A newspaper article worth a read...

This article refers to tourists being blocked from travel in many of the areas we have already travelled, especially during our photo safari less than a couple of weeks ago... we are experiencing fuel rationing in Argentina when refuelling our rental cars (limited to 100 Argentinean Peso / approx $25 Aust. Dollars) each time at the pump - to get more it seems you have to do a loop in the car and return to the bowser for another purchase if you need to fill the tank.

We are rather glad that we are not in the Punta Arenas & Torres del Paine region at the present time and hoping this dispute does not affect us here in Argentina - fingers crossed!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/18/chile-tourists-hostage-protesters

Thanks to Karel, a fellow traveller on our recent photo safari, for sending this link to us.

Patagonian Lakes & Volcanoes (Chile & Argentina)

1^st to 15^th January 2011

We’ve travelled by bus, car, bicycle and our own feet to cover around 2,500kms (plus approx. 1,000kms by plane) to explore the Northern Patagonian area, more commonly known as the Lakes District in Argentina & Region X (Lakes & Volcano District) in Chile. 

First we travelled by bus from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales in Chile with a destination of El Calafate in Argentina – this involved our 5th border crossing between the 2 countries.  Having already spent some time in El Calafate beforehand, we only stayed 1 more night before a flight to San Carlos de Bariloche (our central base for the next portion of our travels).

Bariloche is Argentina’s major city of the “Lakes District”.  There is a very strong Swiss & German influence in this region – chocolate shops everywhere!  In fact there are so many it’s easy to be overwhelmed by them all and not actually buying a single chocolate!  Also cake shops advertise "kuchen" - German for cake.  

One of the major sights we took in was Volcano Tronador - a day tour that involved a bus ride up a steep, narrow and windy gravel road (they even have times that it must be one-way up and other times that it’s one-way down).  First a stop at La Garganta del Diablo – The Devil’s Throat – which is a waterfall of meltwater surrounded by high rock walls, and the Saltillo de las Nalcas, a hidden waterfall in the middle of the forest.  Further up the road we entered the crater of the volcano (albeit now extinct) to observe the calving of the black glaciers (black because of the soil & sediment on top of the ice).  While the scenes were wonderful, to enjoy them it was necessary to be comfortable with the constant disturbance of massive march flies biting us at every opportunity (Hint… do not wear dark colours!).

Devil's Throat

Tronador Volcano from our lunch stop

Inside the crater of Tronador - see the black glacier on the left

The glacier is calving as we watch - it looks like a waterfall

Bariloche is also is relatively close to travel by road across into Chile to allow a visit their “Lakes & Volcanoes District”.  So that’s what we did… after a couple of days in Bariloche (knowing that we would return for a longer visit later) we travelled by bus to Puerto Varas in Chile.

On our way over to Puerto Varas we crossed over different post of the border where it seemed to be the strictest - every food item to be declared, all baggage to be scanned and customs dogs to sniff all hand luggage – they inspect absolutely everything in every vehicle (no matter how small or large).  For us, it was a long and tedious wait in the queue with 46 other passengers from the coach we were travelling on.  It seems to us that although we were crossing the same border (i.e. Argentina/Chile), the process at each post was a little different – we thought we knew what to do but we found ourselves following like sheep through the system on this occasion.  One thing for sure, it was not a comfortable wait in the warmer weather while sitting in a coach without the air-conditioning switched on and very little fresh air flowing through!  It didn’t help that Roy was not feeling the best at the time; he was suffering from another bout of flu (we’d both had a flu while in Ushuaia).

Whatever the case, our 6^th & 7^th border crossings between Argentina & Chile were well worth the effort as we’ve seen some amazing sights and scenes. 

Puerto Varas is on the shores of Lake Llanquihue with the nearby snow-capped Osorno Volcano in clear view.  It wasn’t the only volcano we could see – the area is surrounded in them.  We were told by a local that Osorno possibly erupted sometime around 500 years ago and one other nearby volcano erupted about a year or two ago (not sure about how fiercely it erupted though).  Our travels in a rental car included a drive to as close to the top of Osorno as possible where we took the ski lift further up the slopes but not quite to the summit, Petrohue village & waterfall, a sunset cruise on Lake Llanquihue from Puerto Varas.  Also a visit to Frutillar (pronounced Fruit-eej-shar) that is home to a large music festival (in February), hence the piano & Teatro del Lago (Theater of the Lake) built in 2005, now an icon of the town.

Teatro del Lago in Frutilljar

A grand pianist entertaining the crowds!!

The 2 main volcanoes around Lake Llanquihue from Puerto Varas (Osorno on the left)

Osorno volcano from our sunset cruise aboard the "Capitan Haase"

Osorno volcano from our sunset cruise

Petrohue Waterfall

The very-pesky biting march flies

Taking the chairlift from (almost) the summit of Osorno

The summit of Osorno - will it erupt today (after 500 years or so)?

Taking in the views from the snow-capped (almost) summit of Osorno

And again, Osorno Volcano

Back in Bariloche we hired another car to travel north on the “Siete Lagos” or “7-lakes” road to Villa La Angostura and San Martin de los Andes.  Along the way much of it was on sealed roads but there were plenty of gravel roads to endure, not to mention the many roadwork’s sections we had to navigate through. 

Our first stop along this route was Villa La Angostura (1½ hours from Bariloche) - a picturesque village on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi (the same large lake that has shores in Bariloche).  Villa La Angostura is also a popular cycling area… with great sunny weather we hired a couple of mountain bikes, took a 50min trip on a catamaran (with the bikes) and cycled back through the Los Arraynes national park on a rather interesting track.  Fortunately our host at our accommodation was very informative and recommended that we did the track this way.  Although Coreena was cursing him for the first third of the track (steep uphills & difficult terrain involving sometimes large tree roots) the middle part was relatively easy with most of it downhill – other people seemed not to have gotten the same advice as us so they had most of the way up steep hills in the opposite direction, most of them walking their bikes up.  The last (small) section of track was extremely steep uphill & downhill, sometimes with steps or track that is not deemed safe to be on two wheels – this part we did walk our bikes.  Finishing with a milkshake in the village we had great day out, albeit exhausting (16kms total or so of riding) - our legs certainly needed a well-earned rest and later, with very well developed appetites, we enjoyed a large dinner of BBQ’d lamb (cooked on a traditional Asado).  

  

Onto San Martin de los Andes – a drive during which it rained all the way… our journey was apparently a scenic drive but all we could see was mist & clouds – we really felt sorry for all the cyclists that were out and about trying to make their way to their next destination while enduring really tough sections of roadwork’s too (later in the day, in a café, we met and spoke to a couple of cyclists doing this exact route and they said it was “horrible”). 

Arriving earlier than planned (due to lack of stops at lookouts) we had the afternoon to arrange our activities for the next couple of days.  The weather forecast was for a sunny day followed by a sunny morning/rainy afternoon the next day.  First a full day trip, self-drive, to Lanin National Park, home to Volcano Lanin.  The views along the way and in the national park were magnificent (as they are with everywhere we have visited), no other way to describe them.  We were taking the route on the map for most of the way but noticed a tour vehicle taking a little detour – following it we were able to stop off at an amazing location by the lake from where the late morning sun was shining on the lake toward the volcano.  Later, a catamaran tour on Lake Huechulafquen before returning to San Martin.  

Lake Huechulafquen and Lanin Volcano

Araucaria tree - native to the region

The female araucaria tree (this species has separate male & female)

One of the views of Lanin Volcano on our late afternoon cruise on Lake Huechulafquen

Mountain bike riding is a popular activity in San Martin… we asked about possible tracks but most of the rides are mainly on the roadways (tackling roadworks & dicey drivers), not on off-the-beaten tracks.  We took a 4-hour mountain bike tour to Laguna Rosales (Lagoon) just outside of the village of San Martin.  The easy way was to be driven up the hills, get on the bikes and ride to the lagoon on tracks that we would never have found ourselves.  The track included a variety of terrain, uphill, downhill, over tree roots & rocks, across rivers & paddocks and so much more.  Roy was in his element – although it was advertised as an easy ride, there were some difficult sections.  We finished with a long ride uphill to a view across San Martin – a viewing point on Mapuche land and some difficult downhill terrain into town.  While at the lookout a couple of Mapuche ladies informed us that “after the wind, the rain” – it was windy and we could see the clouds rolling in.

Again a very exhausting ride but so very rewarding with the area we have traversed and the scenes we’ve taken in along the way.  The afternoon was a perfect one to relax – it rained for the rest of the day, our activities finishing at the perfect time. 

San Martin de los Andes from one of the "miradors" (lookouts)

After a long ride uphill the views were worth it

We must mention that, during this ride, we saw our first snake on this continent – brown coloured, apparently venomous (but not dangerous), about 40-50cm long… Roy almost rode over the top of it – it made an attempt to bite him but thankfully missed – see the venom droplets in the photo on the body of the snake in the left of the image.

We contacted Claudio Vidal (our photo safari tour guide and naturalist) to establish the species and here’s his reply…

“The snake is Tachymenis chilensis, also called 'Short-tailed Snake'. It seems that they are venom droplets; the fangs of this snake are set way back on its upper mandible, and this is the reason of the very few biting events on humans. I have learnt that they have a fairly strong hemolytic venom able to cause gravity cases on humans. This snake occurs in the temperate forests of northern Patagonia and it ranges broadly in south-central Chile.”

We continue our journey exploring the Lakes District before returning to Bariloche.