February 28 - Around Bariloche

First, a couple of items to clean up.  On Feb. 25 I asked about a plant we saw that had huge leaves.  Sister JD suggested it was Gennera,  which is correct.  The Chileans call it Nalca, or Chilean Rhubarb.  Its botanical name is Gunnera Tintoria.

Another plant I talked about looked like bamboo.  Its not Chinese bamboo but is apparently a species of bamboo.  One distinctive feature is that it has a solid core.    The botanical name is Chusquea quila.  I was told it grows for about 15 years, dies and re-sprouts.

We got a lot of information from our Chilean tour guide on the trip from Puerto Varas to Puella.

Back to today.  The brekky in this hostel isn't stellar, so we decided to go out for breakfast.  We thought it should be no problem to find a place but it was near impossible at 9 a.m.  Here's a shot of a busy Bariloche street where we ended up.  

We had ham 'n egg bagels (bagels aren't our style).  They serve their pancakes with "Dulce de Leche" sauce on them.  Dolce de Leche is made by caramelizing sweet milk and is a big favourite in Chile & Argentina.
We bought some yogurt for tomorrow's breakfast.

 A not quote so busy Bariloche street with a beautiful mountain backdrop.

These Argentinians seem to be much more aggressive than Chilean drivers.  So much so it prompted me to ask our hostel host if the drivers were aiming for pedestrians.  He replied that you have to keep all 4 of your eyes open.  Part of the problem is a lack of signals.  Cars on side streets have to sneak out into any opening as they cross and block traffic until they can get across.

Laura and I timidly wait at corners and follow a local pedestrian.

The local cathedral, completed in the mid forties.

Inside.  If you look closely, you can see that the main columns and beams are poured concrete.  The concrete work looks a bit suspicious to me, which is typical of a lot of the work I see.  Otherwise, it is a pretty building.

Our big chore today was to go to the bus depot and purchase the tickets for our next trip to Mendoza.  Laura decided we should walk.  After walking about 5 km there, she relented and we took the local bus back (cost 70 cents apiece).







This guy drove by, proving that this is a tourist town.  We passed on a ride.












A shot of the lake front.   They were swimming just before the breakwater.

Maybe one of you knows something ab out the "H" shaped chimney in this photo.  They are all over down here in Chile & Argentina.  Do they work better than our chimneys?










Something else we noticed is a plethora of Chocolate Factories.  There must be a half dozen in our neighbourhood.   One even had an operating chocolate fountain in its front window.  

I haven't sampled any artisan chocolate yet, but I have had a few ice cream cones.  They make good ice cream down here.




A couple of shots of the main square in town.  This one is different in that it is open and ringed by these stone and wooden buildings.  Some were local government and one was a museum.

Lots of people in the square and they were setting up a stage.  I asked our hostel host what the festival was about - he told me nothing special, it was just Friday.  We are far enough away so we shouldn't hear the noise.

Instead of street hockey they play street football.  They almost nailed a car with a goal at the far end.

I took a quick tour of the museum.  It had some natural history, a display on Pietro Mareno (of the glacier fame), and some early native history.

This shot of a condor is about as close as I can get to one for you.  He's not a pretty fellow, being a vulture.

We talked to a hiker who saw a para-glider in the National Park (near Tronador).  The para-glider was soaring with a bunch of condors.  That would make sense, to go to where they soar.

Tonight's meal was Natchos and a salad and beer at one of the local artisan brew pubs.  It was happy hour and not expensive.  The food and 3 pints of beer came to just over $20.

Last photo.  Another advantage of hostels.  They aren't so upset when you turn their rooms into a laundry.

Tomorrow is another hike.  See you then.

February 27 – Nahuel Huapi Park

Just after we arrived we booked a trekking trip to Tronador, which is in Nahuel Huapi Park.  I figured this would be near to the mountain on the Argentine side.

After the usual morning routine we went down to the meeting place (Club Andino) to catch the bus.  Hop into a nice Mercedes 20 passenger bus and off we go.  We travel for about an hour on pavement (Route 40) and then  2 hours on a very twisting logging road (Laura says think Franklin River out to Bamfield, but narrower).

Our best view of Tronador.  We will get closer to it, but are below the cliffs around the glaciers.

We arrive finally at the refugio at Pampa Linda.  It looks like a nice place to stay, if you are so inclined.  Here we are, gathered about.  A lot of the people aren't really prepared and have to order lunches and water.   

Our first stop was at the “Black Glacier.”  Chunks of the glacier above, Manso Glacier, calve off and tumble down the cliff, taking a lot of rock with it.  This accumulates on below, re-freezing and forming “Ventisquero Negro” or the 'Black Snowdrift.”

An interesting trail improvement.  I'll bet a number of the participants today would have been very squeamish about using the log, especially if it was damp.  No problem, the river wasn't more than knee deep, but straight off the glacier.

Our hike consisted of an easy 7 km walk up a trail to this amazing waterfall with a glacier above.  The whole area freezes and stops flowing in the winter.  

While the hike was nice, I had hoped to get above the treeline for endless vistas.  That will have to wait.  Back down we go and in the vehicle for 3 hours.

On the way back I have a discussion with the guide about Club Andino.  He is valiantly trying to explain things in English - between his soso English and my terrible Spanish we communicate.

Club Andino is an outdoors club in Bariloche.  They run many (all?) of the Refugios in the area and conduct tours to support the club activities.  One of which is a local volunteer rescue service.    This of course prompts more discussion, and a Canadian lad in the seat behind pipes up that his parents are involved with SAR in the Ottawa - Gatineau area.  Small world.  Both of them are very jealous when they find out that BC SAR groups can use helicopters in their searches.  Very interesting.

Comments about Canadians – we are taking over down here.  There was Laura and I, the Canadian lad (I forgot his name), Patrick from Vancouver staying in the hostel who is off to Santiago today, someone with a Canadian flag on his pack, and at least one other who has a MEC water bottle on his pack.  We went to dinner with Tara from England who is only down here for two weeks, so is squeezing every activity possible in before she leaves.

One advantage of staying in hostels – meeting people.  Hotels are just too sterile.  When was the last time you struck up a conversation with somebody in a hotel just because his Lonely Planet book was in English?

Last photo today. I noticed this tree (one of half a dozen) with the goofy knitting around its trunk.  When we were getting off the bus I asked the guide, “Why do these trees have sweaters on them?”  His reply, “Because they are cold.”

E'nuf said.

February 26 - Puella to Bariloche, Argentina

Be prepared for landscape overload today!  Between photos and short landscape movies I took over 100 shots today.  However, the Internet will collapse if I show you all of them, so here is a short sample.

After breakfast we left Puella heading east.  We made it through Chilean exit customs, at which point we started climbing the pass.  We are in a 3/4 sized bus, 4 wheel drive.  Some of the switchbacks are so short the bus has to back up to get around them.  This is even tighter than the switchbacks on BC logging roads.

We've already seen a lot of spectacular scenery but the first shot I will show you is the Chilean side of Cerro Tronador, the highest peak in the area, at over 3400 meters.

Same mountain, close up.

Laura at the border crossing.  Remember, we went through Chilean exit customs 4 km back and it will be 4 km until we hit Argentinean entry customs.

(Don't tell anybody, but I jumped into the bush for a piddle and found the original metal boundary kiosk - neat.)

Down the hill, through Argentine customs to Lago Frias. 

 I must say, the Argentine Customs post was much more impressive here than when I went through between Pto Natales & El Calafate.  They even had electricity!  Our bus is on the left.

A black necked swan.  I had seen these in Puerto Natales, but this is the first good photo.

The Argentine side of Tronador.

A short boat ride down Lago Frias, a shorter bus ride (3 km) and here we are at 
Lago Nahuel Haupi.  This is a Mapucho name, as opposed to the Spanish or German names of many of the local landmarks.
We were early for the last lake trip, so we the cat took us across the bay you see to climb up the valley to a small lake behind.

Bruce & Ian, what do you think about these for trail boardwalks?  Maybe Parks Canada could learn something from these guys.  BTW, there were 581 steps, in case you were wondering.  Not a long walk.

At the end of the trail was Lago Cantaras and this Alerce tree.  This particular guy is over 1500 years old.  The Alerce is in the running for the oldest tree on earth, as there are some very old samples elswhere.  
Laura thinks they resemble Western Red Cedar in a number of ways.  Sorry, but there was no way my camera could do justice to this tree.

We're on the final leg of our trip today, an hour and a half voyage down Lago Nahuel Haupi.  

The spectacular scenery just keeps coming and coming.

Some jagged peaks above a hanging valley.

Laura could have booked us into this lakeside resort (apparently at $1000 / night), but I guess I'm not good enough for this.  She's booked us into a $40 a night hostel in downtown Bariloche.

That's OK - here's our room in Periko's hostel.  Pretty nice actually.  I'll forgive Laura if she buys dinner.

So, what went wrong - I bought dinner!  There just ain't no justice,  Good pizza and local beer, however.

I could have added a million more photos, but  it's late and I need my beauty sleep.  Tomorrow we signed up for a hike back to Tronador.  We won't get too near the top, but I'm interested in hiking around here.

So, enough for today.

February 25 - Peulla

We are leaving Puerto Varas and heading towards Bariloche on the bus / boat cruise I mentioned yesterday.

Just to prove we had to get up early here's a neat (at least I think so)  picture of the sunrise in Pto Varas.  We had to struggle out of bed at 0630.

We've done the first bus leg (I promised no more bus pix a while ago) and we're at the first lake (Lago Todos Los Santos), getting onto the catamaran.

Spanish sound of the day is "oo" (pronounced "u" as in 'boot').  This was the grunt our bus driver uttered when he had to lift my pack into the bus.  I am probably winning the 'heaviest hunk of luggage' contest.

I'll spare you another picture of Orsono, but here's one last shot of Volcan Puntiagudo  as we cruise by.

The Internet is painfully slow, so I'll finish this later.

Me again - the Internet is better now (not so many people booking hostels)









This is Volcan Tronador, on the Chile Argentine border.  The border goes along the height of land here, which puts it through this guy.  On the boat they were advertising a helicopter ride (1/2 hour, $250 US) of the area, but they specifically mentioned that they would show you the 3 glaciers on the Chilean side.  I guess you need an Argentine helicopter for the other side.

The view across the lake from Peulla.  There are various dwellings up and down the lake side.  The meadow areas across the lake appeared to have sheep grazing on them.

We've arrived in Peulla now.  I forgot to take a photo of the 'town' because I blinked as we walked through it.  There are two hotels, side by side, owned by the same company.  Here is the newer, more expensive one.  I booked us into the older, less expensive one.

And here it is.  Oh well!  We go in, but the lobby is empty and there is nobody at the front desk.  In fact there is no front desk!

To the other hotel - where there is a lobby with clerks and we are registered.  Turns out the company isn't using the old hotel, except for offices and staff, so I guess we got a free upgrade (have to look at the bill when we check out).





And, to prove we are in the nice hotel, there's my boots drying in the sun.  Just proves that you can put backpackers in a nice place, but it won't improve their behaviour.











Some short walks into the forest behind the town.  Very dense and lush, with a small waterfall behind.

The leaves for these great big guys are about 2 feet across.  I can't remember what they are, but we have them at home (they're not giant hogweed).  Any ideas?

We noticed a few other introduced species, including blackberry (I found a ripe one two days ago), broom (slightly different with a fuzzy seed), and gorsch, which is especially bad around Puerto Varas.  And they purposely introduced Douglas Fir, but they seem to be mostly contained in plantations, and are not 'being' invasive.   

It's early in the morning, which is probably why the Internet is working decently.  Looks like another nice day to continue this trip.  We are part way through the Andes - we'll be half way through when we cross the border.

We'll talk to you from Bariloche later.  Hope the snow is melting.

February 24 - Around Puerto Varas

Hi:  I didn't know whether to start today's blog with "It was a dark and snowy night.."  which I understand is happening at home, or, "We woke up to a perfectly cloudless, gorgeous warm day here in Puerto Varas..." which is also true.  You can pick whichever you like.

Today is a lazy day around Puerto Varas.  Nothing to do but have another great breakfast (Teresa does a fabulous job and her coffee is good), head downtown to the beach and enjoy life.

A few of these pictures are from yesterday when it was cloudy.  Pto. Varas doesn't have a huge pile of historic sites, so they've gone overboard on declaring nice local houses as monuments and putting them on a tour.  Don't worry, I'll only show you a couple.

Just down at the lake front from the house above is this statue,  which is quite visible from the main part of town (seen behind).  The artistic significance of this piece is lost on me - I guess I'm just some Gringo Heathen.

 (This photo is from today - note the weather)

This is the self proclaimed "Museo de Pablo Fierro."  It's not listed on any of the tour guides and I suspect it should be described as "El basura de Pablo Fierra."  Something for you to look up in Google Translate.

Speaking of Google Translate, we learned something about Spanish from this sign.  It's meaning is obvious from the graphic, but the word "bano" confused things.  

The local Lutheran Church, also on the historic buildings tour.

Another picture of some local weaving for you, JDF (and you too, JD.  Does that clarify things?)

Last photo for today - the town from the other end of the beach where we walked to and had an ice cream to cool off with.  (Yer right, I am rubbing it in - maybe I'll get a sunburn for gloating too much).

Tomorrow is an early get up and down to the bus for a 2 day bus, boat, bus, boat, bus, boat & bus tour from Puerto Varas to Bariloche, Argentina.  We're going halfway tomorrow and spending the night at a hotel on the lake, and completing the trip the next day

Here's a link:
http://www.cruiseschile.com/lake_crossing.htm

Next post will be from Argentina.

I have to add a little.  We just finished dinner at El Mediterrano, a seafood restaurant on the lakefront, and I would rate it as the second best meal I've had here (after Angelica's in Puerto Natales).   Just excellent.  We had ceviche (Laura ate the salmon and I had the bits she didn't recognize); she had a salmon entree and I had Rollizo (rockfish).  

And, our stay at the Tradicional Austral B & B has been excellent as well.  Great place to stay and we can't say enough nice things about Teresa'a breakfasts and the place in general.

 Don't let Kye see this photo.  Laura is getting her doggie fix with Lido, the watch Scottie.