We have been travelling now for 7 weeks in Chile. After returning from the windswept steppes of Patagonia we crossed the Andes from Chile to Argentina´s Whistler at Bariloche, a town noted for its lakes, mountains, ski hill and chocolates. The chocolates are sold in stores the size of supermarkets, and so vast is the local appetite for them, every other shop on the mainstreet is in the business.
From Bariloche, we moved a few hours south to the delightful little town of El Bolson. It was December 28 and not a good time to be arriving anywhere without an advanced booking. However the universe came to our assistance as we boarded the bus: we fell in with a traveller headed for the same town and reserved us a place. What’s more her son offered to pick us all up and deliver us to our Hospedaje.
Hospedajes are scattered through most residential areas in Chile and Argentina, offer simple inexpensive accommodation in people’s homes. The one we stayed at was operated by a young woman with two delightful small children, Pedro and Zuria. The children rarely stayed inside their house. The steady stream of back-packers through their home were their entertainment, and the children were ours. Mum had absolutely no English, but we quickly discovered that there’s an outside kitchen, a covered eating area, central heating in the room and a magnificent backdrop of mountain ridges all for the princely sum of $25. You might wonder about the heating as surely we are in the middle of summer. In actual fact, with the exception of our first two days in Santiago, mornings and evenings could be decidedly cold. We eventually stayed 6 days, summer arrived on the 4th day and has been with us ever since.
El Bolson, which means in English ‘the purse’ or ‘the basket,’ seemed to be a cross between Pemberton and Nelson. It’s wide, fertile sheltered valley bottom supports a cornucopia of local fruits and vegetables. Cherries and walnut trees grow in every garden as do roses, red currents and peaches. The craft markets brought out the now aging wave of alternative people who passed by in the 60’s and never left. But it’s tourism that makes the place hum today. During our stay, we hiked in the mountains and even hazarded a paddle in an Alpine lake. The latter made memorable by its ‘Lions’ like view, but also the excellent bottle of wine we sipped and shared at the lake’s edge with a young Italian couple.
In two days time we will have racked up our 60th hour in long distance bus journeys (which serve meals and wine!) and arrived in Buenos Aires, city of the Tango. It will be very hot and very sticky, but no doubt - lots of fun.
