisan craft market in the country. Right now the spring flowers are in bloom. Anywhere we go there are wild roses, daisies and lupines. Lupines. Have you ever seen these things? A whole field of waist or chest high purple, pink, blue and white flowers. Impressive against a snowy mountain backdrop. We’ve been hiking a lot, a little further each day. Today we were out wandering the hills and following a blue river for about 6 hours. 
Also back in the town’s history, El Bolson accounted for 60% of the hops growing of Argentina. 20 years ago someone decided to start brewing some artisanal beer. Cerveceria El Bolson was born. Now there are at least half a dozen microbreweries in this little town. I must say the beer here is by far better than any other I´ve had in this country. And I´ve tried quite a few. You see, my brother, the graphic design professor, has an artistic interest in studying the iconography of beer labels. He has done quite a bit of “research” in Europe. He charged me with the very difficult task of drinking as many varieties of South American beer as possible and bringing the labels back to him. It has been a pleasure this
week to have an excuse to spend those extra few pesos end enjoy some 
truly crafty brewing.We’ve been staying in a nice little hobbit home across a hanging pedestrian bridge. It has been nice to relax there and speak Spanish with Ester, the proprietress, who moved here 20 years ago. Yesterday she took us on a hike to a waterfall. It feels like a vacation, being able to fall asleep in a hammock in the afternoon.
Tomorrow we plan to head up to Bariloche,
Argentina´s playground of the rich and famous. We hope to find a way to explore the areas near the city.
5 comments:
oh, sounds SO lovely!! can't wait to see pictures from this part of it all!
Lupines?? I will cry if Lou didn't filch a couple so I'll have some more seeds. I've tried for 3 years to get my to spread despite my mother's warning that they'd come up everywhere when I got some of hers.
yummmmm...research...
I'm glad to hear you've found some good beers in Argentina finally. All I could find in Curitiba and Hong Kong was macrobrews, but I tried them anyway, they were foreign macrobrews after all.
Nice photos! The second one from the top piqued my interest. What is at the very bottom center of it? There are several simple buildings lined up in the middle of a scattering of smaller structures. I don't have fancypants (okay, it's probably basic) software, so I can't zoom in to view it. Is it a cemetery? I think I see a cross on one of the buildings.
the second photo is of the town of El Bolson. You're right that there is a cemetary at the bottom. In the left center is a clearing that is the airstrip for the city. there are 2 lines of purple here. Pure lupines!
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