Seven Lakes, near Bariloche (Argentina) See map
7/5 And we're off. With Gus & Jess my new road-trip buddies on their 8-month honeymoon, good stuff! Holidaying with honeymooners, this'll be different I thought. I told them about my depression, but I kept quiet about my mad driving tendencies. But not only did we survive to tell the tale, I actually quite enjoyed the week.
I'm a little nervous going first in the hot-seat but co-pilot #1 is great support and we successfully reverse out of the car-hire blind-alley, stop just in time to give a granny a few more years, and make a pit-stop to pick-up co-pilot #2 and the luggage.
7/5 And we're off. With Gus & Jess my new road-trip buddies on their 8-month honeymoon, good stuff! Holidaying with honeymooners, this'll be different I thought. I told them about my depression, but I kept quiet about my mad driving tendencies. But not only did we survive to tell the tale, I actually quite enjoyed the week.
I'm a little nervous going first in the hot-seat but co-pilot #1 is great support and we successfully reverse out of the car-hire blind-alley, stop just in time to give a granny a few more years, and make a pit-stop to pick-up co-pilot #2 and the luggage.
The first day is a beautiful and very pleasant start. Pleasant is the word. And nice. Lots of idylic lakes and great weather. Ok, for a proper account of the day, see my travel buddies blog they did a fantastic job.. click here
San Martin de los Andes (Argentina) to Villarica (Chile) See map
Skimming Gus jumps double figures.. how many was it?
Road-rally in no-man's land
Then we get to the Argentinian exit border. The guard gets up from his siesta and strolls slowly towards our car, eyeing it curiously. It seems they don't get much traffic through this particular checkpoint, at most 10 vehicles a day, and hardly any 2WD vehicles. "Can we cross with this car?" I ask. "You can try" comes the reply in Spanish. Not to discourage my travel buddies I translate this as "Yeah, no problem.", though I think they were picking up on the body language. Passports and paperwork sorted, the guard heads back to his siesta and we head out for the fiesta... zipping and honking through the woody lanes, stopping occasionally to plan run-ups and re-enforce the road using bamboo sticks.
A number of times we were pretty close to getting stuck, sometimes only the car momentum kept us from sinking into the mud. But with navigational support from my co-pilots, some prior intensive training on Brazilian dirt-tracks, and good old-fashioned prayer, we pulled through with a smile of relief, isn't that right piggy?
I had really enjoyed the drive, though I found out afterwards that my co-pilots had been bricking themselves. As driver I had the advantage of being fully absorbed in the road ahead, and with the steering-wheel being on the left-hand side of the car I was oblivious to the extent of the precipices on our right. Ignorance is bliss, right? My less ignorant travel buddies posted this report of their ordeal.
More pics..
Dancing with the Wolf
That night we stayed in Villarrica, a medium-sized sleepy Chilean town. Over dinner I witnessed an extraordinary battle of heart vs mind. Over a very sensitive topic, Jess took on the former, whilst Gus held out on the latter. Passions erupted, but neither won of course, heart and mind made a pact, such is life. I have great admiration for Gus and Jess, and any couple that can battle something out and make peace.
Probably they made peace after dinner, but I didn't stay to find out and none of my business anyway. It was Saturday night and wolf was looking for another kind of battle. A short pit-stop in a smokey karaoke bar (I hate smokey bars, and didn't have the balls to sing), before prowling further along the sleepy streets. Some dreadful music leaked from the local firestation. A party at a firestation, that sounds interesting I thought, and at least it doesn't sound like karaoke. A small patrol of firemen were happy to usher me in. The music had stopped when I entered the huge dance-hall, and I sensed dozens of odd-looking faces turn to witness this stranger. There were grannies and kiddies, and couples, and old men drinking whole bottles of whisky. I joined one of the latter at the bar, his forlorn but friendly face had been Photoshopped with a stretch & twirl filter such that none of his features remained symmetrical. And I'd only had one beer. I quickly got another and was pleased to see the band start to play again, and everyone seemed to get up at once to dance. Two girls sat alone together, so I assumed the procedure and was fended off with the explanation that their boyfriends were... firemen. You'd think all the single girls in town would be fighting to get to a fireman's party, not this one though, or maybe there were just enough firemen to go round. Either way it had been a long day and wolf was more tired than hungry, so he slunk off quietly during one of the dances and slept under the moonlight, dreaming of endless muddy roads.
Bacon, Eggs & Volcanic Hot Spas
9/5 Sunday morning I awake to the smell of bacon, Gus the tour chef was God at this moment and even now my mouth is watering again thinking about the crispy bacon, eggs, avocado, tomato, toast, & coffee that we had that morning. Nor does the day get any more unpleasant, we decide on taking it easy after the road-rally the day before, and anyway it's Sunday, so we head to a local volcanic spa to chill out... it's tough, but someone has to do it.
10/5 A most amazing show of nature, I have never seen anything like it.. a man that can talk 'turkey'! I wish I could have recorded this show, but picture this.. we pull up to ask for directions from a group of turkeys, Gus is our spokesman here, he asks "glaglaglaglaglaglaglagla?", and in complete unison the turkeys all reply "glaglaglaglaglaglaglaglaglaglaglaglaglagla". Which apparently means, "The volcano park you're heading to is closed due to risk of eruption, give up and go home."
There are other clues, so we make the best of it and enjoy a pleasant day's drive, after all there's not a lot of traffic, just passing the odd single-wheeled vehicle on the main roads.
Though hard to top the turkey talk, other excitements of the day included driving through South America's second longest tunnel, and meeting Hans, the owner of the Bavarian guesthouse we stayed at. He's a complete loon, but his laugh is contagious and he makes a delicious Spetzel and Goulash. Das ist lecker!
For a honeymooner's eye view of the same day click here.
10th May is also my mum's birthday. Happy Birthday Mama! x
Volcano Lonquimay & Crater Navidad
11/5 There seem to be plenty of volcanos in Chile, and thanks to my travel buddies blog i can name some of them, though not necessarily pronounce them. Today we went for a little stroll up a baby volcano crater called "Navidad", named as such because it sprang out from mama Lonquimay on Christmas day 1982. The walk was how imagine a lunar trek might be, except that gravity was playing at full earth-strength, somewhat to the dismay Jess who didn't enjoy the final part of the climb so much. The slope was quite steep and the scree very loose, so it was sort of 3 steps up 1 down. But going down it paid off, where it was more like take 1 step down, get 5 free.
Which way?
I'm a little pixel.
Gus & Jess, experts in flying jump-shots.
More pics from Gus & Jess's album
Late afternoon we headed south to Pucón, taking a slightly longer but smoother ride on the main roads. Emotions got a little bumpy on the way though, i'd probably given off permissive signals to my more experienced co-pilot to give me some road tutoring, though pilot was in no mood for it and got a little techy. Little moment of inter-driver tension, tick. But we pit-stopped for a great lamb roast, after which we all felt better and I was happy to handover the wheel to Jess and settle to a siesta in the backseat.
This was good because I'd need the energy the next day, which would prove to be probably the most exhilarating day of my trip so far.. dodging the bubbling lava of Volcano Villarrica...
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Very exiting journey, so glad you are visiting those places, the Bavarian guesthouse looks inviting.
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