8th February 2013 – Just south of Lota, we had our minor car accident (photographs now in the gallery)
We stayed on the main route just south of Laquerte, where we called into the police station filled out a report. We received one all nicely typed up, printed and duly stamped by the police and it was handed to Jan if he wanted to use it for any future ‘insurance claim’. We bought ‘Pizza’s for our evening meal’s. We filled up with water before we left on the morning of the 9th.
Logging Trucks
9th February 2013 – Cañete
Visited Tourist office in Cayanate and used their internet. We went to the local Maheupche (indigineous people) museum, but it was closed. Many tourists turned up but no one could offer an explanation as to why the museum never opened this morning. In discussion with other visitors, thy recommended us to visit ‘Revi Lulbum’ which was a replica maheupche village about 20/25km further on. It was a lovely drive to the place and we had an interesting explanation and insight to the Maheupche way of life after our visit.
10th February 2013 – Angol
Our plan was to continue on to the Nacional Parque Nahuelbuta, but due to the leaking oil in the broken wheel, we decided to stay here and see if we could get some minor repairs done on the front left wheel. As it turned out, we asked at a local filling station and right next door there was a garage that specialised in repairing trucks and tractors. Without any delay, our wheel was fixed up and fresh bolts and and wheel oil change carried out. The wheel hub looked brand new after that, except that it was missing it’s ‘tyre inflation’ parts. We also did shopping in Sodimac and the supermarket across the road.
11th February 2013 – On the mountainside beyond Angol
In an attempt to reach the park, we stumbled upon a wooden bridge with no supports at all underneath it, alas the weight limit was for 10ton only, we decided we would not risk it as we are about 16.6 ton. We turned back and overnighted about 3km back from the bridge along the roadside. Ironically, the next morning plenty of the logging trucks passed us by, but none of them had any logs on them so to this day, we do not know if the bridge could have taken our weight.
Ear Plugs
12th/13th/14th February 2013 – Temuco
On the 12th we walked to Easy shop as we had been informed that there was ‘internet access there’, this was no the case. From here we took a bus into the city municipal park where there was free wifi. The speed was very slow (contention on the band width we think). Later on we walked about and then finally we found an internet café and did a few email updates to family only.
The next day, i.e. 13th we went in to the city and visited a museum in the morning and returned to the camper. At 15:00hrs we called into Epsy to see if they sold ‘Vigia’ parts (inflation system parts) they did not but the guy gave us a tip for Pernos (a auto mechanical store) in San Martin (street) to buy tools … we went back into town by bus and Jan got a bunch of tools that he wanted … after that we went to another internet café it was very fast and Claire got her internet banking bills paid.
15th February 2013 – Niebla
We travelled from Temuco to Valdivia. Went to tourist office at the bus station and got some information and bought an icecream but we did not see any nice parking places at this time. Also, it was raining quite hard during our initial visit to Valdivia. We decided to continue on the route and have a look at the village further up the lakeside, we found a lovely parking spot overlooking a small harbour in Niebla. We asked and were told, it was expected to rain again all day tomorrow.
Boating in Valdivia
16th February – Valdivia
In the morning we cleaned out the emergency passage in the camper and removed a tree (which we had taken on board months ago, to use as a tool to lift low hanging electricity cables above the height of our camper (3.85m) to avoid pulling them down on top of us). After our housekeeping was done, we then went down to the little harbour below and had a good look around, it was a lovely set up all stalls both souveniers and food around the harbour. By the time we had finished the walk-around, the rain had stopped.
Next then we headed for Valdivia but on the way, of course we called into the famour Kunstmann Brewery. We spent a lovely few hours here both inside and outside the museum and brewery itself. From here we headed into Valdivia itself. We parked and shortly afterwards on the way into the main part of the city we cam across a motor bike group on a ‘ride-out’ there must have been about 50 or 60 motorbikes of all makes and shapes.
After this distraction, we crossed the bridge and spent the next two hours walking around a lovely town centre. It was delightful and the weather was lovely again and nice and warm to be walking around in the evening. After that, we returned to the camper for our evening meal.
Laguna Panguipulla
17th February 2013 – Panguipilla
We got up, Claire went back into the city centre and bought some fish and blue berries (CLP 2,000 for 1 kg of blueberries and there is about 640 CLP to 1 EUR, my sister had just mentioned that in a local supermarket in Ireland, she paid more for only 125gm). After these purchases, Claire took some photographs that she had missed the evening before.
She returned to the camper and Jan had done the breakfast dishes and washed out the camper floor. Without delay, we left our parking spot and headed in the direction of ‘Villarrica’ however as it turns out, we only made it as far as Panguipulli. A lovely spot at the end (edge) of a lake. The name of the lake is the same as the town. Quite touristic. We saw a german registered pick up style camper in the town while Jan was in the tourist office. We never got a chance to speak with them.
We managed to park fairly close to the water’s edge. We also notice that in this region the temperature is cooler than it has been and you have to really wear sleeves outside now. Claire took some late night photos and then a dog annoyed her which she could not get rid of, so in disgust she returned to the camper.
18th February 2013 – Conaripe
Argentinian Camper
On the way from Panguipulli to Conaripe we came across roadworks and we arrived at about 12:34hrs only to discover that the road is blocked completely. They had blasted a rockface so that the road could be widened up ahead of us. Of all the cars that turned up so early in the day, we were the only ones that did not turn about but waited till the all clear at 17:00hrs. One other car decided not to turn around but it didn’t arrive till about 15:00hrs. Even, buses turned up … we did see a notice back a good few kilometres from the blockage but it was not clear where the actual blockage on the road was situated. Lots of vehicles did in fact turn up at the spot itself from about 15:30hrs onwards and we all just had to wait for the all clear which came at about 17:10hrs. We made it to Conaripe and who did we meet but the Chilean guy and Italian (lives in Berlin) girl that we gave a lift to at the Nacional Parque Ovalle i.e. the park with the hieroglyphs and pictographs. I have put a photograph of them in the gallery.
19th February 2013 – Puesco – CHILE
From here, we continued on to Vaillarrica but there was no where along this beautiful route for us to park and certainly not to overnight anywhere so we drove on and finally reached Pucon. We knew at this stage that we were very close now to the Chile-Argentina border. So for overnighting, we stayed in the Parque Nacional Villarrica (sector Puesco) we pulled into a layby where you can see a little waterfall. … just about 7-10 km from the Chilean customs. While we were parked, we also saw passing the tourist (4 month trips) overland organisation of ….. www.oasisoverland.co.uk who travel from Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. We had a chat with the driver and co-driver for a short while as then continued on their journey.
20th February 2013 – San Martin De Los Andes – ARGENTINA
This morning we crossed into Argentina and the process was incredibly fast. At the Chilean exit post, it took about 10 minutes and at the Argentinian it took about 40 minutes to be processed completely.
After that, we travelled on and arrived in this very touristic town, we parked at the central plaza area so that we could locate a supermarket and taken on board more fresh food. On stepping out of the camper we met ‘Ingrid’ a very dutch lady with a very english accent who is one of a duo in a music group who are employed locally. After chit chatting with her for a while, we then got talking to a driver and a bunch of guys in a ‘bus camper’ who parked directly behind us. Their details can be seen at www.bambucicleta.com.ar. We overnighted in a lay-by off the road a few kilometres beyond the town.
21st February 2013 – ACA station at Laguna Traful junction
A beautiful drive we had today. We continued south on the 234 from S.M. de los Andes heading for Bariloche. However we decided to take the secondary piste route of 65 along the Laguna Traful so that we would not have to repeat any kilometres on the route once we finished with Bariloche and were heading for Chile again. This option prevented a lot of backtracking. Before we undertook the driving we checked with one of the road workers (tractor driver) to ensure that the road could take the dimensions of the MANKAT1. The only risk was in fact the bridges, he said it would be ok. We saw a notice that only buses with a maximum of 21 people were allowed. Anyway, we risked it and it was a lovely surprise of a drive. The scenery was incredible. The area is mainly unspoilt and not overcrowded like many other similar areas both in Chile as well as Argentina. Originally we had planned to overnight in a place about 5km before the junction at a bridge that crosses the river, in the end we opted for the parking place at the ACA station.
Clear Lake Water
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