|
CHILE – ARGENTINA: SOUTH CENTRAL
April 2006
The RN40 (Ruta cuarenta) took us north from El Calafate
(Argentina). The guidebook described it as “a mythic road, through
one of the wildest most uninhabited parts of the planet through
interminable stretches of flat isolation under wind-whipped swirly
clouds with only condors for company”. Most stretches were
kidney-jarring gravel and Jan had to steer against the strong
wind. Guanacos crossed over the road and rheas scuttled off at
passing traffic. (Guanaco=Llama-like; Rhea=Ostrich-like).
One night we
parked on a farm, Estancia Telken. It had been a sheep
farm, but 15 years before, Volcano Hudson in Chile, 160km away had
deposited tons of ash on the grazing and also suffocated the
animals. She is of Scottish descent and provided a meal in the
gracious old homestead. It was served on lace and a silver bell
summoned the three courses from the kitchen – including shepherd’s
pie and raspberry roly-poly for desert with dulce de leche (The
typical Argentinean caramel or milk jam).
Near the farm, a
track led to Cueva de los Manos where we saw cave paintings
of hand imprints done 8000 years ago. There were hundreds: done in
yellow, white, brown, red and black; also some drawings of
guanacos.
Los Antiguos,
next to Lake Buenos Aires, has a warmer micro climate.
Unlike in the rest of Patagonia, things grow there. (But the wind
still blows!) Rows of Poplar trees provide shelter around the
fruit trees on the little plots. The orchards also had to be dug
up from the volcanic ash.
INTO CHILE
Chile Chico and
the cheese.
The huge lake
Buenos Aires (2nd biggest in South America) straddles the border
between Argentina and Chile. On the Chilean side it is called Lake
General Carrera. At the Chile Chico border post we had not
been careful enough with our fresh food products. The official
confiscated a big chunk of cheese from our fridge. He marched
away, chuffed with himself, and we were thoroughly cheesed off!
The winding road
around the lake took us a whole day. 170km of spectacular scenery
- around the deep blue lake with it’s backdrop of mountains and
forests. We pass by the Hudson Volcano with huge swaths of
destroyed woodland surrounding it, following the eruptions of
1991. Tree-stumps remain where logging and creating of pastures
also had destroyed huge tracts of land.
Jan had to avoid
the pot holes and slow down for the corrugations. Leoné could
admire the huge forests of Nothofagus trees and the views of Cerro
Castillo, the mountain range with its weathered castle-like basalt
spires and gleaming glaciers. The Spanish word for gravel road is
“ripio”. (“rip your vehicle apart”, we say)
In Chile we are
still far south of the capital city, Santiago. We travelled north
along the Carretera Austral (Southern Road), an incredible
feat of engineering through mountains and forests and over rivers.
The road was started in 1980 and was built mostly by the military.
In Coyhaique’s museum we saw photo’s of the construction of this
1200km ‘penetration road’ stretching south from Puerto Montt to
Villa O’Higgins. At the museum we also noticed photographs of
military parades with rows and rows of Series 1 Land Rovers parked
over an entire parade ground.
As we drive, we
see snow covered mountains reflected in lakes and stop at water
falls, tumbling down steep ravines. One overnight stop is next to
the mirror-like Puyuyapi fjord. Its little harbour is
strewn with multi-coloured boats. The next day we find the perfect
spot with stunning views to relax for a few days. It is sunny and
we sip some Pisco Sours. Jan repairs a brake fluid leak and a tiny
radiator leak. We prepare to have a barbecue but the weather turns
foul and we end up having hot soup in the motor home. We do some
photo editing on the laptop until the batteries start complaining.
BACK TO ARGENTINA
Futaleufu and the
sniffer dog
After travelling
east, next to the raging aquamarine Futaleufu River with
its rafting and kayaking facilities, we cross back into Argentina.
This time the border official brings a huge golden Labrador into
the campervan to sniff out fresh produce; under and even onto our
bed! He finds nothing……
At the junction
of the RN40 we fill Dipli’s diesel tank. In Argentina diesel is
about half the price compared with Chile. After 164000km Dipli’s
fuel consumption has gone up by about 15%. The Ruta cuarenta
stretches next to the Andes and goes for nearly 5000km, most of
the length of Argentina.
Trevellin
is one of the towns settled by the Welsh. At Nain Maggie Casa de
Te we enjoy an Argentinian-Gaellic high tea consisting of a spread
of eats and delicious Welsh black cake.
The Internet café
in Esquel is described as “2 floors of cyber madness”. We
park in front of it. There is a lot of business to catch up with.
In between the e-mail sessions, the pc is set up with
spreadsheets. We spend what is left of the night, right there.
The rose hips
shrubs with yellow leaves now have bright red berries. Apart from
the tea and jam from the fruit, they also sell cosmetic oil from
the seeds in Rosa Mosqueta beauty products.
Bariloche
has easy camper parking next to its picturesque lake Nahuel
Huapi. It is also the chocolate town. How can one product be
moulded, mixed, displayed, packaged and presented in so many ways!
From the 5kg Easter egg to the personal choice from hundreds of
different ones – served by pretty young girls with a tiny spatula
and a big smile. We also try the local smoked trout – served hot
with a chunky walnut sauce.
It has been a
long and lonely road. We meet fellow motor home travellers. One
guy does translations en route; she sells CD’s with routes, GPS
coordinates and pictures, by mail order. They are in a compact 4wd
Mercedes bus. The Kiwi’s have been on the road for 14 years. They
get massage training contracts at hotels and he manufactures
massage tables in their long low American campervan.
After some
marvellous free wild campings on the north shore of Park Nahuel
Huapi, passing San Martin de los Andes with its ice cream parlours
and trendy tourist shops, it is time to go back to Chile.
BACK TO CHILE
Carirriñe pass
and some 4wd.
At our lakeside
parking the GPS shows our altitude as 600m, and the temperature
inside Dipli is 1°C. We think we had better be over the obscure
Carirriñe pass of 1178m before night fall. The ascent is 50km
of winding track next to one lake. There are narrow wooden bridges
and we travel at 20-40 km/h, through a forest corridor, sometimes
in low range 4wd, to enable careful manoeuvring over the rough
surface. This border post is so seldom used by foreign vehicles
that the carabineros doing duty as border officials, seem to
struggle with the paper work.
We had looked
forward to soaking our travel-weary bones in the hot springs at
Termas Epulaufquen but it is mid Easter week-end and bus loads
of people are crammed into the pools. The next day, after a long
hike in Park Huerquehue in search of Araucaria trees (in
vain) we move on and find thermal waters. We look forward to hours
of total submersion but then we emerge quickly because the springs
are too hot!
We have come back
to Chile to see the trees, volcanoes and the attractive lakeside
villages of Pucon and Villarica. One night we park
in a lava bed between sunset reflections on Lake Calafquen
on one side, and the towering smoking Volcano Villarica (2847m) on
the other.
BACK TO ARGENTINA
The pass with The
trees.
In pouring rain
we cross the Mamuil Malal pass which runs through groves of
Araucaria Araucanas trees. The Araucaria is an impressively old
species of conifer. The female monkey-puzzle trees drop huge nuts.
This has been a staple food of the indigenous Mapuche for
centuries. We collect some of the long pods. After being boiled
and roasted, they taste like chestnuts.
BACK TO CHILE
Road closed on
Chilean side.
The weather
clears after 2 days of heavy rain. The Pehuenche pass leads
to Chile from Bardas Blancas. We arrive at the Argentinean
side of the border for document control. There is a locked gate.
We are still 40km from the actual frontier at the top of the pass.
The uniformed guards gather and tell us that the pass is closed
due to a landslide and will be closed for 3 more days. They
suggest that we drive 20km up the pass and go and wait at the hot
springs of Termas Cajon Grande. These pools are in the
veldt next to a river and surrounded by mountains. In spite of the
brownish iron oxide colour of the water, the scenic soaking was
bliss.
After 3 days we
go back down for the border procedures. On South African passports
we do not need visas for Argentina and Chile and both countries
also issue their own permits to foreign vehicles, so a Carnet de
Passage is not required. The, by now well known, procedure is
quick at such a quiet border; then we carry on over the pass. Ours
is the only vehicle and we meet the grader which has removed the
rock fall and filled the subsidence – only just wide enough to
enable Dipli to squeeze through between the cliff and the long,
long drop down to Lake Maule below.
We do not want
to risk being fined, so this time, before the border control post,
we consume all our fresh food in spite of not being very hungry!We are on our way further north to
Santiago, about midway in the string-bean country between the sea
and the mountains: 4300km long (but by road it is 5700km) and
averaging about 180km wide.
On to Easter Island
|
