Posted by: Jonathan
Sitting in the power seat in Mercedes proved to be more addictive than I imagined. Once we arrived in Bariloche I saw the rental car signs and got the nervous twitch. We sifted through the agencies and options and settled on a sporty red Ford Arauco for seven days. It had all the papers to drive across the border into Chile - because on road trips you just don't know where you might end up. As we headed out of town we followed a popular route called "seven lakes drive" which everyone we met raved about. Unfortunately for us the weather turned sour and it began raining soon after leaving town before we could appreciate the natural beauty of the lakes.
Sitting in the power seat in Mercedes proved to be more addictive than I imagined. Once we arrived in Bariloche I saw the rental car signs and got the nervous twitch. We sifted through the agencies and options and settled on a sporty red Ford Arauco for seven days. It had all the papers to drive across the border into Chile - because on road trips you just don't know where you might end up. As we headed out of town we followed a popular route called "seven lakes drive" which everyone we met raved about. Unfortunately for us the weather turned sour and it began raining soon after leaving town before we could appreciate the natural beauty of the lakes.
We opted to make camp early the first night and continue the seven lakes drive the following day with better weather. Even with all the rain this Webelos scout was able to get a fire going with the help of his recently discovered piro of a girlfriend. The heat lasted deep into the night with a sea of coals and our smoke drenched clothes reminded us of our success for days.
The next morning (Day Two) we awoke to the pitter patter of rain on the tent - holding out for better weather didn't work. We had no real choice but to press on in the rain and enjoy the part of the lakes we could see through the haze. After a few hours rocking down dirt roads we arrived in San Martin De Los Andes where we stopped for a bit to explore the town. Jenn's sweet tooth struck again - the Lake District should be called the Chocolate District. There are twice as many chocolate shops as lakes. We avoided buying a box of the overpriced chocolate for days by getting the free samples offered in each shop - stopping in as many as three stores in under ten minutes. But it was only a matter of time, Jenn broke me down and we bought a box filled with our hand selected favorites.
Hyped up on chocolate, Jenn worked up the courage to hop behind the wheel for the first time - in less than three blocks she had us going the wrong way on a one-way street (the busiest street in town). We reversed backwards down the one-way street with a "TOURISTS" billboard flashing on the roof of our car. Once again we cruised through the mountains and lakes being pelted with more rain. In hindsight we should have passed on the Ford Arauco and paid the extra bit to get an arc - then we would have even had room for the stray animals we passed by.
As night began to fall we found a place to camp but since we couldn't find a shelter from the rain we were forced to cook dinner on the floor board of the car - and you complained about your counter space.
After two nights of camping in the rain we were ready for a change in weather - and boom it happened - we awoke the next morning (Day Three) to snow. We were camping in the frontera, the border region of Argentina/Chile where the nearest bathroom/shower/meal was over 100 km in either direction. We quickly loaded Columbus into the car (he is pissed at us for toting him around South America without any TLC and sprung a leak in the night wetting our sleeping bags) and navigated through the snow and mud to the border station.
Getting ourselves and the car out of Argentina was straight forward and getting into Chile was painless until the officer wanted to search the car. It is illegal to carry fruit/animal products across the border and the officer caught us red handed with a bag of red delicious. Luckily, he was understanding and even allowed me to eat one of the apples in his presence (Jenn didn't have the patience to sit there while I ate the remaining 5) before throwing the rest away. If you know me then you know that throwing away food is right up there with killing puppies - if he wasn't armed with more than one gun he might not have gotten away with it.
The first town we stopped in once in Chile was Pucon, the adventure capital of South America. We found a hotel (as it was still raining and Columbus was still pouting) which had a microwave, SCORE, so we went in search of a store to buy microwaveable food such as popcorn, etc. Yes, microwaves are exciting as we don't often get the luxury of using them.
The following day (Day Four) the rain let up slightly so we set out to find an adventure activity. We had heard one of the longest zip lines in the world was near town so off we went. After about 25 minutes of driving we came upon a police check-point - not a problem, except we left our passports, car papers, and international driver's license in the hotel room. We nonchalantly turned just before the check-point and drove 25 min back to the hotel room gathered the documents and again drove the same 25 minutes only to find the road block and officers gone... We arrived to Trancura and tightened our harnesses for 3 km of zip line. It was fantastic, you went so fast and one line alone was one kilometer long. Oprah got over her fear of heights and came along but pics don't really do this justice.
The first town we stopped in once in Chile was Pucon, the adventure capital of South America. We found a hotel (as it was still raining and Columbus was still pouting) which had a microwave, SCORE, so we went in search of a store to buy microwaveable food such as popcorn, etc. Yes, microwaves are exciting as we don't often get the luxury of using them.
The following day (Day Four) the rain let up slightly so we set out to find an adventure activity. We had heard one of the longest zip lines in the world was near town so off we went. After about 25 minutes of driving we came upon a police check-point - not a problem, except we left our passports, car papers, and international driver's license in the hotel room. We nonchalantly turned just before the check-point and drove 25 min back to the hotel room gathered the documents and again drove the same 25 minutes only to find the road block and officers gone... We arrived to Trancura and tightened our harnesses for 3 km of zip line. It was fantastic, you went so fast and one line alone was one kilometer long. Oprah got over her fear of heights and came along but pics don't really do this justice.
Even though the rain began falling again it couldn't dampen our evening visit to the natural hot water springs with a bottle of vino and a few gourmet pastries. We hopped from pool to pool, each boasting a different size, shape, and temperature from the last.
We checked out of the hotel on Day Five with blue skies and finally, our first clear view of Volcan Villarrica. My main mission in Pucon was to climb the five to six hours to the top of the active volcano and peer into its smoking lava filled crater, but the weather just hadn't cooperated. In hindsight Jenn was uncharacteristically optimistic each morning when she awoke to the report of rain. Now I see that she felt this way because rain went hand in hand with not climbing. We left Pucon and headed into Parque Huerquehue where we spent the day hiking to a few glacier lakes which also had great views of the volcano.
The hike took a few hours longer than expected due to a fairly impressive amount of mud on the trails, so we ended up camping in the park for the night.
This campsite turned out great since it had views of the lake as well as the setting sun setting fire to the mountain peaks while we cooked dinner. Not to take away from the image that we were roughing it, but we even watched a movie in our tent before peacefully falling asleep to the sound of a trickling stream instead of rain drops.
We awoke the following morning (Day Six) to our second day in a row of spectacular weather. We planned a relaxing day heading due south on some back roads skirting crystal clear lakes flanked by snow capped mountains and crossing back into Argentina before nightfall - planned being the key word there. Our first stop after about an hour or so of driving was Lago Calafquen. We basked in the sunshine on someones dock for a while until I worked up the courage to pierce the icy cold waters.
After thawing out we continued south through several more towns and picturesque lakes. By late afternoon we arrived in the small town of Puerto Fuy situated on the edge of Lago Pirihueico. My opinion of this town was quickly jaded when we learned that the road south from town, which we planned to take, was no longer in service and we would have to back track several hours and try a different pass into Argentina. In my opinion the roads we took to get to this town shouldn't have been in service either - wooden planks for bridges, pot holes that bottomed the car out, and washed out mountain curves to name a few of the obstacles we had overcome and would now be navigating again as we back tracked. We adapted to the situation (as you often learn to do on the road) and chose a different crossing into Argentina that was more convenient now that we were retracing our tire tracks. After about two hours of the same scenery we began navigating east through a few new towns and headed to the frontera of Chile and Argentina. As we went along we confirmed the road was open and even the time the border station closed with three different people (hotel receptionist, cattle prodder, and truck driver). A solid hour past the last town we arrived at the Chilean border patrol station with a sign on the door reading "Closed Until Nov. 15", it was Nov. 11th at the time. Quick side note - people in South America will answer your question no matter if they have any idea of the answer or even the question for that matter. So take every answer with a grain of salt as "I don't know" isn't in the vocabulary. OK - back to the situation at hand - Jenn and I studied our cartoon map a bit, kicked some dirt around, and decided to push on a little further to see if there was another office on the Argentinian side. The road quickly deteriorated beyond all reason - sections of basketball size rocks had the car sliding on its underside with the tires barely touching. To give perspective of the severity, on the Arauco's next fueling she began spewing gas profusely from underneath and had to be pushed into a nearby garage, she was also returned with a pretty aggressive rattle. After about 30-45 minutes of this as we climbed higher and higher we reached several snow drifts across the road. These were built up during the winter and hadn't melted yet - there wasn't a single tire track in them. We were the first braving this road this year - no wonder it was so poor. We reached a welcome to Argentina sign but no one was home. Without a Chile exit stamp and Argentina entry stamp we would be entering the country illegally and would be hounded/fined at the next check point we passed. After all we had been through we had to back track it all to where we began in the morning and try a different, third pass. We ended up making it to a boarder town, sleeping in the car, and crossing hassle free the next morning.
The remaining drive back to Bariloche had some amazing views. In the end all the driving was worth it, we saw some amazing things, and even returned the car with 21 km below our allowed 1400 km.
The remaining drive back to Bariloche had some amazing views. In the end all the driving was worth it, we saw some amazing things, and even returned the car with 21 km below our allowed 1400 km.
We opted for a hostel to rest our travel weary bones but ended up sleeping worse in the beds than in the car the night before. This is mostly due to the incessant snoring of a 60 year old Englishman 2 beds over.
The Lake District of both Argentina and Chile is truly fantastic - even on the bus ride out of town Jenn and I craned our necks soaking in the jaw dropping beauty around each turn.
The Lake District of both Argentina and Chile is truly fantastic - even on the bus ride out of town Jenn and I craned our necks soaking in the jaw dropping beauty around each turn.