Odyssey Over the Andes

Route Over Andes

Condors

View From Cacique Inacayal Hotel

 

Jan. 14, 2009-By Land and Lake

Clarification about the defibrilator. Tom from Texas has an internal (not external) one and was concerned about airport security since he can't be wanded.

Lots of us had trouble sleeping last night. The streets were noisier and I resorted to earplugs. I dreamed I smelled coffee as I slept. It's smoke. The Andes are burning not far from us.

I had an advantage over David as far as protecting my belongings in the plastic trash bag in the suitcase. David unloaded his stuff onto the bed, put it into the bag, and crammed the bag into his duffel. He suggested I unpack, put the trash bag into the suitcase, then put the clothes into the bag. It was lots easier.

The first bus in our odyssey followed the shore of Lago Llanquihue to the town of Petrohue where we met the catamaran crossing Lago Todos los Santos. I slept until we stopped along the road at Rosales National Park to see Petrohue Falls cascading over lava rock and through the forest. It was the first of many times our bus drivers had to cross plank bridges. I can't imagine how much practice it took to aim those big tires at two boards overlaying and reinforcing an already rickety bridge. The crossing to Peulla was an interminable 1 1/2 hours. Although it was beautiful, there was a sameness to the scenery. There was a diversion while a man who lived on one of the islands rowed out to our boat to get some supplies and rowed home again. It's nothing if not remote.

We got off the boat in torrential rain and felt smug about our trash bag lined luggage. We hopped on a bus that carried us eight hundred yards to a small hotel where we ate lunch. The choice was pork or salmon. Poor David. Lunch was prolonged by our need to kill time to co-ordinate our next bus ride and the departure of our next boat. But our on again off again plight was complicated by border crossings. We got off the after-lunch bus at Chilean immigration, had our passports stamped, re-boarded and continued over the 3,000 foot high Andes. Several took dramamine in preparation for the winding, bumpy, gravel and dirt "road." David took one and I didn't. Even Fernando gets motion sickness on that road and uses a patch instead of a pill. The trip was seventeen miles long and took about forty-five minutes. It would have taken 1 1/2 hours but the sun had come out and we made good time as we cruised between enormous ancient trees and ferns. The down side was we couldn't see anything but the huge vegetation. The rain forests here are unique in that they manage to flourish and survive the brutal winters. David and I slept.

At Puerto Frias we were given numbers and lined up in numerical order to enter Argentina. Some of us couldn't resist singing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." Our luggage was transferred from the containers it had been traveling in by truck to our next catamaran. That is most luggage got immediately transferred. Laura Lee’s was one of five selected at random for closer scrutiny. When the security agent opened it and saw everything packed in a plastic trash bag he said, "Oh, Grand Circle" and waved her through. We only had a twenty minute crossing on Lago Frias, a green glacial lake.at the entrance to Argentina's Northern Patagonia. Excitement built when a large number of condors were sighted riding the thermals overhead. There were at least eleven and we all rushed to get photos and gawk. They were exceptional even at a distance. A bus waited where we docked in Puerto Alegre and took us two miles to Puerto Blest and our next catamaran. We didn't realize how arduous it would be dragging and carrying our roll aboards from bus to boat and back over docks, gravel, and through mud. I finally settled in on the last boat where I wrote this email up to this point.

Bariloche

Puerto Panuelos welcomed us as we left Lago Manuel Huape in Bariloche. Fernando was home and he seemed happy to show off the town as we rode to our hotel, the Cacique Inacayal. Our rooms overlook the lake and are spacious with enough room to unpack our duffels and get our clothes out of those slippery plastic bags.

We got a quick rundown of the settlement of the town. Germans came here from Chile and Buenos Aires. The government offered free land as in Chile. Now tourism flourishes with winter skiers and summer sports. A technology industry has developed around making satellites and nuclear reactors. It's nothing sinister. Their reactors make radio isotopes for medical use. The government owns the industries 55% to private sector's 45%.

 Our dinner tonight at the hotel included buffet appetizers with more varieties of pork products than I've ever seen. Then we had a choice between salmon or cheese ravioli. We all had the ravioli. Tomorrow we get to sleep late since we were such good troopers today. We're going to an Argentine ranch to see gauchos at work and play and were promised red meat for lunch. I'm anticipating productive free time. Bariloche is known for wonderful German chocolate and I intend to find some.

Toby