Sierra La Vigilancia – Day 1
Aug 1, 2005 – Mon
Sean and I had an early morning start. We took the MicroMar bus from BsAs to Mar del Plata at 8am. We were the only passengers on board because Mar del Plata is a summer destination, not a winter one.
Driving through the pampas looked like we were at home — flat land, cows everywhere, and nothing more. The pampas reminded me of Texas. Okay, so now I don´t really have a desire to check out the Pampas…I can do that at home!
We got to the Mar del Plata bus station and looked for El Rapido, the company that passes by Sierra la Vigilancia. We found a booth for El Rapido. They sent us to another booth marked El Rapido, who sent us to another booth marked El Rapido, who finally sent us to the 4th and correct El Rapido booth. The bus station is not that big, but there seem to be a dozen El Rapido ticket booths! We bought our tickets so that it would allow us time to get lunch in Mar del Plata.
After lunch, we hopped on the El Rapido bus, whose logo is a rabbit running, marked for Balcarce. I spoke to the driver who said he knew Sierra La Vigilancia. We were really relying on him to tell us when to get off.
The ride out from Mar del Plata to La Vigilancia (as it´s known down here) took a little while because we had to weave through Mar del Plata to pick peple up. I got to see Mar del Plata by bus. There are many cute houses there – walls of stone or stone on the bottom with white walls, with wood doors. Mar del Plata is bigger than I thought it would be, with many tall buildings lining the beach front.
A young man sitting with the driver signaled us to get off, and pointed across the street. There was a sign for Sierra La Vigilancia and a closed gate. We had no idea what the hours were, but thought we were still early. But it looked deserted. We decided to chance it and hopped over the gate. It was a long tree lined road to a house, what we thought would be the refugio.
Along our walk, we were greeted by a young bearded Argentinian guy, who I told that we were here for the refugio. He kept walking towards the gate. So we continued on to the house. When we got to the house, a lady came out and told us the refugio is 10 blocks futher. She told us the man we met works at the refugio, so we watied there for him. We waited for a while,wondering if he was going to come back. We watched the chickens peck their way by the house, a horse and pony tied up to trees, and dogs chained to the area nearby.
The man, named Mauricio, came back and led us to the refugio, which happend to be about 1200 meters from the house…more than a mile from the main road. It was a long, arduous walk to the refugio with our packs on.
We approached a set of white buildings, and arrived at the refugio. All was locked up. Mauricio told us that we were the only ones staying there for now. He opened the main building, which was much mor impressive than I had ever imagined. It is a fairly large room with a large eating area, large kitchen, and an area to hang out with couches. We headed over to the building with the dorms, which were locked as well. In that building, there is a room with a small overhanging and vertical bouldering walls, the dorm room with a long common bunk bed on two sides of the wall, and a room marked ´privado´with more bunk beds.
We put our stuff down in the dorm room, went to the common room and talked with Mauricio for a bit. He gave us a copy of the topos of La Vigilancia, since they ran out of books to sell.
Sean and I decided to hike up to La Vigilancia to check out the area. It was getting a little late, so we knew we didn´t have that much time to hike. We walked from the refugio down the dirt road to the turnoff sign for the climbing, then hiked the trail that goes along the base of the sierra to follow a trail up the sierra that is a foot trodden path with ´peligro´tape tied to bushes every once in a while.
The hike up La Vigilancia was a bit strenuous, ascending all the way. As we got higher, the scenary became more and more beautiful. We got to about treetop level of the trees in the forest at the base of the sierra. There was still quite a ways to go to get the routes, but we stopped there so that we could head back before it got too dark. We admired the view from there — the trees below, the lowland pampas below, and the sierra on the other side of the road. Then headed back to the refugio as it got dark.
It was so quiet — me, Sean, and Mauricio. Mauricio decided that he would cook for us tonight. We had cabbage salad, grilled pumpkin, and pasta with cheese sauce by candlelight.
Mauricio told us about the history of the refugio and La Vigilancia. It has been climbed for about 10 years, and the refugio has been there for about 5 years. The buildings that make up the refugio were originally nursuries for a Eucalyptus tree farm — which are all the surrounding trees. The trees are now very tall.
At night, there is really not much to do. There were clouds out, so there were no stars to look at. And it was cold, about 50 degrees. There is no heat. We decided to go to bed early, crawled in our sleeping bags to warm up.
Tags: Escalada/Climbing, Sierra La Vigilancia, Travel
Marisa