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Published: July 13th 2007
´Pomme´ De Neige
A snowman to beat even Amy´s best attempts! So, we left Santiago in high spirits; the weather had been kind to us and gifted us with a week of perfect snowboarding conditions, the price had been bargainous and the food marvelous. A real holiday within a holiday. Despite losing most of the feeling in my right foot (it still hasn't returned!) we headed down towards the Lake District in high spirits...
Our first stop was the small town of Pucon. Bordered by a lake on one side and an active volcano on the other, the setting is supposed to be one of the most picturesque in Chile. It certainly looked promising as our overnight bus from Santiago brought the sunlit volcano into sight (just as we stirred from our slightly hunched slumber). The cone of the volcano is almost perfectly symmetrical, and the snow covered summit just doesn't look real. We checked into our hostel with high exectations of days of bracing outdoor activity ahead.
The first problem that became apparent was hat our hostel was specifically designed for masochistic eskimos - it was freezing! We crawled into bed to try to undo some of the damage caused by the overnight bus journey, but within minutes
our faces were frozen to the pillow. Andi broke first and decided that she couldn't stay here for more than one night and that we needed to go out and find an alternative.
Easier said than done. Being low season, a lot of the hostels are closed up for winter and it took us the best part of the day to wander around and find something better (ironically enough just round the corner from our original place). Still, at least the sun was shining. After an early dinner we had an early night, ready to make some plans the next day.
What were we thinking?! The place is called the Lake District for god's sake! We woke the next day to a heavy blanket of cloud and light rain. Hmmm, not so picturesque now. We wandered somewhat forlornly around the town, checking out the over-priced and weather-dependant tours available. The one thing we really wanted to do was climb the (now invisible) volcano, but the tour companies we spoke to said it didn't look hopeful. We mooched around for a while, before finding a nice internet cafe called 'Coffee and Adventure'. Sad to say that this little place
ended up being the highlight of Pucon!
To cut a long story short, we spent three days in Pucon doing abslutely nothing of note. The only sunny-ish day was spent walking the streets looking for a hostel that didn't double as a cryogenics facility! We decided to admit that we were beat and leave Pucon, despite missing all of the sights. Still on the bright side, we were heading for the sea...
The next port of call was the river/sea-side town of Valdivia. It can be described quite simply as a god-forsaken hole. Expensive, dull, unfriendly, ugly and with not a single decent restaurant. Given these facts we took the only sensible course of action: booked a ticket on the first bus out (sadly the next day) and got massively drunk! Valdivia has now has the distinction of being the least pleasant place we have visited so far on our trip - pushing Phnom Penh into a distant second place.
The best part of Valdivia was the journey out of it (not saying much, this would still have been true if we'd had to swim out through the sewers!) The bus headed up into the Andes to
Cerro Catedral, Bariloche
Walking along yet another flat traverse! cross over into Chile and the scenery got better and better. The sun was shining for the first time in days and the views were great. At the chilean border post the weather took a strange turn, within a few seconds going from clear blue skies to blizzards. The rest of the journey was spent weaving through snowdrifts and abandoned trucks. At least it wasn't raining!
Yeah - Argentina! Our first stop was Bariloche, a cute swiss-style mountain town famous for its scenery and its chocolate. We arrived in the bus station badly prepared - no currency and no accommodation - but we managed to change some money with a local (at a ruinous rate!) and grab a cab into town. The first place we tried had a room (and a mad old lady) and we dumped our bags and headed into town for steak (not Andi obviously - she's a strict vegetarian!)
Bariloche was lovely. It was high season which led to the odd accommodation crisis, but in general we had a great time. The food was lovely and the chocolate was even better. Bariloche is famous for its chocolate and as tourists we were duty-bound to
On Top of the World
With views of the lake in the background. try copious amounts of it. Still, even we were gobsmacked by the amount that some people were buying, they were leaving the shops with boxes and boxes of the stuff! Probably american...
The weather wasn't really warm enough to do too much in the way of day trips. We considered a boat cruise, but tempratures of -3 degrees C made us think twice. Instead we took a bus to Argentina's most famous hotel, the Llao Llao. It was a fabulous place; it didn't look too swish from the outside but inside was something else. We had afternoon tea (exercising our britishness) and then walked around the grounds and wandered around the hotel. The service and general vibe were great, reminiscent of a bygone era. There was even a bridge room don't ya know.
The other big trip we did from Bariloche was to the nearby ski resort of Cerro Catedral. This is the largest single ski area in the southern hemispere, and following the success of our boarding in Chile we were really excited about it. Unfortunately, with it being high season (an argentine holiday no less) there were no bargain deals or packages to be had. We
Besides the Lake, Bariloche
Andi trying her best to look warm! found some accommodation in a high altitude version of the Bates motel, bought our lift passes and hired our gear (great boards, crap boots) ready for five more days of boarding.
Hmmm... what a waste. This resort has so many plus points (fantastic scenery, great weather) and has the potential to be world class. But it is ruined by two major factors. Firstly the runs have been designed by muppets; pistes don't meet up with lifts, every second run is a nearly flat traverse, and runs just peeter out in the middle of nowhere. The second problem is that the slope grooming is haphazard at best and abysmal at worst. Even the blues are riddled with bumps, icy patches and rocks, despite the huge amount of snow available.
It was a real shame. We found a few good runs, but there was just too much gruelling faffing around in between. It wouldn't have been too bad on skis, but for snowboarders the flat sections were just a drag. Added into this was the fact that the place was heaving and the whole experience was much less fun than Valle Nevado in Chile. We decided to do just three days rather than five. A good experience overall, but not really worth the expense for budget travellers like us!
So, time to leave the mountains and lakes behind finally. This is the furthest south that we will be on our trip (Patagonia has been vetoed for being silly-cold) and should hopefully be the coldest. Now we head north to (hopefully) sunnier climes - next stop Buenos Aires...
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Amy Leeman
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Pommes!
I am suitably impressed with the pomme de neige. Which bit is the apple though?!!!! Where is your south american Devil's Haircut Paul?? Is this why you are taking photos of Andi, so she can't get immortalise your head on film?! xxx