Three Boats and Four Buses over the Andes

Three Boats and Four Buses over the Andes

Wednesday, Feb. 15, Bariloche, The Lake District, Argentina

Well, I made the long, but dramatic crossing over the Andes between the Lake Districts of Chile and Argentina yesterday. It was 14 hours involving 4 buses and 3 boats. We were lucky with the weather. The guide explained that it rains 250 days a year on this route, is cloudy another 50 days, and that there are only about 50 clear, sunny days like we were having. The trip was beautiful and exciting, but it was also a tedious, boring trip. Beauty first....

The mountains and the lakes were fantastic. The first segment was a bus trip along the edge of the lake from Puerto Varas (where I had been staying) to Petrohué. I had made that part of the trip earlier when I went to Ensenada, but it is wonderful with the view of two snowcapped volcanoes beyond the lake. We stopped at the national park where I had hiked and spent 1 hour at a place where the running water of a river had cut channels through the lava bed that caused the water to rush through at high, dramatic speed. I also hiked a couple of trails there.

The first boat was a catamaran going from Petrohué to Peulla. This is on a lake called the Emerald Lake. It is truly green and beautiful. We were told it is caused by minerals that wash down from the mountains that are so light that they stay suspended for long periods of time in the water before finally settling to the bottom. It is supposed to be the most beautiful of the lakes in the Chilean Lake District, and I believe it. We could see volcanoes and snow-capped mountains all along the route with the lower levels covered in fir and other types of trees.

Peulla is a truly special place. It is so remote that few people get there. It has a large old hotel (and a new modern one being built) and 120 people. Essentially, it is like going to a national park that has a wonderful hotel, but none of the crowds are there! It would be a great getaway for someone who wanted peace and quiet for a few days. It also has trails. I had spent my Chilean pesos to buy picnic supplies to eat, so I went up a trail while all the others went into the expensive hotel restaurant or the fairly expensive self-service cafeteria beside the hotel. I found a bench where there were flowers blooming and with a view in the distance of a tall waterfall. I got out my crackers, salami, wine, fruits and cookies and just enjoyed myself without anyone coming around.

There was some excitement while I was there having my picnic. I heard some voices and saw people arrive at the waterfall which was on another trail that branched off from mine. After a moment, I saw a woman strip to a bikini. She took off the top of that, too. Then she placed her thumbs in the waist of the bottoms and slipped them down. After a moment, I realized it was a photo shoot. Another woman also undressed. I was thinking about friends like Bob Maroney who would have been so excited to have been there at that moment watching what was happening. I tried to get a photo, but it was so far away that my zoom really couldn´t pick it up. I could see much better with my eyes than with the camera, unfortunately. Some guys on an adventure trip who were gliding through the forest top hooked to wires saw what was happening. Instead of being smart and just watching, they had to start whooping it up. The girls immediately started covering up.

We took a bus from Peulla to Lago Frias. This was the crossing of the continental divide and was on a one-lane, unpaved road--just volcano ash and small lava stones. We checked out of Chile at Peulla and into Argentina at Lago Frias. In between was beautiful scenery with one stop to observe the glacier at a volcano on the border. The mountains here were more rocky than those at the crossing between Mendoza and Santiago and, therefore, were more beautiful. It seems so special to be crossing on such a road, too, which the guide called a "true mountain road."

There was a short ferry ride from Lago Frias to a place near Puerto Blest, then we took a short bus trip to get us the rest of the way to Puerto Blest which is another beauty site with a national-park style hotel. On the boat trip, we could see the Argentinean side of the same volcano with the glacier that we had stopped to see earlier in Chile.

The lake from Puerto Blest to Puerto Pañuelos was another emerald colored one--a long one with layers of mountains to be seen in the distance on each side. Puerto Panñuelos was another place with a fantastic hotel setting up on the mounside--a hotel resort with facilities such as a golf course. From there, we took a final bus which dropped us off at our hotels in Bariloche.

Now the tedious and boring...

The trip was 14 hours long! Of course, the traveling part was only about 60% of this time. Another 10-15% of the time was at nice stops. But the rest of the time was spent waiting, and waiting, and waiting. It was mostly OLD people on this trip. (Most young people pay to take the bus for about $16 rather than the $160 for the boat/bus crossing.) People took forever to get on and off the buses. People didn´t come back when they were supposed to come back. People didn´t follow directions about where to go and what to do and had to be re-told. By the time the trip was over, I had renewed my belief that I am not a tour package person. I am glad to have had the experience of seeing what I saw, but I don´t know if I would want to go through it knowing what I know now. It´s possible to do most of this on each side of the border independently. It´s just not possible to connect the two in a crossing without taking this tour which covers a route that is the monopoly of one company. In the future, I will try to remember to do what I can on my own and just give up on what cannot be done without going with a tour group, I think.

Well, I am back in Argentina now. I stayed at a hotel that was $33 last night, but I don´t think it was a good value at that price. I left it this morning and found another place for $20. I probably could have gotten an even better place, but I didn´t have a lot of time to look around, since check-out at the hotel where I was staying was at 10 a.m.

I spent the morning seeing the doctor. For the past 3 days I have been in pain with my thumb. One of the needles was bent so that the end of the part coming out of my thumb was pressing against the skin. That caused pain, and it caused swelling. The swelling caused even more pressure and pain. I had trouble sleeping the last night in Chile and last night here in Bariloche, so I decided it was time to get the needles removed. I found a clinic with a very nice doctor who spoke English well. He insisted on more x-rays even though the ones 10 days ago showed that the bone had healed. Then he removed the pins. The first one came out on the first pull. It was the one that had always stuck out well and also the one that had been causing me so much pain. The second one had never stuck out right. It could be seen, but not the tip end of it (which was under the skin). It was also the needle that went further inside the bone than the other (which only went almost directly across the bone). He had been being very sterile and using proper tools, but the needle didn´t budge about about 4 tries. So he got out a pair of pliers that looked like they came straight from the garage and tried them about 3 times. Again the needle wouldn´t budge. He decided he needed to give me a local anesthetic, because all this effort was creating pain. Following the anesthetic, he gave one big pull with the pliers, and the needle came out. It´s amazing how much nicer it is without the needles inside. Much of the stiffness and the pain I had been having were due to the needles. Immediately, I could move my thumb quite well. Thepopping that had occurred sometimes no longer did. I could write better and easier. It was obvious that I will be as good as new, although I will need to exercise it to get some remaining stiffness out of the way. The skin was torn some in getting the last needle out, so there was some bleeding. He put a bandage on and wrapped the hand/thumb in gauze. I am supposed to clean it daily, replace the bandage, and wrap it up again for 4 days. Then I can take it off and be myself again.

I ate lunch at a northern Argentinean restaurant today having locro, a soup with hominy, large white beans, pumpkin, bits of bacon, small chunks of beef, small chunks of sausage, etc., in it. Bariloche is full of chocolate shops that are supposed to be great, so I think I will celebrate getting my thumb back to almost normal by treating myself to some chocolate this afternoon.