The last time we updated I think we were just about to board our plane to
Bariloche. Well the flight was fairly good, it was only a couple of hours so a
nice time to get free food and forty winks. However, when we came into the
approach for Bariloche I think a novice pilot must have taken the helm. I was
feeling really well until we started to bank quite hard, then with sudden
movements the plane would dip one way and then the other. By now I was feeling
a tad green and just wanted to get the plane on the ground. Not the ideal end
to an otherwise nice flight. Still we landed safely and got through baggage
hall in time to catch the local bus into town. We had picked a hostel we liked
the look of and when the bus stopped in the centre of town we headed off in
hot pursuit. Bariloche is a tad hilly and funnily enough our hostel was a good
two blocks up a mountain ! Fully packed up though we headed off in full hike
mode. The hostel was really nice, quite cheap and threw in breakfast to boot.
So without a second thought we dumped our bags, the prospect of lugging our
bags about any further was a non-starter ! We had arrived late in the
afternoon so headed out to find the local tourist office, in the posh building
in town to find out what we could get up to there. We also wanted to book our
bus to Puerto Montt for two days time as we had heard that the buses get full
quickly and we needed to make sure we got to Puerto Montt on time to catch our
flights up to the Atacama Desert.
Anyway, once all the business was out of the way we headed to a local Mexican
restaurant where we had a lovely meal of Fajitas and a beer to celebrate our
arrival. The next few days were for relaxing a bit more as our schedule until
then had been a bit manic. We discussed over dinner our plans for our days
there. We wanted to have more of a mooch about town the next day and attempt
to book our Atacama trip. The following day we had decided on a 3 hour horse
ride which sounded superb from the description the tour agent gave us. Very
diverse scenery and the like, so we wanted to book that ready.
After dindins we headed home for an early night as we were a bit pooped from
travelling. We had a lovely room with a fab shower so we were looking forward
to a leisurely start, a shower and a nice brekkie.
The following day refreshed and full from brekkie we headed out to see what
the town was all about. We spent some time trying to get hold of the travel
agent for our Atacama trip before venturing to the local square, which was
beautiful for our picnic lunch. Bariloche has a very distinct feel to it. It
is the lake district so obviously there are lots of lakes and mountains but
the buildings etc look like they would be more at home on the Swiss Alps. It
was a lovely place to sit and relax in. Well as soon as we tucked into our
sarnies one of the local stray dogs sat down and took a liking to licking his
bits and bobs. Just what you need when you are trying to eat your own lunch !
The dog remained there for all of our lunch - which was pleasant as you can
imagine. Still we distracted ourselves with the St Bernard Dog and puppy that
was in the square. They try to get tourists to have their piccies with them,
all very curious. After lunch we headed off for a walk through the town and
along the lake side, which was beautiful. After returning to our hostel to
change we headed out to a pub for a pint, we thought they had cider, but sadly
they had just run out so a beer it was. We then headed to a local restaurant
for dinner. It was like an American Diner and we had the grumpiest waiter as
well. So we didn\'t hang about long and returned for a good read and relax in
preparation for our horse ride tomorrow.
The following day also had a leisurely start, nice brekkie and then out to the
bus stop to get us out to the stables. The bus was packed so we had to strain
to see out of the windows to try to spot our get off point. The Kilometres are
marked with little green signs and we had to try to spot 15.5Km before we shot
straight past. In the end I saw the sign for the stables so pressed the buzzer
and got off. I should have known something was up before we got to the
stables. The sign for the Tom Wesley Stables was a picture of a cartoon horse
galloping along with its cartoon rider hanging onto the reins as he flew along
in a superman style above it. We both laughed at the sign thinking that we
always get plodders on trail rides so nothing to worry about !
We arrived at the ranch and met an English couple, Jackie
and Dave. There were just four of us on the ride and we headed across to meet
the horses. I got a grey horse yet again and an apparent plodder, no qualms
from me there ! Trev got a fiesty one which suited him down to the ground and
he soon struck up conversations with the horse, the horse appearing to
appreciate this. Trev soon had it under control and was away. Meanwhile it took
me a while to get mine to move to keep up with the rest, it seemed to get
discouraged being at the back of the pack.
My horse also from the moment I got on him had flatulence problems, after it\'s
first deposit I thought this would stop, but no it continued throughout the
ride and whenever we went quicker had a certain musical element to the ride.
Trev\'s horse on the other hand was a chatty little thing, kept on neighing and
snorting.
The first hour or so saw us meandering through woodland and across some
heathland with 3 dogs in tow as well. They had come with us from the ranch, a
boxer, an alsation and a white mutt with only one good eye, the other one was
blind and looked evil. We had a little introduction to trotting which didn\'t
terrify me at all, in American saddles you just bump along and I felt
relatively safe. We reached a lake where the leader took piccies of us with our
horses close to the water. Trev\'s really didn\'t like the surf. As we moved off
the leader came behind all of our horses and flicked them with his reins until
they started to canter. Well as you can imagine, this took me by surprise !
Mine hurtled off, from being the plodder it seemed to have an aversion to being
last and soon began to canter through the field, taking an early lead. It also
had a tendency to veer towards the top of the beach where all the trees were.
After nearly decapitating me on a few branches it headed straight for a bush. I
was trying to prepare myself in case it jumped it, stopped abruptly or careered
around it. In the end it did a sharp right as I desperately clung to it. Trev
said my face was a picture and that the whites of my eyes were rather stark !
Eventually it stopped at the top of the beach much to my relief.
Trev had a more controlled canter along the beach, although did lose one of his
stirrups and was not overly keen on the rapid change of pace that the leader
had induced with his reins.
The ride back from lake Moreno saw us going through fairly deep rivers, so the
horses bellies got wet. As well as some fast moving shallower rivers as well.
We both loved this part of it. Trev\'s horse had a tendency to kick through the
water though getting the rest of us wet - bless it. Trev and my horse had a
running battle on the way home. Mine didn\'t want to be overtaken by his and was
good at using his body to block Trev\'s coming through. We had quite a few
trotting episodes on the way back and then another canter into the stables. It
was wicked fun if a little nervewracking at times. Dave and Jackie were great
company. We are not sure if we will be able to walk tomorrow and are looking at
seats in a different light, nice cushions will do us for a while :o)
After the ride we decided to head a bit further out of town to a chair lift
which would give us superb views of the area. Since we didn\'t have oodles of
time to explore the area this was a great way to get a good feel for it. We
were not disappointed, the views were spectacular, if a little windy all the
way up there. We took some snaps and had a wander around the top seeing all the
different views. We decided not to have our lunch up there though as it was too
chilly and windy for that. Instead we headed back down and ate our lunch on a
wall in the sunshine. It was lovely and warm and handy for keeping an eye out
for the bus on the way back. Both Trev and I snoozed on the way back into town
with many head bumping episodes on the bus windows to boot. Still we
entertained the locals I guess. We stopped at a cafe when we got into town for
a cuppa to try to wake up a bit. We strolled in and bumped into Jackie and Dave
again so had a quick natter again with them before they headed off shopping.
We had another stroll around town and then headed back to the hostel for a
shower. Both of us had a distinct horsie whiff to us so showers before dinner
at a nice restaurant where we tried the menu turistico, a 3 course set menu for
all of 3 pounds - superb ! Back at our hotel we booked a cab for 6:30 the next
morning as we had to head to the bus station, a little way out of town to get
our bus to Puerto Montt, a 5 hour bus jaunt !
This next bit is from Trev - he didn\'t lose this one !!
Up early for our taxi to the bus station feeling a bit groggy so we were
pleased when the taxi driver turned out to be the silent type, just walked
into the hostel, grabbed my bag and then walked out again, we peered at each
other bleerily, shrugged and followed after. I of course thought to offer to
carry Camillas bag but being 6:30 by the time thought turned into deed we were
by the taxi - oh well ;-)
At the bus station we met an english couple who gave us some tips on what to
do in Thailand and Honk Kong. Then it was on to the bus, the scenery was still
great and we alternated between reading, dozing and looking out the window.
We had the now familliar tedious border crossing, however this time with a
slight twist, instead of just forming a random queue we all stood in a plain
room with a desk and two serious looking border police guys at one end while
our names were called in alphabetical order - all quite sinister :-) The most
annoying part was that the alphabet bit was done on first names so Camilla was
at the front of the queue, me at the very end. At the Chilean border they also
scowered all of our bags and the bus with a sniffer dog. We were then back on
the bus and on the approach to Puerto Montt had a great view of some immense
volcanoes with snow covered tops - very different to mountains as they stand
almost in isolation and so look in some ways more impressive.
We arrived at the bus station and were bombarded with offers of hostels but
werenīt ready for that yet so managed to fend them off. We booked our bus to
the airport for the next day and then grabbed some lunch while sitting on the
harbour wall. During this time we were approached by numerous well fed ladies
all begging for money - their tactic for this seemed to be to stand as close as
possible, look really bored and say money repeatedly. Many of them were being
trailed by their kids who were eating popcorn, wearing designer trainers etc. :-
) On the upside Milly spotted a seal in the harbour quite close to the Harbour
wall we were sat on. It was duly named Montie after Puerto Montt :o)
We settled on a hostel - Hosteria Casa Gladys - that was very near the bus
station, dumped our bags and wandered into the town centre. There we sat on the
pier looking out at the harbour for a while and then headed across the centre
and popped into a gleaming new shopping Mall (didnīt really fit with the rest
of the town) to have a look about. Not much of interest in there, seemed to be
more of a food court and kids shop place, so we headed back out into the sun to
meander the streets some more.
Back over to me now as Trev is loading up more piccies onto the website.
My daypack was beginning to be a pain, the main zip was failing to zip on
occasion so I looked with a certain sadness at new bags. We can\'t really afford
to have one of our packs not secure. I would be sad to see my pack go, it had
been through a lot of hikes with us and had a certain amount of sweat and
memories in it ! Still at the end of the day it is just a bag I had to tell
myself. So on our wander through the streets we kept an eye out for a new one.
In one of the markets we found a likely specimen, with good pockets and
stringey bits on the side that would be more useful than my old one. For all of
four pounds as well, a relative bargain. After the stroll through the markets
we returned to our hostel for a shower and a read before heading out for
dinner. We chose a place close to the hostel, not many other people in there
but a bit empty. In fact it turned out to be a bit like Fawlty Towers. There
was a big menu, but only 3 things were available !! There were no beers as they
had run out, so only soft drinks. The waitress was, to say the least, surly and
the chef stuck his head out of the kitchen in what seemed like an attempt to
check out his customers before he cooked for them. I smiled sweetly at him
hoping that this would stop him from doing anything nasty to our meals ! In the
end the food turned out to be delicious and despite the lack of atmosphere it
was a good meal. We headed back up the hill to the hostel for a read about the
next part of our adventure in the desert and then early to bed. We had two
flights and a bus ride to do the next day.
We were up at a reasonable hour for once and had time to have some yoghurt for
brekkie before heading out to the bus station. As we stepped out of our hostel
the stench was immense of rotting seaweed. I took to sniffing my fleece to try
to prevent the instant reaction of flipping my stomach over. Even Trev with his
cast iron stomach found it hard going. When we got to the bus station the
reason for the smell was apparent, the tide was out, and didn\'t we know it ! We
strolled along to the bus platform and waited for the bus to the airport. We
were expecting a clapped out local bus, but in fact a luxury coach came in,
nicer than some of the ones we have been on for hours ! So in luxury we arrived
at the airport and headed upstairs for a cuppa. The disadvantage of taking the
bus was that it got us there nearly 2 hours before. Still gave us time to sit
and relax before checking in and boarding the flight from Puerto Montt to
Santiago.
Trev and I were under the impression that the flight was direct, no other
touchdowns. When we had checked in the chap managed to check is in for the
first flight to Santiago as well as our connecting one to Calama. We were
impressed by this and just hoped that we had understood his broken Spanish that
we wouldn\'t need to get our bags again until Calama, they would be transferred
automatically. In all of this chatter he failed to mention any other stops. He
also failed to mention the delay on the flight. This was the only one of all
our flights we needed to be on time, as we only had about 50 mins to get our
connecting flight. For once it was Trev in panic mode, I tried to remain calm
doing puzzles for fear of really winding my stomach up into a knot. In the end
we got under way about an hour late and were assured we would make up time on
the flight.
Twenty minutes into the flight after the drinks trolley had been round, the
plane feels like it is beginning to descend. The pilot comes over the radio in
Spanish and the air hostesses go into overdrive reclaiming cups and the like.
There is not a word spoken, the seat belt sign comes on and we start to descend
steeply. Given we were not aware of any stops I think there is something
terminally wrong with the plane, I begin to sweat, not aided by the normally
calm and serene Trev also looking slightly concerned. Anyway, we finally touch down and
find out it was a scheduled one and that the pilot has made up all the lost
time so we are back on track. Panic over we relaxed into the flight and began to
enjoy it. Two stops later we land in Santiago, it was almost more of a bus ride
than a flight. We had plenty of time to walk across to the next flight, both of
us hoping that our bags were making the same transfer ! We finally touched down
in Calama on time late in the afternoon. Ideally we needed to do another hour
and a half by bus to San Pedro De Atacama that evening, to make sure we were
there to start our tour the next morning.
Luck was on our side. There was a bus waiting outside the airport which took us
to San Pedro. The scenery was so different here, very dry and in the most part
flat with mountains reaching up in the distance. The colours were striking
though and the trip across was done during sunset which was just superb. We
were dropped off opposite the agency we wanted to use for our trip so we headed
in there to book and confirm our trip before heading off to find a hostel for
the night. After a quick shower we headed out to a fab local restaurant where
we sat outside under the stars with a roaring open fire going and a local band
playing uplifting music. It was superb, nice to be back in a small village
again and one with such atmosphere it was dandy.
We headed home for an early night as we had another early start for our trip
tomorrow.