Today we are leaving Puerto Varas on another cloudy morning, 8am. Again...manana the skies will clear!
It turns out the the land/lake crossing to Bariloche today is an orgnanized tour, not a public transportation system. So we board a bus at our hotel, and the guide offers tidbits of information along our route. This is the beginning of a 13 hour transit.
We stop along our first bus ride into the Andes, at a place called Petrohue Falls. This is exactly inbetween a pair of volcanos...that we of course do not see. A beautiful idyllic walk on an easy path winds through a thick forest.
And then we reach falls that are VERY powerful and loud and beautiful, going over dark volcanic rock. The water is richly turquoise, a color we will see in the lakes later, due to mineral content.
Unbelievably, I decide to buy a sweater at a little vendor there...only US$24, knitted stranded color with a zipper in alpaca yarn. It offers inspiration for my own projects, and a bit of warmth in case we encounter more of this cold weather.
Our bus stops at the next lake and we board a comfy catamaran (not pictured, but I show the little port area).
The water is deep and beautiful, mountains rise steeply.
The lakes region of Chile is largely inaccessible by road. Farmers live along the lake, and rely on boats for their sole transportation to get supplies. The houses and farms we see along the way will likely generate their own hydroelectric power in some way, and have satellite access for phone and internet (but what
about 20 years ago!).
As we have driven to a higher elevation for this lake, we are closer
to a snowline, that we see bits of.
At other end of this first lake is Puella.
From the dock, we take a short walk to a hotel.
Jim has a snuze in the comfy lobby afterward. Because this crossing is actually a tour, there are "optionals" for people at this time...like zip-lining through the forest or rafting. Which means, we have a long 3 hours rest at Puella. Some of our group stay here overnight, and that would be a nice option if we had wanted to hike. Instead, it is rather a surprising delay, when our goal was to reach Bariloche sooner rather than later.
From Puella we board a new bus. The drive begins through a large ranch, the property of the family which owns this tour and all its buses. The ranch has cows and horses, ostrich, llama, in a valley with the dramatic snowcapped mountains above.
After the ranch we see a river that is rich with the light green color of minerals over which the water flows.
These valleys are carved from glaciers. And now the blue sky is
increasing...as soon as there are no more volcanos to look for! Oh well, it is beautiful.
Our bus travels on a rather rough gravel road for this part of our journey. The bus has 4-wheel drive, and that is quite an adventure for a large vehicle like this, making hairpin turns going up higher into the Andes!
Past one of the turns we have a distant view of Mont Tronador, I believe the signboard indicates 3500 meters high. It has a glacier along its face.
We climb to a high point on the road that is the "natural border" between Chile and Argentina. But it is a little ways further before we reach the station where Argentina immigration station "greets" us.
 |
| hairpin turns in road, 4-wheel drive full size bus can do it! |
I say this because of the hour-plus it took our group of 30 to get through the Argentina immigration process.
After we booked this trip, Argentina came up with a new entry requirement. A Reciprocity Fee that MUST be paid ON-LINE in advance for arrivals after January 1, 2013, only applies
to a few countries. That's US! We did this, and for $160 each, had a paper printout to prove the fee was paid.
Unfortunately, an Australian in our group arrived in Buenos Aires on December 28th, when the online form was not required, paid the Reciprocity Fee, and immigration there assured her all was in order. She left for Chile, and now re-entering Argentina...the agents refuse to let her back in! Remote station in the top of the Andes, finally everyone got worn down and wanted to go home, they let her in.
Now we board another boat to cross a rather small lake, so it is a short trip to the other
side, and another bus.
One more short bus ride, and I think that Port Alegro is our last boat of the day (but I've lost count).
Getting late in the day, though days are long this far south in summer. Love the shadows being cast.
Our boat plays with the gulls...which are irritating at home, but graceful here on a lake
in Argentina.
The landscape transforms on one side of the lake, the forest disappears, replaced by
rugged mountains without plants. We are then entering the Bariloche region of Patagonia.
Next stop, after another 30 minute bus ride, will be San Carlos de Bariloche for the night
(after 9pm)!
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