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Published: February 25th 2007
Los Alerces National Park - 15th to 16th January We drive to Los Alerces National Park, considered to be one of the most beautiful in Argentina with its stands of Alerce trees (much like the giant sequoia), countless lakes and lagoons, cascades and snow capped mountains.
We arrive at national park and are shocked (to put it lightly) by the sheer number of people in the park. We´re excited to arrive as there are lots of camping spots so we feel assured we´ll find somewhere beautiful and quiet like the great campsites down the Careterra Austral . Ha ha, that doesn´t happen!! There are Argentinians everywhere, all on their holidays and they are very loud and don´t really understand the concept of being at one with nature!!! We finally find a sweet place under the trees by the lakeside. The views are good of the snow capped mountains in the distance.
The next morning we drive down a dirt track to attempt a walk that we´ve been told is very nice, but we seem to drive for ages to find the start. Eventually we park up and head off for a walk along the side of the lake.
Hammock time at our campsite in Los Alerces
One of our Christmas presents from Vicky and NessieIt takes about 20 minutes for us to realise that the path we are following isn´t really one so we turn around and get back in the car. When we get to the end of the road we finally see the sign for the walk and realise that the walk was actually meant to be up the dirt track to the lake and back again. Ooops we had driven up it by mistake!
We drive to another spot and walk across a suspension bridge where we follow a trail for a couple of hours. Its a beautiful area, with vibrant blue lakes and rushing rivers surrounded by forested hills and snow capped mountains. We sit in the sunshine for awhile to eat our lunch and take in the view of the lakes and glaciers. We also complete another walk in the afternoon up to a lookout point with views over the National Park of the lakes.
Argentinian Lake District - 17th to 21st January The next day we drive from the National park to a town called El Bolson. We´ve read good reviews about it but when we arrive we´re shocked again at how many people
there are. Its a complete culture shock and totally different from the Careterra Austral where there was hardly anyone to all these people - its like the whole of Argentina has gone on holiday. However its a useful stop for Kate to run around the artisan shops and buy me some birthday presents so I don´t mind being here too much!! We dive to a local lake that is so hideously packed with tents it reminds Kate of Glastonbury! We eventually find a nice campsite covered with pine trees so stop here.
The next day is my birthday so I´m allowed a lie in until 9.30am!!! Kate brings me coffee in bed (well in a sleeping bag anyway!) and I´m allowed to open my presents! I get some good stuff, some jewelry from Kate and a pen knife, and my brother has given Kate a card for me which is nice. We drive back into El Bolson where we stop at a brilliant craft market and I get to buy myself some more birthday presents and Kate treats herself to some early ones!! As its my birthday Kate drives for the day to Bariloche - which actually scares me
quite a lot (seeing as I never let her drive)!!! We go for dinner at a recommended restaurant called El Patacon. It´s "world famous" as Bill Clinton has eaten there once! Nevertheless, the food is yummy with some of the best steaks we´ve eaten and great views across the lake. And lucky me, Kate even organises a special desert with a candle for me - only slightly embarrassing!
We´re woken up in the night by the sounds of a flute playing and people whooping and then singing. Its all very bizarre and I end up having dreams about the Pied Piper of Hamlin. The next day I´m convinced that it was actually Puck and Oberon on holiday!! This morning I´m given my birthday cake. Kate was up early the morning before to cook me a cornflake cake which I´ve had to wait for a day to set in the cool bag. Its particularly good as Kate used 3 large bars of chocolate in it!! We leave Bariloche and drive the route of the seven lakes to San Martin de Los Andes. Its a lovely drive (surprisingly via seven lakes!) and we stop in Villa Angostura to wander around the
wooden buildings. We camp at a beautiful campsite on a lake edge with great views. Its a very basic campsite with only one toilet so we have to swim in the ice cold lake to get clean!! We cool a bottle of champagne in the lake and have it with popcorn! We stay at this campsite for a day and don´t really do anything except admire the view and swim in the ice cold lake. As there are no facilities we finally have to leave before we smell too bad! We drive to to the border of Argentina and Chile. Its another beautiful drive through National Park Lanin with views of the snow capped volcano. It takes awhile to cross the border on the Argentinian side but we meet a nice man from Buenos Aires who gives us lot of advice about his city. We finally cross the border and camp near Pucon in Chile.
Chilean Lake District - 22nd to 28th January We have a lazy morning and walk from the campsite to a local waterfall called Salta y Leon. They are quite impressive. We take the tent down and are bothered by huge horseflies. I spend
a lot of the time not being very effective at putting away the tent and dancing on the spot to avoid being bitten by the horrible things! We drive the Chilean route of the seven lakes. Its pretty overcast when we´re about to find a campsite, but looking at the sky we change our minds and book into a hotel instead. Its the right decision as 10 minutes later there is a huge thunderstorm and gale force winds with heavy rain. I don´t think our tent would´ve survived this. Still its nice to be in a hotel and to actually eat out and not cook on our tiny stove for once! Such luxury to be able to watch cable television as well!
Its much brighter the next day so we decide to head to another National Park in the Chilean Lake District. Its also much quieter this side of the border compared to Argentina. The drive is slightly scary up another dirt track. There is one point where we think we won´t make it. I get the car stuck on a hill a couple of times in the gravel. Each time we have to reverse back down to a
flat bit and get the revs up to tackle the hill. Its always a bit hair raising as all these stones hit the underneath of the car and you worry that you done some serious damage to the car. On this occasion we make it to the top of the hill and stop at a viewpoint. We´re about to continue when Kate hears this dripping noise. We open the bonnet feeling slightly scared and discover a stream of dripping water (or some other liquid!). We decide that we have to drive back to the nearest town, the whole way feeling nervous that we are going to break down in the middle of nowhere! We finally arrive at the Hertz office to discover that after all that, it is only the air-conditioning unit doing what the air conditioning unit is supposed to do!!
So we decide to head into Pucon and find a campsite on the edge of town by the lake. Pucon is the heart of the Chilean lake district and is a small town with lots of facilities & good restaurants, located right next to a lake and with 3 national parks close to it. You can also
see the volcano Villarica from the town. Its a clear day so we decide to head up and take a closer look at the volcano. Its an active volcano and you can see smoke clouds billowing from the top of the volcano. We drive up the dusty road with cooled lava flows either side of us. The volcano is an impressive sight.
In the afternoon, we´ve booked a fishing tour!! We´re driven to a river where we get into a small row boat and are given a fishing rod each. We´ve got a traditional rod and a fly fishing rod. Our guide gets into the boat and rows us down and up river for about 5 hours. We sit in the boat admiring the view and wait to catch some fish!! There is something very relaxing about sitting in a boat watching the world slowly float by, with fantastic views and drinking a beer! Kate and I take turns with each rod - I start to feel slightly miffed as Kate catches one rainbow trout and then another! We´ve even swapped rods and she caught the second one with the other rod! All I seem to catch is the
current or bits of plants! But then we get to a fast flowing section and I feel a huge tug on my line. I reel the line in fast and steady and I´ve caught a large brown trout - I feel quite chuffed with myself! After that I catch 2 more fishes and Kate nearly catches one more but loses it within 3 feet of the boat.
The next morning in the campsite a lady wanders by selling freshly cooked and still hot rolls - we indulge in a couple. Then we pack up the tent and head off to the Antumalal Hotel - my birthday treat from Kate and family. Its a small beautiful hotel set in a stunning location overlooking the lake. The hotel is made of soft wooden panels with huge windows with the lake view - it has a special feeling with a tranquil atmosphere. We´re shown our room which is the best in the house - its the nicest room I´ve ever stayed, with a large white bed and a fire place and the best view of the lake. There is no television, in the words of the Antumalal, instead of a television the
landscape is framed in each room (cheesy eh but actually right!). We´re also given a bath robe for use in the spa! We have a lovely time staying at the hotel for 4 days and using all the facilities. We use the hot tub and pool and sauna room - all are set in the hillside with the same great views. We wander the gardens and paths flanked with colourful flowers and waterfalls. We sample the great food and wine in the restaurant. Finally we also squeeze in a couple of massages which are greatly needed as we undertake a couple of activities from here.
White Water Rafting - 26th January Firstly we go white water rafting on the upper section of the river Trancura. Its a grade 3-4 river with several drops. The rapids´ names say it all: Last Laugh, Devil´s Throat, Rapid of Fear. There are spectacular views of majestic Volcano Villarrica. We´re fully kitted out in wetsuits and helmets and given a safety talk about what happens if we fall in. Actually we´re both excited but slightly nervous, especially Kate as she has never done it before. We have to carry the raft to
the river and we hop in. Kate and I are at the back with 3 Checkolslovakian´s at the front (1 man and 2 women). We´re told how to steer the raft which involves being shouted at - left, right, forward, back, abandon ship (not really!). This works well if you have people with you that can understand English - ha ha, many a time we found the others paddling the wrong side but eventually they got used to it. The first rapids were pretty tame but good fun. Then we hit some larger rapids - we´re told to paddle hard and then we all have to jump to the right side of the raft. We´re working hard to control the boat and get through the rushing water but all we end up doing is getting stuck on a rock! We have to jump up and down in the raft to get it off the rock!! Eventually we come lose and float off down the river - still at least we did better than the other raft as someone fell in! The rapids are brilliant with lots of drops and its very exhilarating, with water rushing in and huge waves engulfing
the boat, coupled with the fear that you may fall in. There´s one rapid we can´t navigate as its too dangerous so we have to hop out and jump back in further down river. Our guide is a bit of a sadist and is always trying to make us fall in. At one point he steers the raft so that is ends up hitting a rock and both Kate and I fall in! Its slightly scary especially when I see the raft floating towards me but we´re pulled back in pretty swiftly. We end the day on a high and feeling very pleased with ourselves so we head back into town to book another activity. We end up booking hydrospeed for the next day - where you go down grade 3 rapids in the water on your own on a float.
Hydrospeed - 27th January I´m quite anxious about this activity, it seemed like a good idea at the time we booked it but on the actual day my fears prove correct. We arrive at the lower section of the river Trancura. We´re kitted out with padded wetsuits this time, for when you hit the rocks!!! Then we´re
given floats and told to go to the water and wait for the guides. We get in the river and are given some instructions about how to turn back over if we get flipped in the water. The floats are a wedge shape and you place the top half of your body on them and keep your legs in the water to kick and steer - we´re also given flippers for more power. I´m starting to have my doubts at this point as i can´t even manage the technique of righting myself once I´ve flipped over, I kick and kick and twist but just can´t turn over - they´ve also given me a bigger float than everyone else. I think they took one look at the size of my boobs and decided that the small floats wouldn´t give me enough protection!!! Anyway so I tell the guide that I´m struggling and he says "don´t worry I will help you" - a phrase I´m sure he will later regret. So we´re off. We´re in a group of 7 people and told to keep close together, there is a guide at the front and one at the back. We hit the first
set of rapids and are told to go left. I see everyone else go left but I seem to end up going right, down a dangerous looking set of rapids. Ha ha, the next thing I know I´m stuck on a rock, I´ve been flipped over a few times and luckily managed to right myself and then half let go of the float. I can hear the guide shouting at me "kick, go left, that is not the correct position with the float" Like I´m not trying!!! At this point I realise that the float is my lifeline. The guide grabs me and kicks across to the correct side of the river and tells me to kick again. They must think I´m stupid, I´ve got this huge float and huge boobs and huge wetsuit that I´m so buoyant that I don´t have any power, coupled with the fact that I have size 4 feet and tiny flippers, I have no control and no power!!! I´m not very good at this and actually I´m not enjoying it at all and worried that I may even drown. Poor Kate has been waiting for me and ends up going the wrong way down
the river and hitting a few rocks on the way! We go over another set of rapids where I swallow copious amounts of water and hit huge waves so I can´t even see anything. It also really hurts my back as you get bent in half the wrong way, especially when I´m so buoyant. At the beginning the guide said if we didn´t like it then we could get into one of the rafts going down the river, what he didn´t say is that these where an hour in front of us. Anyway so I tell the guide and all he does is guide me down the water and stays by my side, whilst my back hurts even more and we hit larger rapids! He keeps pointing out all the beautiful sights to me, like I´m remotely interested at this point! I can´t understand why everyone seems to be having such a good time! The rafts eventually come into sight about an hour later, by which time the activity is over for us, so a bit late eh! I get out and wait for Kate who has actually enjoyed it - however my back gets better and then she suffers
from back ache for a week afterwards! So a word of warning to large chested small footed people (or very long people like Kate), only undertake hydrospeed at your peril!!!
Finally we have to the leave the joys of Pucon and the delights of the Antumalal. We drive south heading towards Puerto Varas driving past the beautiful views and couple more volcanoes where we camp the night.
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Maggie
non-member comment
Hydrospeeding......are you mad???
Hey girlies, sounds like you are having such a blast, what an adventure......but hydrospeeding........why oh why would anyone do that.......mind you this is coming from someone who is water phobic......well at least you live to write the blog! Keep having fun Mags x