El Bolsón is a town in the southwest of

Río Negro Province Río Negro (, ''Black River'') is a province of Argentina, located in northern Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Its cap ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, at the foot of the Piltriquitron Mountain. Due to a series of valleys through the mountains of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, El Bolsón has an unusually mild climate for its southern location. El Bolsón area's first non-indigenous inhabitants were Chilean farmers Lucas Cárdenas and Elcira Estrada, a couple who came in 1885 from San Pablo, near Osorno, and established themselves in the then known as "Valle Nuevo" (New Valley); in 2018, El Bolsón inaugurated the new Public Clock Square after the couple's names. In the 1970s,

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

migrated to El Bolsón; some of them practised horticulture and made handcrafts. El Bolsón has a tourism economy based on an outdoor artisan market,

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

, trekking,

rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders) to small boulders. Climbing is done for locom ...

, and other outdoor activities in the surrounding lakes and mountains. The nature tourism offers are complemented with the production of cheeses, smoked

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

, special brew beer, regional chocolates and ice cream, as well as organic and wild-crafted jams and preserves, particularly elderberries.

Communication

El Bolsón is located approximately 120 km south of the major city of

San Carlos de Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche (from the Mapuche name ''Vuriloche'', meaning "people from the other side of the mountain"), commonly known simply as Bariloche (), is the largest city in the Argentine province of Río Negro and the seat of the departm ...

and is served by El Bolsón Airport.

Climate

El Bolsón has a cool

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Csb'') owing to its rain shadow location. Winters are the coldest time of year with a July mean of with nighttime temperatures regularly falling below . During cold waves, temperatures can occasionally fall below . During the winter months, precipitation is abundant (mostly rainfall and occasionally

snowfall Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

s), resulting in most days being overcast, averaging 15–17 overcast days per month from May to August. Spring and fall are transition seasons featuring warmer temperatures than in winter. Summers are warmer and sunnier with temperatures during the day averaging in January and comparatively high diurnal ranges, with lows averaging . Frosts can even occur during the summer months. Owing to its location in a valley, wind speeds are lower ranging from a low of in May and June to a high of in January.

History

There have been many different inhabitants in the Bolsón region. However, the first settlers of the region were the Tsonek. By custom they were hunters/gatherers and seasonally nomadic. It was normal for them to stay in the more sheltered regions of the forests and lakes during the winter and to hunt

Guanaco The guanaco ( ; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The gua ...

more intensely during the summer and warm autumns. Very little is known about them before the sixteenth century, but through the process of Araucanization they were strongly influenced by the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

s. They were the most solid and cohesive culture around and were gaining ground toward eastern

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

, through both peaceful means and expansionist wars. This town was not founded by any conqueror,

Adelantado ''Adelantado'' (, , ; meaning 'advanced') was a title held by some Spain, Spanish nobles in service of their respective kings during the Middle Ages. It was later used as a military title held by some Spanish ''conquistadores'' of the 15th, 16th a ...

, explorer, or discoverer. This region simply served as a place of passage for the migrations of Tsonek communities, humans looking for game, and gatherers for a long time. Afterwards, it was purely Mapuche territory. Later, with the first inroads of the Europeans in the region, it also provided temporary shelter to those who were carrying cattle and herdsmen crossing the

cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

in an east-west direction, and vice versa, from one sea coast to another. This, as well as Argentina's expansion into the region, resulted in frequent conflicts and disagreements with the Mapuche people. The founding date of El Bolson is considered to be January 28, 1926. That day locals gathered at the home of Candido Azcona, resolving to create the first politically administrative organization in the region, and signing the charter, ''Commission for the Promotion of El Bolson'' . The elected members were: President Pedro Pascual Ponce: an Argentine born in the Province of San Luis. He was a teacher, informant ''ad honorem'' of the Ministry of Agriculture, rattle raiser, and took part in the Statistics and Census of the Nation of Argentina; Vice President Candido Azcona: a Spaniard from Basque Country, a farmer, and a merchant; Secretary Antonio Merino Rubio: a Spaniard from Malaga, a merchant, and a farmer; Treasurer José Ulieldin: a Lebanese merchant; pro-treasurer Miguel Anden: also a Lebanese merchant. Image:Rioazul.jpg, Río Azul, near El Bolsón. Image:El bolson from piltriquitron.jpg, View of El Bolsón from the Piltriquitron mountain.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolsón, Río Negro, El Bolson, El Ski areas and resorts in Argentina Populated places established in 1902 German-Argentine culture Cities in Argentina