| South America 3 |
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| Nahuel Huapi NP (continued) At the lake we set up our tent. Overnight the weather turned nasty. It started raining hard when we woke up, later on turning into snow. It was not safe to continue walking under such conditions so we were confined to our 2 square meters under the tent cover. The fresh snow didn't insulate our tent enough to keep us warm so we spent the day and night shivering in our sleeping bags feeling very sorry for ourselves (do you too??). The next morning we woke up to find a white world surrounding us. More than 10 cm of snow had fallen overnight, in some places blown into half a meter high ridges and the storm was still blowing. We love eachother very much but one more day in the tent would have been a mayor test for the relationship so we decided to give up, pack up our tent in the storm and make our way back down to Bariloche. Of course the next day the weather had improved so we headed out again, now to the other side of the park (the back end of the trail). After waiting a long time for the bus, which apparently is a favourite passtime here, it was an easy ascent of 800 meters, only the last part being a bit strenuous, to Refugio Segre. We had learned from our experience in the snow that Refugios are a good alternative for the tent in the high mountains, plus you don't have to carry the tent... The following morning we continued on under blue skies to the tackle the summits of two mountains (blabla). For 9 hours we climbed and descended over tops and ridges, loose scree under our feet and almost nobody in sight. From the tops we had great views over the Andes, across and along the Argentinian and Chilean border, with the mount Tronador and other vulcanos rising above the horizon. This was the first time we really felt that we were in the middle of the Andes. The views we have to keep in our memories since it was impossible to capture it in a picture. And now we are enjoying a well deserved and necessary rest and refuel day in Bariloche! See you in the bar... Vulcan Puyehue and National Park We have been looking forward to this track for a long time. It was recommended to us by many travellers we met. We had planned to visit this NP before going to Bariloche and Nahuel Huapi NP but the heavy rain forced us to postpone it. This time we started in sunny weather, blue sky...but by the time we had climbed the 1400 meter to the first and only hut clouds had appeared and a little later it started to rain (sorry for continuously mentioning the weather, but spending 24 hours a day outside makes it quite important to know whether you can pack your tent dry). Fortunately there were some more people in the hut to kill the time and warm up near the stove. However towards the evening the hut started to fill up to maximum capacity and we escaped to our tent. At noon the next day the rain stopped and we continued to Los Ba�os, a 4 hour walk over an intense vulcanic, moonlike landscape which we could sometimes see through the mist. We selected a nice spot out of the wind were we put up our tent near the thermal bath (Los Ba�os). However, that night the wind shifted and picked up and our dutch tent couldn�t stand up against it. The loose vulcanic soil wasn't firm enough to hold the pegs and we woke up as if in a nightmare. Jurriaan cursing outside to hold the tent, Anita inside putting in her contactlenses... we had to move the tent and all our stuff in the storm, rain and darkness. Not funny if there is no place to shelter in the next 10 kilometers! We found another spot and tried to warm up, waiting for the morning and hoping that our tent would keep up this time. The weather did not improve and we decided to skip the nearby geysers and immediately return back to the hut. Here we sheltered that night in the hut (we had enough of the tent) and descended the next morning in torrentual rainfall. After 4 days in the park we were back at the start without even seeing the top of the vulcano. |
| After waiting an hour for the bus we hitchhiked to the nearby thermal baths and had a really nice warm-up in 38 degrees warm water. Puc�n and Vulcan Villarrica It was tempting to immediately head to warm and sunny Santiago, but we decided to check out the weather in Pucon. This un-Chilean town (quite nice) is close to Vulcan Villarrica and some NP�s. It had been raining here for 4 days, but the next morning the sky cleared. We booked an overpriced horseriding trip which was fun anyway and took our chances for the next day by booking a tour for the ascent of the vulcano. We had a great day climbing to 2847 meter (the upper 700 meters with grampons in the snow) together with about 100 other idiots (fortunately in different groups). The vulcano is still smoking, but no lava could be seen in the crater. Great views of the surrounding mountains and vulcanos. Even more fun was the descent, just sit on your but and slide down. Fun for big kids! Once down, we took the night bus to Santiago and thanks to the exhausting day we even slept the whole way. Santiago de Chile We were warned by several people that this was not a very nice city, and we prepared ourselves to get out as soon as possible. However, Santiago turned out to be not too bad, thanks to the glorious weather. The capital has about 5 million inhabitants, by far the largest city in Chile (the next largest is about 300,000). Quite shocking to see so many people after the splendid isolation of Patagonia. We did some necessary shopping and photodevelopment (unfortunately not on CD, so we cannot show them on the site) and headed of to the park to enjoy some peace and quiet. In the afternoon we took the bus to Valparaiso, a harbour city that was supposed to be very nice... Valparaiso and Vi�a del Mar In the busstation of Valparaiso we enquired for a nice hostel, when a police officer approached us with perfect English to ask whether he could help us. He knew a perfect place for us and wanted to show it. We thought he would point us in the right direction, but no, we got a full police escort to the place, which turned out to be his mothers...Quite embarrasing actually. The city itself was a shithole, very noisy with the streets filled with busses trying to avoid eachother. We tried to find some nice restaurant to eat, but ended up in a tourist trap with way to high-priced paellas. The next day we didn�t know how fast to leave this place and moved to Vi�a del Mar, the Benidorm of Chile, so not really worth to spend more than one night in (the weather was lousy too) so we took our chances in one of the small local busses that run up the coast to the north. Horcon and Zapallar After getting out in a place called Concon and realizing that was not the place to be we waited a long time for a bus to Zapallar, a place recommended to us. Fortunately that did not arrive soon enough so we caught another one to a small village called Horcon. The sun came out just as we arrived in this little place with a small beach stacked with fishing boats. In a local fish restaurant overlooking the beach we could watch the coming and going of the fisherman. A couple of horses were used to pull the colorfull boats up and down the beach, and the fresh catch was cleaned on the beachfront to the delight of the pelicans and seagulls. We found a perfect room with balcony overlooking the same harbour for next to nothing a spent 2 days watching the spectacle and enjoying the sun and warmth. Zapallar was the next target, a vacation village for the rich from Santiago, with an excellent beach. However the clouds made us decide to move directly to La Serena, 400 km up north. The local bus system showed its best side again: the minibus that took us to the PanAmerican Highway honked to the tourbus to La Serena just passing. It stopped, we ran accros the highway and were of to La Serena. Perfect transportation! To be continued...next page |
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