Image of Bariloche

 

 

Bariloche Oct 2nd – 10th


Bariloche is the Argentine gateway to their lake district and also has a very nice ski resort nearby as well as a very large lake for summer actitivies. It is pretty perfect for the outdoors sports and lifestyle, if a little far away from us Europeans. The town itself has a very clear tourist area, lovely little hotels etc, but the majority live in a fairly small, unfinished houses which is rarely seen by tourists. The roads leading into the skiing are along the lakeside and accompanied by more little hotels and self catering chalet type builds, chocolate factories and other fun nice stuff. The only point at which you might just see the rest of the town is making an effort to see it, or heading out to the lakes south of the town which requires a drive through.
We arrived as per usual, by bus, and were immediately approached by a few people in the usual south american style; relaxed and with a smile. Perhaps being out of season makes them friendlier? We couldn’t tell, but were promised some cheap accomodation near the shoreline in the centre for not all too much; ninety pesos per night. I would say there are similar places in the area which offer just as good but it seemed fine when we arrived so we stayed. The reception girl was a bit odd; clearly confusing her home and the hostel. Comments were made about our non Kosher habits when we were cooking our Carbonara, drinking fresh milk and other things like that; frankly, either put up signs in which case I would not stay there, or accept all cultures and the money they bring and shut up. Puerto Verde needs to decide who its target audience is: or not we think. It was a nice appartment though,comfortable, there are other places in town with jacussis and better views for the same money if you bother to look, same kind of pricing.
The rest of the area is lovely, with St Bernards with pups bounding around , little fluff balls following their parents around who are being used as photo props for some reason. There are a number of steak restaurants of course, all very nice and quite cheap. On recommendation by our hostel we headed to a Mexican restaurant which was very average and not very mexican flavoured. Margueritas were great, the food portions were big but that was it. Not enough mexican flavour and spice. Lesson, stick to the local food. Bariloche is also linked to Chocolate so there are shops all over which sell loads of the stuff, very tasty indeed. We had a great evening, finding a tango club with a show tucked beneath a building just out of sight of the main road. The show was very very good, with live musicians, around 80 playing the music for some dancers and singers to entertain. It felt like something out of another era and really made the week.
We hired a car to drive out to find a black glacier which provided a terrific day out. The drive out of town was a little dissapointing with the environment poorly cared for, plastic bags everywhere. The argument is not that there are too many plastic bags used, or that they might want to ban them, but that the stray dogs, also clearly no ones fault, tear them open and rummage through them, the wind does the rest. Once away from the town, there was breathtaking scenery again through some azul lakes and then down a dirt track path in a driving blizzard. The snow was great and the little GOL thing we drove handled reasonably well on the off road, taking us over and up to a glacier covered in dirt. It took a fair old while and we were the last of the cars up that day before the road was opened for cars returning. Having a look at the glacier in the driving snow was still great, the lake was full of frozen water mixed with massive chunks of glacier. Very impressive. The national park we headed to also has a waterfall in it; throughout our trip we have seen a fair number of waterfalls, but the driving was fun, so we headed off and the photos say more than words as usual. The waterfall was the most impressive we have seen so far, swollen rivers from meltwater providing an absolutely huge volume of water, clouds of spray, snow and a very scenic walk to the waterfall all made it very worthwhile. A must do if you head that way.
With the extra snow we decided to go skiing at the resort, it wouldn’t do to not do so especially as it was the last few days of open resort. The bus ride up and the ski equipment hire was cheap, less than 30 pounds each for the day inlusive of ski pass. The skiing was fun, but very limited, only a couple runs had been opened which was a pain as there were tons of great pistes to be seen nearby… so we had to contend with beginner snowboarders and skiers cutting us up and being annoying. Prices for food was reasuringly expensive and the same as Austria for a hot chocolate and chips. It was fun to ski again.
Bariloche to where next? South or not.. Off to Puerto Madyrn from where we could make a more informed decision while looking at whales, penguins and more stuff. So only an overnight bus ride and some to go. We met a couple of dutch girls and swiss guy who made the trip fun, and the next couple of days entertaining.

San Martin de los Andes – Sep 29th – Oct 2nd

 

Wandering around San Carlos was beautiful, the spring feeling of a ski town is not always a friendly one, with a number of businesses closing for refits and so on. We took the chance to do some work on our ideas, and generally enjoy the place. The walk between our lodging and the centre of town was around one kilometer so that helped us keep the effects of the sugary and really very tasty bakery snacks at bay which are sold at small bakeries, it seems, at every corner. The days were beautiful and sunny, the trees in bloom and it seems the people here have a very good work life balance.

We headed to the supermarket on several days to buy some lunch and lounge around the lakeside,and it seemed pretty much everyone else did as well. The shops were closed all afternoon, which is a very Argentinian thing it seems, and then open late in the evening again. Taking the best from each European culture I suppose. Evenings were spent in small cafes or the Irish pub, or eating very large steaks. The highlight was a great evening in a small restaurant eating Waterbuffalo steak with mashed pumpkin and spinach, drinking great red wine for not very much at all. It was another dose of food extasy and an example of things to come. It is apparently in the lonely planet too…. So if you are headed that way, perhaps look it up on Thorn Tree or in the book. We had a fantastic lunch on the lake, set in the brillant sunshine, watching people rowing and sailing while we ate our lunch made up of meats, cheeses for jen, olives and crackers and a bottle of very nice Malbec. Needless to say, we had a few fans, wagging their tails and looking reproachfully at our meat selection. They didn’t like the crackers…

The town is nestled in a valley and home to some outstanding skiing, we decided against skiing here as we thought there had to be a reason to return in the future, perhaps one august for some great powder skiing…. We shall see. There are a number of Austrian and Swiss run sports shops dotted around the place and a lot of new builds going up, so I presume it is an increasingly popular area for Argentine tourists to come to. The chocolate theme and convivial coffee shop atmosphere prevails, great exports from the Germans and Austrians once more….We really enjoyed the time here, but had to move on to Bariloche, the city of chocolate. MT

Pucon to Argentina; San Martin de Los Andes - 29th September

 

Pucon and surroundings were some of the most beautiful we had seen so far, the volcanoes and the lakes, rivers and forests make for living life in a very outdoorsy way, although apparently it was pretty horrid in winter when it rains a lot. We were next headed to the shadow of the Andes, Argentina where the rainfall is substantially less throughout the year. We headed south from Pucon in a coach as per usual, following a road down a ever narrower valley until there was no longer any substantial human population , just the occasional farm and small hotel. The scenery was more and more jagged and wild it seemed, with the trees “growing” lichen from every branch and twig. Then the road changed from tarmac to a dusty track which was well maintained, but in parts very narrow, and constantly climbing to reach the pass on the north side of another volcano. The entire area is a national park and it is shared between Argentina and Chile I think. With such rugged and seeminly primordeal landscapes it made the bus ride an absolute pleasure and slow enough to take photos out of the window. We arrived at the Chilean border and passports were scanned and stamped as usual, a few passengers scrutinised and questioned, but let pass. A five minute bus ride on was the Argentinian border post. Each of the buildings was quite imposing, the chilean border looks like some kind of Ski Chalet built out of wood, whilst the Argentine one is a Ski Chalet with a massive fireplace inside, built out of Stone and wood, both in keeping with European Alpine traditional development. Nice change though from little shacks and concrete huts in the Caribbean. The changes in landscape were also quite interesting, the Chilean border marking the change between mixed forest to Monkey Puzzle forest which is one of the oldest tree species alive, and the Argentine border continues with the Monkey Puzzle tree but a thinning variety that gives way to scrub land pretty quickly.

The Argentine border was all very efficient, the military type police with gleaming uniforms, boots and combed hair were all proud as to be serving the HUGE flag they sat under and also took the liberty to search a few peoples luggage, for what I don’t know. Two women of caribbean origin were refused entry so while things were sorted out or not, we hung around and stared at a very active volcano or warmed ourselves by the fire inside. Then it was back to the border to verify something with the Chileans and then back again to the Argentine side, luckily it is only a five minute drive between the borders…the result was that the two women were still not to be let in. Off the bus and onwards ho.

The bus hit a tarmac road fairly soon and trundled through the changing landscape, much drier already that Chile, but equally beautiful until we hit the north of the lake district and the town of San Martin de Los Andes. Driving towards the bus stop we were given a quick tour of the very tourist mountain sports orientated town, ski chalet type buildings everywhere again and then a very pictureque lake. A very relaxed tout handed us a a slip of paper and then cycled off advertsing a room in a private house so we hesitated, but after walking to some other hostels we met the tout again who knocked off a good thirty pesos a night which sealed the deal. This marked our arrival to San Martin.. nothing overly exciting, but very beautiful.
MT

Pucon Horse Trekking with Antilco - 26th + 27 Sep

 

Horse trekking… whose idea was that? We had initially come to Pucon to visit the Antilco horse farm which was by far the cheapest riding in the area as far as I could find from my research. On arrival we had considered a half day ride around the area, but, as it happened got a little more that we planned. The first weekend was their first weekend of 2 day horse treks and it was very reasonable to go, so we decided to go for it. The horses all looked really healthy and whilst moulting slightly, Jen was almost exstatic by the trip planning. The day came and we saddled up our horses, mine a light brown Mare and Jens a dark brown Mare. We were accompanied by two french medical students who were spending a semester observing at a nearby town and Antilco guides Jamie and Luis. We trotted off in an organised manner, our horses behaving themselves for the moment.
The trip was terrific, and luis and jamie both knew the horses well, Luis is a born Puconese guide, wilderness expert, horse trainer etc, and Jamie was spending a couple months working while travelling. We headed into the sun with dark skies threatening rain, but thankfully disspearing sooner than later. The trail meanwhile changed from dusty road to backcountry and then road again through Mapuche village and finally onto a steep hill side. My horse developed its own personality very quickly and was taking me for the ride it seemed, trotting when it felt like it, galloping at will too. It didn’t manage to throw me off by the time we had lunch and also managed to find itself lots of yummy snacks of leaves, twigs, grass and anything else it fancied along the way. Jen seemed to have more control over her horse…

We stopped for lunch on a nice hill side overlooking Pucon and Lake Villarica, with dark skies in one part, sunshine in the other and the volcano in the other direction it was a terrific view. The horses didn’t seem to care too much, the grass was apparently much tastier. The next stage was through the first pass and the path wound its way around the steep mountain sides, thickly forested, crossing streams and rivers. At one stage it got a little too steep for us and we pulled our horses up the path while Luis and his horse rode on ahead. His skills and horse were admirable; although our horses all really wanted to take a bite out of his baring their teeth and flattening their ears everytime he got too near. They did the same to each other, but to a lesser extent.

Eventually we reached a level which was perhaps the tree line and trotted and cantered through the landscape. My horse refused to drink anything when the other horses were busy drinking, choosing instead a choice small waterfall with a selection of branches and trees around my face height instead. Only the best for my horse. We reached our camp for the night and it was cold, perhaps 2 degrees celcius and as night fell we huddled near the fire for warmth, and importantly, for steaks and sausages cooked by the fire. The steaks were mounted onto a bamboo stick and grilled near the fire and then later cut off, resulting in fantastic steaks, eaten with a lovely potato salad and other stuff. The meal was finished with Pisco Sour, grilled marshmallows and chocolate… What a great day.

The next day the horses were recovered from the paddock nearby, our frozen bodies thawed over steaming cups of tea. The tents and stuff was repacked and saddled. I decided to get on my horse which I had left snoozing on the horse and it wasn’t quite as pleased to have me on its back, bucking a little as I tried to walk it across to the others. The horses were all a little frisky that morning and I learnt a little about rein control. My horse refused to do anything with kicks, but responded instead to a small whip attached to the reins which I had to whip it with when I wanted it to get moving. Downhill frisky horses…. Jens bit most horses that came too close, Jamies was generally very excited and well mine, once more, did pretty much what ever it wanted. Walking down slopes for example, was largely not an option, a trot was the only acceptable way, so it would stop and wait for the other horses to clear out and then trot down. Finally, we reached the flats along the river again near the farm, the path was beautiful and the plants very tasty. I think until we reached the last bit of road my horse had some kind of plant in its mouth the whole time. I had been watching the others trot at this point, and decided to try standing in my stirrups for the last bit of the ride, but this didn’t really have the reaction I thought it would. My horse simply got faster and faster and broke into an outright gallop, what fun! When I finally stopped it I was pretty much at the front gate and waited around for most of the others, one other horse and beginner rider had joined my mad dash so we joked about our horses and our poor riding skills.

The whole stay with Antilco was outstanding, and highly memorable. I would really recommend it to anyone, even a non rider. The team was able to give me pointers and help my riding along, while the equipment is very comfortable and felt more secure than the western kit I had used in Australia and Mexico on shorter rides. The closed stirrups also felt pretty good, and well with the horse deciding over much of the route, the chaps came in very handy. I also havent seen Jen much happier whilst doing any of our activities.. beaming pretty much the whole time. Definitely worth returning to see Matthias and the crew there again. MT