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Puerto Montt (1/6/07 - 3/6/07)
The closest significant Chilean city to Bariloche was Puerto Montt which I decided would be my launching point to either Coyhaique or Puerto Natales... unfortunately, for my whole time there, the weather was kind of bad... The main industry here is Salmon and Trout and, naturally the seafood here is very fresh (guess what I ate every night)
I decided to take a little tour of some estancias - farm homesteads. The wildlife here really isn't scared of humans... I saw some of these guys in Bolivia near the Salar de Uyuni but onlt from a distance. If I had been unfortunate enough to be carrying any food on me, I would have probably been attacked by this guy.
...and I finally got to see a Puma. An animal that inspired a brand of sportswear and revered by the indigenous people of South America... it was a little sad to see this fellow in a cage. Chiquita, as she is called, was found, abandonded, as a cub and it was apparently a great deal of trouble to find someone to take her in. She is very very tame... frequently pressing herself up against her cage to get her head scratched by her many visitors.
This guy wasn't quite so tame... obviously displeased by the amount of attention the puma was getting, he did his utmost to grab my attention.
Hey there... what are you looking at?
Close to Puerto Montt, there are a number of lakes (this IS the lake district) and these lakes are surrounded by mountains (the andes). Among thos mountains is the volcano Osorno... unfortunately it was too cloudy to see (damn!!!) but some of the lakes immediately surrounding it were this peculiar green-blue colour because of the volcano.
Some of these lakes are also very big with impressively big waves for such small bodies of water.
Argh! More boats! Stupid lakes in the lakes district... we took a boat to the other side of one lake to eat lunch at an estancia...
...where we were greeted by this little perrito... (note the two "r"s in perrito, to distinguish it from Perito, as in Perito Moreno Glacier)
"Two legs bad, four legs good!" Can anyone remember the words to "beasts of England"? Hmm.... just looking at him is making me hungry.
This dog... well... you can see for yourself. Perhaps if you stare into his white eye, you will see how you die (anyone who hasn't should watch the movie "Big Fish")
Ha! And you thought I was sick of waterfalls... admittedly these weren't nearly as impressive as Angel Falls or Iguazu Falls, but they were still pretty cool. Especially for the effect they made on the lake below... (mouse over the image)
The Plaza de Armas by night.
A view of the town by night...
Coyhaique (4/6/07 - 5/6/07)
The main reason I wanted to go to Puerto Natales was to do some glacier trekking and ice climbing on Glaciar Grey. However, when I called the company that runs that stuff they informed me that, not only was the season over (it is low season now), but nobody runs trekking or ice climbing on the glacier anymore. D'oh. This left me with little choice but to journey to Coyhaique... the launching point for trips to the San Rafael glacier... although, being low season, it was exceedingly unlikely that I would be able to visit it given my rather dire time constraints
The weather, as if you taunt me... turned good just as I left. Not only that... but the route from Puerto Montt to Coyhaique actually goes through Argentina... not only that, it goes THROUGH BARILOCHE! So I sat in the bus for 22 hours looking at the sky and shaking my fist at it - "Where were you three days ago when I was trying to climb Lanin!!!!"
Indeed, the occasional bits of leftover snow were the only evidence of the severe snowstorm which halted my ascent just days ago.
...I don't really want to bore you all to death, but it is just way too much fun taking long exposure shots of the sky. The above constellation is, of course, Scorpio (mouse over the image)
Bored yet? For those of you who haven't caught on yet... this is the southern cross (mouse over the image)
...and what do you know, just as I was about to arrive at my destination... the weather started to become overcast again. Although it did make for a pretty nice sunrise.
shame about those power lines...