Back to dear old Blighty again

The final few weeks of this trip have not exactly been the most interesting, although we have a tale or two to tell.  Our main purpose was to drive over the Andes, across Argentina and then to the southern coast of Uruguay where we have arranged to store Footloose Lucy for the next nine months or so.  This has meant covering a similar distance in three weeks to that which we have covered in the last three months.

We circumnavigated our way around Santiago without going wrong once and then on Good Friday we crossed the Andes into Argentina.  The Andes were stark and savage and high with seemingly nothing on them apart from the occasional distant glimpse of a large raptor.  The ascent to the Chilean/Argentine border was steep and quite formidable but the descent to the foothills around Mendoza was much more gradual and gentle.

Switchback up the Andes

Road through the Andes

Lunch stop at the top

Turquoise lake on Argentine side

We arrived in Mendoza, a lively and attractive city in the middle of the Argentine wine growing region, on Easter Saturday.  We looked for various cabanas, hostels and hotels to stay in Mendoza, all of which were full, it being Easter weekend.  The only place that wasn’t full was the Motel San Isidro which is where we ended up staying.  Motel in South America is a euphemism for sex hotel but any port in a storm!

The Motel San Isidro was all that the name suggests.  The entrance was discreet, the car ports had curtains that closed behind the vehicles in order to protect them from prying eyes.  The room itself had an extremely large bed and a two-person shower with two shower heads.  There was a cunning device, a bit like a leper’s hatch, for ordering food and drink.  This presumably enabled the occupants to ring up and say, ‘Immediately send two dozen oysters and a bottle of champagne’ and somebody would trot along, open a flap on the outside, push the food in and then close the flap.  The occupants could then open the inside of the flap and, when they had a spare moment, consume the provisions.  All that said, we were very comfortable and the staff, who were quite amused at a couple of white haired travellers taking refuge at their motel, were very friendly and helpful.

Little furry rodent without a tail (not a mouse)

 

Monk Parakeet sitting on the BBQ

After our dirty weekend we descended onto the Pampas looking for wild Gauchos riding around on sweat flecked ponies.  What we found was combine harvesters.  The harvest was in full swing and everywhere we looked there were combines spewing grain and soya and millet out into the backs of trucks which were keeping pace with the combines as they moved through the flat unending prairie.  The Gauchos have probably all gone to work as extras in Hollywood

We found this nice secluded spot for lunch and then the heavy brigade decided to join us

The roads across the Pampas in Argentina are by and large, dead straight, dead flat and deadly boring.  We agreed that if this is the Pampas you can keep it.  This part of the trip has not been without its incidents and amusements, however. 

After driving our daily average of 250 kilometres we turned up one evening in a little town and found that it had an attractive lake which we thought would make a nice place to camp for the night.  We looked around for somebody who might tell us where we could camp, and we happened upon the man from the water purification company.  He was a very pleasant chap who pointed out where the camping area was and then he asked us if we would like some fresh water, he being in the business.  We took up his offer and he filled the water tank and then we proceeded round the lake to the area designated for camping.

We sat for a while and chatted and then a friend of the aforementioned water company employee turned up and said how pleased he was we were there and had come to visit their little town and, by the way, was it okay if he got the local television company along.  We weren’t quite sure if we had understood him correctly but we said “yes, yes, yes” and he took some photographs and then we got on with making our supper in the time honoured manner. 

About fifteen minutes later the television crew arrived complete with outside broadcast stuff and a lady to do the continuity and they proceeded to interview Sue (the only one of us who speaks a bit of Spanish), slightly flustered, but who made a pretty good fist of it in the end.  Meanwhile the guy with the very sophisticated camera went all the way round Lucy and inside Lucy and up in the tent and took long shots and shots of us and they ultimately went off with great expressions of good fellowship.  If we were the local headlines then it must have been a quiet week in Lake Woebegon.

Sue with Argentine TV crew

After a week of driving seemingly endless miles along seemingly endless roads and staying in forgettable towns we finally approached the seemingly unpronounceable town of Gualeguaychu, close to the border with Uruguay.

Coming into the aforementioned unpronounceable town we missed the turning and Alan decided that he would take a short cut across a little grassy bank onto the right road rather than turning around and going back.  There was a ditch, quite a deep ditch, too deep for Lucy.

There was this shortcut . . . . .

Lucy got comprehensibly stuck, so we hitched the winch up to a handy telegraph pole but unfortunately it was at entirely the wrong angle and therefore would only pull Lucy sideways rather than out.  Before long two policemen came along, followed by another two and, whilst they undoubtedly thought we were completely stupid (and they were right weren’t they Alan? Should have listened to Sue), they were very helpful and ultimately they persuaded a chap in a large pick-up to tow Lucy out backwards.  On this occasion it was a VW pickup, not a Nissan.

During the initial attempts to winch Lucy out of the ditch, her bonnet catch broke which meant we could no longer open the bonnet.  This resulted in us having to stay in the aforementioned unpronounceable town for longer than we intended in order to get it fixed.  That said, it turned out to be quite a pleasant town and we managed to while away the time along the banks of the Rio Gualeguaychu and the surrounding park which was full of bird life.

Female Green-Barred Woodpecker

Red Crested Cardinal

The crossing into Uruguay on Tuesday 10^th April was our fastest ever, fifteen minutes from start to finish and that included obtaining a 365 day Temporary Import Permit for Lucy.  It made us wonder why other countries have to spend so much time shuffling round bits of paper, sending you to half a dozen different check points and stamping everything in triplicate.

The Plaza at Mercedes, Uruguay, with Cathedral and flowering tree

Close up of prickly tree in bloom

Mercedes Cathedral

By Wednesday afternoon we had arrived at the overland depot, otherwise known as Paraiso Suizo.  Heinz and Sylvia, the Swiss couple who own and run Paraiso Suizo, were very pleasant and made us entirely welcome.

Having got ourselves shaken down Heinz suggested that we should park Lucy next to the bungalow as there was a big thunderstorm coming in during the night.  This we did, in fact very close to the bungalow.  Unfortunately, the wind direction was not as predicted and during the night we got the full force of the thunderstorm with lashing rain and heavy winds on the tent.

The tent awning supports flew away some time during the high point of the storm and we felt like a couple of young rooks in a nest high in a poplar tree being whacked around by the vagaries of the February and March gales.  Interesting experience.  The tent also leaked, it leaked a great deal.  In fact, Sue’s side was mostly a pool of water and she was understandably far from entirely gruntled.  Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep.

Washed up marker buoy - victim of the storm

Attempt to re-float fishing trawler - another storm casualty

Next day we decamped and moved into one of the nice, dry, spacious cabanas where we have been ever since even though the weather is now beautiful and sunny again.  We have spent the time getting Lucy serviced and other bits of her fixed, cleaned her inside and out and generally prepared her for a long stay here at Paraiso Suizo although we still haven’t worked out what to do about the leaking tent.

We’ve also had time to chill out and relax here.  There are miles of deserted white sandy beach to stroll along, there have been birds for Alan to photograph and the nearby town of Piriapolis where Lucy has had her repairs done is a pleasant enough seaside town to wander around.

She's nicked my hat again!

Totally in control of the situation - chairlift to the Mirador, Piriapolis

Male Green-Barred Woodpecker

Female Green Barred Woodpecker

Monk Parakeet

We don't know what this one is, but it's very pretty

We have booked our flights home and on Wednesday 18^th April we will be leaving for UK and Lucy will be staying at Paraiso Suizo in the tender care of Heinz.  The highlight of this trip has most certainly been the time spent in Patagonia (except the disappointment of not seeing Albatross and Elephant seals) and on Chiloe which was everything we hoped for and more.

We are already thinking about our next trip when we plan to make our way to Bolivia and Peru and somehow include a trip into Brazil and the Amazon.  Watch this space!

It rained and rained for hours and hours (and then we had occasional showers)

When we left Chiloe on Wednesday 14^th March we thought the weather would improve.  It didn’t.

We spent the next couple of days at Puerto Varas, a very nice town on the southern shores of an immense lake, Lago Llanquihue, with views across to Volcan Osorno (although we never saw it). On Thursday gale force winds whipped the trees around and turned the lake into a raging sea so kayaking was out and on Friday the gods opened the taps, so birdwatching was out and so was any chance of seeing the apparently spectacular volcano. 

That being the case we decided to get on the road again and drive in an anti-clockwise direction around the lake towards some waterfalls, hopeful that it might stop raining at some stage .

We arrived at the Saltos Petrohue where there was a series of impressive rapids and waterfalls created by a huge downfall of volcanic stuff which had caused a log jam on the river between two lakes. However, getting to the waterfalls involved walking along a trail and, guess what, it was p…..g it down with rain.

Saltos Petrohue

Saltos Petrohue

We then drove further up the road and found a very pleasant restaurant to have lunch and dry out and it continued to rain.

A little further along the road there was a very loud noise which turned out to be coming from a smoking tyre and the tyre was undeniably flat and still it was p…..g it down with rain.  So, the next job was to change the wheel and Alan spent the best part of the next hour doing so, much of the time lying down in an ever deepening puddle because, let’s not forget, it was p…...g it down with rain.  Don’t let anyone tell you that travelling is all fun.

Meanwhile Sue was for once doing as asked which was to please stay in the vehicle and think of England.  This she did but she later admitted that she didn’t think very much about England as about how nice and dry she was and how horrible and soggy wet Alan was.

Said soggy wet person then got back into the truck and we continued on our way to the town of Osorno where we found a decent B & B.  By the way, it was still raining when we turned in for the night.

Saturday was a much better day.  We managed to get two new tyres fitted, the B & B washed all Alan’s wet and muddy clothes, the sun came out and we took advantage of the improved weather to go and visit yet more waterfalls in the Puyehue national park some fifty miles away.

Puyehue National Park

Walking in Puyehue National Park

Waterfall, Puyehue National Park

Tree ferns in the national park

This being the Chilean Lake District we set off on Sunday in a northerly direction to another lake, Lago Villarrica, with yet another volcano sitting behind it.

There were lots of agencies advertising all sorts of outdoor activities in the area and Alan, who was feeling the lack of an adrenalin-rush, arranged to do what they call Hydro Speeding. This is basically where they give you a large polystyrene body board and chuck you into a set of rapids for an hour.  He turned up at the appointed time only to be told that because he was the only one who wanted to do it they weren’t going.  Just as well, what on earth was he thinking off at his age?

He settled instead for something gentler and so we went to have a look at the Volcan Villarrica which was everything that a volcano should be.  We drove to the foot of the volcano and it loomed out of the surrounding forest in the classic volcanic manner with its pyramidal cone half covered in snow and with an ominous wisp of sulphur smoke coming out of the top. 

Volcan Villarrica

Lucy at the foot of the volcano

As we got closer we could see the route that the molten lava had taken during the last eruption which was in 2015.  Much of the time we were walking over fine black volcanic ash, but it was surprising just how readily plants had colonised this apparently inhospitable growing medium and started to flourish.

Path of lava flow from the volcano

Having seen all we wanted to of Villarrica, we headed off to the city of Temuco where we arrived on Thursday afternoon. We normally try to avoid cities, but Temuco is apparently a city with a strong Mapuche heritage and we thought it worth a visit.

The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in southern South America and their name means ‘the people’s land’ taken from the words ‘mapu’ (land) and ‘che' (people).  They were never subdued by the Incas and successfully resisted the Spanish for over two hundred years.  Nevertheless, their original homeland has been reduced from over 100,000 square kilometres to just 5,000, most of this in the area between Temuco and the Pacific coast.

Temuco is a city much like any other city although there are undercurrents of discord between the large Mapuche population, who consider themselves dispossessed, and the police. We noticed that there was some difficulty close to the Plaza de Armas where there were riot vehicles parked apparently in readiness for some form of confrontation although we never saw the confrontation if indeed there was one. There were however a lot of carabineros around including female carabineras with very tight fitting hats and determined expressions, oh and pistols.

In the main square there was a bronze depicting various figures from the city’s past including a conquistador that had been graffiti covered, a soldier with a rifle who had been graffiti covered and a Mapuche warrior who was scrupulously not covered in graffiti.  We mentioned this to Martin, the son of the hostel owner where we were staying, who confirmed that this was one of the manifestations of anger that the Mapuche people feel for the expropriation of their lands.

Wooden sculpture of Mapuche Warrior - wonderful expression of sadness mingled with noble resignation

We much enjoyed visiting the very large and colourful outdoor market which was full of mounds of fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices, meat, fish, flowers, wooden implements and leather goods. The stall holders were lively and friendly and some of them were very happy to be photographed. There were sacks full of spices, smoked chilli, paprika, red hot chilli, not so red hot chilli, chilli with herbs and we bought three bags, Alan having sampled them all and nearly burnt out the roof of his mouth in the process.

Ox cart outside Temuco market

Leading the oxen

Stall holder selling Pinones (Aracuaria tree nuts)

Market stall

Spices for sale

Stall holders selling spices

We also sampled Cazuela, the local dish, at one of the eateries in the market.  It was basically a huge lump of meat, half a corn cob, a potato and some vegetables and rice in a thin soup.  Once eaten, best forgotten.

On Thursday 22^nd March we left Temuco (in the pouring rain) and drove West to the small town of Puerto Saavedra on the Pacific coast where it was still pouring with rain for much of the time.  In between rain storms we went to have a look at the ocean. It did not disappoint.  The combers came crashing in with spindrift whizzing off the tops of the waves as they charged shoreside and pounded on the black sandy beach. 

Back with the ocean

Pacific combers and lagoon at Puerto Saavedra

However, the high point of our stay was when we drove south of the town through some remote countryside and isolated Mapuche communities to Lago Budi, the only inland saltwater lake in Chile and apparently visited by over 130 species of water bird.  We saw upwards of two hundred black neck swans, also some white tufted grebes, quite a lot of ducks and some egrets but the swans en masse took the prize.

Black neck swans, Lago Budi

White tufted grebe

When the sun finally came out we opened the tent up and found that everything was soaking wet which did not make either of us particularly happy.  We took the mattress and the duvet and the sheet out and first of all laid them out in the sun and then next to the stove in our cabana.  Mercifully, everything was dry by next morning.

The next morning, Saturday, we left Puerto Saavedra, got on a little cable ferry that took us across the mouth of the river, and then continued our merry way north along the Pacific coast.

Waiting for the chain ferry

Disembarking from the ferry

To our delight we found the most wonderful wild camping site on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Pacific. We reached it by driving up a very steep and very rocky track which had not been recently navigated by anybody else as far as we could see, and then by means of asking Lucy to do some acrobatics in the way of leaping over a bit of a ski jump with a boulder strewn area beyond.  However, all was well, we deployed the tent and Alan got a very creditable camp fire going and the Carabineros didn’t come along and spoil this one.

Climbing the cliffs above the Pacific at Tirua

Cliff-top campsite overlooking the Pacific at Tirua

It was a very cold night but we were tucked up in our warm and thankfully dry tent.  It was still exceedingly cold the next morning, but we were rewarded by the bay itself in full sunshine and low mist hurrying across the dunes and out to sea to meet the advancing phalanxes of Pacific combers coming in to the land.  Shortly after, the sun came over the mountain top to the east and first of all touched the top of the rocky outcrop where we were camped and then moved down to illuminate the tent and the vehicle, and we could feel our fingers once more.

Having packed the tent up we had the interesting exercise of getting Lucy down from her perch.  This involved reversing over the boulder strewn area and then down a slope of about 45 degrees without turning Lucy over.  This was achieved without incident.

Interesting access to campsite

The track back down from the cliff

After that little bit of excitement we had a very boring day on busy main roads in order to circumnavigate Concepcion which is Chile’s second largest city and we ultimately found ourselves in Florida.  In case you are wondering, we hadn’t taken a plane and flown a few thousand miles north, it’s actually the name of a small town in the central valley of Chile.

Roadside lilies

The central valley is the main wine growing area of Chile and we started to see neat vineyards.  And for the first time since we started travelling in January it was hot, a very welcome change.

Monday was an interesting day. The first part of the day was okay, we packed up from our cabana and travelled back to the Pacific coast. Then we came to a place which had a wide black sandy bay and Alan said “Oh, this is lovely, let’s go out on there and find somewhere marvellous to camp”.  What a stupid idea!

It was a wide sandy bay and plenty of vehicles had been across it, BUT they were lighter vehicles than Lucy who weighs in at a canny three tons.  Alan let plenty of air out of the tyres but the sand was very soft and after about half an hour he had to admit that we had dug ourselves rather a deep hole from which it was not going to be possible to extract ourselves unaided.

Stuck

We found a guy in a red pickup and having flagged him down he said that he was indeed happy to help.  He therefore took us back to where Lucy was woefully up to the axles in deep sand and after digging out some sand we hitched Lucy up to his Nissan and he pulled us out until we were on slightly firmer sand.  The ignominy of it, a Land Rover having to be rescued by a Nissan! He will probably be dining out on that story for a while to come but we were very grateful all the same.

We are now in the town of Santa Cruz which is in the heart of the wine growing area.  It is an unremarkable place and we are only here to catch up on the usual domestic tasks and admin.  Thankfully, we seem to have left the cold and rain behind us, at least for the time being, and we are enjoying the hot sunny days.

From here we plan to step up the pace as we continue north to Santiago and then across the Andes into Argentina.