Hippies in El Bolson... Wait, what!?

Why is it that when someone talks about “Hippies”, El Bolson is always mentioned? Where did that story come up? In Bolson, there is much more than hippies…

It all started in the year 1969 with the first “hippie wave” that arrived in El Bolson, with the same ideology of the hippieswho were against the Vietnam War… As they did, our hippies wanted to show the world, an alternative way of living, They chose this place surrounded by mountains, rivers and forests to return to nature, farming, and some others things as a rejection of progressive industrialization, war and capitalism…

These were the first hippies of El Bolson, and the most authentic. They lived in El Bolson for almost 7 years and then left never to return.  Of course, the others who came later were not “original hippies”.

The confusion began when Hippies and “native” people from El Bolson, started to get together… It was as if they “confused their roll in the scene”, it was common to see a gaucho with beads and long hair, or a hippie with a “poncho”, hiking boots and hat. Those weren’t hippies at all, neither one nor the other.

Nowadays, in the Regional Market (better known as Feria Regional) some of the craft people consider themselves as “hippies” but as we already know, there are no more “real hippies” in our city… We can see some of them, driving new cars, buying at the supermarket, and that wasn’t the real ideology of the first hippies.

So, whenever you think of coming to Bolson, do not immediately relate it with hippies… Relate it with mountains, rivers, lakes, camping, nature, and real varied people.

Constanza Saldise.