Roadtrip Lake District in Argentina and Chile & Chiloe

On Tuesday Leon, a Dutch guy living in Zaventem, and I left Bariloche by car to explore the lake district in Argentina and Chile. The first lake is the Nahuel Huapi lake with Bariloche and Villa La Angostura as the most famous towns. Due to an ereption of a Chilean vulcano Bariloche and at the most Villa La Angostura have lots of dust in the air, which makes the view sometimes difficult. Argentine people do not like their Chilean neighbours and especially not in this part due to the vulcano. ;) It reminds me of the Flemish - Dutch relation...Argentines say that Chileans cannot speak, I think the same way about the Dutch (sorry Leon, you guys cannot hide the accent).

So we started on a dusty day, but when we went for a first unpaved road to Traful lake, the sun came to join us. This road was beautiful, an untouched forest, small rivers coming down the hills and a turquoise blue lake. The mountains here are rough, with white and brown colors. The funny thing about this lake district is that it has real beach sand! You can imagine white beaches at that deep blue water surrounded by trees...that is the place to be. At some point we arrived at a camping at the beach of Lago Espejo Chico...it is a dream!

The first night we stayed in Junin de los Andes in the house of a fisherman. It was very basic, but CHEAP! We went to town to grab a hamburguesa and ended up at the last evening of carnaval. Childeren dancing in self made costumes or carrying a self made object. You should take a look at the pictures to understand what I mean.

After two days of sightseeing the lakes at the Argentine side, we left the dry and dusty country, crossed the huge and grey Andes to Chile...and there Chile is so green! I was suprised that the difference between both sides of the Andes is so big. The first stop was in Entre Lagos, a small town with a lot of local tourists. Also this town was covered with ashes in June 2011. This town has a great view on lake Puyehue. In this town I slept for the first time I left home in a really good bed, I miss my Tempure pillow :(.

From Entre Lagos to Puerto Montt, the last city before crossing Chanal de Chacao to Chiloe. On our way to Puerto Montt, we followed the route around lake Ranco. At a certain viewpoint, we were eating a sanwish and enjoying the view on the lake and the Andes and suddenly we saw Vulcano Osorno. It was hiding in behind clouds before, so went up on Vulcano Osorno, which is covered with snow. The view from this Volcano was magnificant: the big lake, the Andes with a few Vulcanos and in between a huge green valley. I could not stop looking at this view, the weather was so nice...it was almost perfect. I could see the layer of ashes above the lake and the valley, which looks liks a grey cloud.
(You can go up by car and a part by foot. You can also book a hiking tour of 6 hours to the summit)

Finally we slept in Puerto Montt, which is an ugly city...I advise to sleep in Puerto Varas, which is a small, cosy town at the lake. Although the owner of the house where we slept was a very friendly lady who baked bread herself. Jamie! And the steak in the cerveceria tasted as it should!

From Puerto Montt to Chiloe: to Punihuil (Penguinland)! The ferry to Chiloe takes only 30 minutes and is a prefect way to spot birds and seagulls. It's hard to take a picture of them, but I saw a lot of seals swimming around the boat.
The island is what I thought it would be: hills, green and lots of water. From the first city Ancud we drove to Punihuil, by a really tricky road. It was raining hard and the road was full of mud..and ended on the beach! I always wanted to drive on a beach!!!

Beautiful view! A beach hidden by rocks and a lot of big rock in the sea. Green rocks full of birds, marine otters and penguins! First we ate the biggest empanada ever, filled with cheese and seafood. After that lunch we were ready to watch the wild life. We got into a fisher boat (very cheap, only 6000 Chilean pesos) and saw different kind of penguins (Humboldt and Magellan), sea birds hiding for the heavy rain and marine otters.
The first otter I saw was relaxing on his back in the water and eating. Soon we saw a couple on the rocks...very cute, but at that moment my camera failed! Stupido!
After this advenure we had to face that dirt road again, but we made it to Ancud and slept in the nicest hostel I had ever been: nuevo mundo with a view on the pacific. The hostel was clean, cosy, quiet and the breakfast continental!! :)))

The plan was to travel to the south of Chiloe, to Quellon and to cross the water to Chaiten, but from this town down to the south of the mainland of Chile people were protesting. Due to strikes fuel and food could not be imported in this zone.
So for us it was a better idea to leave Chiloe as we came and to visit the lake district of Chile. This district is a lot greener than in Argentina. We enjoyed the views around the lakes, ate and slept in Panguipulli, which is quite a "big" town. The next day we ended up in a therma, a natural warm water source. That is the way to spend a Sunday! We ended up in Pucon, I hoped to see the vulcano Villarica, but it was to cloudy. We visited a belgian friend living in this busy town. I wanted to hike to the summit of this vulcano, as it is still active and you can look into its crater, but I did not have enough time. Maybe next month, when I am coming back from the South.

The next morning we returned to Bariloche, which is a 7 hours drive. Crossing the border from Pucon to Junin de los Andes is a must, as it is again a dirt road with beautiful views and passing the customs went smoothly. The difference in landscape between both countries is so striking. Arriving at the border in a forest and few metres more the pampa starts.

It was a beautifil trip, which I recommend everyone. You should take more than one week, so you can hike in this area. I am not sure which country I like the most, I felt more relaxed in Chile, because it is green, the towns are clean and people were friendly. But Argentina has something tough and rough and more police control...

Bariloche, first stop in Patagonia

The day I arrived in this small look-a-like Swiss city, it started to rain and the longer it rained, the harder. I found a bed in a popular, but low budget hostel called La Bolsa. It is very close to the center and has a big living room with open kitchen and a patio. Very cosy. The next day it was still raining hard, so I decided just to figure out the activities here and I visited the Museum of Patagonia, in that way I already saw the animals living in this region. ;) It was good that it rained, in that way the ashes fall down, which makes the view after the rain much better. So I was lucky to hike on sunny days after the rain.

My first trip was to Bosque los Arrayanes, which is on an Island that can be reached by land via Villa La Angostura or by boat from different ports. I decided to go by my own and not with an travel agency (though they try to tell you it is not possible on your own).
So I took a taxi from the hostel to the bus terminal, there I took a bus to Villa la Angostura, from there I walked 3 km to the entrance of the park and at that moment I could start the hike of 12 km to the extreme point of the Island. There I took a Catamaran back to Villa. It was a nice walk, as there were almost no people in the park and the only thing I heard were birds and the wind in the trees. This hike was what I really needed, rest in nature...on my own.

The day after I booked a hiking trip to the Vulcano Tronador. It is a Vulcano who exploded and now has three summits and seven glaciers. We started the hike at the foot of the Tronador, called Pampa Linda. The way up was through a forest of coihue trees, these have big bals around the tribe, which is used for handcraft. The forest is green and humid, bamboo everywhere! The Rio Manso here is grey, because the water wears away the rocks. This water is not drinkable, it first has to go to the lake, where all the minerals fall on the bottom. That gives the lake a beautiful color! The weather was perfect, no rain and a bit of sun. We hiked to the front of glacier Manso and I felt like standing in front of an altar. It was impressive and it is only my first glacier in South-America. After the hike, we went by bus to another glacier: el Negro. I was so tired after these two days of hiking, that in the evening I just cooked some rice and baked an egg...and it tasted well!

Mendoza Province

Mendoza is a warm area in the east of Buenos Aires, at the footh of the Andes, the mountains that form the natural border between Chile and Argentina. The first days in Potrerillos (at 80 km from Mendozw City) I only slept and hung in the sun, I was really fed up with the big city. Thanks to Gianni, I could stay in Oso´s house together zith other rafters like Peludo, Lenka and Marius. The house had a view on the blue lake and was surrounded by mountains, the Uspallada mountains. Potrerillos is next to the highway to Chile and goes through the Alta Montaña...beautiful!

The mountains here have no trees, just low shrubs, grass and sand. The air is dry and dusty, hqrd to keep your feet clean ;) On of the first evenings the moon was almost full and rised from behind the mountain in front of the house...very nice.
Uspallata is the next village in the direction of Chile and I advise hikers to stay there if they want to visit aconcagua park. According for a Nepalese guy I met here, this village was the scenery for the movie Seven Years in Tibet.

The town is small, cosy and very green compared with the rest of the area. The route by bus is magnificant. A bit further I visited Puent del Inca, an old sulfer bridge on the path of the Inca's. I was told that at night you can cross the bridge and climb under it to swim in hot water and to camp in a cave. The bridge has been closed since 2005 to keep the bridge as it is.

The Alta Montaña of the Andes is dry, rough and high...if not gigantic, nothing like mountains in Europe. Colours are grey, red and yellow, not plants or trees...just rocks and dust. Maybe some cacti. A great riverbed made its way through the valley, but the river floating there now is small, probably bigger in spring, but still small compared to the riverbed.

As I was staying in a house full of raft guides, I could not escape from the fact that I should go rafting. On Friday evening we rafted to a abandoned train station, ate bbq and drunk to much red wine. We slept under the stars and the next morning we rafted 1,5h back to the basecamp of the company. It was great! To raft on this Rio Mendoza in the upcoming sun was a unique experience...this river felt a lot more relax then the one in Sjoa, Norway. There was a lot of water coming down and we heard the rocks rolling on the bottom of the river: I fell out the boat one, and normally I panic a bit, but I was hugging the boat again...as friend teached me during my Pingo career. ;)

We had another bbq on the last evening I spent in Potrerillos and the morning after I left for Malargue. This town offers a lot of excursions to caves, valleys, volcano areas, ... my plan was to visit La Payunia for the volcanoes, but I fell sick and had already booked my bus to Bariloche.

I left Sam and Gianni in Potrerillos and will meet them at Futafest, beginning of March. It is the rafting event of South America at the Futaluefu, near Trevelin.

Uruguay

From Buenos Aires it is only 1 hour by buquebus to Colonia, Uruguay. As my friend Stefanie was staying in Montevideo, I took this boat to the capital of this unknown country. Travelling by buquebus is a relax way of moving compared with buses, on the boat you can walk around and go to the baño without accidents. ;) I only regret I received fake Argentine pesos on that boat!
I arrived later than planned, so I walked away from the terminal and hopped into a taxi. One tip: if a lot of people are waiting at the official taxi stop, you just leave the area and go on the street...taxi's are everywhere!!!
I sat in the back of the car, but the taxi driver in Montevideo wanted to help me exercise Spanish. So I had to come and sit at the front seat...first I doubted, but now I know people in Uruguay are friendly and helpfull.

Stefanie & Nele were waiting for me to go for a party organised by some local friends of Stefanie. It was located outside the city in a green area. We ate choripan, tried Fernet and drank a lot of Patricia (local beer). Some locals entertained us with typical music on drums, called Candombe.At the end all of us were dancing...and that is what we did all night, dance on Latin vibes...estuvo una noche caliente!

The moning after the party we took off to Punta Del Este, Benidorm of Uruguay. People in Uruguay almost earn the same as normal saleries in Belgium, but the one having a beach house in Punta are rich!
The hostel El Viajero (website Hostelling International) had a beach atmosphere thanks to the funny paintings on the walls, the pool and the beach bar. The Dulce de Leche I ate in this place was the best up till now, and in a restaurant I even tasted pancake with Dulce de Leche...mmmmm :)))

One day we rented a car and took off to Capo Polonio. This is a beach town, isolated from the civilisation, you have to get on a truck that fights its way through the dunes to end up at the beach. The first thing I saw where small houses as in movies about people ending up on a deserted island. The town is known for two things: hippies and seals. I advise people who might visit this place to stay there at least one night. I regret I could not...it was mine kind of place ;)

The last evening Stefi, Nele and I spend on the beach, hoping to see the sunset and we did, although it was a bit cloudy. The evenring was perfect, the see with a big wave just in front of us, the sun turning the sky into fuchia, bread, cheese, local wine and good company. We ended up taking funny pictures under the stars.

Soon we will have to say goodbye...In Buenos Aires Sam will arrive and I will have to say goodbye to Leila, my Argentine friend and Lucas, my biggest fan at the hostel. It is amasing how many people I already met and said goodbye...but the ones I really mis are reading this at home. x