World Cup in Villa la Angostura
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Published: December 20th 2022
Awesome view
From PN ArrayenesWe crossed the border from Chile into Argentina and the lady at the border control desk said, “Sorry”. That is for knocking Australia out of the world Cup. She wasn’t sorry. Then we continued to a small town called Villa la Angostura. The locals just call it Villa and with an Argentine accent that sounds more like Vishya. Villa is a mountain hideaway that is a snow bunnies’ hangout in the ski season. The rooves have steep pitches, so that they don’t cave in from the weight of snow and the architecture in general resembles that of other ski towns. Think log cabins, chimneys and double glazed windows. The centre of town is very neat and tidy but if you wander a few streets either side of the main thoroughfare you will see dirt roads and a much poorer side to this mountain village. They are gradually paving and lighting the streets outwards from the centre.
The attraction to Villa in the summer months is the mountain scenery, with just a little bit of snow left over on the tallest summits, and other natural beauty like lakes, beaches, rivers and waterfalls. On the doorstep of the town (3 km from
Laguna Verde
We stopped here for lunch before going to the National Park. the main street) is Parque Nacional Arrayenes, which is a peninsula sticking out into the lake. Either side of an isthmus are attractive beaches (with chilly water, made from melted snow) and the peninsular itself includes a tall summit that you have to cross if you want to follow the path on bike or on foot the full length of the peninsula. It is well worth the effort to climb up to the miradors and take in the views of surrounding jagged mountain ranges. You can also kayak, SUP or sail the lake. Then there is horseback riding and a range of bus tours that you can do from Villa, so you could easily spend a lot of time in this region. We saved some of these activities for our next destination, which isn’t far away.
And then there is the food. Restaurants, bars, icecream and chocolate shops are plentiful and we had some good meals here. Al Alba restaurant was really good. The one meal that didn’t work out for us was the time that I decided to use the BBQ at our apartment. We bought meat at the supermarket. The man behind the counter told me it
Hawkeyes
He got very close to us as we ate our lunch at Laguna Verde. Only a meter or two from us, watching for any scraps that fell. would be good for the parilla (BBQ) so I took it home, lit the fire (matches, paper and wood that I found lying around) waited until the coals were ready and cooked the way you do with a camp fire. The result was awful. I think I was meant to cook the meat for hours, like they do in the windows of some restaurants. So after we gave up on my dinner, we went out and ate crepes and icecreams.
But not all of my cooking has been bad in Villa. I had wonderful vegemite on toast! And that is because the bread at Madre Panaderia is to die for. The foccacia is amazing and their croissants and pan au chocolate makes a great lunch to take in a back pack.
Oh, and there was a game of football that the locals were interested in too. This is what we did on Sunday …
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Watching the world cup final in Argentina and celebrating with the winners afterwards was a highlight. We hadn’t planned to be here for of the world cup. It just happened that way and we are so glad. During the game the
mood in the bar changed as the scores swayed and the end result was a cliff hanger, with Argentina winning by penalty shoot out. The cheers after each goal, each save by the goalie and when they clinched victory matched (and then some) those of the most passionate AFL fans. The fun in the streets went on for hours afterwards. You can see and hear the cheering of the people as police watched on and let most things happen. Six hours after the game was won, there were still dozens of supporters cheering and banging drums. They climbed on cars, even police cars, as traffic passed slowly. The truck that followed the police car kept coming back again with more and more people (and one concerned dog) in the back. At one point the truck was even driving down the road with nobody at the steering wheel. We were very lucky to have experienced this special occasion in Villa and will never forget it.
The only disappointment we have is that everything was closed the day after the big game and we couldn’t hire kayaks or anything else to explore the lake as we had hoped. Instead we wandered
on foot before heading to the bus station, where we had left our bags. But, there was no one at the office of the station and we were getting a bit worried. An attendant told us that the ‘chica’ would return in time for the bus. With minutes to spare the surly, blue harried, muscular, transvestite ‘chica’ arrived and we got on the bus with our bags, but some others in line to buy tickets may not have been so lucky.
So you could definitely say that whilst Chile was interesting, we’ve had a lot more fun in Argentina so far. That feeling started from the time we caught the first of two buses from Chiloe to Villa. First, we had the novelty of going on a bus, on a ferry and then we enjoyed the scenery of the snow caped volcanoes of Chile’s lake district as they passed by our windows. When we changed buses to the border-crossing second bus, Leanne was able to sit next to an old Argentinian man who wanted to talk to her in Spanish and show her pictures of the church he went to on Sundays. She thought I should swap seats with
her, so that he and I could talk together, but I thought it would be good for her to learn some Spanish from him. So, she didn’t get to read very much of her book on that journey, and it turns out that I was right about her needing to practicing Spanish, because when she went out to book a restaurant for us in Villa, we turned up at the time she arranged (or thought she arranged) to find that the restaurant was closed. Oh well, hopefully we meet some more old Argeninian men for her to practice with.
And a few practical notes for anyone who is planning a trip to Argentina. Bring US Dollars. This is because Argentina has suffered from terrible inflation and the value of their savings in Argentine Pesos is continually going down. When we came here 7 years ago the official exchange rate was about 10 pesos to the USD. Now it is 170 to one. But you will get a much better deal than that if you bring USD. We have been exchanging USD at 300 to one. So we get an almost 50% saving on everything we buy here. Another useful
Bomberos
This guy gave Nathan a thorough tour of the fire engines and ambulances at the fire depot. fact for Australians is that Argentine powerpoints are the same as ours so you don’t need an adaptor. The other thing you should know is that dinner time is very very late here. You won’t find a restaurant open before 8 pm. Everything happens on a different time frame. At the other end of the day, Villa was still sleeping at 8 am.
And thanks Jeff, for telling me how to use a bidet (I think the conversation was pre pandemic). It finally makes sense to me. I’ve worked it out now!
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Sarah Gales
non-member comment
Amazing!
What a great time to be in Argentina! Loving following your travel adventures again