We are now three, or at least two, that is two Chris´. One of our co-taxi people trying to get to San Martin happened to be another Chris, Chris from Seattle. So we are now in San Martin de Los Andes enjoying more rain, except this time with high winds.
We treated our selves (Chris 1 and Justine that is) to a nice steak dinner and homemade pasta at a restaurant. We invested in a nice bottle of wine to top off the meal and still only paid about the equivalent of 30 USD... and the steak, although not flavourful was amazingly tender... .not something we can really explain in a blog, but people, you are definitely missing out and the stories of Argentinian beef are definitely true.
Today was spent perusing camping stores and gazing at all of the chocolate shops and rizty ski and hiking shops, full with Mountin Hardware, Arcyterix and other pricey goodies.
We did what we thought would be a nice day hike up to a look out... but it only took about
30 minutes and there were kids at the top looking for 1 peso to enter the ¨mirador¨. Still it was a nice hike with some fine views of the lakes and mountains, of course all obscured by the clouds and freshened by the winds.. but nice enough.
Now we are off to do some more window shopping once siesta is over. Tomorrow we head to Bariloche and will probably remain there until after Christmas..
Friday, December 22, 2006
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Pucon: The Old Man is Snorring
Pucon... we are convinced we have timewarped into Canada, because parts of Pucon feel as if they could be torn out of a book on Canada, with the downtown being like Banff and the small lake reminding us of Ontario.
We arrived amidst more rain and quikly abandoned our hope of camping to save money, we got touted in a hurry and took a place right beside the bus station, which is usually against our policies, but worked out amazingly because the owner was overly friendly. We enjoyed a run of the house and kitchen and enjoyed a yummy breakfast to boot.
Days were spent lazing around the city and attempting to avoid getting wet by the showers moving in and out. At times we would spy some of the snow at the base of the GIANT volcano which is covered in snow and towers over the town. Actually, we don´t really know if it towers, we ended up only seeing it at a distance, when we were out of town for a day when it cleared temporarily.
So finally after waiting and waiting for the rain to clear we caught a weather report that claimed sun was to sort of shine on Dec.19 and 20 so we bought our bus ticket, prepared our food and hoped. We woke up on the 19 to rain and it basically didn´t stop all day long. This was not to stop us and we headed out to Parque Huerquehay (Where-Kay-Way) to do a two day hike.
Hike... more like a Slop.
Rain, rain, rain and lots and lots of mud. There were a lot of falls and slips, some cursing and some serious contemplation of turning back. But persevere we did and we huddled in our tent, shivering and contemplating the great mystery of the Monkey Puzzle Trees we had passed under that day.
Also known as Araucaria, it is a native tree to Chile that grows a spiky bark and branches. They reach awesome heights and have a really funky outline and canopy. Since it was completely socked in we could see their outlines from time to time on the hills and mountains surrounding us.
The second day dawned with sun and we quickly pulled out our clothes and gear to dry them in the searing sun. Soon we were plodding our way through the still muddy trail back to the trailhead. The trail actually continues in the opposite direction towards hot springs, but we just wanted a two day hike so we looped back to Pucon. The day was spent viewing the hills and mountains of the park covered in the different trees of the region. In the distance (and this is where we saw the volcano) we could see the MASSIVE cone of Volcan Villarrica smothered in snow and spiking the clouds in the distance.
Beyond it we could see more showers moving in from the west, and by the time we got to Pucon it was raining again. Needless to say with a forcast for much the same in the next week we opted to hop the next bus out across the border to Argentina to San Martin de Los Andes. This proved to be a more difficult thing than we imagined because for some reason or another that will remain one of those SA mysteries, there is a bus every single day except for the one we wanted. Luckily there were 9 of us that wanted to go, and the power of a group shone through those dark and dreary skies... and faster than you can say P.Diddy we had a van to take us to the border and three taxis to take us to Junin and a bus to take us to San Martin... our easiest border crossing to date.... and the most scenic as we passed right below the bemuth of a volcanoe on route.
We arrived amidst more rain and quikly abandoned our hope of camping to save money, we got touted in a hurry and took a place right beside the bus station, which is usually against our policies, but worked out amazingly because the owner was overly friendly. We enjoyed a run of the house and kitchen and enjoyed a yummy breakfast to boot.
Days were spent lazing around the city and attempting to avoid getting wet by the showers moving in and out. At times we would spy some of the snow at the base of the GIANT volcano which is covered in snow and towers over the town. Actually, we don´t really know if it towers, we ended up only seeing it at a distance, when we were out of town for a day when it cleared temporarily.
So finally after waiting and waiting for the rain to clear we caught a weather report that claimed sun was to sort of shine on Dec.19 and 20 so we bought our bus ticket, prepared our food and hoped. We woke up on the 19 to rain and it basically didn´t stop all day long. This was not to stop us and we headed out to Parque Huerquehay (Where-Kay-Way) to do a two day hike.
Hike... more like a Slop.
Rain, rain, rain and lots and lots of mud. There were a lot of falls and slips, some cursing and some serious contemplation of turning back. But persevere we did and we huddled in our tent, shivering and contemplating the great mystery of the Monkey Puzzle Trees we had passed under that day.
Also known as Araucaria, it is a native tree to Chile that grows a spiky bark and branches. They reach awesome heights and have a really funky outline and canopy. Since it was completely socked in we could see their outlines from time to time on the hills and mountains surrounding us.
The second day dawned with sun and we quickly pulled out our clothes and gear to dry them in the searing sun. Soon we were plodding our way through the still muddy trail back to the trailhead. The trail actually continues in the opposite direction towards hot springs, but we just wanted a two day hike so we looped back to Pucon. The day was spent viewing the hills and mountains of the park covered in the different trees of the region. In the distance (and this is where we saw the volcano) we could see the MASSIVE cone of Volcan Villarrica smothered in snow and spiking the clouds in the distance.
Beyond it we could see more showers moving in from the west, and by the time we got to Pucon it was raining again. Needless to say with a forcast for much the same in the next week we opted to hop the next bus out across the border to Argentina to San Martin de Los Andes. This proved to be a more difficult thing than we imagined because for some reason or another that will remain one of those SA mysteries, there is a bus every single day except for the one we wanted. Luckily there were 9 of us that wanted to go, and the power of a group shone through those dark and dreary skies... and faster than you can say P.Diddy we had a van to take us to the border and three taxis to take us to Junin and a bus to take us to San Martin... our easiest border crossing to date.... and the most scenic as we passed right below the bemuth of a volcanoe on route.
Valdivia: Big Daddy Sea Lion
From Santiago to Valdivia on the top floor of a two story bus and with the front windows to boot. All seemed good, as we were enjoying the smooth highway, that if we blinnked and missed the spanish road signs might have led us to believe we were in Canada. ....All was going well until the bus broke down in the middle of the night, but we mostly slept through the banging and whiring going on under the bus.
We arrived in Validivia in between rainstorms and quickly plopped down in a hostal and got our bearings. We were in Valdivia mostly for one reason and that was to wander the fish market, not in search of dinner but to see the sea lions which beach themselves on the docks ready for scraps. And scraps there were, and so many that the sea lions were actually being picky about which scraps they took. And these boys aren´t shy either, they will come right up to the merchants, and as we found, even Chris when he is standing in a sunny spot perfect for sleeping. These big boys sit and eat fish all day and then sun themselves when they are tired....Chris was jealous.
We ran into our Aussie-Kiwi friends Martin and Katherine who we first met on the Inka Trail and have run into again in Potosi, Salar de Uyuni and now in Valivia. They had rented a car and are on their way to Puerto Montt to take the ferry. Would have loved to join them, but the ferry (five day ferry down through the fijords, glaciers and mountains of the Southern Patagonians) was a wee bit out of our price range, being that this is the high season for people in the south.
We parted ways and went for a drink at the Kunstmann brewery... yes Kunstmann.. and they have excellent honey lager. The rest of the day alternated between rain and sun and we enjoyed some hake and salmon while overlooking the fish market in its last and brief moment of sun.
We arrived in Validivia in between rainstorms and quickly plopped down in a hostal and got our bearings. We were in Valdivia mostly for one reason and that was to wander the fish market, not in search of dinner but to see the sea lions which beach themselves on the docks ready for scraps. And scraps there were, and so many that the sea lions were actually being picky about which scraps they took. And these boys aren´t shy either, they will come right up to the merchants, and as we found, even Chris when he is standing in a sunny spot perfect for sleeping. These big boys sit and eat fish all day and then sun themselves when they are tired....Chris was jealous.
We ran into our Aussie-Kiwi friends Martin and Katherine who we first met on the Inka Trail and have run into again in Potosi, Salar de Uyuni and now in Valivia. They had rented a car and are on their way to Puerto Montt to take the ferry. Would have loved to join them, but the ferry (five day ferry down through the fijords, glaciers and mountains of the Southern Patagonians) was a wee bit out of our price range, being that this is the high season for people in the south.
We parted ways and went for a drink at the Kunstmann brewery... yes Kunstmann.. and they have excellent honey lager. The rest of the day alternated between rain and sun and we enjoyed some hake and salmon while overlooking the fish market in its last and brief moment of sun.
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