In and around Bariloche, Argentina

Solo dos mas dias y vamos a ir a Mendoza. We have been here in Bariloche, where the infamous Patagonian area begins, for 3 weeks, two of which we have been in school. Bariloche is located alongside the southern shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi and is at 764 meters altitude. This town of 93,000 is known for its alpine architecture, is the chocolate capital of Argentina, is close to South America's best ski resort and offers unending resources for trekking, climbing, rafting, kayaking, fishing, horse riding, lake excursions, skiing, along with an abundance of restaurants offering beef, wild boar, deer, lamb, pork and trout prepared in various ways. This area is a tourist mecca.

However, a 10 minute drive outside of town and you are surrounded by thick forests, lakes, waterfalls and snowcapped mountain peaks. Drive a little longer and you will be awestruck by the beauty of the glaciers and the everlasting snow. Views from atop several high peaks are available via a quick cable car ride.
We have taken advantage of the many tourist offerings: trips to the local museum, craft fairs, mountaintop views, a drive to the ski resort, another drive to a neighboring town (hippie like and very tranquil), horseback riding, (Jane on a horse, can you believe it?), an all day tour to Mount Tronador via a single lane dirt road to see the black glacier and the base of Mount Tronador which sits at 3554 meters, another tour by boat to see fjords, waterfalls, and beautiful forests, visits with our classmates to local breweries and restaurants. We have been busy touring, going to school and doing homework!!! We have taken hundreds of photos and are giving you a glimpse of just a few of them.

Isle of Chiloe, Patagonia, Chile

We headed for the Isle of Chiloe, which National Geographic calls the fifth most beautiful island in the world. We were hoping for a glimpse of the volcano before we left PuertoVaras, but we awoke to another cloudy and rainy day. It was about a 45 minute drive down "ruta cinco" to the ferry that took us to the Isla de Chiloe. This a large older ferry that was filled with cars and large trucks and took about 40 minutes. The island is very hilly and green with narrow roads. It is very common to see people of all ages waiting for the bus or walking along the road.

Our first stop was in the town of Ancud which is situated on the Northwest corner of the island right on the water. We checked out the local museum which was interesting even though we were struggling to translate explanations. The island was inhabited over 7000 years ago by people that disappeared in 1500's. Next we headed to the artesnal market in the center of town. This is two stories of local crafts of all sorts. There were all varieties of sweaters, panchos, hats, mittens and socks hand knit of yarn from the sheep and llamas on the island.

On the way out of town Paul was anxious to stop at a boat yard that we had seen on the way into town. They had several wooden boat hulls under construction. There was a large crowd gathered to watch a 40' steel fishing boat being launched. Unfortunately, there were some major problems getting it into the water. Fishing is the main industry in the whole island.

We were staying in Castro, the capital of the island, and the remainder of the drive was on ruta 5. This scenic drive winds its way through rolling and sometimes steep farmland dotted with an abundance of trees, and scrublike bushes. Almost around every curve is a grand view of a lake. The island of Chiloe is famous for its many churches that all have wood shingles on the front of the building in various sizes, colors and designs. The churches are all strategically placed so that the front faces the water. Some of these churches date back to the 1700s. We tried to take pictures of many of them.

The island of Chiloe is isolated from the mainland and it's like stepping back in time. It is very common to see a pair of oxen being led by a farmer walking down the side of the road as well as islanders on horseback going to or from town. Most people have no car so they are dependent on buses that seem to go to all parts of the island. For the most part the people are poor but are hardy folks that live off the land.

Castro is the capital of the island and is an old fishing community built around the Bay of Chiloe, on the opposite side of the island is the Pacific Ocean. Some of the older homes along the shore are called palafitos and are built over the water and are on stilts. As we traveled throughout the island we noticed the abundance and large size of the fish farms out on the bays. Salmon farming is a big industry on the island and it has been thriving for the past 10 years. Recently they have also had success with mussel farming. There are large trucks on the road that haul the fish and are quite a nuisance on the narrow steep inclines.

We arrived in Castro where the main plaza is high above the water with very steep streets leading up to it. We stopped at the tourist info booth to get directions to our lodging, which was on the other side of town. We arrived at our cabana (6 room motel) around 4 in the afternoon. It was on a hill overlooking one of the bays on the east side of the island. The owner spoke no English but welcomed us and took us to our 2 bedroom unit. The wood stove was a welcome sight on this chilly damp day. During our stay the owner was very good about keeping the fire going when we were gone. For dinner we were back in town at a hotel (9 kms away). The salmon was the best salmon Paul has ever eaten.

Over the next two days we covered a lot of the island in good weather with clear skies. We hiked some of the paths in one of the national parks on the Pacific Ocean side. We drove to the Southern tip where the village of Quellen is a major seaport for cruisers but mostly for the large fishing fleet. It seemed to have a couple hundred small fishing boats in the harbor. Then we toured one of the islands lying right next to Chiloe. Again a ferry connects the people to the rest of the world. On this island there were about three villages of some size. We had lunch in one after visiting their church built in 1730. In the other we visited their new museum, which was a good view into the culture of the island people. The excitement of the day was when two large oxen had escaped from the farmer's pasture. Two dogs were chasing them down the road away from the farmer in hot pursuit. We were of no help.

This island is beautiful and an interesting place to visit. The southern part of the island reminded us of Ireland but with more vegetation and steeper hills. The fishing villages are quite colorful and the harbors seem to be the gathering spot for many of the town folks waiting to board a boat to take them to an island, or waiting for supplies, fish, etc. arriving on the boats. We were fascinated as we watched sheep being delivered to the dock in a pickup truck and then loaded on to the boat and tied to the rails. There were many people onboard as well as supplies headed to an out island, none of them seeming to notice the sheep onboard. At first you think their life looks quite poor, but upon closer inspection, while the people lead a much simpler life than most of us do, they are active, happy and seem to be focused on having good schools and educating their young. What the world will bring for them only time will tell.

Tday we drove back to the ferry and over to the mainland. We returned to Puerto Varas for a night. We arrived early enough to enjoy the sunny day in the village where they are having a fiesta as part of the Santa Semena (Easter Week). Every one was out with music in the town square and many people on the beach. With the sky clear we now have a beautiful view of the the Orsono Volcano. The blue skies have lasted for 3 days. Our fingers are crossed for a continuation of the good weather for tomorrow when we cross the Andes, returning to Argentina again.

Crossing the Andes

We finished the week in San Martin with a little fly fishing and rainy weather. What a great town. It is quite compact, packed into the small valley with many shops, cafe's and restaurants. I had a great experience at the hospital where I needed consultation on my blood pressure medication. I saw an intern that is on the staff four times during the week for very short discussions. No charge. While the facility is quite old the staff seemed quite energetic and competent. Our time share was one of the best we have stayed in for the overall experience. While we have had nicer units, here the staff, the club house, the activities were all first class. So we leave having had a good week.

Anyway on Saturday morning we left for Chile around 8:30. It was very cloudy and rainy. There are four routes we could choose from. The closest pass was 47 kms away, but after you crossed the frontier you had to take a 90 minute ferry across a lake and only at 5:00 pm. The next closest was 125 kms but it was North (we were going South in Chile) and when you crossed you had 40 kms of bad gravel road. So the third pass, and last pass, was our default choice. We could take the Seven Lakes Road back up to that pass, the road we came over from Bariloche on, or we could drive an extra 200 kms around to get to the pass on a totally blacktopped group of roads. Since it had rained for two days and (read the last blog) we had enough trouble coming here, we took the long route.

Well it turned out pretty well. The 200 kms of Argentina is beautiful high range land just in front of the snow capped Andes range. The road followed a mountain river valley which was beautiful. And to top if off we saw a large black bear, the largest deer and antler rack I have ever seen, pink flamingos and two rainbows. On the last rainbow we could see both ends and all the colors of the spectrum for a brief period of time (sorry no pictures).

Then we headed up to the mountain pass (hwy 231) and the Argentine/Chile frontier. The last Argentine town was a very touristy place full of log cabins with shops and cafe in all of them. From there it was a winding two lane road, quite a good road. We passed through the Argentine border station with a small amount of paperwork for us and the rental car. Then there was about 20 kms of high mountain winding road before we passed a "welcome to Chile sign". Then another 20 kms before we got to the Chile border station. There we had the same paperwork for us and the auto, but here they wanted to look at all of our luggage. We had to take it out and using a table along side the road open each for inspection. The inspection wasn't too thorough but they were prepared to be thorough. Then it was another 20 kms(hwy 215) before there was any sign of life in Chile. The Chile side does look different because it is much greener with a lot more vegetation and a lot of large ferns in the woods. The rain falls on the western side of the mountains.

In general the land looked a lot more like farm land than ranch land. Many more fences and dairy cattle. The road took us along the South side of a large lake. Soon the small towns started and then eventually we were in Orsono, Chile and we met Route 5, the Pan American Highway, which we took South about 85 kms to Puerto Varas. It is a modest sized town alongside the second largest lake in Chile. A huge volcano sits on the other side of the lake and if the clouds ever clear we will go see it.