Pucon to Puerto Varas Chile
What we thought would be a day or two in Pucon stretched out into a “week-ish”. Estaban’s posse (friends who Matt had met up with in Quito, Trujillo, Lima and now here) helped us kill the first few days. Then we hiked Volcano Villaricca, which was an absolute blast.
At the top there was a small glacier beside the smoking cauldron, not at all what we were expecting. For the trip down, our guides had given us a spare nylon butt protector and a cheap hotseat sled. Means of descent turned out to be a ONE KILOMETER slide on your butt– my entire childhood of buttsledding practice finally coming to fruition!
Of course with 300 people climbing the volcano at the same time the regular track was clogged up with peope who did not wish to butt-sled at full gas, so it was out of the track for me to zip around them and self arrest with an ice axe.
mountain biking volcan villaricca
Hotsprings… general laziness followed. We found out that two different groups of our new-found friends would be in San Carlos de Bariloche at the same time and as it was not on our route, we bussed over there–making more “friends” on the way.
Once there we hiked an amazing trail up to a mountainous lake and then met up with our Aussie bus friends for some local music at a packed bar where we were the only Gringos. The table beside us turned out to be the last chance for the drunken locals. If they did not become responsive after 30min they’d be out into the parking lot. Next it was to a night club (which do not OPEN up until 2am) where in proud Argentine fashion we watched the sun rise over the Andes and lakes before picking up our things, heading directly to the bus station and falling alseep during breakfast.
We had a warm welcome on our return to Pucon, and learned that a Dutch girl, Marjam, wished to join us for the next leg. Our route was a road impassable to cars so the campground was shut down…..that meant that we had to climb IN and OUT of the bathroom through the window! A feat which proved to be quite a struggle for Matt and I.
trails less travelled
Again the lakes route was stunning with breath-taking views. Marjam went back to Pucon to finish out her work contract there and find a bike before bussing down to continue on our tour. We headed to Puerto Fuy where we had to catch a ferry towards Argentina.
The local micro- brewery was a beautiful building, across from an “Avitar”-looking hotel which did not appear to touch the ground. This brewery, despite the snazzy helicopter outside, had no beer. Amazingly, this was the second time this happened to us here).
Our 28h visit to Argentina ended with an odd predicament. We had to “stamp out” of Argentina, but there was 45km over a pass (snowed in during winter) before entering Chile. We were NOT allowed to spend the night in between. We left Argentina after 5pm in the rain (accompanied part-way by a stray dog) and had a long haul up and over the pass before finally making 60km to the first acceptable campsite. Of course, all produce, meat and cheese was taken away at the border.
After a night with the Los Cascades firemen we started riding and encountered an elderly man out walking with a team of 6 secret security agents.
We naturally stopped to chat and found out that this sharp old tack was ex-president Patricio Aylwin who sucessfully manuvered Chile out of its dictatorship. He spends his days eating, sleeping, walking and promoting international justice. Pretty much like Matt and I.
camp life
Entering Puerto Varas we were only a days ride from truly entering Patagonia.
a typical lunch and supper
myowell on August 5th, 2011
Fantastic blog. I just wanted to say thank you for your work!