2023 south amEriCa part 1

the wrong option of the carne (cow) and pollo (chicken) with sauces, a queso (cheese) fondue at the next table was looked on with envy. But spearing and lightly par-boiling pieces of meat in a pot with large lumps of celery, carrot, and capsicum for just long enough to drop the bacteria’s guard was still pretty good.

Villarrica Volcano and Lake from Villarrica town (JC Photo credit)

A wander around the small town to get the lay of the land showed it had simply gotten a bit bigger and busier since our previous 2015 visit. The beach was something else – we don’t do many landform features well in Australia and glaciers are nil stock, but we can hold our heads up high when it comes to beaches. I doubt there were too many Australians loving it amongst the huge crowd on the Playa Grande that day.

Getting the mandatory daily aperitif of Pisco Sour was no challenge in Pucon. Everywhere including children’s clothing shops could serve you a strong one. And finding somewhere to eat was likewise not difficult, but we decided to indulge in a 1970’s retro dinner favourite – a fondue. In hindsight we went for

The Lakes of Almost Patagonia

Day 4 plan was some cruising around the Pucon district, starting with a ride up to the Playa Negra (strangely way whiter than the Playa Grande) in Lagos Carburgua. Luckily arriving just before the parking payment station had been set up, we wandered along the beach and had a local explain to us in Spanish that no water craft hire was available due to the strong off-playa winds, somehow we understood even though we had absolutely no intention of hiring water craft and didn’t care. Next it was via some back road dirt with some rustic scenes including

2023 south amEriCa part 1

getting stuck behind a B Double (a two bullock wagon) to Tres Saltos – the reader now familiar enough with the language to know this means three waterfalls. We can definitely confirm two, but the third was way out of the extent of our motivation. The restaurant had two big spits going out on the deck with lamb on both, a perfect lunch and it smelled awesome. But it was for a private function so we couldn’t have any. I hope they all got lamb grease burns and were attacked by condors on the way back to their cars.

More dirt and back onto the main road to our final destination for the day – Thermas Indominto. Indomitable means unconquerable. We were up for the challenge and had brought our togs. First a lunch – a ham and cheese sandwich on the menu looked small but morphed in the kitchen to a huge hamburger and a mountain of chips. Unconquerable? We nearly got through it. Then into the change room, other patrons and staff were luckily absent when a bulky Klim riding suit and boots were being jammed into a locker by using a lot of force. Into the pools, we started in the cool end and worked our way up, like a pair of corned beefs.

Head and arms done, giving legs another 20 minutes on high

Fondued, it was a careful opening of the locker door which was bulging, back into the kit, and back to Pucon. Another epic Pisco Sour and a trip to the supermercado for cheese and bikkies and the day was complete, the last in Chile for a while.

Up early on Day 5, we went due east in the 6 degree temp to the Mamuil Malal border crossing, like most in this region very volcanic and this one sitting under the smoking Volcano Lanin. The exit from Chile was fairly smooth, not many people and just the need to hand in the infamous slip of paper given on arrival into Santiago. Within about ½ an hour we were chargin’ into Argentina at the picturesque immigration facility, once we’d received a slip of paper which was like a checklist for the border force staff. The process was a lot more crowded, a long queue for the vehicles that didn’t move much at all, but with some linguistic assistance from Juan and JC we were in. The support vehicle was inevitably a lot more difficult, but that simply meant waiting for a bit longer under an active volcano. situation since we were last here 8 years ago. So doing a dodgy exchange of USD for pesos is essential, the official exchange rate is 200 pesos but the rate on the street is 350-360. JC helpfully brought a chap into the hotel where a small amount of paper could be changed into a wheelbarrow full of paper; the largest note in the system is 1000 pesos, about $4 Aussie. So paying for anything takes lots of paper, and wallet capacity dictates discretionary spending limits. Using cards is possible, but uses the true exchange rate and results in a spend of nearly 3 times the cash rate. The upside is that things are a lot cheaper than Chile.

That ain’t dust blowing from the summit 10 kilometres of very rough dirt road later we were onto the bitumen and through Junin de los Andes heading for lunch into San Martin de los Andes, both named in case anyone somehow forgot what that imposing mountain range to the west was called. Unsurprisingly empanadas were on the menu, so were consumed by most. We were now glued to the famous 5,000 km long Ruta 40, which starts near the top of Argentina and finishes near the bottom, so continued down to Bariloche cruising at speeds in line with the $0.60/litre Argentinian fuel prices. The traffic become a bit horrendous approaching the hotel, it appeared to the unhumble as though we were being escorted by a joyous marching crowd but it turned out to be a slowly walking protest and nothing to do with us. First things first after getting into the hotel, Argentina hasn’t improved the currency

Laughing hysterically as someone’s Italian wallet exploded after being stuffed with $20 USD worth of pesos

Day 6 was all about the Chico circuit, but only after dropping the first laundry of the trip and finding an old classic place in town we’d seen back in 2015. Still there, the marketing team hadn’t managed to convince management that the branding could possibly take a different direction if they were planning to expand