First of all Happy New Year to you all and that ye all had a good Xmas break.
We spent Xmas day in Buenos Aires in my Aunty Helen´s beautiful colonial apartment (photos will appear at some stage) with Helen and her friends from Vancouver Mary and Andy where we dined on the traditional Argentian parilla (a kind of meat fest bbq). Dunk had the honour of standing on the roof deck backing in the heat of the sun and hot tiled floor to bbq us a perfect feast. Andy was his able assistance who made sure everything was cooked perfectly (and that Dunk was well watered and beered). We did have loads of gorgeous salads which probably is a mortal sin in Argentina (to waste belly space with silly vegtables), lots of fab vino, chocolate and a dessert (cant remember the name) which is quince tart and just divine. So thanks Helen for putting on such a splash and feeding us up so well during our stay in BA!! I think we both gained at least a stone of weight!!
Spent another couple of days in BA which was mostly sorting out our packs and trying to reduce our weight and create some more space for food which we will now have to carry as we will be camping down the Carretas Austral. Went to a fab french restaurant on our last night called Bouchon. I had the best dessert ever - a chocolate thing with really blackcurrant sauce and on the inside a beautiful berry sauce. Divine!!
On the 28th we headed to Bariloche via 17 hours on a bus in cama ejectivo which basically means large plush seats and loads of leg room plus blankets and pillow and agreable enough food. The best thing was thou that they didn´t play hours of bad movies at top volume so we could sleep!! Arrived in Bariloche on a cold blustery morning. Stayed at La Barraca hostel which was very welcoming, had great facilities and good views too. ç
Bariloche was surprisngly ok considering we had heard it was a nightmare of tourists and school groups at this time of the year. Ok there is lots of them but its a big town and seems to handle all the tourists reasonably well. The weather was pretty cold 15C with a gale force wind off the mountains over the lake but its a very pretty setting. Wasn´t too impressed by the chocolate thou - maybe cos Andy and Mary had given us a bar of swiss for Xmas and that was just as good as it gets (have I mentioned chocolate a lot - seems like I have, well you would too after 3 months choc deprivation and then suddenly its everywhere!!).
On the 30th we had an early 7.30 bus to Puerto Montt in Chile. At 6am was woken up by a taxi beeping incessantly outside our hostel. Had a mini panic and went oh crap we have slept in, but checked our watches and it was only 6 for definite so relaxed but the beeping continued. Eventually the guy came to the door of the hostel and Dunk went down to be told the clocks had changed and it was in fact 7am .. well now about 7.05am - AGGGGHH panic pack in 3 minutes, no time for toilet stop even, jump into the taxi and off we went to the bus station in a very bedraggled state. Arrived in time jumped on the bus and off we went. Phew. 2 things about this story are the taxi guy was lovely and didn´t overcharge us for having to wait AND WHAT THE F(/& are the clocks doing changing on Dec 30th????????? Bizarre. Whats even more bizarre is that Chile is now an hour behind Argentina even tho its further west.
Anyways the bus journey was crap, rained all the way, 2 one hour stops at Chilean and Argentian borders standing in the cold and then we arrived in Puerto Montt (starving by this stage cos we couldn´t eat the sugar infused lunch pack we got on the bus which consisted of either sweet or very sweet things). We had heard bad things about Puerto Montt being a dour port town and if ever a town lived up to its reputation this one did. We briefly considered heading to Puerto Varas but weren´t too sure how far it was and being tired, hungry and very sick of buses we made the bad decision to stay in Puerto Montt in the rain and cold. We stayed in a hospedaje that a little lady touted us at the station. Now it was nice enough place, clean but very small and probably would have been fine except Dunk was allergic to the blankets, it was on a hill with the main bus-truck road directly out front (even tho it was a narrow street and didn´t look like it would be bsuy at all), and we had Chilean guests from hell next door who shrieked for ages at 3am in the morning. I wish I had packed my hurley sometimes. Anyways since the Swedish couple next room thought it was us (speaking rapid loud Spanish???) and started banging on our walls, we started banging on their walls and eventually the noisy culprits calmed a bit.
We ate lunch a local kind of bar where all the locals were tucking into MASSIVE mounds of what seems to be the local equivalent of laksa in Sydney - gourmet dining at its best NOT. This mound of stuff which is called picada is basically french fries, olives, lumps of cheese, lump, s of hot dog, some sausage and in the real fancy version maybe some strips of meat and a couple of fried eggs thrown on top. What a bizarre combination. We settled for the steak sambos instead which were good. That night we visited the local recommended seafood restaurants down at the end at fishing port of Angelmo. Look its kind of cute with rows of little restaurants sitting up above the water and all well set up and clean but jaysus the food was basic for the price. Like I could do better on the camp stove with my eyes closed. I had a seafood soup and it was more like sand stew as none of the mussels were washed out. Dunk had salmon and it was basically slapped onto a plate - I´d present better to the dogs at home like.
Ok enough Puerto Montt rant - my advice NEVER stay there EVER.
We booked tickets on the ferry to Coyhaique for wednesday and then legged it on the bus to Puerto Varas (which is a mere 20 minutes) but world´s apart. Its a small cute touristy place on a beautiful lake overlooking a couple of volcanos (altho we still haven´t seen the top of them with the clouds!) and just so different we couldn´t beleive it. Stayed in a nice, friendly hospedaje (like a B&B without the breakfast) near the town centre and just wandered around revelling in the cleanliness and lack of falling down, unkempt buildings and miserably sad looking people.
On New Years Eve we got wine and nibblies and sat on the lake shore watching the sun set (between the rain drops and showers ;) ), then found the only bar in town for horrendously expensive beer (3 euros each for 330ml) and then joined the locals on the lake front to see the fireworks which was hilarious. All the town families and people were out with champers and drenched everyone and even the fireworks weren´t so bad.
On New Years day we got the local bus to Petrohue (after a slow sore heads start to the day) which is an hour from Puerto Varas and set on the Lago Todos Los Santos. Its very beautiful, heaps of places to stay and camp on the way out there, and very Germanic looking with lots of wooden gernam style houses serving lunch and afternoon tea. The only downside was the horseflies which are massive, lots of them and very persistent and impossible to kill altho they dont really sting so thats not so bad. Did a lovely walk along the lake shore which is lava sand and with stunning views of some volcanoes (once again the tops in the clouds) and mountains nearby. The west side of the Andes is much greener and more lush then east side but also rains more. We really are impressed tho. Could probably have spent more time here if we had known it was that easy to get out to the campsites etc.
Last night we met Mary and Andy by arrangement but mostly unexpectedly cos they didn`t expect us to stay in Puerto Montt and we didn´t know if they would either as they only got in that evening. Their first impressions on Puerto Montt were equal to ours! We found one of the only restaurants open (everything was shut yesterday) and had a surprisingly good meal overlooking the waters - even Puerto Montt began to look ok (hmm maybe that was the wine goggles).
Tonight we´re off on the 24 hour ferry to Coyhaique which is on the Carretas Austral, the road that winds south of here. The plan is to hire a car (or hook up with some other backpackers who have a car) and spend a week camping an exploring the area north of Coyhaique, including Park Pumalin (3 days), PN Quelat, and anything else we can find of interest. Will be camping all the way so hoping the weather clears up a little bit for us but the climate here is like west coast Ireland and New Zealand so chances are we´re going to get wet. Heaps of great looking day walks too so looking forward to that. After that going to use Coyhaique as base for some longer treks but more on that before it happens.
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