Bariloche: The Argentinian Lake District

After an enjoyable 3 weeks in Chile, it was time to head back into Argentina. Our destination this time was San Carlos de Bariloche. It's a nice town situated on a beautiful lake. The Argentinian lake district. We had a great airbnb with beautiful views of the lake out our window. We're also trying something different with this entry in that Jess got to pick all the photos and I got to tell the story around them.

The view from our airbnb!

Our goal was to do laundry here which turned into quite the experience! Our host was out of town and the guy that checked us in didn't know where the laundry room was. We finally found it but found out we needed tokens to use. A day later we had tokens but found out we didn't have the key to the room. That took another day. When we finally went to do laundry we didn't end up having enough tokens so we had the entire apartment covered in clothes for a night trying to get them to dry before we left early the following morning!

That experience aside, we had a lot of fun here. Our first day we set off to do some hiking out in Llao Llao. There was a bus that left from just outside our place that would take us out there. We bought our bus passes along with some pastries and set off on the road to Llao Llao.

How can you pick just one!

We built our own little circuit to hike using a variety of different trails in the area. The first walk was through the Arrayan forest, which was native to the area. It was a very twisted looking tree with a unique reddish-brown color which really made it stand out. The trail then had a path out onto a lake where we walked along the beach for a bit. 

Immediately regretting letting Jess pick the photos

Selection of shots from our Llao Llao hike

After completing the Arrayan pathway, we crossed the street and headed over onto the Llao Llao circuit, which culminated in a climb of cerro Llao Llao which offered beautiful views of multiple lakes in the area including Lago Nahuel Huapi, the one we can also see from our airbnb. It was a quick, steep climb but the views from the top were our brief glance of what was to come as we moved deeper into Patagonia. We also saw our first condor.

A views of the lakes from atop cerro Llao Llao

 After completing our little circuit we returned back to our place to have some dinner and plan out our next day. We decided to take a hike up to refugio Frey. This was the first hut in a network of trails which created a multi-day trek in the area. The trailhead for this route was actually at the ski resort of Catedral. We caught another bus out front of our place and headed off. Given that it was the summer, there wasn't too much going at the ski area. It's always interesting to see ski runs in the summer when there is no snow. 

As a twist on our refugio Frey hike, and to make it more of a loop than out and back, we took a gondola and chair lift up to the top of the ski area. A short walk later, we found ourselves on the top of the ridge line, scrambling through rocks with a deep valley off to our right in order to approach refugio Frey from the backside. After a couple hours of blazing our own trail through all the rocks on the slope, we had to then scramble down a very steep section from the top of the ridge to a beautiful lake formed from snow melt. Once we reached that part, we had to then scramble down a steep set of rocks to reach the second lake. 

Looking back towards Bariloche from atop the chair lift

A sample of our scrambling and lakes towards refugio Frey

A panoramic view from the ridge looking down into the valley below

Don't look down!

When hiking it's important to pack only the essentials! Like a guitar.
This also shows how steep our descent was into refugio Frey

Refugio Frey was at the opposite end of the second lake. Once we reached there, we found a couple chairs in some rocks outside of the wind and set down for a nice lunch overlooking the lake. On the cliff face just off to our left was a climbing area so we were able to watch some climbers trying to scale the cliff faces as our lunch entertainment!

Refugio Frey. No signs of Lannisters or Starks

Our view from lunch

After lunch we refilled our water from the fresh mountain water tap and set back towards the resort. Our decision to use the ski lift was a good one as the trail out was a bit more traveled and a little broken down in some spots with makeshift bridges holding things together. We managed to make the bus back into town without much delay (they only ran once an hour).

The valley on our way out

 After we got back, we cleaned ourselves up (after doing the previously mentioned laundry) and set out to see what Bariloche had to offer for dinner. It turned into a mini bar crawl with Bariloche's finest local brews. Our first stop was Manush. I had their red lager and IPA, while Jess had the honey ale and pale ale. All were delicious and we paired them with a huge plate of fries (chips) smothered in ham, cheese and chives. I think we set the trend that night because after we had them we looked up and saw three other tables eating them too! Dinner followed at Bachmann with another great red and some BBQ ribs! After a filling dinner, we set off to see if our clothes had dried so we could pack for our early morning flight down to El Calafate.

-Nick (words) & Jess (photos)

Automatic Man, Manual Woman

Apologies in advance. It's been a week since we last updated the blog, but we've been a bit busy hiking if you haven't seen either of our facebook pages. That has lead to an abundance of photos being taken. Coupled with not great upload speeds on the wifi in Patagonia, we're about 150 photos behind that need uploading.

As you can see from the title, this post is all about driving. Our trusty car deserved it's own post after it got us through Chile for two and a half weeks! I am the automatic man. I will admit that I've never driven a manual car, not even in video games.  While Jess is a master of the clutch, the steering wheel just happened to be on the wrong side. 

Our trusty Mazda 6, which was an upgrade! It was also bigger than most parking spots.

For any of you pondering a Chilean adventure, having a car is a great way to get around. While the larger cities offer a good bus service, the freedom of the car really lets you explore.

The main road that spans Chile from north to south is Ruta 5. It's a well traveled, well paved road with quite a bit of tolls (hopefully that go for maintenance). Exits are clearly marked and the signage is frequent and applicable. Gas stations are all accompanied by nice bathrooms and ample food options. There are 3 brands: Copec, Shell and Petrobras. There are always big signs telling you how far you have to the next one. While they typically end up about 100km apart, you always know when the next one is. They also pump your gas for you! In case you're not a fan of gas station food, there were always plenty of options, even right on the side of Ruta 5! People would have these little shacks on the side of the road selling bread or fruit or empandas. They would attract your attention with a ridiculous amount of flags leading up to their stop so you could see it in the distance. The people would be waving flags as well as you got closer.

Roadside food stands

As you get off the main roads into the back roads, it becomes a little more interesting. While very fun to drive, we lost GPS on my phone quite a bit which lead to a few missed turns but we always managed to get back on track. Occasionally you'd end up on a gravel road, especially going up into some of the parks for our hiking.

The car can get a bit dusty after those gravel roads

On the back roads you also have to watch out for animals! We saw horses (even saw those on Ruta 5), ducks, dogs, spiders and even chickens crossing the road that we stopped for!

Parking was very easy. Most of our places offered parking but in the few that didn't, street parking was easy to find. In the main parts of town, street parking was similar to large cities where they would have attendants that would come around and either have you prepay for the time or they would put tickets under your wipers and you'd pay at the end. The larger cities also had garages you could park in. In the small towns, parking was free but they had old ladies that would watch your car for you for a tip of a few coins. Overall, all you had to do was find the big E (parking in Spanish is estacionament).

While the Chilean drivers were all very courteous, they certainly did have some interesting behaviors. The first is that they are terrible at merging. Even though they have ample roadway to merge at speed, they'll drive to the end of that runway and just stop, waiting for a huge gap in traffic to pull out. Their other interesting behavior was with left turns. In the cities, it's not an issue as most time there is either an arrow or each direction gets their own green. On the country roads if they wanted to turn left off the main road, they'd flash their hazards, pull over to the right, let traffic behind them clear, then turn left. I'm sure the guy that did that in front of me was shocked when I just went ahead and turned left before him!

We even learned how to read the car manual in Spanish! We had an indicator light come up right towards the end of our journey that was just a wrench (spanner). Jess decoded the manual to realize we had driven so many kilometers that the car was due for an oil change and tire rotation!

All in all, we did just around 3000km (~1900 miles) on our journey from Santiago, up tho the Elqui Valley, then back down to Puerto Varas. It was a great time loading up on car snacks, listening to random Chilean radio and just seeing the country.

-Nick

Livin' la vida local!

After getting our adrenaline fill in Pucon, we made out way down even further south to Puerto Varas. It's a smaller town on Lago Llanquihue with a view of not one, but two volcanoes! (One of which went off last year). It also has quite a German influence like most of southern mainland Chile. 

Volcan Osorno on the left and Volcan Calbuco on the left (which went off last year)

While the story of Puerto Varas is nice, the story of how we ended up here might be even better (I thought so). When we were planning this region we knew we wanted a couple of nights but really didn't know where to spend them. And then in October while out in Colorado, we were out with some friends of mine, Brent and Kate. We told them about our trip and come to find out Kate went to high school with a guy, Chester, that started a brewery in Chile. Turns out it was in Puerto Varas so we decided that was the place to stay!

Thanks Kate! (and Brent too!)

To add an even more entertaining turn of events, when we were looking for places to stay in Puerto Varas, we came across a cabaña that was available. It looked perfect for our stay so we booked it. In reading some of the reviews, there was mention of beer brewing and the name Chester so we sent a message to our host asking about the connection. It was their place! This was six degrees of Kevin Bacon happening in real life. 

We knew a trip to the brewery had to be on the schedule at some point but with good weather on arrival, we set out to explore the town first. We visited a park right up the street that offered great views of Osorno.

Osorno from across the lake

Then we walked down in to town for our traditional grocery shopping to get breakfast items. We walked along the lake for a bit and then decided to take an hour lake cruise to see the town from the water as well as a get a little closer peak of the volcanoes.

Puerto Varas from the water (which was incredibly clear)

After the boat trip, we were hungry and ready to eat so we stopped at Mesa Tropera, a restaurant that was built out over the water. The had put windows in the floor so walking towards the back of the restaurant you could see the water beneath you. It had a very lively atmosphere and we had some delicious food and drink.

Friday was a low key day. It was raining most of the morning so we took our time getting up and going. We got a text from our air bnb host, Jenny,  inviting us out to the brewery for a lamb BBQ. Sounds like a great way to see a brewery. We scrapped what plans for the day we hadn't made yet and decided to head to the BBQ. Before heading out we needed to scope out the bus station for our departure on Sunday since there is no central bus station here. We got that sorted then picked up some veggies for kebabs to take to the BBQ and headed out.

The lamb goes on.

Chester Beer was the site of the BBQ. It's a small brewery out on a farm, with perfect views of volcan Calbuco. It was too cloudy to see it today, but it would be nice on a sunny day. It was an awesome evening. We got to talk with both Chester and Jenny as well as meet all of their friends. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. They all stopped by to introduce themselves. We truly felt like locals just hanging out. The beer was fantastic as well. It was flowing the whole night and I was able to sample all four of their beers and they were all fantastic. I really enjoyed their IPA while Jess was a big fan of their summer ale.

The party getting started

Our skewers meet the BBQ, Obama's redemption stout and Chester and I pose for a shot

While the lamb served as the main food course (and the kebabs were a hit too!),  the horseshoe tournament served as the main entertainment. This was just a practice tournament for a larger event they had coming up, but the competitiveness was there. Jess and I entered as The Nomads but were quickly dispatched as Jess had never played horseshoes and I hadn't thrown one in 20 years since the Rudemiller renuions!! The tournament went into the night with the playing field being lit by one light and the rain started falling as well!!

The lamb being served

Dedication to the game. Measuring the closest shoe in the rain

Overall it was an awesome time getting to hang out like locals at a backyard BBQ, especially when the backyard happens to be in the back of a brewery. We said our goodbye and headed home after a late night of fun, food and new friends.

Saturday was a tough morning to get up but we had to bite the bullet as we needed to part ways with our trusty rental car that had been our companion for over 2 weeks and 3000 km on all sorts of road. We'll certainly miss the convenience and flexibility of a car. It was a great way to see Chile. After returning the car we headed back to Puerto Varas and since the weather was supposed to be nice in the afternoon and raining at night we went for a walk along the lake to the other end. We had to get our 10,000 steps in for the day! On our way back, we stopped for a great ice cream sundae at Cassis. We first stumbled upon one in Pucon and had a delicious dessert there after dinner one evening. They've got a bit of everything sweet but also some savory. We'll stick to the sweet.

There's always room for ice cream

All in all, it was a great time in Puerto Varas! The weather was mixed but when the sun was out, it was easy to get a sunburn (got my first big one on Saturday). There's also something ominous, yet beautiful about living in the shadow of a volcano. Sunday we head back to Argentina for a couple days in the Argentine lake district before flying down to Patagonia.

-Nick

The Queenstown of Chile

After a 6 hour uneventful (I slept for the parts navigation was not required) drive we arrived at our hostel in Pucon. The temperature had dropped 14 degrees Celsius/30 degrees Fahrenheit in the course of the journey and it was time to put some trousers on.

Hostal Rio Libre

Pucon sits in the shadow of the Villerrica Volcano (which last erupted in March 2015), but due to the clouds we couldn't see the volcano. We did see signs as to where to go in the event of an eruption and they tested (we think - no one jumped up and ran out the room) the warning sirens at midday on the Wednesday.

Low risk areas in the event of a volcanic eruption

Pucon reminded us of Queenstown on New Zealand's south island. It is a town on a lake with a beach, a boating area and is full of agencies offering adventure sports from white water rafting to canyoning and quad biking to climbing the local volcano. In between the agencies the streets are packed with restaurants, bars and cafes. The town hosted many Chilean holiday makers as well as some international thrillseekers! The weather wasn't looking good enough for volcano climbing so we signed up for canyoning the following afternoon. 

Sunset in the bay (but still no sign of the volcano)

Wednesday started wet and even colder and I had to resort to a thermal top (this is not a good sign for when we head further south and will be camping). Just after lunch we headed off with 4 others to our canyoning adventure which started in a changing shed in someone's garden a short walk from the canyon. The canyon was created by volcanic lava from an eruption many years ago (we still couldn't see the volcano) and cut a beautiful windy path through the rocks with lush green giant leaved vegetation springing from all directions. The sun started to come out and peaked over the top of the rocks and provided some warmth (the water gushing over the falls was freeeeezing) and even a small rainbow appeared. We walked down the river and along the way we repelled down a 12m waterfall, were winched down another waterfall, zipped wired down another and used a further fall as a water slide. You never quite knew what you would find around the next corner! The experience ended with a changing shed in someone else's garden and a drink on their deck surrounded by dogs, cats and chickens.

Nick elegantly repelling down a waterfall

Jess' turn

The group in action

The beauty of the canyon

After cooking dinner in the hostel we headed out in search of a sweet treat and discovered Nick's culinary highlight of the trip so far - an ice cream sandwich with freshly baked cookies and a layer of nutella. Delicious!

Ice cream sandwich

On our final morning we woke up to clear skies and sunshine and headed off to find the volcano. We didn't have to go far! We walked out of the hostel front gate and immediately saw the enormous smoking volcano! It really was an impressive sight. Our mission complete we were ready to move on to our next destination.

Volcano Villerrica 

The bay with the beach & the view from our room in the hostel on the last day and the other cloudier days 

-Jess

Happy New Year...If we can stay awake!

So far we've managed to get by with our meager knowledge of the Spanish language. On our way to Talca, we had our first real test. We were pulled over by the cops!! Not for any moving violation, just a random ID check they seem to do. They see a car coming and flag you to the side of the road. The conversation went something like this:

Officer: Documentos

Me: Pasaportes?

Officer: Si

LOLOL. This town is no joke. We drove through it.

And that was it! Success! We were on our way from wine country down to Talca, where our destination for the next  couple of nights would be Casa Chueca, a hostel/b&b on the outskirts of town, that scored high marks on trip advisor. We never actually made it into the city of Talca. No one had anything nice to say about it! Casa Chueca has 3 hectares of property, large enough for a multiple buildings, a pool, nature museum, children's driving school, etc. It's a very nice place with one downside in that it's not really close to anything.

Random shots of Casa Chueca

We spent most of our time here hiking. Problem was that it took us anywhere from 90 minutes to two and a half hours to get to the trail heads! The hikes were all great, but the drive back was a bit much. The upside was the the owner of Casa Chueca, Franz, had actually developed an app called Trekking Chile which gave us the trail info we needed. 

Our first hike was at the recommendation of Franz. We headed off up the mountain road towards the border with Argentina (at this point you can get from border to coast in around 4.5 hours). It was a stunning drive following the river up into the valley with mountains on both sides. He told us to head to the 134km marker and just pull off the road and walk to the waterfalls. Easy, right? The 134km sign was nowhere to be found and the pull off (as we found it later) required our rental car to jump the curb. We found some parking (a gravel road) about a kilometer up as we saw other cars there and headed down to the waterfalls.

The start of our hike. People were camping here as this is a very popular climbing spot.

It was a very fun hike because there was no trail. We just made our own as we went. The landscape was dusty with large rocks. We totally could have been walking on the set where they faked the moon landing (they didn't really, but this was the place). We had many little gecko companions scurrying about as we made our way over to the river Maule to follow it down to the waterfall.

The river Maule

As we followed the river down, it was more and more impressive. We finally reached the waterfall except for the part where we were at the top of it instead of down below! 

Just needed a barrel to head over the falls!

It was a beautiful waterfall from a vantage point we had never seen before being at the top. Where the mist settled at the bottom, a lush green color appeared from the well watered vegetation that was growing. We checked our app and sure enough, we were right on the path. We navigated over the second waterfall to see what it was all about. The second waterfall was higher but we couldn't really get a great vantage point due to our location up high. The cool part about it though was that the wind was strong enough that the waterfall appeared to be going against gravity.

Water shouldn't go up! Notice how green it is behind the falls where this seems to happen a lot.

After working our way back up to our "car park" we had an equally stunning drive back to our place where we washed up and headed out to dinner not once, but twice! The website for the restaurant said they were open from 1pm until 12:30am. We showed up at 6:45, knowing it could be a bit early for the normal Chilean dinner rush, but they weren't even open. They must have all been on siesta! We finally found someone who worked there and they didn't open back up until 8pm. With it being only 2km from our hostel, we drove back, waited the hour, then returned. The grilled platter was a nice touch given the hostel meals were all vegetarian and we needed the protein from the hike

Plenty of meat after a long hike!

New Year's Eve rolled around and we decided we were up for another hike. Today we settled on a more traditional hike up a marked trail at the National Reserve of Altos del Lircay. This was another fun drive as it required about 20km of travel going up a dirt and gravel road. Our trusty rental car was up for the task with only a bit of dust to show for it! Along the way we even saw a chicken cross the road. We did not stop to ask it's reason for the journey though. We also managed to see a spider cross the road. Yes it was big enough that we could see it as we were driving. It was probably no bigger than a tarantula, but was very impressive.

Definitely covered in the rental agreement

We parked the car to set off on our hike, only to be informed that the registration was 2km up the road but we'd have to walk the rest of the way. They did not mention that the 2km was all up hill. I'm sure the ranger was very excited to see someone drenched in sweat tell them "I'm ready for more!" He did however appreciate the fact I told him I was from Chicago and was able to ask about the rock band while playing his air guitar. Some things like the air guitar just transcend language. We set off on our way to see how far we could get as we needed to get back for the special New Year's Eve vegetarian buffet at Casa Chueca.

View of the valley and mountains from our NYE hike

It turned out to be a very nice hike as it was quite different from our waterfall hike as most of this hike was done in the trees, sometimes peaking out over the valley below. Our alarm went off and we set off back back to the car to get back for our celebration.

Our NYE buffet spread

We took our seats for dinner, looked around and I quickly realized I was the only one in the place that didn't speak any German. This place draws quite a bit of German tourists to it. Plus the owner and his family had some friends over as well. We were joined by a solo traveler who was also from Germany but wanted to speak English for a while. After dinner, the festivities were laid out for. There was to be a big movie showing of "Dinner for One". This is apparently a very German thing to do, even though it's a English film and is only 18 minutes. Then everyone was going to jump in the pool at midnight. We were so exhausted from our hike, we ended up falling asleep after dinner, briefly waking up before midnight, watched our phones go to 12:00 then went back to bed. 

New Year's day was a rest day for us. We took care of some trip planning for the coming months but were generally lazy. Jess' fitbit reported a decline in steps from 20k on NYE to less than 1k on NYD.  We both got to skype with our families to wish them well in the new year as well. In searching for a place for dinner, we kept the relaxed theme going and ordered Papa John's online and then drove to pick it up. Even that was a 15 minute drive! But as they say here: Mejores Ingredientes. Mejor Pizza.

It even came with the garlic butter!!!!

After a sluggish New Year's day, we thought it best to get active again so once again it was out for a hike. This time it was to the Parque Natural Tricahue. This was only a little over an hour drive so it was a nice change of pace. It was a nice little hike, only 9km out and back. Downside was we gained over 1000m of elevation during our 4.5km out. Every bend seemed to produce another incline. But in the end we made it and were rewarded with amazing views of the valley below with the volcanoes in the background

The view from the lookout

The hike down was definitely a bit less sweaty but still challenging. After completing the hike, we were walking back to the car when we had our first llama encounter. Not sure where they came from but they were oddly staring. Jess posited that perhaps they were confused by my beard and were curious if I was in fact, a llama (not a llama).

I hope was of them was named Lorenzo Llama.

On the drive back, we noticed that everyone seemed to be coming on down to the river. We hadn't seen this many people during our time here so we took a quick stop to see what the fuss was all about. I guess when it's hot, people drive up or come down to hang out and swim and party in the river. At this point the river has already been used for hydroelectric power so it's not very deep and flowing rather slow.

This feels like it should be a country song

People had even used the rocks to create their own mini dams to back the water up and make it a bit deeper. We put our feet in and the water seemed a bit cold to be swimming but it was 90 degrees (F)/ 31 degrees (C) out, so anything goes. 

After a quick market trip to restock on car snacks and a bite to eat, we're celebrating the end of this destination with a cold, local beer brewed near where we hiked on NYE. It's brewed by a woman in the woods using no electricity

They have a hotmail email address if you're interested!

-Nick

Wine tasting: the Chilean edition

After the Christmas festivities it was time to head to our next destination - the Colchagua Valley near Santa Cruz. We decided to take the scenic route, which meant we took the country roads and had to rely on a combination of maps, hand written instructions, a temperamental GPS connection and my sense of direction! We only had to turn round twice (once I had decided we should have taken the turn we had just passed). The closer we got to this fruit growing and wine producing region the greener the fields became. 

We had read that Santa Cruz was not a very exciting town, so we stayed outside in a small bed and breakfast with a tropical oasis of a garden, friendly owners and equally friendly guests. We enjoyed a late afternoon welcome drink by the swimming pool with our kindles. Then Nick was in need of some real American food so we found a hole in the wall in the middle of a residential area for a beer and a burger.

Traditional America food!

The valley is known for its wineries, however, they had a different feel to the wineries we had visited in Mendoza. First, they all required reservations, secondly the wine produced was led by market demands rather than the passions of the owners and thirdly they all tried to differentiate themselves from each other by specialising in different wines and offering different activities on-site including horse jumping competitions (to attract Chilean tourists), make your own wine, and singing under the stars! The week between Christmas and New Year is also their busiest time. Having decided that 4 wineries in one day was too many, we opted to visit 2 wineries Viu Manent and Mont Gras.

Viu Manent is a family run, commercially slick operation. We headed off in a horse and cart for a tour of the vineyards, production area, cellar and a tasting. A highlight was the Secreto brand which they can only tell you 85% of what is in the wine - the rest is a surprise (and legally they don't have to declare what it is)!           

Why don't we see more barrel art?

Our tour was followed by a delicious lunch at Viu Manent's restaurant called Rayuela (which means hopscotch - a useful addition to our Spanish vocab!).

Tuna ceviche & pork terrine with pebre

Mont Gras is a smaller, but also well known, winery. We had a short tour and longer tasting here with some food pairings. We particularly enjoyed their Sauvignon Blanc and their Carmenere/Cabernet Sauvignon blend. With a sale of 30% off we took this opportunity to buy a couple of bottles of wine for the upcoming new year's celebrations! 

Mont Gras and its produce

Desperate times call for desperate measures, drinking from the vat (they told us to do it and it is harder than it looks!)

By now we have heard several versions of the story about Carmenere (which Chileans are proud to tell) which is a grape that originates from France but has broadly been killed off in France. It has been grown in Chile for the last 150 years, but everyone thought it was Merlot until in 1994 a French expert working in Chile realised that Carmenere and Merlot were growing alongside each other and were actually different grapes. One of our winery tour guides pointed out that many Chilean Merlots that had won awards before the rediscovery of Carmenere were probably not pure Merlots, but they were not going to dwell on that now!

On balance, I preferred the Argentinian Malbecs to the Chilean red wines we tried, but I should probably be careful what I say whilst I am still on Chilean soil! [post edit note: having just enjoyed a half bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenere blend I may have been too quick to judge the Chilean wines!].

The evening was spent cooling off in the swimming pool and watching a young looking George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou. It was only on reading the Wikipedia entry afterwards that I realised this Cohen brothers film was based on Homer's the Odysessy and I have now concluded that much of film was lost on me! This only added to my recent disappointment when a fellow traveler in Valparaiso who works in the film industry in LA shared that GC is "a bit of a jerk" in real life. On that note, I am off to bed!

- Jess