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

Closing the Circles

The Chile-Argentine Circuit

The last ten days have been spent closing the circles by making internet bookings for transport and accommodation favouring chic budget backpackers who have good internet access. In the first loop around the lakes district of Chile and Argentina, we fly Sky Airlines from Santiago and plan staying at Casa Margouya in Puerto Varas, advanced booking on Andesmar to Villa la Angostura where we have beds at Hostel la Angostura, and Puma Youth Hostal in San Martin de los Andes, where we hope to take either the Tromen or the Hua Hum Pass back to Chile, hopefully reaching the Tree House in Pucon before returning north via a flight back from Temuco. San Martin has a very complete multi-lingual site with all these passes.

Green Accommodation

We have also booked for accommodation in the cities we fly into at night, Hostal Forestal in Santiago, the chic artistic Hostal Casa Verde Limon in Valparaiso, l’Auberge-Inn in Quito and the quaintly traditional Hospedaje Casco Viejo in Panama City.

The Ecuador-Colombia Circuit

After this we decided to explore bookings in the Ecuador-Colombia circuit because we have it to make through to Cali to catch the COPA linking flight to Panama and found some racy backpackers with internet or e-mail reservation and booked Hostal Transilvania in Banos, Hostal Rincon del Viajero in Otavalo, HostelTrail in Popayan and are waiting for e-mail replies from A Welcome Break in Tena and Hotel San Sebastian in Pasto.

Please also note that the old main bus terminal in central Quito has been replaced by two new ones on the outskirts, one serving north to the border with Colombia and the other south and most other areas, including Amazonas. We found it very difficult to find bus schedules and companies going the north route to Tena until we found this site, listing the bus company contacts and departure times for Quito-Tena via Baeza. Note that by October 2010 the old Mariscal Sucre airport will be replaced by a new one ten times the size 18 kms out.

The new Quito terminals (blue and red) and the abandoned central terminal (gray)
with local bus/trole links, showing Mariscal Sucre airport mid right.

We also clinched a few key bookings for a Budget rental car at midnight in SF airport, to add to those we have on arrival in Dublin, Rome and Avis Amman because they have an office at the Allenby Bridge. We also booked some further afield accommodation close to times we have to make a plane or ferry connection - Chicago Getaway Hostel, Camping Tiber in Rome, Solfataria in a geothermal field near Naples and several gypsy stops en route to a night at Carpe Diem in Brindisi before we catch the ferry to Corfu. There we have a choice of Dionysus Camping on Corfu and Elena and Kalami Beach at Igoumenitsa, depending on where the ferry stops first in the evening, and on via Delphi (Apollon) and Athens (Camping Athens or Hostel Aphrodite) to Crete.


We also did a rather ingenious thing using Google Earth, prompted by a neat camper van free camping web site called Green Archipelago - Arcipelago Verde - which had a Google Earth file showing the locations of free parks across Italy and neighbouring countries. This led to our own aerial search using street view for discrete free camping hideaways where we could park the car and put up a small tent on small side roads adjacent to wilderness areas while driving across Italy.

Now all we have to do is gather our medicines, international drivers licences, and some foreign currencies and pack! No just kidding there is heaps to do!