HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting through the Argentina border in 1 hour and a half hours
BUMMER OF THE DAY: A three hour drive was actually 7 hours
WORD OF THE DAY: Welcome back to Argentina
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 375.2KM
We were lucky that it didn’t rain overnight. There is nothing worse than packing away wet tents, but there was still a lot of mud under the tent from the previous day’s rain, so we didn’t avoid it altogether, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. It was so cold overnight and with us getting up at 6.30am, it was still FREEZING! You could see your breath it was that cold! Brrrrrrrr. But we had to get it all done for our departure at 8am. The trucks ‘pomegranate’ shade had to also be packed along with the food prep tent, so it did take us a little longer to get away leaving 10 minutes late at 8.10am.
We leave Chile again today for 6 days, heading into Argentina before heading back again into Chile next week. We are going to be a pro at these borders crossings that is for sure. Kate and I also miss a double border crossing when the group leaves Ushuaia they have to cross out of Argentina into Chile and then back into Argentina again all in the same day, as it is the only possible way to drive out of Ushuaia back to the mainland. Sucks to be them! We will be in BA living the highlife as they drive 3,144KM over 5 days (according to Gray’s odometer from last year). Double sucks to be them!!!
Today was supposed to be a 3 hour drive plus whatever time the border crossings would take. Thank goodness we are only entering Argentina and not departing after the 3 hours we had at the Argentinian border last crossing a few weeks ago….. The officials really don’t care and just take their own sweet time and there is not a thing you can do about it.
On the road and I am back in the ‘table’seat. We only have 5 more drives till BA, so I am just going to suck up that seat till then at least. It was a tough day sitting there though as the scenery was just so beautiful and I didn’t have a window to throw my head and my camera out of to take pictures as we drove. This is the times I regret giving up my seat, but it is only fair to share the love and I know I will be going back to that seat with Zeme on the next leg, so I just need to suck it up. We were lucky enough to finally see Villarrica volcano about 45 minutes after leaving Pucon. Typical, the weather has cleared up and it is a beautiful day with blue skies. We stopped the ruck and all piled out to get the photo of the volcano and to show you how quickly the clouds sweep in, it covered the top, and then 5 minutes later, it was clear again and we got a good photo. It is a little like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the clouds come and go over the bridge, you are lucky to get a view and a photo of that as well. So the volcano climbers may not have got a chance to get up the top, but at least they got to see her in all her glory! Villarrica is an amazing looking volcano with a perfect cone and snowcapped top.
Little did we know that there was going to be a better view on the border as we pulled up at 9.40am. Villarrica was in full view and in all her glory. We could see her from the base up and not a cloud around at the top. When we pulled up there was only 2 cars in front of us, so we all got stamped and processed out of Chile in 30 minutes and back in the truck for the Argentinian proceedings, these guys are a lot tougher than our Chilean friends, so we walked into the building with bated breath till we saw a little bit of chaos and about 60 people in front of us! Crap, we were going to be here a little while. The line was moving, slowly, but moving, so we just had to wait it out and after 1.5 hours we were back in the truck and back into Argentina for the second time. We had 300KM to travel from the border to Bariloche and it was a scenic drive through the Seven Lakes Route. Even though the roads are currently being upgraded, and there was a lot of dirt roads and road works, Mark and Gray did a few photo stops along the way, so this also solved the photo taking drama (for me) to be able to get some good shots of the area as we drove through. The water is amazing colours of blue and with the mountains as backdrops and the sun high in the sky it was a great day and a shame we had to be in the truck. Lunch time was the first time that we had all started thaw out a little and the socks and the jackets came off to enjoy it by a beautiful view of one of the first lakes coming out of San Martine. The Road of the Seven Lakes is the popular name given to the provincial route 234 between San Martín de los Andes and Villa La Angostura in the Neuquén Province, Argentina. The 107 km dirt road that crosses the Lanín and Nahuel Huapi National Parks provide access to several lakes in the forestial area of the Patagonic Andes. The seven most important lakes of the road after which the route is named are: Machónico, Escondido, Correntoso, Espejo, Lácar, Falkner and Villarino.
We were back on the road again at 2.30pm for the last final drive of the afternoon for the 4 hours getting us into Bariloche at 6.30pm. Our camp is 13KM out of town on the one of the local lakes of the area. We had to do a supermarket stop just up the road from the camp, as we weren’t allowed to bring over the border fresh food and veggies. I decided to not ask where the avocados, celery and onions came from when we had lunch after we had crossed the border by the side of the road….hmmmmmmmmmm. So we are back to the Argentina pesos, so instead of 500 times tables we are back to 4.73, so close enough to 5 times tables for the next week. I still had some left from our last visit, but there was an ATM at the supermarket that people could use to get out some more local currency.
As it doesn’t get dark here till after 9pm at night, getting in at 6.30pm, still gives us plenty of time to pitch tents, get dinner on the way and settle down before the sun sets. It was getting cold though around 8pm and I just knew we were going to be in for a FREEZING night. So I unpacked the extra blanket, kept my beanie handy and ending up wearing that to bed. It was that cold that I couldn’t even read my book as my hands were too cold being outside of the sleeping bag. I’m telling you it wasn’t just me being a wimp. It was so COLD!!! I rekon I may have even seen icicles coming off the tent, seriously, well okay not icicles but man it was cold.
So we are in Bariloche for 3 nights/ 2 days. We had someone from the Adventure Centre come by and let us know what could be done in the area with again lots of hiking, biking, kayaking and a few boat cruises. Nothing really appeals, but I got conned into hiring some bikes tomorrow. They were 20AUD for the day, so I thought maybe I should give something a go, so we signed up for bikes that would be ready at 9.30am in the morning. Great, and that is said with no enthusiasm what’s so ever.
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