Ephemerica

After a week of riding long days down freeway 5, we were excited to turn eastward towards the Chilean lakes district. Our first stop was in the town of Villarica, where we stayed at the Torre Suiza (Swiss Tower) hostel. The Torre is run by a Swiss couple who, after traveling for 2 years by bike through Asia, arrived at the southern most city of the Americas biked northward, then decided to stop biking after arriving in Villarica. Not suprisingly, their clientel includes many touring cyclists. Our stay coincided with that of two Swiss cyclists, Pascal and Rebecca, who are working their way north. We spent a rest day (much needed after two weeks of riding hard and only 2 days off) visiting some nearby lakes with the Swiss and another day walking around town, reading and working on the bikes.

From Villarica, we continued eastward towards the Argentine border. This meant leaving the smooth, fast asphalt roads for the slow and bumpy ripio. The first day (last one on asphalt) from Villarica we headed south to Lican Ray, then east past the town of Panguipulli. We found a nice beach campsite on the eastside of Lago Panguipulli. When we arrived, the beach was full of Chileans sunning themselves and swimming in the water. In the evening, however, we shared the beach with only one other tent which housed a retired couple who had been coming to this beach for twenty years and were less happy about the road being paved than we were. The pavement, as it does, had made their secluded beach hideaway into a popluar day trip.

Our intentions were good starting out on the ripio road towards Puerto Fuy. It didn’t take walking the bike up more than three extremely steep, gravely hills though, before I was feeling defeated. Luckily, a nice older gentleman in a pickup truck sensed my frustration and offered us a lift. He was going to our destination so we were happy to accept the ride. He spoke perfect English, with what seemed to be a German accent, though he said he was from Chile. We had a nice conversation about his kids, who love camping, his business in Santiago and his hazelnut farm. We arrived in Puerto Fuy in no time at all. From Puerto Fuy we would take a ferry across Lago Pirihueco, then ride over the HuaHum pass into Argentina. We checked into the ferry and found that one would be leaving at 8am the next morning, then rested up for the next day’s ride. The ride across the lake was beautiful, with very little development outside of the two towns on either end of the ferry allowing for a pristine lake surrounded by hills full of trees.

After disembarking, we decided we would push on and try to make it to San Martin de los Andes, a ski/lake resort town in Argentina. It ended up being a hilly, tough ride, but a nice long downhill/flat section at the end allowed us to reach San Martin before sunset. We hadn’t made reservations (as we usually don’t) and were not too happy to find all the hotels with cheap rooms either booked or charging several times what our guidebooks told us. Being too tired to bike to the campsite, we settled for the cheapest room we could find. We then stuffed ourselves on all-you-can-eat grilled meats and salads. The next morning we moved to the campground, then explored the town. San Martin is a very cozy little village, with a definite ski town feel. It is very touristy, but we enjoyed the atmosphere.

From San Martin, we decided to take the scenic, seven lakes route to the town of Bariloche. The ride took us three days, the first and third were mostly paved and very scenic, passing many great lake views. The second day however, was over another jarring ripio road, making for a very slow day. We had better get used to the ripio soon, though, because the further south we go, the less pavement we will encounter.

Bariloche, another ski/lake resort town, is less cozy and quaint than San Martin, but they do have melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and yummy ice cream. We decided to take an extra long rest here to rest from our push to get here and to prepare for the road ahead. Mostly, though because I wanted a day where we had absolutely no obligations—no need to get groceries, laundry, or work on the blog or bikes. So I greatly enjoyed a day of sleeping in, wandering around town sampling the chocolates and reading. We also had a nice, non-loaded bike ride around the “circuito chico” near town. Then for dinner, we met up with Veronika, our German cycling friend who arrived in town that day. She and her friend (who met her in Santiago) are taking a bit of a different route for the next couple days, but we should see them again soon. If we both stick to our plans, that is. Today, we are doing the errands necessary to be back on the road tomorrow. We are headed towards El Bolson, a big hippie town.

Posted by cindy on February 19th, 2008 | Filed under: Argentina, Chile