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29th October
Previous night a new group arrived at Victor’s Guesthouse. Among them, there
were few very interesting Characters: A Turkish born Swiss Girl called Deria-
doing all high risk adventures around South America, a Chilean born
Australian girl (forgot her name) - exploring her roots back in Chile and a
very interesting Mapuche lady called Gina, who is fluent in several
languages (whom I met as I was waiting for the bus to Argentina). Did not
get much time with them.
We crossed over to Argentina From Chile by bus through a long and narrow and
winding Tromen Pass through the Andean ranges. The road is not paved, just
covered with gravels - with deep gorges on one side, the bus just crawled
along the steep up and down winding road. No complains - one could
keep watching these amazing landscapes for a very very long time.
Last few days I was at the foothills of Andes, now I was deep inside it,
much higher up - the steep mountainsides are uniquely chequered with grey
black granite or Basalt pocking through lush green Southern Beach trees, and
at higher altitudes its just solid rocks gradually giving away to glistening
white snow. There were few traffic along the pass - all along the pass there
were numerous furiously flowing rapids - they were occasionally coming into
view - but you could hear their fury all along the pass - It is spring, snow
is thawing and in the last few days there were lot of rain.
Just before the Chilean border post, we stopped for coffee and snacks at a
small cottage beside one such furious rapid, the setting is magnificent - I
took few shots there, lets see how much stills can capture such furious
beauty?
Probably not much - locals say, you need all senses to absorb and appreciate
various areas in Andes - one must see, hear, touch and smell (different part
has different and special musk like smells).
Going along the passes, reminded me of some striking patterns,
which I have also noticed in Nepal and Bhutan - there seems to be a
mathematical patterns in all of them - passes connect at the bottom of the
ranges, then goes up and comes down to connect to the next one - even the
bends and turns seems to have regular patterns. Did the original eruptions
created these patterns or is it the work of rain, glaciers and wind? – I am
not sure; I will have to ask some Geologist or Geographist.
All was excellent, we passed through the Chilean border post; immigration formalities
took just few minutes - then few kilometres down the road the bus and me,
along with all other passengers were detained at the Argentinean Border post
for about an hour, while Argentine immigration checked out whether I am a
terrorist or not - all because of Sheikh Mohamed at the beginning of my
name.
Argentine immigration police were very polite, and profusely
apologised for the delay. It was a case of nervous junior officers at a
remote border post. That remote border post did not have any computer
connection or any other networked system, so they checked their files and
called over telephone, whomever they were calling. There was an Australian
girl travelling in the same bus. She and a Chilean gentleman who was sitting
next to me in the bus, stayed with me till I got cleared - it was so nice of
them.
As we returned to the bus, many Chilean passengers were ridiculing the
Argentineans. I was anticipating some hassle somewhere along my
long travel route, Chile was excellent, hope
fully I will not face any further hassle in re-entering Argentina.
Anyway, there was another surprise of a different kind waiting for me, as we
crossed over to Argentina, suddenly the landscape turned into bleak arid,
treeless moonscape - lush green of the other side of Andes just disappeared
abruptly, there are only few shrubs and cactus type plants clinging to life,
hills were bald, even their colour is different - volcanic black soil giving
away to redish or whitish dusty soil - it appears that here no rain bearing cloud
get past the Andes.
In these bleak landscape, I mostly dozed off, passed through a small town
Junin and arrived at San Martin D Los Andes. San Martin is located again
inside Andean peaks and at the shore of a lake, a small protrusion into
Argentina - and amazingly, black volcanic soil and lush green landscape was
back again. In southern Andes there are many micro weather system, enclosed
by complex Andean enclaves and influenced by pacific currents and winds -
while one area is having a severe storm, an adjacent area may remain sunny
and bright. These render weather forecasts in this region almost unreliable.
Today San Martin is having strong and chilly windblasts, whipping the lake
and everything else in San Martin. I booked a single room at backpacker hostel,
and went out to have a quick look at this mountain town and to have a quick
bite. Lot of beautiful timber structures, although in a slightly different
style than Pucon – it is mostly a ski resort. Whipping wind soon drove me
back to the hostel.
An Argentine man and his two adult sons run the hostel. The older son Pablo
has previously lived and worked in Australia, and obviously speaks
reasonable English. Spent the evening chatting with Pablo and his father,
discussing Argentina‘s current economic predicaments, it‘s neighbours,
particularly recent developments in Bolivia. India and Nobel Prize winner
Amritay Sen also cropped into the discussion. Pablo and his father seemed
quite troubled by Argentina‘s present woes - troubled times do get people
thinking deep.
Early next morning I will have to catch the bus for Bariloche, bade good
night and good bye to Pablo and his father them and went to bed early.
30th October 2003
Took the 8:00 AM bus from San Martin to Bariloche, another Andean Border
oasis in this arid and bleak Argentine landscape. On our approach to
Bariloche as we turned around the last hillock on this bleak landscape - It
was like a magic, as if all on a sudden a curtain has been lifted - right in front
of us there is this magnificent blue lake “Lago (Lake) Nahuel Huapi - and on
the other side, rising from the shore of the lake, nestled on the slope of a
mountainside is the town of Bariloche. Argentines proudly call it their
Swiss town -they even make Chocolates here, to make it a Swiss town.
We arrived in Bariloche around midday - I got a decent but cheap room in an
Italian run hotel called Venizea. Spent the afternoon exploring the town,
starting from the lakeshore - obviously the most beautiful part of the town.
It became quite obvious that original architect of the town had a Swiss town
in his mind - the lake front area bears witness to it with quite a few
magnificent timber faced buildings, but then, pathetically, further up the
slope its gives away to a sort of Argentine chaos, unplanned ugly buildings
and structures - Swiss dream giving up to stark and chaotic Argentine
reality!
31st October 2003
Today I began the two days of lake crossing from Bariloche to Puerto Montt
in Chile. I must mention that this is a kind of package tour (which I
loathe), but I had to take it, because only a family owned company has
monopoly over the lake crossing and one can do it only as a package tour.
The crossing consists of bus rides and crossing of three lakes in the Andes
in fast Catamarans - it is touted as “SAILING THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS”
Around 9:00 AM the tour bus picked me and the other group tourists from the
respective hotels and drove us to Puerto Panuelo, just 25 km west of
Bariloche. We boarded the catamaran to cross “Lake Nahuel Huapi” – we
started along a narrow protrusion of the lake Nahuel Huapi, jutting towards
Puerto Blest near the Chile Argentina border.
The day was bright and sunny, although a bit windy with mild wind chill. The
guide said that we were very lucky - it was the first sunny day in last few
weeks, considering that in this region of Andes, on average, it RAINS 280
DAYS A YEAR. In this narrow part of the lake, basalt and granite climbs
straight up from the depth of the lake, most capped by snow, their
reflections simmering in the deep blue water - and, then there are numerous
roaring water falls down the steep rocky slopes.
The close proximity of the deep blue lake and jagged rocks with their roaring
water falls, creates a most striking contrast, and gives an eerie and almost
unreal impression of a prehistoric time and landscape- it makes even a boat
full of tourists dumbfounded and silent.
We reached Puerto Blest around midday. The area surrounding the Puerto Blest
is part of the Nahuel Huapi National Park. Our guide first took our small
group up through the forest to an elevation of about 800m to provide a close
look at a roaring water fall and then to show us a YOUNG TEEN AGE TREE,
which is only 1200 years old - this species of (I have the name somewhere,
cant recollect now) trees lives up to 5000 years - that's why it’s a teenager.
For three hours we went up and down and then around the lake, trekking
through the semi vertical forest - I will never forgot this walk in my life
- I just begun to realise what a Chilean meant when he said that to truly
appreciate these Andean forests one needs all his senses; one must see,
hear, smell and touch to soak in these natural abundances.
I give up, it is beyond the capacity of me to describe it, even Robindronath
Tagore or Wordsworth may grapple for words.
Surprisingly there were bamboos all over the lower reaches, in Andes, at such southerly latitude - these are rather thin bamboos. The
guide explained; the lower mountainsides were under water at an earlier
stage of the history - the ground is still very moist from that time
(remember, it also rains 280days/y here) - that humidity creates this
strange environment for bamboos to grow in this southern latitude - it also
does not allow all other plants in the lower reaches of the mountain to grow
to their full size - there are lot of dwarf plants around here.
Later, at the small museum of the national park, I found the metrological
explanation for the stark difference of environment on the two sides of the
mountain.
Late afternoon we took a short bus ride around a mountain bend to take
another short catamaran ride from Puerto Alegre to Puerto Frias through a
green water lake. As we approached Puerto Frias, we could clearly see the
snow capped Mount Tronador, the highest Andean peak in this region - it also
marks the border between Argentina and Chile. The name Tronador means
¨thunder¨ - its crashing snows make thunder like sound, that’s the origin of
its' name.
We cleared Argentine immigration at Puerto Frias, and travelling by bus
through a gravelled pass. We arrived at Peulla as sun was setting over the
mountains. We cleared Chilean immigration and went to the only Hotel in the
town - the town is located at the shore of lake Todos Los Santos, in a flat
valley created by dried part of the lake, surrounded by Andean ranges.
The town and the hotel exist for one purpose, to cater for lake crossing
passengers - most of the 1300 inhabitants of the town work for the hotel -
literally, the hotel is the town and the town is the hotel.
1st November 2003
The location of Peulla is chosen for its magnificent setting and
surrounding. We had most of the day to ourselves - we were scheduled to
make our last lake crossing through lake Todos Los Santos that afternoon. I
detached my self from the group and went on trekking through the surrounding
forests and waterfalls on the mountainside. I was really getting mesmerised
by this overwhelmingly rich environment. Having this environment even for a day,
made me feel very rich - we have a material yardstick to define rich and
poor - but are not these people living around here very very rich? Who are
having this magnificent environment, all to themselves, for every day of their
Life?
That afternoon we sailed through lake Todos Los Santos for Petrohue- as we
made the first turn, there was it - majestic snow capped Osoorno Volcano
right in front of us rising from the lake. Osoorno is a perfectly conical
volcano, which is currently dormant, it last erupted in 1846. Lake Todos Los
Santos is entirely dominated by the Osoorno volcano, with a minor sideshow
of Putiagudo Volcano (dead).
We arrived at Petrohue at the foot of Osoorno Volcano, disembarked and began the
last leg of the journey by bus to Puerto Montt. On the way we stopped over
to watch a massive white river called Saltos del Petrohue, then proceeded to
Puerto Varas along the shore of Lake Llanquihue, the largest lake in Chile.
It has a much flatter surrounding - seemed pale in comparison with its
more glamorous sisters, we just crossed.
We arrived in Puerto Montt around 8:30 PM. Next day I will have to prepare for
the real five day sailing from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, starting on
Monday 3 November.
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