Bariloche, Puerto Montt & Puerto Varas

Bariloche, the largest city in the Argentinian side of the Lake District, is a pretty city with lots of european influence (mostly German) on the edge of Lago Nahuel Huapi, a glacial relic over 100km long. The main hostel street, Salta, is up on the hill behind the downtown and has fantastic views of the lake. We stayed at TangoInn Downtown, and other than the excessively creaky bunkbeds and blasting heat, found it very comfortable. They even had a on-site masseuse, and we obviously took advantage of the 90-minute hot-stone massages for $20 (!) to ease our aching backs (our packs aren't getting any lighter, as you can probably imagine).

The view from the 4th floor of Hostel TangoInn

 

We spent a day wandering around Bariloche, enjoying the sights. The city is over-run with chocolate shops, although they really haven't figured out the dark-chocolate thing in South America yet, so it wasn't as dangerous as it could have been (we are both dark-chocolate lovers).

Monday the 22nd of November was a national holiday in Argentina, so we took advantage of that fact and rented a car, since it meant we could pick it up the night before, and not return it until the morning after the holiday. We flipped a coin to see who had to drive first (out of downtown) and Alex lost (or won?) and got to drive first.



Our Volkswagon "Gol" (no, not a "Golf")

Dealing with the un-marked intersections was a steep learning curve, but we got a hang of it fairly quickly. Few road rules are actually obeyed in Argentina, but it seemed a significantly safer than other parts of South America we've visited. By the end of the day we'd determined that the rules at unmarked intersections are as follows; 1) taxis and large trucks will not slow down, so give them the right of way, 2) slow down as you approach an intersection, but don't stop unnecessarily or you risk getting rear-ended and 3) stay confident, and don't second guess. We got an early start the next morning and headed first for Cerro Campanario for a short morning hike to see some of the "best views in the world" (according to our hostel-hostess).

You could have taken a chairlift up (unfortunately, that meant it was a bit crowded at the top) but the hike was refreshing, and we saw wonderful flora along the way.  

After Cerro Campanario, we continued along the Circuito Chico (the famous 60-km loop road around Lago P. Moreno), stopping along the way to take a single-track dirt road out to the remote Villa Tacul beach for a snack and some great views.

The yellow bushes you see below were in full bloom and lined both sides of the road all day.

 

After completing the Circuito Chico we headed south to Cerro Catedral, one of the biggest ski centers in South America. The base of the hill was crowded even though ski season had already ended. We had a picnic-lunch on a deserted beach along the way, and enjoyed some local treats from the grocery store (deer salami, mushroom tapenade, and whole-wheat buns). Afterwards, we continued south along Ruta 40 to El Bolsón. We arrived in the late afternoon and wandered around, ate some gelato, and visited a trout farm. The trout farm was suprisingly lovely, and we chatted with the owner and sampled smoked trout and homemade jams.  You could walk around the ponds, which housed trout at various life-stages (juveniles, "small", "large"). We bought an entire smoked trout (two filets) for about $5 CDN for a picnic the next day. 

"No tocar las truchas" = "Don't touch the trout"



One of the trout ponds

We headed back to Bariloche in the late evening after a satisfying day of exploring .

We spent a 4th (and final) day in Bariloche doing errands. After hanging on by a thread for the past month and a half, the zipper on Alex's day-pack finally broke completely, and Lisa's day-pack really shouldn't have come on this trip at all. Bariloche is a major outdoor-sports center and as a result had a good selection of outdoor equipment stores. Lisa bought a new day pack, and Alex amazingly found someone to replace the zipper on her pack, the same day, for ~$12 CDN! The following morning we took the 7:30 bus back to Chile, destination: Puerto Montt. The Chilean border crossings are by far the most hassle in South America. Efficiency isn't high here, but it's like they are trying to acheive US border-control standard with fewer resources. For reasons unknown, the bus drive had us line up alphabetically to go through immigration, which was hilarious because 1) he was attempting to read a list of mostly Korean last names with a heavy chilean accent (fail) and 2) "Bahlsen" was first on the list to get called before anyone really knew what was going on. Chile is the only country which cares what you have in your bags (nowhere else even asks, never mind looks), and they scan them for fresh food, and impose heavy fines if you don't declare your goods.

We got into Puerto Montt later than planned, and checked into a kitchen-less hotel, since Puerto-Montt hasn't really hit backpacker-radar yet, and is lacking hostels. In an effort to pinch a few pennies, since eating out here adds up, we made a picnic of guacamole (made in a tupperware container) and pita bread, with honeydew melon ("Melon tuna" in spanish) on the hotel bed.

We splurged (relatively, not by Canadian standards) on dinner and ate at the lovely El Balcon restaurant; an artsy cafe with lots of character serving twists on Chilean classics, like Humitas del Mar (Humitas topped with fresh crab meat and seafood) and fried Pejerrey (King fish) with real potatoes (the first time we've found un-deep-fried potatoes in South America!).

Today (all caught up!) we took a mini-bus to nearby Puerto Varas for some sight-seeing. Puerto Varas is famous for it's definitely "German-ness". Much of Southern Chile has a distictly German feel, thanks to selective immigration policies imposed in the late 1840's (you can read more about it here). The city is located on the edge of Llanquihue Lake, and nearby Osorno Volcano.

We ate lunch at the wonderful Caffe el Barista downtown. We enjoyed some un-rivaled (on this trip anyways) paninis (smoked salmon/avocado/cream cheese, and marinated chicken/arugula/olives/cheese) and perfect coffee and tea. We liked the restaurants slogan (below) which means "Only the best coffee:  black like the devil, hot like an inferno, pure like an angel and sweet like love".

One of the most famous landmarks in Puerto Varas is Iglesia del Sagrado Corazon, a church based on the Marienkirche church of Black Forest, Germany.

We jumped on a mini-bus back to Puerto Montt in the afternoon and stocked up on extra fruit, vegetables and reserva wine (because why not drink Reserva's when they cost $5?) for our upcoming boat journey to Puerto Natales. We embark tomorrow morning, and will travel non-stop through the Patagonian Fjords, down the coast of Chile, for the next 4 days. We aren't entirely sure what to expect, but are extremely excited for this next leg of our adventure. We have tickets for cheap-bottom-of-the-boat bunks, aboard the 200-passenger Navimag cargo/passenger-ferry. We won't have internet (obviously) for the next 4 days, and may jump right into some trekking upon arrival in Puerto Natales, so don't worry if you don't hear from us for the next week! (We'll be safe, we promise).

Temuco & Pucon (Chile)

We spent our last morning in Valparaiso trying to figure out what we should do with the last four weeks (!) of our trip. Originally we had planned to go all the way down to Ushuaia (the southernmost city in the world), but later scrapped that plan in the interest of time, and money. However, as we looked at our options Ushuaia was suddenly back on the table. The hostel owners told us there was a train from Santiago to Temuco (in the Lakes District) which was very beautiful, and inexpensive. We headed to Santiago to catch the train, but found out at the train station that the February 2010 earthquake had destroyed the tracks south of Talca. We took the train to Talca regardless, and then a night bus from Talca to Temuco, arriving at 5:00am. We hadn`t planned on ending up in Temuco that morning, since the original plan was to take the day train. Normally this wouldn`t have been a problem, but Temuco is (in no way, shape, or form) a backpacker destination, and proved very challenging. We took a cab from the bus station to one of the only two hostels listed in the guidebook. Frustratingly, the cab tried (and somewhat succeeded) to ``take us to the cleaners``. He obviously assumed we didn`t know the town very well, and took us on the most roundabout way. We called him out on it, but he played dumb, and wasn`t going to give us our bags from the trunk if we didn`t pay up. We bargained the rip-off price down to 4000 pesos ($8)  (about twice what it should have been), but then he didn`t have change, so we walked away paying far more that we should have. In the end, it only cost us about $10, but it was more the principle that was so irritating. To top things off, no one answered the doorbell at the hostel, so we ended up spending another 20 minutes flagging down a cab and cabbing to the other side of town where the second listed hostel was. It didn't exist, but luckily cab driver #2 was nice and took us to the cheapest (but safe) hotel option he knew. Twice what you'd pay at a hostel, but we were just happy to have a bed at that point. The whole point of going to Temuco was to hike the Sierra Nevada train in the national park, but there had been snow the day before and the trails were closed... go figure! Our guidebook said Temuco is a challenge for backpackers... they aren't kidding!  We spent a day in Temuco planning the rest of our trip and wandering around. We tried some good local food; pastel de choclo (baked corn mash, cheese and meat pie...similar to shepherds pie, but with corn not mashed potatoes), and shellfish stew (very fishy!). I guess Temuco was a relative fail, but to be honest, we haven't had many of those on this trip, so we took it in stride and carried on.

The next day (eager to get out of Temuco) we hopped on a bus to Pucon, in the Araucanía region of Chile. We loved Pucon at first sight (it had a very "ski town" feel to it), and our hostel only made it better. Hostel El Refugio was a cute converted wood cabin in central Pucon complete with fireplace (and clothes drying racks above), friendly dog, feather duvets, WIFI and great company. The hostel staff suggested we hike to a nearby waterfall, armed us with a "treasure map", and sent us on our way.

The walk was very beautiful and tranquil (p.s. there is lots of land for sale here if anyone is interested!!).

We walked past farmyards, and through fields of cows, and down narrow rooted paths with bamboo (who knew?) growing on both sides. We loved the roses that all the locals had growing in their yards and on the fences.

The waterfall was magnificent, and we enjoyed the lack of other tourists.  

We were hoping to get a chance to hike one of Chile's most active volcanoes, the Villarrica volcano (and snowboard down!), but unfortunately it began raining that evening (not to stop for 3 days), and so the trip was cancelled. Instead we ventured up to Huerquehue national park for a day hike (Los Lagos), which turned into a half-day hike as the rain didn't lay off. It was a very beautiful hike, and we made it to the first two (of four) lakes.

We hiked along lakes, and through forest teeming with famous Monkey-puzzle (a.k.a. Araucaria) trees.

Araucaria trees are sometimes described as living fossils, since they grow up to 40m high and 2m wide, and can live for over a thousand years! Even if trees aren't your thing, you would have to admit these trees are pretty neat. Here is a close-up photo of the "foliage" (if you can call it that) of a juvenile Monkey-puzzle tree.

By noon we were soaked to the bone (down to our underwear) and it was cold enough out that the rain even turned to snow a bit, so we decided to turn around and take the 2:10 bus back. We were very glad we did, because by the time we arrived back in Pucon we were miserable, wet, and cold (and were so grateful for free tea, hot showers, dry clothes, and the fireplace). We decided we don't need to hike in the rain ever again! What we didn't plan on was our shoes being wet for 3 days (too humid out to dry), and having to wear flip flops in the barely-above-freezing temperatures.

Here was a gorgeous waterfall that we saw en-route to the lakes. It was challenging to photograph because you had about 1 second between when you turned around and when the lens would be completely covered in water droplets from the spray and the rain (not to mention the Nikon isn't really supposed to get wet).

We would have stuck around Pucon for another day or two if we thought we'd get a chance to hike the volcano, but the forecast was grim, so we decided to head to Bariloche (on the Argentinian side of the Andes) instead. The scenery on the bus ride was very beautiful, but as you can see from the attempted photo below it was still raining steadily, and photography from the bus wasn't really possible.

Buses across the border always take longer than predicted, and we arrived in Bariloche after about 12 hours of travel. You wouldn't think we'd still be tired after sleeping so much all day (on the bus) but we pretty much just went to bed after we arrived!

Santiago & Valparaiso

With assistance from our helpful hostel owner at Hostal Nico, we caught a micro bus (the only option due to the proximity to the Chilean border) on the side of the highway in Puente del Inca and headed for Chile. The ride was supposed to take 3-4 hours, but took 6, because of the hold-up at the border and construction on the other side. We were glad we did the crossing in the day time, however, since the scenery was great. The border crossing was at the top of the mountain pass, and the way down the other side to Santiago included the Uspallata Pass (a.k.a. Los Lenas pass/ Paso Libertadores); a stretch with countless (we think about 30) switchbacks (visible in the bottom left corner of the photo below).

 

We also drove though a few long, narrow, and hazy tunnels (it´s always a good sign when your driver crosses himself prior to entering the tunnel... right?). We arrived in Santiago around tea-time (6pm) and were sufficiently starved, having missed lunch. We headed for Hostel Santa Lucia (in the center of Santiago) and had a snack of home-made guacamole and multigrain pita bread. Yum! (The avocados here are to die for). Later that night we enjoyed our first Sushi in 2.5 months... a true delight. 

The next day we wandered around the city, and visited Santa Lucia Park; a wonderful little hill in the center of Santiago (and conveniently right across from our hostel) with numerous staircases carved into the rock leading to the top. 

 

You could also take an elevator up there if you wanted; the ¨ascensors¨ are famous landmarks in the city (seen below).

Prices have risen sharply in Chile. A dorm room now costs us about $14 -$20 a night (still not bad, but a drastic change from $4-$10 that we are used to). Hostel Santa Lucia was at the bottom end of the price range ($16) but the fabulous beds, down comforters, location and cozy living room made it worth it.

 

We  were on a mission to cook a seafood feast so we visited the central fish market. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. The abundance of fish and the fishy smell didn´t bother us, but we could have done without the constant cat-calls and verbal harrassment from the stall owners. We left the market to make our decision and came back, decided to purchase our shell-fish from the stall who harrassed us the least. We bought some shrimp, some scallops (in shells) and some mystery clams (¨MaCha¨). We fixed up a feast of shellfish steamed in a white wine and butter sauce, with vegetables and mushroom risotto. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a shellfish disaster. After much debate (and opinions from fellow travellers and hostel staff), we decided the scallops were dead (and therefore unedible), so we ditched them. When we cooked the shrimp they shrunk to about 1cm, but were tasty enough. The clams however, were inedibly sandy. Our new Aussie friends, Adrian and Chris (left and right in the photo below), laughed at us while we attempted to eat the clams, as they could hear the sandy crunching and soon we just gave up on the seafood altogether. The sauce was tasty though!

 

On Saturday we headed up to Valparaiso with Chris, Adrian and Dewey. We had a hostel in mind, but it was booked up when we got there so the owner showed us to a cute new hostel  (Hostel Casa Fischer) around the corner. 

 

  

Hostel Casa Fisher is the cute building on the right with the flowers. It has only been open for 2 weeks, and by the time YOU visit it, the flower-graffiti will take up the whole front face of the building (it is a work in progress). 

 

It turned out to be probably our favorite hostel of the whole trip. The owners were so helpful and friendly and welcomed us right in, they even treated us to wine, fruit, sushi, and anything else they were making. They introduced us to Cherimoya fruit, and we ate it fresh, and stewed in white wine (as a drink). A good hostel breakfast is a sure way to our heart, and they had it bang-on with  wonderful fresh bread,  jam, fruit salad, juice, tea and coffee. The hostel had a resident cat, who at the time had 4 adorable kittens... could it be any better? We didn´t think so. 

 

We absolutely LOVED Valparaiso. It is popular place for travellers but lacked the annoying touristy-vibe (we even struggled to find postcards!), so we really loved that. We ended up staying there for 3 days, and could have stayed a lot longer. The city had a good feel to it. There were lots of stairs and brightly colored houses, friendly stray cats and dogs everywhere, quaint little restaurants and cafes, and a great ocean view. 

 

Great company made it that much better! Our favorites were Emporio La Rosa (an amazing gelato place with unique flavors like orange-ginger, raspberry-mint, pistachio, rose, spiced chocolate... the list goes on) and Cafe Con Letras (a cute cafe/ bookshop which makes a mean smoked salmon salad with avocado, roasted mushrooms and mixed greens). 

 

One of the coolest parts about Valparaiso was the graffiti. It wasn´t the stereotypically irritating graffiti, but rather colorful, creative and fascinating. It was absoutely everywhere (sidewalks, wall, building, stairs...). We took a few pictures (haha). Here are  some of our personal favorites, but you can see more here.

 

 

 

The five of us set of on a self-guided walking tour of Valparaiso, but were convinced (probably falsely) by a bus driver that it wasn´t safe to drive, so we hopped on and got a city tour for $3 each. It was interesting, but as is unfortunately typical around here, the male driver was terribly machistic, and almost unbearable. He tried (at least 5 times) to talk us into going back to his house with him. We finally just asked to get off (and thank goodness we had 3 guys with us). At least we got a good view!

We continued to wander around on our own, making our way to the street market on the other side of town. The market used to be housed near the center, but the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in February of 2010 destroyed the building. Fortunately, despite the magnitude of the earthquake, we saw very little obvious effects of it (unlike the lasting effects of recent earthquakes in Peru and Bolivia).

 

The market was huge and sprawling, covering many city blocks. It included an antiques market, a new & used clothing market, a flower market (we bought flowers for the hostel), and of course produce & fish. 

Speaking of change, Argentina and Chile couldn´t be more opposite on the matter. While change was next to impossible to come by in Argentina, it seems to be a plague here. We try getting rid of change by, say, handing a 5000 note and 150 in change for 4150 purchase, but instead of getting a 1000 note back, we get 1000 in change (10 coins). It is heavy change too!  (F.Y.I. 1 Canadian Dollar is roughly 475 Chilean Pesos).

On Sunday night (yes... Sunday... not sure what we were thinking) we ventured out for some drinks and ended up at a dingy hole-in-the-wall, singing Spanish Karaoke (well... mostly Chris) with some locals. It was highly entertaining.