Out of the wind and into the heat

So we head North and leave Patagonia, bound for the lake district and with each passing mile the scenery got ever more beautiful, the wind dropped a few kmph and the colours became more abundant. Just before our senses reached overload we reached our destination El Bolson and the delights of staying at a cervezeria (brewery) which we called home for 2 nights.

Welcome to the Lake District

A slight change in scenery

Welcome to El Bolson

Just when we thought the drama of Patagonia was over, on our first night Bolson while cook group were preparing a delicious evening meal, they were faced with a bush fire from an unattended BBQ belonging to one of our neighbours, which threatened to engulf the camp. After quickly realizing that a couple of washing up bowls wouldn’t quite do the job it was time to move the odd tent and wait for the bomberos (firemen) to come and save the day.

El Bolson campfire

The next day saw the group spread in all directions, some exploring the hippy centre of El Bolson others going on some of the hikes in the surrounding hills, Johnny went off and completed his first mountain climb and he couldn’t have picked a more beautiful location to do it.

Mike, Johnny & Wayne scale the hills around Bolson

Meanwhile Emma and Simon had headed off to Bariloche in order to give Ithaca some love and attention and weren’t let down by the Argentinean hospitality. Once they had found a workshop with the equipment Simon required they were happy enough to let them uses the workshop and park in the yard as they were about to have siesta (which at times seems like all day.) Part way through the work Si and Em were surprised to be presented firstly with a choripan (sausage in a roll) followed shortly after by an inch thick steak sandwich. After the work was completed and all the tools packed away Simon went to pay for the use of the facilities and was waved away without being allowed to pay a centavo.

If you're ever in Bariloche and looking to get some steering work done on your car, we thoroughly recommend these guys!

The next day was Johnny's birthday and although it was a drive day he was in luck as we were heading up the siete lagos (seven lakes) route at a sedate pace and being real tourists stopping regularly for photos, in the direction of San Martin de Los Andes.

Siete Lagos

Lupins

And more Lupins

Ithaca soaking up the sun

Photo time with Kelly & Tee atop the truck

Ellie watches from the window

Scenic cook group

More lakes

The overland gods came into play once more as we discovered the camp site we had planned to stay at was not accessible with the truck (we would have ended up breaking a small bridge and not leaving San Martin in a hurry) so Emma and Simon rolled the dice, crossed everything and we headed off in search of an alternative camp and a short while later pulled up at a real local Argentinean camp site, basic but functional with a Che Guevara obsessed camp owner and a microbrewery next door, perfect to celebrate Johnny's birthday!

The next day saw a few hungover faces clambering on board the truck bound for Pucon which was just over the Andes in Chile. By this time we were professional Chile border-crossers and the only thing the bio-control guys were able to find was a bag of rubbish which they disposed of on our behalf! Pucon is an outdoor adventure town with all kinds of things on offer including rafting trips out on the beautiful lake but the main draw is the volcano Vilarrica which most of the group was going to climb the next day. Emma had already lined up a guide called Willy who runs trips with a bad weather money back guarantee which was good as the weather looked variable for the summit day, however the intrepid set out in the morning just before 7am and were rewarded with a clear summit after they cleared the cloud level and got to spend time soaking in the view taking photos and messing around.

The Villarrica Gang

Danielle & Wayne don't need the chairlift

Ellie & Hannah pretending not to be scared

Kelly

Maddie

Lou, Kelly & Mike

Tee and Le stop for lunch

Joanna, Danielle & Wayne

Maddie & Lou

Villarrica volcano crater

The survivors

Then it was time for the decent rated by some as the best bit: just sit on your bum and slide! Once down and back in town all in one piece some of the guys decided it was time to celebrate and headed to a bar including most of cook group 2, who regular readers will be familiar with by now, they like a few drinks. However this time the beer scooters failed them and they were all late for cooking duty and despite carrying the ingredients for cocktails were met with a stern telling off from Emma and the news they not only had to finish off the night's meal and washing up but would be on cook group the following day as a penalty. However their cocktails soon got the party going and Johnny ended up having a rather close call with the lake down the road.

Next stop was Saltos de Laja, some beautiful waterfalls where you could swim if you liked which many of us did then we headed off to a camp near by that Emma had sniffed out and when we arrived it was a cracker. Just beside a beautiful river and with owners that were super helpful and friendly letting us have 4 kayaks rent free in light of this and the fact that most of the group had been going hard since the beginning Emma and Simon decided we would spend an extra night in the beautiful location giving a full day of rest for everyone witch was spent swimming, kayaking, reading and getting blogs written, not to mention making our way through the homemade jam the owners had given us.

Salto Grande

Odyssey t-shirt day

Emma's overlandified hair wash

Steve goes for a dip at Salto Grande

Triona by the falls

Hiding in the shade - all a bit of a change after the cool weather we'd had

R&R at Saltos camp

Head chef Wayne takes charge of dinner

Lou takes charge of Johnny's hair

AJ, Joanna & Hannah enjoy some quality UNO time

Kayaks

Ann collects wild flowers

Ken works on his tan

Flowers and jam from the camp owners

Artwork on the truck

The men at pilates

Cricket with Maddie's hand whittled bat

After a day of rest it was time to hit the city of Santiago but not before stopping off at The Balduzzi winery for a quick early morning tasting session witch coincided nicely with Donna's birthday but she needed a bit of convincing that it was ok to go wine tasting at 9am.

The Balduzzi 9am wine tasting club

The truck wallahs outdo themselves again for Donna's birthday

Then it was time to drive further north to Santiago and the closer we got the drier the land became. Lunch was had at a lovely service area with fantastically clean toilets. The drive itself was all dual carriageway right into the city.  Simon was enjoying jostling with the local traffic which had a kind of flow rather than hard and fast rules and set us down half a block from our hotel in the centre of town where we would stay for 2 nights enjoying everything the bush can’t offer: hot showers, air con and Wi-Fi.

Civilisation in all its dual carriageway-ed glory

Santiago

Santiago

The time here was spent in various ways by the group, some chose walking tours others hunted down fine food and funky bars but all got out and explored the city. Sadly our time drew to an end in Chile and we headed off on the truck bound for Mendoza Argentina for food and wine! The drive over the Andes was once again spectacular, incorporating nearly 30 switchbacks with a border crossing sitting at 2800 metres which was the only reason we could see for the officials being so difficult, refusing to give us stamps on a piece of paper we would need a short way down the road. We were forced to return to get it stamped by what seemed like every single official in the building in quintuplicate but finally we waded through the bureaucracy and were in Argentina.

The pass over to Mendoza

It makes for some fun sat-navving

A scenic lunch stop after crossing the border

Unfortunately our time in Mendoza was without Emma as she had to go back to Santiago to do battle with DHL and the Chilean customs to get some parts for Ithaca. Our first day was filled with the usual chorus of laundry, Wi-Fi and admin for most and in the afternoon out on a wine tour on which we visited 3 wineries an olive oil production and a chocolateria which made for a great afternoon. Next day we were free to explore the city parks and cafes, which Mendoza is dotted with, very suitable for its Mediterranean type temperatures and slow pace.

Wine tasting team

On a wine tasting mission

Hannah gets stuck in

Eamon shows us how it's done

Triona finds her happy place

Tee has a rare moment of indulgence

Some impressive local wildlife

Everyone was well rested by our departure day though we met a tired Emma at the bus station who had had a nightmare overnight bus ride complete with broken down bus. We spent the next 3 days making our way up and across Argentina stopping at 2 campsites where we were made most welcome. The first gave us a chance to do some Christmas preparation and to swim in the stream.

Paper chains with the truck wallahs and friends

Wayne gets creative

Danielle, our resident spirit of Christmas, masterminds the whole procedure

Dawn and an early start at our camp in Achiras

The second was in Villa Urquiza up in Entre Rios Province. We found a lovely spot right on the banks of the Rio Parana with perfect warm water for swimming and a kiosk selling ice cold beer. We turned up and no camp staff were in sight, not having been approached by the morning of departure Emma went in search of someone to pay and returned with a bewildered look on her face as the guy she had spoken to who was emptying the bins and generally looking after the place had told her you don’t need to pay as today is Thursday and you only pay for the camping at the weekend. Only at an almost perfect camp in Argentina would this happen!

Sunset at camp

We made good time and stopped for lunch not far from Colonia san Pelligrini while Maddie, Mike, Steve and Johnny were enjoying throwing round the rugby ball they were spotted by a couple of local ladies who came over for a chat and to find out what this big truck full of gringos was all about and have a chat about rugby. Sadly soon after our lunch stop the good road ended leaving 100 km of rough dirt and gravel but our toil was to be rewarded with a beautiful campsite overlooking the Ibera Lagoon which would be home for two nights, the usual camp cats and dogs were joined by camp caiman (a bit like crocodiles) and a thousand large toads who the girls in the group were less than happy to share their showers with! Next morning we were out in boats searching for wildlife and you don’t need to look for long around here it is packed with bird life, caiman and capybara clear blue skies and clear water made it the perfect morning out on the water. The afternoon was spent by most sheltering in the shade or braving the caiman in the lagoon, taking a quick dip to cool off in the now tropical temperatures and high humidity.

The road to Colonia

An exciting road across the lagoon

Capybara

Up close and personal with the caiman

Our camp neighbours

Ibera birdlife

More Ibera wildlife

A lovely breeze as we whipped along, much needed in this tropical climate

Camp neighbours, the ever present toad

Next day took us further north east starting out on a road which was basically just sand, Simon’s prediction from the pre departure meeting came true: we got stuck. Thankfully not badly and we were on our way again in ten minutes but don’t be fooled it isn’t always this quick.

Sandy road

Unstuck!  Everyone back on.

Triona making a valiant effort to keep the truck clean and the sand out

After fighting the wind in Patagonia we found ourselves fighting the heat and sun up in this last narrow part of Argentina, our lunch stops became an eternal search for shade and breeze, with temperatures inside a static Ithaca in full midday sun making us all wince.

Toasty!  The temperature inside the cab when the truck has been sitting still in the sun!  Fortunately much cooler when we are on the move!

The scenery was totally different again up here with tropical forests, red fertile soil and mate growing in the fields.

The road to Brazil

Tropical fruits for sale

Once we reached the town nearest to our planned campsite for the night it became apparent that neither the sat nav nor google had any knowledge of the road it was on, in fact even the service station attendants didn’t really know but after a couple of false starts we had wiggled our way thru town and were heading along the road we thought the campsite might be on when to our surprise we were waved down by a red pick-up with a friendly man inside who simply said “camping follow me.” Well what could we do but follow, we drew up at a very busy campsite but the one we were looking for as it turned out the owners were super helpful once more and explained that most of the people here were just visiting for the day for a 7 a side football tournament and true enough the place cleared out early in the evening. They delivered us tables and benches and even cut down the odd tree to make Simon’s life easier turning round to get back out.

Next day we were off to Brazil and the mighty Iguazu falls but not before visiting the ruins of a Jesuit mission at San Ignacio Mini. We spent a couple of hours here so those who wanted could look around and take in these ruins while others simply explored town, stocked up on last minute Christmas stuff or just sat in a cafe watching the locals go about their business.

San Ignacio ruins

Bar crew tried to stock up on beer in affordable Argentina as crates were incredibly cheap in San Ignacio but while loading them onto the truck a guy from the store came with bad news that the bottles had to be returned that day so off it came again and was exchanged for cans containing less beer for more money.

Santa takes our beer away...

Then we hit the road and headed for Foz, Brazil and Christmas, complete with a real life Santa!