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Published: December 24th 2012
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El Chalten to Bariloche....the two little cities are just 1,384km away...these are the last four days of our little Patagonia trip...driving a lot...waiting for a plane...and doing some fun things in between.
We left mid-morning El Chalten for the road north. First, 120km of beautiful paved road, than a good 150km of nightmare gravels...I thought, well, been raining the last few days, there is only one possible way, so I'de better allowed myself some serious extra time. A week ago we just got stuck in a huge puddle just a kilometer north of Tres Lagos. Interesting point, since we got stuck, they have repaired that part of the track...aka Ruta 40. I was pretty suprised that the place was flat, beautiful...and yes, fully dry.
But few hundred meters later, the fun started. I was going to face a good 100km of mud...mud and pools of dirty water. Was not raining much, but it had rain pretty well few hours before...and I'm still with my little car. Well, Leslie asked me where did I learnt to drive "rally style". Didn't get stuck once, but few times I went...Leslie, where is the track, do you see the
track?...as my side was...with a zero visibility due to the mud!
We made it actually pretty early to Estancia La Angostura, another working Estancia in the middle of nowhere. I have to admit, they were pretty impressed by the condition of the car, who went from silver to full mud brown! Took us a while to clean it, but we managed.
Dinner at La Angostura was an amazing affair, and we had the place for ourselves...shall I say one more time!
Next morning, early wake up, and for me the plan was to ride to El Bolson, where we didn't had any booking. That's short of 900km in a day, including close to 200km on gravels. Everything went pretty well. For once, I was the one to give a hand. There is some serious stones south of Rio Mayo for 42km...not fun. Middle of it, a van was stopped. I stopped to ask if they needed help...and they did, they had a teenager girl with I don't know exactly in which condition she was...but her head seemed to hurt. So we took her, and drop her to Rio Mayo hospital. That
gave me an incentive to try to avoid to have any tyre punctured on the way. We did it!
Arrived nicely in El Bolson, stay one more time at La Mandala, dinner of nice pizza. Plan was to try to do some rafting the next day. But our luck was not with us...even with only a water a 8 degrees...not a single trip the next day...and if ever there was, it was crazy expensive for what it was. Did raft the Mansu to the Frontera many years ago...and guess our next rafting could wait till late April 2013 way north!
El Bolson has also turned from a sleepy village to a busy...let's get ready for Christmas crowd..not really the same feeling, and our first traffic jam in Patagonia! And yes, Bariloche would be even worst...30 minutes queue just to pay at the local supermarket.
No rafting, so next morning we drove to Bariloche, stopping short of the city to the Arelauquen golf resort. Impressive golf...huge wind...and Leslie carried his own bag up and down for 18 holes. Trust me, this is more than trekking...trekking, you just have to put one foot in
front of the other...here, you still have to concentrate to hit the little white ball properly. Ok, Tiffany made pretty fast her way to the clubhouse to cover herself from the wind...and the few more walking miles...I don't win every day! Smile!
Our last day in Patagonia was supposed to be rainy, but it was actually fine, with even some nice patches of sun. We explored the city of Bariloche by foot, visiting the local museum and enjoying some late nice treats. I was pretty happy to return the car safely after 3900km in 15 days...nice to know that they took the keys and were happy with the conditions of the car...can confirm! This car took a serious beating!
Everything went fine...till we checking in and I was told...Sir, we have a small problem, there is this volcano next to Neuquen who has for the moment ashes...euh, you remember Iceland? I asked, ok, since when did you close the air space...two hours Sir...trust me...I knew there was nothing we could do, just hope...we had missed the end of the world...but volcanos are still around! Lucky us, some flights were up to 4 hours delayed...we
managed a simple 90 minutes delay and made it for a short night in summery Buenos aires.
Next entry, it's Merry Christmas, going to the beach...Argentinian way...meaning, forget about the beach, it's just the family and the food...
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Ahhh je vois que vous avez réussi a faire pire qu'à puerto Madryn !!!