Today’s adventure was one of our best! Cruz de Lago! We went from Bariloche, Argentina to Puerto Varas, Chile, over the Andes in one day. Started on a bus, transferred to a boat. Then a boat trip way up one of the fingers of Nahuel Huapu lake to a remote dock in the Andes,Puerto Blest, where we transferred to a 4 wheel drive bus. The photo below is along the first lake cruise, also a picture of the boat something right out of Buck Rogers.

After a relatively short bus ride we transferred to another boat on Lago Frias lake which had opaque light blue green water, fjord like. Various signs along the way reminded us that this was the same route taken across the Andes by Che Guevara in the early 50’s in his motorcycle tour of S. America shown in the movie “Morotcycle Diaries”. At the end of the boat ride we went thru Argentine customs in a one room cabin so remote there was only one way in and out through the national park and then thru private land. We went over the summit of the Andes, which was only 1000 meters, After stopping for a photo op at the Argentina/Chile border, we continued down some hairpin turns into a valley with a large river. and a working cattle ranch on the shores of Lago Todos Santos.

We stopped here and had all our luggage off loaded to go thru Chilean customs. There was a beautiful inn with white starched table clothes and we had salmon and mariscos for our very upscale lunch about 2pm. Everyone from the trip took a nap in the lounge on couches with a view up the river valley and the huge peaks all around. Stunning and again, so remote! There are no roads into this area, just boats that transport everything across lakes that looked as large as Tahoe. After a two hour lunch stop, Alan and I walked to the pier below the hotel and boarded yet another boat for a long trip across Lago Todos Santos to yet another waiting bus and we drove for several hours with 4 volcanos in view, including Osorno. This volcano exploded in 1960 and dumped lava all over the area including into the river, which now has dramatic waterfalls going over and partly thru the lava. The photos below are of the lava flox in the creek bed and a picture of Osorno.

You can see where the lava flowed up against the old creek bank on the right side of the photo after the last eruption. Since then the creek has cut many new channels through the magma.

\Very impressive and the volcanoes are still active, although it has been awhile since the last eruption.(or since the last “volcanic erection”, as the tour guide told us)

We arrived at our hotel about 9:00 pm and got a room overlooking the last lake which is Lago Llanquilhue. A quick sandwich with a Pisco Sour (Chilean) and Alan’s beer and we were in bed!

Wanted to make note of some observations we have collected over the past several weeks. Firstly, we are relieved to be out of the city even though it was exciting. The noise and bustle became overwhelming. and our schedule was hectic because of having 5 hours of class per day to make up for Christmas and New Year Day being holidays.

All for now, we’re off to check out the island of Chiloe next week.Check out the LOCATION link below for a map of Puerto Varas. Beautiful town on Lago Llanquilhue.



Ciao from Chile, Alan & Chris