Biker´s paradise: Parques Nacionales y Ruta de los 7 Lagos
After leaving Chos Malal and the drier area of the Argentine province of Neuquén close to the Chilean border behind, we were really looking forward to a greener outlook.
Our next stops were the Argentine province of Río Negro and the Chilean provinces of Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos, and these names reveal a lot about this beautiful part of South America with countless possibilities of outdoor adventures.
Our first destination was the town of Villa Pehuenia, Day 39-42 (12.-15.12.22). It is named after the araucaria (pehuén), a coniferous tree, that is also the symbol of the region.
Part of our travel day was to include a small off-road section. Well, more like off-asphalt, it's still a road but an unpaved one. 40km on an unpaved road is not a lot, but based on our experience at the first border crossing we decided to take a bigger break including a nap before the more exhausting part.
Before entering the unpaved road we were almost fooled again by a road sign. It claimed that the road leading to Villa Pehuenia was closed due to winter season. But it was late spring.... And several cars turned into this road as well. So we asked one of the drivers about the signs validity. He confirmed that the road is definitely open and the sign just hadn't been removed.
The road was interesting: it was with a beautiful scenery while a big part of it was a construction site as well. It looked like the road was being prepared for asphalting, and it was quite a challenge and experience to maneuver the bikes through the mix of gravel, sand, dirt, and between the huge construction machines.
The last 10km before Villa Pehuenia, the road was paved again and we took the time to take a few photos before arriving.
In Villa Pehuenia we checked and compared several cabañas and finally decided on one (Cabañas Las Terrazas) which was not the cheapest but had a perfect and beautiful view of lake Aluminé.
Like many times before we were "welcomed" at our accommodation by free running dogs. At cabañas Las Terrazas it were the neighbor's dogs, two German shepherds, who ran after us and barked when we arrived on our motorcycles. But shortly after, they adopted us and followed us everywhere. They even occupied and defended the cabaña we were staying in against the owner's dogs. So we became friends although dogs are not the motorcyclist best friend in general: they chase you on your bike, bite you and run in front the bike almost causing accidents.
During one of our days in Villa Pehuenia, we rode the motorcycles without luggage along the Circuito Pehuenia, a scenic loop drive along the lakes of Moquehue, Ñorquinco, Pulmarí and Aluminé, that allowed us to see more of the less-frequented parts of Argentina´s lake district.
Having enjoyed the town, its surroundings and our cabaña a lot, we found it difficult to leave after 3 nights but we were also excited to visit the Parque Nacional Conguillio in Chile, Day 42-44 (15.-17.12.22).
To get there from Villa Pehuenia we had to re-enter Chile and experience our first border crossing back into Chile. Little did we know before that many things are not allowed to be introduced to Chile from Argentina. We learned the hard way (see also Helge's blog post https://www.expedition-timeout.com/post/borderline-experiences) and lost most of our food that we had bought for the campground.
Since the border crossing took more time than expected and we had to buy food again, we arrived very late at the park entrance and were welcomed with a sign saying "cerrado" (closed). We thought we were lucky and could enter, because we still saw park rangers sitting in the park entrance office. And you can't rely on road signs anyway, but unfortunately the park rangers confirmed that the park was closed for the day.
When we mentioned that we planned an overnight stay, we were allowed to enter but still needed to buy the tickets online. Since there was no phone reception, we would have needed to drive back 10 km to the closest village, access the park's homepage, buy the tickets there just to return to the park entrance. Lucky for us, Helge was able to apply his soft skills successfully and after chatting a bit with the park rangers, we could buy the tickets online with the WiFi from the park ranger's office. Note to ourselves: Check the park's homepage and entrance conditions before :).
The road to the campground was amazing, volcanos and lakes to both sides, and a lot of fun to ride, only the last kilometer on the campground itself with deeper sand was a bit more difficult.
The Llaima volcano in the park is still active and the magma that has solidified into lava rock over time is omnipresent. It created a moon-like landscape that, paired with the turquoise waters of Laguna Verde and Lago Conguilio, resulted in those beautiful scenery.
One reason we wanted to visit Parque Nacional Conguillio was the Sendero Sierra Nevada, one of Chile's most famous short hikes.
We had chosen a hot day for the hike, so we needed to take it slow, but the sun and bright sky allowed some beautiful views. Even though it was so hot, there was still snow on the last kilometer marking our point of return.
The nights in the National Park were as spectacular as the days and we tried to capture some of their magic in photos :). Light pollution is fortunately not yet an issue here.
We continued traveling after two nights and headed to Pucón, Day 44-47 (17.-20.12.22), a famous spot for adventure seekers which is located next to the volcano Villarrica and the lake Villarrica.
We stayed in a cozy guesthouse which was a short walk away from the busy and occasionally noisy center at night, as there were already many tourists looking for new outdoor adventure experiences.
We wanted to try something new and initially considered taking a white water rafting tour. Instead, we decided to do a Hydrospeed trip, because rafting was also available in other places in Patagonia and Hydrospeed was quite famous in Pucón.
At first I even thought it was easier than rafting but when we arrived with the tour company's bus at the starting point and got our helmets, fins, fin straps and wetsuits, it slowly dawned on me that this may have been a misapprehension: The wetsuits were reinforced at the knees and elbows and some of them already looked very worn. Makes sense, because in Hydrospeed it is the body and not the boat that hits the rocks in the rivers....
We were a group of 7 people (3 women and 4 men) and 3 guides were going to accompany us on the river. Two of them were joining us in the water, one in the front and one at the end of the group. And the third guide sat in one of the rafting boats and followed us in case somebody preferred to continue the ride in the boat.
But before we started, we got a safety introduction and did some small exercises with the board in a calm bay: how to steer, how to turn around and get back on the board in case we flipped over and lost the board. They also explained the level of difficulty of the rapids we would be going through, and it wasn't just the easy ones. Then we started, like little ducks in a row following the mother hen.
After 3 minutes I thought I'd finish the trip in the boat. In the beginning it was exhausting and when you're on the verge of pure panic when you have a mouthful of water every 2 seconds, you can't really enjoy the adventure. But soon it got better, we got used to maneuvering the boards and although it remained a challenge, it was so much fun and pure adrenaline. At the beginning of the day I regretted forgetting my contact lenses, but they would have been washed out 5 seconds after entering the river anyway.
After half an hour the tour was over and we all had a huge smile on our faces. One of the tour guides told us that some groups finish the tour completely in the boat and that this is usually the case with Chilean groups. In our case no one from the group chickened out and we were very proud of ourselves.
Back in Pucón we needed to refill our energy reservoir and had an amazing dinner in the restaurant Trawen with local trout and meat.
Our next destination was the Reserva Nacional Huilo Huilo, Day 47-49 (20.-22.12.22), where we planned to stay on the campsite and do some hiking. The accommodation did not go as planned: we were told that the campsite is not open yet and would open on the 22nd Dec, so we had to stay 2 nights in a (very expensive) cabaña.
This was one of our first encounters with the occasional intransparent handling of the IVA (Impuesto al Valor Agregado), the value-added, tax in some accommodations in Chile. The IVA of 19% is built into the price of almost everything you can buy. Most if the time, it is already included and what you see is what you get (or have to pay).
Unfortunately, some accommodations only advertise their price without tax and then you have an unpleasant surprise when paying the bill.
Foreigners can be exempt from paying IVA in one situation: If you pay for your accommodation with foreign currency (like US dollars or euros) or with a foreign-issued credit card. We tried so, but our VISA credit cards work like debit cards, it was not possible to pay in any other currency than the local one. To avoid adding another 19% to our 98EUR per night cabaña we paid with US-Dollars in cash. This was quite a hassle because they only accepted clean, new, spotless dollar bills, and depending on the receptionist, the bills we paid with were first accepted and then rejected by the receptionist on the next shift. Our US$20 and US$1 bills were very worn, but we had perfect US$50 and US$100 bills that we couldn't pay with either: they couldn't give change because they weren't allowed to have cash in the register. We had to run back and forth to the front desk a few times until the combination of bills we brought was new and clean enough for everyone to accept and match the price.
We were not very happy about the cumbersome and time consuming payment procedure because we would have preferred to use the time for something more fun like hiking.
Of course, we went hiking anyway, and the park was really nice. The trails were well maintained and marked with little yellow birds on the trees.
In the end, we could have done without the payment dance, but staying in a cabaña rather than a tent was fortunate for us. The second night it started to rain and it didn't stop raining the following day. Had we slept in a tent, we would have left Huilo Huilo soaking wet.
The rain also made us choose our next border crossing to Argentina. We had two options, the Paso Carirriñe or the Paso Hua-Hum. The Paso Carirriñe was more beautiful but the guy who recommended us this border crossing also said we should not drive it when it rains and instead choose the Hua-Hum crossing. Said and done, since it rained cats and dogs we headed towards Puerto Fuy and waited for our first ferry ride on the lake Pirihueico, which brought us close to the border and the Paso Hua-Hum.
Only 10 km after disembarking the ferry we reached the border crossing and since it was not our first entry into Argentina, we knew more or less what to expect. A few meters after entering Argentina we stopped to fix one of Helge´s foglights. Due to all the shaking on the unpaved roads, a screw had loosened and the foglight was only hanging on the wire instead of being in its holder. We were prepared and had spare screws, but they were too long and Helge had to make the screw fit manually with a file. After the fog light was properly reattached and we had covered a few miles in Argentina, the sky cleared, the sun came out and before we reached San Martin de los Andes, day 49-50 (22.-23.12.22), we could get rid of our waterproof clothing and enjoy the first glimpses of this part of the Argentine Lake District.
We spent only one night in San Martin and headed the next day towards Bariloche, a town famous for its chocolate and its magnificent location between lakes and several 2000m high peaks. To get there we rode the famous RN40, whose course between San Martin and Villa Angostura in the South is also named the Ruta de los Siete Lagos. It could also have been called Biker-Wonderland: The winding road snaked through real-life picture-postcard views with snow-capped mountains, crystal-clear lakes and vibrant green forests. Sometimes it was hard to concentrate on riding and enjoying the scenery at the same time, so we had to take a few breaks to take LOTS of photos, with and without ourselves and our bikes, and with a very curious and photogenic bird of prey :).
We planned to stay 3 days in Bariloche, Day 50-54 (23.-27.12.22), during Christmas and had chosen a nice little hostel with a very friendly staff and warm atmosphere. There was no separate parking lot for our bikes, but we were allowed to park them right next to the hostel's entrance.
Exploring the city, we enjoyed the scenery and the Christmas decorations, even if it was a lot of kitsch :) (or in Spanish: una ciudad muuuuy cursi).
We followed our guide's advice and bought chocolate at the Mamuschka store, a bag for each of us, clearly showing that we have different tastes in terms of white versus dark chocolate. Either way, they both ended up being eaten/inhaled very quickly.
But chocolate was not the only culinary treat we indulged ourselves with: there was the delicious ice from the ice cream parlor Jauja and the beer from the many cervecerías in Bariloche. The town is the center of the craft beer movement in the region and we tested them intensely at the Cervecerías Manush and Bachmann.
For Christmas, which in Germany is mainly celebrated on the evening of December 24, we wanted to have dinner at one of the many parillas (steakhouses) in town. But before we went in search of a good place and reserved a table, we called our families in the morning to send them Merry Christmas and birthday wishes.
We were very thankful that technology these days provides an easy and cheap way to call almost anyone, anytime, anywhere, even via video. We both remembered the circumstances when we were in South America 18 and 21 years ago independently from each other. Back then, it wasn't so easy to call home, and even writing an email in a public Internet cafe could take a few hours due to the slow connection. Not to mention the photos that had to be taken home as physical cassettes in cans and developed weeks after the trip, hoping that most of the shots turned out well and that the X-ray machine at the airport didn't do any damage.
Now back to the topic at hand: Christmas dinner :).
We tried to make reservations at several places, but soon found out that almost all restaurants in town were closed on the evening of the 24th. We had to change our plans. Since our hostel was equipped not only with a kitchen but also with a barbecue area, we decided to make our own parrilla.
Said and done, we went to the supermarket Anónima, a big supermarket chain like Rewe or LIDL in Germany, where we hoped to find everything we needed including charcoal and meat. Having lived in Spain, we were not prepared for this: the selection of meat types and cuts were huge and cut names were completely different from what we knew, so we asked the employee at the meat counter for advice.
Apparently we were a bit late for Christmas grocery shopping, there was nothing left in the counter for a parrilla, and he asked us to check the self-service counter. Of the remaining meats, we chose two pieces and again asked the employee for advice which was better and he chose the aguja. Just in case things went wrong, we also bought a chorizo, a sausage that was definitely a good choice for a parrilla. We also bought some vegetables and headed back to the hostel.
We weren't the only ones who had the idea of a Christmas parrilla. Two other couples from Argentina (City of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Region) were also preparing their meat, appetizers and salad for dinner and we asked if we could join them.
You could say they saved our dinner by adopting us :).
Our meat was neither the best nor the worst choice for a parrilla, but since it was difficult to prepare it well on the barbecue, we were very lucky to have an Argentina parrilla expert in charge of the barbecue.
Even more, since an Argentine barbecue is very different from a German one, we learned that evening not only which meat to choose next time, but also how to use the barbecue differently with firewood and charcoal. We spent an amazing Christmas Eve with them and ended up emptying several bottles of beer, wine and sparkling wine. As a result the next day was filled with very little activity, but thanks to the recommendations of our new friends, we decided to make a small change in our travel plans. We were supposed to travel to the town of Esquel, but instead decided to go to the National Park Los Alerces and spend a few days at a the campsite Río Arrayanes, Day 54-56 (27.-29.12.22).
The road to the National Park was already beautiful and only occasionally paved and sometimes bumpy - apparently too much for the low profile tires of an Audi, we found abandoned on the road.
The campsite was even better. It was beautifully located next to a river and the different lots were well separated from each other. On campsites you usually do not expect a lot of privacy but due to the distribution and layout of the lots, it was an almost intimate setting for us and our tent.
During our time in the National Park we wanted to do one of the most popular excursions which included a boat trip and a small hike to see some ancient Alerces, a tree that gave the park its name (the Alerce is one of the longest living tree species in the world and specimen up to almost 2600 years of age can be found in the park).
There was only a small difficulty: Tickets could be bought only online, and there was no phone reception or internet connection. Only in one of the campsites some kilometers further north the front desk had internet connection and provided the service to purchase the tickets.
We decided to combine the scavenger hunt for internet with a hike. We did see some Alerces and other types of endemic trees and plants, but had no luck with purchasing the tickets. When we arrived at the campsite's front desk, there were no more tickets available for the following 2 days.
Some bad luck for us, but the surroundings we had explored so far were already beautiful enough, and we decided to use our "free" day for some relax and play time with the drone at our campsite before heading back to Chile for New Year.
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