AT el BOLSON

4.30pm - Well, the truck has thrown the drive shaft and we´ve been in Hicksville all day. THE CHOICES ARE THE OVERNIGHT BUS - FOR 1100KM TO EL CALAFATE OR (sorry about the capitals)wait for the truck to be fixed. The destruction of the shaft follwed hours where it was driven with a severe vibration. I suspect poor maintenance of the 1996 Mercedes is at fault. The joys of overland travel!!

The noise when it let go was impressive, quite apart from large pieces of truck driveshaft being thrown along the road into the path of oncoming traffic. There were two main pieces, each of which must have weighed 50kg. I´m pessimistic about the ability of local mechanics to fix it quickly on News Years eve.

9.30 pm - Well, our tour operators have found a bus and hired it with 2 drivers for a long night and day trip south to El Calafarte, which is at 50 degrees south. Currently at 42 degrees south for those interested.

El Bolson is a one horse town, with lots of traffic going through on Route 40 which runs the full lenght of Argentina from Usuhaia in the south to Boliva - about 5200km in all.

The landscape is really impressive and make the Remarkables in Queenstown look rather small by comparision. I´m sure my father Denis would be impressed by the size of the mountains.

So, the next post will be from ElCalafate, as long as the bus doesn´t break down. About 1/3 of the route is gravel.

Tuesday 29th December = Update from Barriloche

From our last post....We were in Pucon (26th Dec) and the skies cleared so we had a quiet afternoon, then packed up ready for our departure on the next morning, Sunday.

27th December. We left camp about 7.50 and started driving towards the border. Drove through farmland, gaining altitude fairly quickly. There were views of the Andes, with one of a large volcano. We arrived at the border post to leave Chile about 10am, filled out the necessary forms and drove through. At the Argintine border we arrived behind 2 trucks from another tour group. There was a long wait here, as these trucks did not have the necessary paperwork in order (no liability insurance - this is the only border where it is required) so there were a lot of negotiations before both trucks were turned back to re-enter Chile and return to Pucon to get what they needed. That put them a day behind schedule!
Fortunately we were all ok and drove through, it was now about 12.30. It was very cold & windy at the border.

At the border we pased the Volcanoe Lanin, at 2778m. A beutiful sight with odd shaped clouds at the summit.

We drove on until 2pm when we stopped & set up for a picnic lunch. Quite a job for a crowd of 22, setting up tables and feeding the troops. Having had near zero temperatures at the border luch was had on the plain at 25 dgrees. The drive was through what John calls big country, mountain vistas, lakes and dry arid vegetation. Just beautiful.

Then we continued on to Baliroche, where we arrived about 5.30pm. We stopped in the town to get money changed, then headed for the campsite 13.5ks out of town, on the lakeside. Bariloche is a lakeside ski-resort town. The wind off the lake was extremely cold.

Once we arrived we had our duties to do - setting up tables for dinner, tents to erect etc. John was on cooking group duties so they got underway. We had a meat stew for dinner, which was rather tasty, followed by chocolate custard & fruit.
During the night it started to rain, and was still raining in the morning.

As it cleared a little we took a bus from the camp entrance further out of town to a chairlift. Once up the chairlift there were stunning views of all the lakes and snow-covered mountains around. Bitterly cold winds blowing of the snow covered mountains all around the area. We then caught the bus back into town, where we explored the shops. The town is famous for its chocolate shops, and there were many filled with beautiful displays.

The town is a bit like Queenstown, all focused on liberating the tousit dollar.

Overnight there was rain again. Today, 29th Dec. , we have been back into the town to purchase more thermals - there is a limit to how many days one can wear the same clothes - and socks, gloves, and waterproof boots. The weather is, according to locals, unusually cold. However, it will be cold also further south, so we will be prepared.

John is prepared to admit we should have brought better sleeping bags, boots and thermal clothes - wasn't this supposed to be md summer? Bought a better sleeping bag for JP so Liz can use the other two, one inside the other.

Camp users here seem to have complete disregard for fellow residents, and last night there were groups starting to party at 2am, after another group finished at 1.30. Earplugs are very necessary.

We have an early start tomorrow (breakfast at 6am) with two days driving to get to our next destination, El Calafate, for New Years Eve, where we will be sleeping in a hostel. There we hope to see the world famous Mereno Glacier (sp?).

Christmas and Boxing day at Pucon

Christmas day dawned bright and clear. After breakfast we were picked up and taken off to Huerqueque National Park for a days tramping. The easy walk described the previous evening at the Park HQ nturned out to be a 1400m climb up a steep but well marked trail to some lakes. Beautiful scenery but a tough day after pre Christmas partying the night before.

The views were spectactular form the route on the way up with a view of the Villrica (not sure of the spelling) volcano puffing away in the distance - 9000' high. About 10 of our group climbed the volcano. It looked a bit too technical for us, with crampons and ice axes in use.

The place we are staying is the local camping ground. There are up to 5 overland expedition groups camped out with us, so the night time is very noisy with young ones partying till 4am, including I might add many of our group. Still, lots of fun being had meeting new and interesting people.

Christmas dinner was a grand affair with 3 courses and 4 different desserts, and a secret Santa handing out a small gift to everyone. Pressure on the BBQ's meant we didn't finish dinner till midnight.

Today - Boxing day has dawned wet and raining, it started about 4am. John was on breakfast team of 4 guys and made pancakes with maple syrup. Due to the rain and partying the ranks were somewhat thin at breakfast, even though we didn't start till 10am. We've come down to town to do the blog, have a nice coffee and find a pair of gloves for Liz. Afterwards I suspect we will have an afternoon snooze in the tent if it keeps raining.

Tomorrow we leave for Barriloche in Argentina where we will also camp for 3 nights.

Report from Pucon

After a 11.13 hour truck trip from Santiago we arrived in Pucon this morning about 9.30am. The road was a divided 4 lane highway all the way, so we covered the 800km fairly quickly. There were lots of truck and cars on the road all night, with several toll booths along the way. We left Santiago in 23 degrees and arrived to about 12 degrees, overcast and drizzling.

It's cleared up now and we are all in town doing last minute shopping, including a secret Santa present for 1 other person each. The tents are all up, they are of good quality. We will all be having an early night, because tomorrow it's off to the National Park for a days tramping.

The countryside is very much like NZ with exotic forestry,dairy farming, green grass and lakes. NZ on steriods - just more of it.

Pucon is like Queenstown if you want an analogy.

The truck has 20 of us on board,mostly people from the UK. The average is 40, so we aren't out of place. The driver is from Dunedin and the truck is called Cindy. Everything much as expected, with teams to do cooking and cleaning up.

Christmas dinner at camp tomorrow night with wine and campfire singing.

The stars are very clear, and we can report that the Southern Cross is also still visible here!

Next message from Argintina in about 3 days.

Leaving Santiage

23 December.
We had a very enjoyable dinner with our new travelling companions, Charles & Pat, from England. They are in their mid 60s, so we will not be the oldest on the trip! After dinner we walked around in the very pleasant warm evening air.

We found out this morning that we are leaving Santiago at 10pm tonight - ie in 11 hours, and travelling through to Pucon, the Queenstown of Chile, which is about 800 ks away. So a long overnighter to start. Then we get 3 days there, so will be there for Christmas. No doubt everything will be closed on Christmas day., so may not get to a computer for a few days.

This morning we walked over to the Museum of Fine Arts and spent an hour in the cool looking at paintings and sculpture. Then on to lunch with Charles and Pat to Cafe de la Barres - chicken sandwich for JP and salads for everyone else. Then down to the supermarket for a bottle of water and some red Chilean wine to celebrate Christmas tomorrow evening.

Now back at the hotel at 4.00pm waiting for our 6.00pm briefing.

So we wish you all a very Happy Christmas, will be thinking of you.

22 December 2009 in Santiago

Dinner last night was at a local eatery. John had the obviously popular 1/4 chicken & chips, Liz had fish which was about 2x the price. We wandered around the streets in the pre-Christmas crowds, and returned tothe hotel about 8.30pm. A lovely calm evening. There was a young lass singing opera unaccompanied in the mall, obviously a trained voice. The streets were full of people.

We had a leisurely breakfast, and met a couple who are going on our tour - English, even older than us! We arranged to go out with them for dinner tonight. Another lady who was sitting at the table before we arrived had her bag stolen, we did not see anything untoward and don´t know if it happened while we were there or before we came! Wasn´t us though! So yes, one has to be extremely vigilant at all times here.

About 9.30am we hit the streets again. Today was museum day. We are certainly close to the centre & museums. A 200 meter walk saw us at the Museum of Pre Columban Art. There was a 3000 peso entrance fee. It was a very professional display of treasures from throughout all of Central and Western South America from 3000 BC.

We then found a bank and changed some more US$ to Pesos - millionaires again!
Next stop was the National Museum. Entry was free here. All the glories of the Spanish conquests were written in the best possible light - all in the name of spreading Christianity, of course - nothing to do with mineral wealth.

For lunch we went to a little local shop & had a freshly blended mango juice. There are a great number of shops around selling food blenders, obviously something people use a lot. We saw a selection of vegetables being blended for another customer.

Then we walked a bit further on to the Musedum of Contemporary Art. Mostly hideous rubbish, as usual.... we sat for 20 mins and watched a video of "President Allende" talking as if he were here now, titled Pre Appocalyse, very unusual. However it was cool in the room and a chance to rest our feet.

The park around the museum had about a dozen policemen on horses in it.

Returning to the hotel we walked through some of the malls, filled with hundreds of stalls about 2 metres wide and the same deep. There were heaps of stalls selling baby clothes, lingerie, and even more selling jewellery - an incredible number of them.

Back for a shower & rest, going out for dinner about 7.30. To those in Hokitika - yes, it is still fine, sunny and 32 degrees.

Day 2 in Santiago

We slept in until 8am, which was welcome. It was quiet in the night, though at one stage we heard a pack of dogs barking - there are some wild dogs around which we had seen yesterday chasing cars at intersections, obviously they were out hunting in the night. They seem to sleep a lot during the day, and don't annoy people.
Breakfast was in the hotel as part of the tarrif - cornflakes, bread, cheese & ham... Then we set out about 9.30 for a few hours before it got too hot. It was already 30 degrees! We walked up past Constitution Plaza and the Palacio La Moneda. There were important looking men in suits being driven up under police escort to the Palacio.

We continued up Bernard O'Higgens Avenue to the Cerro Santa Lucia, a cantral city park built on a small rocky hill. This provided excellent views over the central city. We then crossed the Mapiocho - a so-called river running through the city. If reality it is a brown fast-flowing torrent of water in a concrete channel. Because it is a Monday some places are closed and there did not appear to be many tourists about.

At Cerro San Christobel we took the funincular railway straight up some 860 metres. There is a large statue of Mary on the top of the hill, and a small outdoors altar where Pope John Paul II said Mass in 1984. The hillside is terraced with benches for the congregation to sit on. There was a large outdoors Christmas crib there.

At the top of the hill there were 360 degree views over the entire city, out to the nountain range which surrounds it. One of these mountains is the tallest in the Americas, about 21000 feet.

John suggested that we walk down, and we did - for 2 hours in the heat. We were relieved to be able to sit down & have lunch at 3pm, accompanied with a cold beer to refuel our lost fluids. It was very pleasant sitting in the shade outside, watching the world go by.

We returned to the hotel at 4pm, having been walking for about 6 hours. Had a shower to freshen up and a short siesta.

A evening Stroll in Santiago

Well, after a snooze this afternoon we felt rejuvenated and went for a 2 hour stroll around the city this evening. The temperature was 32 degrees at 7 pm. We walked around the Natioanl Palace where President Allende was deposed in 1973, and then on to the National Library down Bernard O´Higgens Avenue - he saved Chile from something once.......

We had a high quality dinner at McDonalds because we don´t speak a word of Spanish - but pointing and using ones fingers to indicate how many seemed to work.

There were tens of thousands out doing Christmas shopping on Sunday evening. Liz stopped one dude from trying to steal John's handkerchief!! There was a major band exhibition on with at least a 1000 guys dressed up like fireman in their fancy helmets in every imaginable dress uniform - presumably all miltary types.

The city is a bit tired, with many buildings reminding us of Bucharest in Romania. The people are somewhat short.......Liz says not a lot of eye candy for either one of us. Surprisingly there don't appear to be many European tourists either.

Tomorrow is the longest day so we'll be up early, and because of the heat probably retreating to somewhere cool during the middle of the day.

We spent a noisy night in Auckland - there was a party at the building next to our hotel which went on until the wee small hours. So we missed out on a lot of our beauty sleep. As we were awake early we went to Mass at St Patrick´s Cathedral at 8am, then for a cuppa in the Church Office building. That tided us over until the rain stopped, when we went back to the hotel and packed up our bags. We had a few hours tospare so wandered down to the Viaduct & had Subway for lunch, sitting in the shade.
At 1pm the shuttle bus arrived and took us to the airport. Usual procedure to get through customs, then a long wait until we boarded at 4.20pm - as usual we were early to the airport.
Our flight was with Lan Air, and the path was south from Auckland, straight over Gisborne, and north-west to Santiago, missing the tip of Antartica by about 1000ks. It was only truly dark for about 1/2 hour. The flight was just over 10 hours.
On arrival we waited for quite a while for our packs - first on last off? - then went through to the public area where there was an official taxi stand at which we could purchase our ride into the city. Taxis do not have meters, so it was good to get one knowing what it cost ($28US). The guide book had said it would be about $30US so we were pleased with that. It was a fast trip, up to 120k/hr, not a lot of traffic on the road being a Sunday. There were numerous shantytowns along the side of the highway. The environment was very dry, brown & dusty with a few trees.
Flying over the countryside into the city we saw well-irrigated valleys. The plane comes over mountains to land in Santiago, which is of course surounded by the Andes.
The hotel is like a 3* eastern European one, we do have airconditioning in our room though and it is quite large. It is like an aged lady who has seen better days. There are free computers with wireless however, and it is right in the centre of the city.
After unpacking & showering we walked tw blocks to the Plaza de Almas, which appears to be the "town square". It was about 30 degrees. On the Square is the Catholic Cathedral - a grand Cathedral in true European style, but starting to look a bit shabby also. We were entertained by a boys' choir singing Christmas carols in English and other magnificent hymns.
After wandering around the central streets we found a supermarket and bought some water and fruit, before heading back to the hotel for a siesta. We had had 2 nights with very little sleep, and had gone back to early afternoon.

Final Preparations for Trip to southern Chile and Argentina

We leave on December 19th for Santiago. We join an overland truck expedition south to Usuhaia and back up to Buenos Aires. The temperature in Usuhai is expected to be about 12 degrees celcius at midday and down to 4 degrees at night. The trip takes 4 & 1/2 weeks, so we are arriving back in New Zealand in time for work on 1 February. We are travelling with Dragoman Overland in a group, sleeping in tents and cheap hotels.

Click here to see the route