Back Across the Andes by Tromen

Lago Laçar panorama (click to enlarge)

We had a good rest day in San Martin spending a chunk of the morning going hiking up the hillside from the town, which is nestled in a side arm of Lago Laçar, so you can't really see the lake. The forest is full of yellow and red deciduous trees giving a rich autumnal glow although in June it is well into winter.

The Puma hostel was a great place to stay and like all the other Argentinian hostels had good cooking facilities and the bidet which is ubiquitous in Argentina, as in France, although so far absent in Chile


Yesterday we got up in the pitch dark and made a bee line for the bus station about 7 blocks south and five blocks west in time to catch the San Martin bus company bus to Pucon. Strangely the other competing bus company Igi Llaima also ran a bus out to Pucon at the same time rather than on alternate days as in the Lonely Planet.

Two hours later it was still pitch dark with a starry sky as we reached the border with Chile, but since the border formalities seemed to take at least an hour an a half with slow queues to stamp the passports and everything taken out of the bus and X-rayed on the Chilean side, including seizing all our fruit and vegetables it gave a chance to see the pass in the daylight.

Volcan Lanin

On the left Volcan Lanin reared eerily and gradually became a white snow capped almost perfect cone as the sun rose.


The border was snowy but nowhere nearly as extreme as the previous pass, partly because of the better weather.


We then wound down through alpine valleys with farmlets and small towns to Pucon, a Chilean ski resort on Lago Villarica opposite Volcan Villarica another active snow capped perfect cone pushing its way above the clouds on our first peerless day in Patagonia.

Volcan Villarica over Pucon harbour and Lago Villarica

We are staying alone at "The Tree House" the best option in what is a very expensive if pleasant resort town described as the Queenstown of Chile, which says something for NZ Queenstown's questionable international notoriety.

Two gigantic items in the supermercado, (left) giant pinones (right) giant kelp

I've also managed to internet check in on the internet and have boarding passes with window seats on the Andean side of the planes for both the flight tomorrow back to Valparaiso and the LAN Chile flight next day on to Ecuador.

Today, as I write on a free WiFi link courtesy of Entel, we are sitting in Temuco airport after a misty-rainy drive by bus from Pucon and a slightly risky transit at the Cruce del Aeropuerto a motorway crossing out of Temuco where if you are lucky, (and we were lucky) a lone taxi driver may be waiting in the drizzle to ferry you directly to the airport. At least my Spanish is good enough to negotiate these connections! Boarding in four minutes for a flight back to Santiago airport and a double bus link to Valparaiso.

The Pleasures of San Martin

Today we got up at 8am in the pitch dark because Argentina is 1 hour ahead of Chile and we are in the very west of the country, so the daylight is out of synch.

By the time we had had a continental breakfast and packed we had missed the bus down to the lake which is about 3 kms away, so Christine stayed reading while I took off to try to photograph the mountains, without my jacket and cold weather gear, before the cloud and rain set in. While trying to run there in haste before we caught the next bus, I twice fell over, grazing my elbow and scattering the camera batteries far and wide. I then managed to hitch a ride down just as the mountains became covered in cloud.

Panoramas of Lago Naguel Huapi at Villa la Angostura (click to enlarge)

However I courted the moodiness of lady luck and sauntered around the bay and managed to get het to reveal the skyline for a brief period. I then got tricked by the next green bus disappearing up a side road and when I tried to follow, it looped back so that I had to run a block breathlessly chasing it before the driver saw my out of the corner of his eye and let me on.

Potholes made the going snail-paced for half the journey

We then caught the bus to San Martin de los Andes and spent a two and a half hour drive in the rain. sleet and then snow driving over an unsurfaced pothole littered road which will eventually be upgraded to a highway, weaving over small mountain passes between a string of small lakes and down ravines eventually arriving at San Martin in freezing rain wondering why we would spend two days here.

Rain, sleet, then snow

However we found there was a booth at the bus station selling tickets back to Pucon in Chile and decided since the weather couldn't be much worse to put off the journey till Saturday anyway and booked our tickets for then on a wing and a prayer that the pass will be open.

Chic San Martin with autumn leaves, washout rains and clouds

We then wandered through town in the rain dragging our luggage on the rickety trolley to find it is a charming town full of chic shops reminiscent of Boulder Colorado, dressed with deciduous trees in full autumn swing, and the Puma Hostel is really sweet with a heated double room with private bathroom that will be a dream for two nights. And the wine here is untaxed so a bottle of merlot cost only 5.99 pesos, or about US $1.50. There was even an Argentinian guy here who has lived in Mt. Eden!

Comfort at Puma

So we have a rest day tomorrow, hoping the weather may improve. Meanwhile I managed to produce some great panoramas of the mountains this morning and of smog-ridden Santiago from the Cerro San Cristobal mountain.

We also finally mastered the Spanish-speaking ATMs, which came down to the idiotically simple issue of recognizing cuenta corriente was the correct button if your card would only withdraw funds from your current account rather than a credit card.

Riding the Snow to Argentina

Today we got up again at the crack of dawn to pack, having been awoken by a torrential rain storm characteristic of Patagonia, swallowed down some coffee and tea and a couple of buns and headed out dragging our luggage out of two a few blocks to the bus station and to our delight found it was indeed the place where our Andesma bus for Bariloche and Buenos Aires pulled in 20 minutes later, at 8.55.

Are these remnants of the primeval forests of Chile still standing in the fields?

The bus drove south through flat country with farms with paddocks bearing what looked like scattered remains of the original trees from the low land forests.


It headed onto Osorno which had some quaint somewhat run down houses and slightly tacky neighbourhoods like the ones we saw in Puerto Montt.

Orsono buildings

It then headed east winding by Lago Puyehue and up into the forest of the National Park, climbing higher and higher until we reached the outgoing Chilean border post.

Lago Puyehue

Rather than entering striaght into Argentina, the road continued to wind up steeply through the forest until it began to snow and just when we thought we had passed to the other side, it continued to climb away into the snow line with a constant blizzard sweeping the road, leaving almost all of the heavy vehicles apart from the bus stationary waiting for the snow plough to make the road passable. The bus ground on very slowly in low gear managing to make its way to the summit and then very gingerly down the other side.

The Samore pass is the most icy dicy I have been over (click to enlarge)

As we came down the snow gave way to mist and then sunshine and we wound between steep show-clad peaks rivers and lake-filled valleys. After crossing the Argentine border post, we reached Villa la Angostura around 2.45 counting an hour shift forwards entering Argentina.

A rainbow over Lago Naguel Huapi

We dragged our luggage trolley up muddy side streets full of potholes finally reaching the Hostal Angostura after almost losing our way. This is a bit of a wild west mountain town reminiscent of Taos New Mexico. Only the main streets in town are paved, although it has a swathe of luxury hotels and the Hostel is the only remotely reasonably priced place we were able to book on the internet. Actually its great service becauwe they have given us a four bed dorm to ourselves with a private bathroom, so in a way its the best deal so far, and very warm with under-floor heating so luxurious.

Christine at the Hostal

Tonight is the first night we have been able to just swoon out without having to set the alarm for an ungodly hour. We have so far found the ATMs incomprehensible. They only speak Spanish and seem to offer a bizarre range of possibilities including deposits, funds transfers but so far all have refused to issue any cash, so I'm glad we brought enough cash to cover all contingencies.

Montains above Villa la Angostura