Advertisement
Published: November 30th 2015
Edit Blog Post
I said final goodbyes to the rest of the group on the plane at Puerto Montt and left them to continue on to Santiago. The taxi took me through awful Friday night traffic to my guesthouse. I was slightly nervous when he turned onto a piece of waste ground with a couple of stray dogs and then up a very steep narrow cul de sac stopping at the top. Ahead behind a gate were very steep stairs and I stood in driving rain at the gate trying to get someone to answer the doorbell. What I hadn't noticed was that there was a key in the other side of the gate which Francisca had to show me when she eventually came down! Things improved rapidly after that - a nice room, welcoming place and great views. I steeled myself to face the dogs and popped out to get a snack for dinner but was soon tucked up in bed.
All changed the following day with full sun and I spent the morning exploring Puerto Montt - not particularly a tourist place but once a major port and with a great setting on the water. The fish market just below the
guesthouse was fascinating with all sorts on display. There were also boats tied up with meat for sale along their decks - my guess is that these were people over from Chiloe, the large island not too far away (and to be visited later). And eventually all the plans came together and H's bus arrived into the bus station mid-afternoon. He'd had a comfortable journey and a great trip and was keen to go and explore so we repeated my route around the city. Dinner was beautiful fish in a rather lovely restaurant by the market.
Early start for our bus back to Argentina the next day. Front seats on top of the double decker gave us great views of the mountains and lakes which the road route has to negotiate making a total distance much greater than the route H took crossing some of the lakes by ferry. Arrived into San Carlos de Bariloche (known as Bariloche) mid-afternoon and met Sylvia and Carlos at the flat we had rented for the week. The living room and bedroom have beautiful views across the lake to the mountains - it's just breathtaking every morning you open the curtains. Sylvia and
Carlos had maps prepared and recommended places to eat (& for chocolate and ice cream - Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina!).
We popped out for a quick look around, bought some food, and had our first home cooked meal for a few weeks.
This week was always intended to be a bit of a holiday and also to be used to sort out some admin for this trip and the ones to come so we've spent some time enjoying being able to unpack, get washing done, cook for ourselves and sort out a few things. But we've also got out and about....
One afternoon we took a bus about 15km out of town along the lake and climbed Cerro Campanario, a small hill which gave massive views, way beyond our expectations, in all directions. We had managed to pick a quiet time and had one viewing point to ourselves for sometime before other people started appearing having come up the chair lift. We must have spent an hour wandering around up there taking in the spectacular scenery before heading back down and catching the bus back to town for our first ice cream of the
week!
Another day we joined a small tour going out hiking in the National Park a couple of hour's drive away. The guide set a cracking pace which she described as 'slow' in order that everybody else in the group could get into a walking rhythm! We walked solidly for nearly a couple of ours through forest until suddenly arriving at the Castano Avero glacier as the rain started. We sheltered under a rock to eat lunch and it soon brightened up. It's hard to describe the setting but think Malham Cove, about half as high again with a glacier sitting on the top. Another couple of hours walk back to the bus totalled 10 miles walking and then they took us to the Ventisquero Negro glacier which comes off the edge of Mount Tronador, the highest mountain in the area. Tronador was in clouds but the glacier runs right down into a lake with the front section almost completely black due to the rocks and stones it has picked up. The surrounding mountains had quite a bit of snow from a week or two before which was running off in waterfalls but, at times, avalanching off the mountains
to the rocks below. This is where Tronador gets its name from as the noise is like thunder but you have to watch carefully as the snow falls long before the sound reaches you.
Another bus ride to Puerto Panuelo for another hill to climb and more lakes and mountain views - a couple of the most amazing sandwich spots of the trip so far. The walks went through old forests of tall, skinny trees that creaked dramatically in the wind and looking around at all the fallen trees I was very glad that it was not more windy! Lots of lovely bird calls too.
We also made the most of the town and had some great food - H will rave about the large hunks of cow and I had some great fish but we also managed to find some less traditional food and indulged in the endlessly available chocolate. H was delighted to find 80% chocolate ice cream in one shop which was rather special - we are still debating whether this joins the list of best ice creams of the world (Shanghai, Cusco and Circular Quay in Sydney if you're interested!).
A couple more
days to go in Bariloche but will finish those off next time.
Hope you're all ok.
Sarah + Hugh x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 72; dbt: 0.1048s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Janet Borges
non-member comment
Views
S&H Spectacular views. Good job you are walking plenty after all that ice cream and chocolate! Take care. Janet