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Published: December 31st 2008
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Don´t worry - he only wants to bite you...
St Bernards mauling each other in Bariloche After getting off the boat in Puerto Montt, we headed to Bariloche to try and organise a camping trip. I also needed to book my onward bus journey to Tucuman in time for Christmas - this turned out to be a bit of a nightmare because I had forgotten I was travelling very close to Christmas and so most bus companies were booked solid until well after the 25th. Finally though, I got the precious ticket (40 hours long, and allegedly with vegetarian meal!)
Then we headed off to San Martin de los Andes, a few hours north of Bariloche to start camping. Luckily for me, the girls (Taryn and Anna) said they could make some space for me in their little 2 person tent and so all I needed to do was get a sleeping bag and roll mat. We found these at the supermarket and also loaded up on supplies for the 3 days in the wilderness - red wine, biscuits, red wine, courgettes, red wine, rice, red wine, lentils, red wine, porridge oats, red wine...
After finding a hire car we piled everything into the boot and set off on the unmade road to the far
Champagne and cherries
At an Irish pub in Bariloche on Anna's birthday end of Lago Làcar where there were several 'camping libre' sites, areas set aside for camping with no facilities but free of charge! The sun went down before we got there though, and so there was a bit of aimless driving through woods in the dark until we found the site we wanted. We had the tents up within minutes though, and soon the fire was blazing, the food cooking and the wine pouring...
The following morning we cooked porridge for breakfast - made with water only, but combined with raisins, walnuts, coconut and some granola sprinkled on top. Porridge has become a bit of a lifesaver for me in a country dominated by meat-based foods!
After breakfast, we packed up and drove a few miles to a different part of the national park so that we could begin our trek to Termas de Queñi - a hot spring in the middle of nowhere which had been recommended to us. We planned to camp there overnight and so we packed the camping gear, enough food for a couple of meals and enough wine for the evening (I think it was 63 bottles...). It took us a few hours
A bird at San Martin
Shot in a pub car park, of all places! to get to the termas, along beautiful woodland trails - the only bad bit was the horseflies attacking us relentlessly. Halfway there, we passed a warning sign for a type of wasp which seems to be prevalent in the area, but luckily we didn´t see any.
We finally reached the termas late in the afternoon - it was not as beautiful as the hot springs I´ve visited in Central America but it was good enough, and there was a large shallow pool big enough for the four of us to sit in with our wine. A bit further upstream there was a waterfall with a mud bank and so we did a kind of poor man´s spa - mad slathered everywhere, then a hot shower afterwards!
After cooking dinner, we went back to the pool to sit with yet more wine until the early hours - quite a surreal experience in the dark. The river became quite hard to navigate once the sun went down, and more than once I found myself sitting in a patch of mud with clothes etc floating in the water after falling over.
The following morning, we had one more dip in
Breakfast!
First morning of camping, and we have enough porridge to feed an army the pools, then cleared up and headed back to the car. That evening we spent our final night camping by the lakeside and had a great time finishing the wine and drawing pictures in the air with burning embers. Unfortunately, it rained in the night and the next morning was a pretty miserable affair as we had to pack up wet tents and clear up the mess from the previous night´s party.
Unfortunately, that morning I discovered that some of my camera equipment was missing - a lens, some batteries, a card reader and various other bits. I think I must have dropped the bag somewhere while we were camping, but I guess I´ll never know. It was very depressing, but these things happen and I will be much more careful in future.
After packing everything up, we headed back to San Martin to drop off the hire car and enjoy some breakfast in civilisation. At so it was at lunchtime I found myself on a bus heading out of San Martin, unwashed, exhausted and hungover but happy. The journey to Tucuman was going to take 40 hours and involve 2 changes but I was getting there in
View from the tent
This is a river near Lago LÃ car time for Christmas and so nothing else really mattered.
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Tim Lunt
non-member comment
Happy New Year
Hope Xmas etc went well and you're surviving the altiplano. Keep chewing the coca ! HH continues... Tim