We set off on the bus again headed for El Bolsen, the supposedly hippy community of Patagonia. We certainly managed to find ourselves in the most hippy hostel ever. Run by who seemed to me to be 4 hippy swingers, ok maybe not swingers but I reckon there was a lot of free love going on. It was in the middle of nowhere 10k out of town, they had built it themselves. But it was amazing value, we had a whole apartment to ourselves, and there was a main lounge with a roaring log fire and sheepskin rugs and a good kitchen. We met Kate and Steph there on the first night and went straight out for a steak dinner washed down with lots of argentinian wine, and exchanged stories of our travels.
It was the perfect spot for hikers as the town was shadowed by some ominous jagged mountains, but with our recent hiking experience under our belts we chose to use this retreat to sort out our New Zealand trip. Ie. Christmas hotels, campervans and route plan etc. Luckily we didn't bore Kate and Steph too much with it as they had their own planning to do. We did lots of sipping red wine and making good old British dinners with them including the best cottage pie ive ever tasted, if i do say so myself. It was great to catch up and swop stories. 4 days flew by and we headed in our different directions again after exchanging some tips. Kate had told us how much cheaper it was to travel by bus in Chile, so we headed off to San Martin de Los Andes near the Chilean border.
It was only really a pit stop but the town was really cute. It felt like it should have been in Switzerland or Austria as all the buildings were chalet style and there were wooden walkways to protect from the snow. In winter it's basically a cool ski resort, but it still made for a good place to wander around in spring. The main thing to mention about this place was one of our most beloved memories of Argentina. The bife de Choritzo. No not a massive sausage, it's what they call their sirloin steak here. We treated ourselves, and it was immense. I can't even begin to tell you how perfectly cooked and juicy it was, we had sides of papas fritas (chips) and roasted veg which were equally as good. Photos are available.
So onward to Chile and another pit stop, which again was a great place - Pucon. And this is where we found Greg's nemesis - villerica volcano. It was so perfect and beautiful, and so close to the little town, it felt like a god guarding the land. It's one of only a few constantly live volcanos, and you can climb it (up hill in crampons and ice picks) in 6 hours to the crater and actually look into it and see the lava bubbling! All this for just £40. Greg toiled with it for the next 24hrs, however after reading reviews about how fit you need to be and how dangerous it is, he finally decided against it, ( I didn't sway him either way as I knew how disappointed he would be turning it down, but also how much Sheila would kill me if he had done it!) luckily some of his cognitive dissonance disappeared when we saw a tourist trying to board the bus with her whole leg in plaster! That would have been a disaster for the rest of our trip. Maybe one day we will return when we are fit and have hiking experience that isn't just getting lost.
We walked around town, which is also next to another lake, from every point the volcano watched us.
My favourite thing about Pucon apart from the volcano was the dogs! As everywhere else in South America Pucon had loads of stray dogs, but these dogs were different. They were like the dogs on the 'Everyone needs a Harvey' tv ad. They basically pimped themselves out trying to find a good home. We sat on the lake beach and one of them dropped a stick at our feet and cocked it's head as if to say 'please throw it for me I promise you'll have fun'. Then I heard a cute whine from behind me and a huge black dog was crawling towards us on his belly with his legs trailing behind. As soon as I looked at him he muzzled his head into me and rolled over. We met a few more over the next day and all of them equally as adorable and friendly. I have a plan, and that plan is to persuade Greg that dogs are amazing so that when we're grown up he will let me get one. Unfortunately the poor noisy rabies ridden dogs of Peru and Bolivia didn't help my quest but I think la senda verde's dogs and those in Pucon may have made up for it. I still have a long way to go...
We enjoyed our day in Chile, people seemed friendly, amazing scenery, it's cheaper and the dogs were angels. However the next day we got our cheap bus overnight to Santiago, we arrived at 6am and by 9am we were on another 7 hour bus to Mendoza where our vat of red wine lay await.
Our Chile travels were short but sweet, and we vowed to spend a few more days there before we leave.
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