Our travels
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Cycling
Walking
About us
 The story of a trip with Baobab to the south of Argentina and Chile. 
It is raining the entire day and i am glad it is time to go to Schiphol. The adventure
can start. We meet the rest of the group at the counter of Lufthansa. Someone from
Baobab helps with checking in and sees us off. First we fly to Frankfurt. Once there we
have to walk a long distance to another terminal from where our plane leaves for Santiago,
with a stop in Buenos Aires. Midnight has already passed when dinner is served.
Then we try to get some sleep. Always a problem in the narrow space in economy class.
Above Brazile the plane is coming to life, and it doesn't take long before we make a stop
at the airport of Buenos Aires. We are happy that we can leave the plane for a while to
strech our legs at the airport. Just over an hour later we leave for Santiago, where our
tourleader Erna is waiting for us. At least, she should have been. But as we were exactly
on time, she didn't expect us yet.. Soon we see her running towards us. A small bus takes
us to our hotel in the city. While we are having some coffee with cookies Erna is telling
us everything we need to know about Santiago and the hotel. She also tells about the hike
that is planned for tomorrow. It will be tough, over 30 degrees C and a large part is up
a mountain.... We decide to have the day off and make our own citytrip tomorrow.We do have breakfast with the group that do go on the hike, it means we are in the city too early. Everything is still closed. We decide to wait at a bench in the park near Cerro San Cristobal untill the zoo opens. At 10 the gates finally open. The zoo is modern and nice to be in. But when it gets really busy we decide to go elsewhere. We take the cablecar to Cerro San Cristobal which is just outside the zoo. At the top we find a statue of the Holy Mary and a beautifull view of the city. From here we see the graveyard and decide to visit it to see the monument for Salvador Allende. It is very hot and nice to be searching at a graveyard, but we find what we are looking for. And some more interesting things like a building of 6 stories high where the italian comunity is burried.   The next day after breakfast we leave for the Moneda palace. Every 48 hours there is a changing of the guards there. We don't know what to expect and that is good... A militairy band is playing some Glen Miller- like tunes. And the militairy is parading up and down for a long time. It takes almosty 45 minutes for the guards to change. nice to have been there, but we will not visit again.  We decide to climb Cerro St.Lucia. A rock close to the centre, it is filled with useless but nice buildings. At a terrace we buy a drink and enjoy the view over the city. At exactly 12 a gun is fired. The noise is so loud, tourist jump in the air because they were startled. The man at the shop is laughing about it. We make our way back to the hotel. Stopping at a fishmarket and two musea on our way. The first museum has some sout american art from a long time ago. Nice museum, but a lot of the art is not from Chile but countries more north. The second museum belongs to a monastery. We are back in the hotel, but as it is too early we do go have a drink at the terrace. The nighttrain to Temuco leaves at 8 in the evening. Looking forward to the adventure we go to the station. The christmas tree in front of the station brings us in the right mood. But when the train arrives the mood is getting down. The train is not really new, lets call it old. But once inside it is not as bad as we tought. When we are eating in the dinning car, our wagon is transformed in a sleeping wagon. After dinner we stay and have a drink with Wout and Ydo. After many stations, the waiter thinks it is time for us to go to bed and he softly moves us to the door. 
 The sun is rising ( behind the clouds! ). While i look out of the window we stop at another station. Lots of things are loaded off, things like bicycles and plastic balls. Porters run to get as many loads as possible to earn more money. When the train slowly starts moving again i hear the others waking up too. Outside it starts to rain.... The benches are made into seats again and we can enjoy the view for a while until we arrive in Temuco. From the trainstation it is a short walk to the busstation. Here we can leave our bags, so we can have breakfast without all the luggage. It is pooring and the market is not dry anymore unless it is covered by plastic. So we decide to go into a restaurant for breakfast. Because our spanish is lousy we get no further than a 
coffee and a warm cheese sandwich. And a second coffee is getting in too.
The bus to Pucon leaves exactly on time. We are a bit sleepy (maybe we should have gone to
bed earlier)but we try to enjoy the view anyway. In the meantime it stopped raining and we
have a great view on the Villarica vulcano. The hotel in Pucon is brightly colourd
and the rooms have names of trees instead of numbers. Some names are easy,
but the spanish word for olivetree is difficult for me to remember. Maybe number were easier.
The restaurant serves vegetarian food and we decide to go elsewhere. We end up at an
italian restaurant and order pizza. And eventhough the waiter warns us the pizzas are really
big we do order four pizzas for four people. The waiter was right! It was just too much, but it was
delicious. Back in the hotel we have another beer before we go to bed.We ordered breakfast yesterday. But it is still a surprise what breakfast 'chileno' stands for. It was great! Delicious home made bread with cheese, jam, avocado and honey in lovely wooden bowls. Sjraar forgot to order yesterday and therefor he is left with nothing. Erna feels sorry for him and gives him a cheese sandwich. At 8:30 the bus arrives. we are going for a walk in the Huerquehue National Park. A great hike, after climbing for  some time we
arrive at three beautifull lakes. Erna, our groupleader is too fast. She decides to leave arrows on the ground so the rest can
follow easily. But other park visitors thought it was funny to turn the arrow the other way around. The last ones of the group
are going in the wrong direction. But after the lunch we find eachother again. Then we all go downhill at our own pase.
We are in the first group and we have plenty of time to have a beer in the refugio.
We are waiting for the rest to arrive in the refugio, but Ries and Marianne walked past the refugio.
Just when we want to walk on the bus is coming to look for us. That means we have a
shorter walk back.
Tonight five of us decide to go for meat. The waiter (Hector) speaks only spanish, we manage untill he wants to know how we want our steak. 'Medio' is not that difficult, but how do we say well done? Lots of handmovements and some noise and he understands. Cerveza grande (large beer), is also easy and the evening is getting better and better. 6:45 and we are having breakfast, after some time we knew we could have slept some more. Because of the cloudy weather the climbing of the vulcano is cancelled. A part of the group decides to go horseback riding. The horses know their way in the park and even unexperienced riders had a great day.  After 5 hours the group returns to Pucon. The ones that didn't go horseback riding
made a short beachwalk and had a lazy day. Wout lost his watch during the horseride.
So we go into town to buy a new one. In the fishing store they have a perfect one,
not too expensive not too large. Then a short stop at the ATM and we can go for beer in
the local supermarket. In the mean time the sun is back and we enjoy our large Cristal
on the terrace. We leave as one of the last to find a restaurant. Eventhough Pucon is a
touristtown there are not many restaurants open. And again we find ourselves at Hectors table.
Back at the hostel we pay for breakfast tomorrow and go for our evening beer in the garden.
Life is great. It is sunday before we go to bed. It is a sunny sunday and the vulcano is very clearly visible. But we have to leave today to Valdivia. In the bus it is very warm and it is difficult to stay awake. But it is not far to Valdivia. From the busstation it is a long walk to the hotel. The bags are taken there by two taxis. The hotel is somewhere between cosy and too much. The interior is very girly.  The
lace edges on the toiletcover are not even the worst. There are many cats and it seems they
live on the porch, because it smells bad. The old german sheppard dog, general Patten,
is very sweet. The hotel is an old house with heigh ceilings. In one of those rooms
we get a cup of coffee while Erna tells us what to do in Valdivia. We go for a walk
anmd arrive at a fishmarket, where we see things we couldn't name. It is dried, but what it is?
We walk along the boulevard. But there is nothing to do here, so back to the town center.
At the townsquare we find a busy shop that sells icecream. It is funny to see people coming out with huge icecones
that melt faster than they can eat. At the other end of the square a show for children is playing.
But that is everything there is to do in Valdivia, so we go back to our room for a refreshing shower.That night we are going for chinese food. But one has moved and the other one is closed. And we end up in a restaurant in a cellar where more people of our goup are eating. We drink a local beer: Kunstmann, das gute bier! What is this are we in Chili or in Germany? Although we saw a lot of German things after we left Santiago, like houses and 'küchen', There is no one who speaks German, they all speak spanish. And then you find a german slogan with the local beer......  Breakfast is great! It starts with an applecake. This huge piece of cake is sitting on your
plate so you have to eat it first before you can start with some bread. There are huge
cups of tea or coffee and a glas of orangejus. A small van takes us to the coastalroad.
We are dropped somewhere along the road and walk back to the last village we passed.
Now and then we climb down the rocks to walk on the beach for a while. It is a beautiful
area and we enjoy it. At low tide we see people cutting seaweed. The seaweed is laid to dry
on the rocks. Now we know what we saw yesterday at the market. Our hike ends in a small
village where we have a lunch in a fishrestaurant. The food is excellent, but the german folkmusic
is just a bit too much...We take a bus back to Valdivia.   Back in Valdivia we buy some stamps at the postoffice and post our cards home. Then it is time to go on a Xmas tree hunt. All they sell here are plastic very unrealistic trees. But we love it. We find an affordable one with a 70 cm height, now look for decorations. The purple festoon is something we can't resist. It is a week to Xmas, but we can hardly wait. Back in the hotel we decorate the tree to see how it is looking. The result is stunning! The kitsch of the tree and the hotel fit together. The only thing missing is the flikkering multicolored lights we see all over Chili. Again breakfast is great, today it is a strawberrycake for starters. The taxi's that are hired to bring the bags to the busstation are early, against all local customs. We drink the last coffee in a hurry and run down with our bags. This was not necessary because the bus to Puerto Montt is almost 30 minutes late. Erna tells us this never happens in Chili, public transport is always on time.... We have seats in the front but the ride is boaring. The only highlight is the Osnorno vulcano. That is why we are looking into the Baobab brochure. It states our 
hotel has harbour view. We don't believe a word of it. And are teasing Erna: maybe if you lean out
of the window really far, maybe then you can see the harbour. Erna says we are staying in
another hotel, a new one. And we lost all hope of a good view. But once in our room we can't
believe our eyes. We have a view on the ocean, so do Wout and Ydo. But Joop has only a sky
window, he is very jealous of us. We have a free afternoon in Puerto Montt. First we buy a
ticket for the bus to Chiloë tomorrow, then we walk down the shopping street.
This street ends at the square where they have a nativity set, in front of a wooden church.
But the trees are blokking the view for a good picture. After this we walk to the harbour of
Angelmo. It is low tide and many boats are on dry land. The fishermen are waiting for the
high tide so they can sail out. The sun is shining and we enjoy the busy harbour.
A ferry brings people to the other side. The ferry is operated by hand. A bit further there
is a tourist area with lots of handicraft shops. This night we have some hamburgers at the
OK Corral. The hamburgers are huge and we need a lot of beer to swallow it all.
Today we go to the island Chiloë. We bought the bustickets yesterday, so no hurry. We go to our room after breakfast.
While i am looking out of the window a truck starts in front of the hotel and drives away.
The entire building is shaking. How is it possible with such a new building? Tom comes out of the
bathroom and ask what just happened. The water was twirling in the toilet. Wout in the room next
to us has the same story. And i tell them about the truck. But when we come down the
owner of the hotel asks if we noticed the earthquake. It must have been a 3 on the Richter scale he says.
No worries, this is a vulcanic area, it happens often.  In the Cruz del Sur bus are seven people of our group. Three others took another bus one hour earlier. The bus enters a ferry, we can go out and enjoy the view. We try to spot some dolphins or sealions, but we have to settle for pelicanes. Via Ancud the bus takes us to Castro, the capital of Chiloë. The cathedral at the Plaza de Armas is striking orange and purple. The wooden cathedral is built in 1906. But the houses they built today are still painted in this nice colours. At the waterside the houses are built on wooden poles. The beach is filthy with the sewer ending up here, just short of the water.  After taking some pictures we climb back to the road. In a restaurant we have a quick lunch and then we go for the bus to Ancud. At the busstation we meet Kenzo, a german we know from Pucon. He climbed the vulcano on the day we left Pucon. He tells great stories about it, OK we missed that.... Our bus is coming and we ned no longer be reminded about what we missed. Ancud is 88 km north and it takes us a while to get there.  In Ancud they also have a lot of colourful wooden houses and it starts to get normal. But the simple white church makes quit an impression. Somewhere down there we see the harbour. And we decide to go and have a look. The boats have bright colours and they remind us of the Mediterranean. But the shells they load of the boats are unknown to us. A fisherman opens one for us and Tom tastes the slimy stuff. It should have some lemon with it, but Tom thinks it is delicious just plain. 
The bus back to Puerto Montt leaves at 6:30. It is very busy at the ferry, but the bus goes first. This time we see some sealions. We are tired when we come back in town and decide not to search for a good restaurant but just go the OK Corral. This time it is pica-pica: fries, sausage, cheese, olives and mayo. patat, worst, kaas, augurk, olijven Back at the hotel one last beer and on to bed. It is 21 december, summer started. But the weather doesn't show it. It is heavy clowded. 
What a pitty because today we are going for the lake route famous for its great views. A bus picks us up at the hotel.
The entire route to Argentina is along many highlights. First stop is a national park.
We have time here to walk to the waterfall and a short circuit through the rainforest.
The guide keeps our hopes up for good weather further along the way, so we can see the vulcano.
We know we are not that lucky and we are right, although the clowds get thinner we don't
see a vulcano. The bus drives to a harbour where the first boat waits for us.
This boat takes us along the wonders of the lake and stops at highlights to allow us to take pictures.
After 2 hours we have crossed the lake.Time to have lunch. After lunch a bus takes us to the next lake. But first we have to cross the Chili border we get a stamp in our pasport and then drive into a neutral zone. At the other side of the mountain we find a lake and the Argentine customoffice. The guide has a list with all our names and we have to stand in line in that order. But it takes not too much time before we all have a stamp and we can proceed. The boattrip is short and another guide (an argentine)explains some things. Again a short busdrive and another boat. This lake is surrounded by white snowy mountain peaks. The day is ending soon. And a last bus takes us to San Carlos de Bariloche. In hostel Posada del Sol they didn't expect us yet. Normally the trip takes two hours more. The owner find some roomkeys and Erna starts 
to hand them out. Tom gets a key and the owner is getting furious. NO, that room
has a twin bed! Tom is standing next to Ydo and wraps his arm around his shoulder.
Erna is playing the game and says: this must be possible, we are all equal.
The owner gets a red head and protests. But when we start to laugh he calms down it is getting
clear to him that Tom is married to me, and the hole thing was a joke. He walks us up to the room though....
The room is fabulous, we have lakeview. There is just enough tme left to wander through
Bariloche. It looks like a Swiss town, mountains and chocolat. There are several chocolat stores,
you can even book a tour through the chocolat factory.
Although Bariloche is a real tourist place it is not very busy. The peakseason here is
august, time to go skiing here. We have dinner in an italian restaurant.Continue reading about this trip here. |