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...
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