If you talked to me a few weeks ago and asked me what my plans were I would have probably said something along the lines of "I´m heading south toward Patagonia." I would have admitted that I didn´t really have plans so to speak, just ideas. A few days ago I realized the stark difference between plans and ideas. My "plan" was to take the Navimag ferry to that goes from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. My "plan" was to go to the island of Chiloe. My "plan" was not to be like so many other travelers and completely skip over Middle Chile. These were all ideas, not plans, because they were just thoughts in my head and I had taken no actions to make them reality.
As I mentioned in a previous post I fell in love with the city of Santiago. My falling in love with the city and a few interaction that I had with people made me spontaneously apply for a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course in Buenos Aires. The course starts March 10 and lasts a month. Suddenly my ideas needed to actually become plans. My first step was completely skipping Middle Chile and taking an overnight bus from Valparaiso to Pucon in the Lakes District. The Lakes District looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest and Pucon reminded me of Lake Tahoe with a small version of a Colorado alpine tourist town attached to it. I wasn´t all that impressed. People go there to hike up the vocano, which wasn´t too stunning exept for the fact that it looks like it's puffing a cigar all day, go to thermal baths, or go white water rafting. To be perfectly honest none of these really interested me at the prices and with the crowds of tourists they came with. Realizing that I only had about 2.5 weeks before I had to be in Buenos Aires I decided to head straight to Patagonia. Problem, how to get there. That ferry I´d "planned" on taking? It only leaves once a week and it is booked up through the first week of March. There are other ferries, ferries that leave from the island I wanted to visit, which don´t go as far south. Patagonia is a very isolated, remote area without a huge deal of infrastructure. On the Chilean side the highway, which was mostly built in the 1980s, isn´t paved all the way and doesn´t go all the way south. Flights are expensive and booked up far in advance. I decided to head to Puerto Montt, a port city in Chile that is the Chilean gateway to Patagonia and wing it. Then I talked to an Israeli and my plans changed.
Israelis have infiltrated South America and they seem to have the travel circuit down. There must be some sort of information flow that goes from Israeli to Israeli. Why have Israelis infiltrated South America? Cause after 2 or 3 years in the army they need some down time! So they come and spend a year cruising through South America, doing lots of hiking and trekking. This Israeli went over the map with me and said "No, no, no. Don´t go to Puerto Montt. Go to Bariloche then go down Route 40." So in the morning I refunded my ticket to Puerto Montt, bought a ticket to Bariloche, and then ran back to the hostel to stuff some breakfast down my throat and grab my bag cause the bus left in half an hour.
The drive to Bariloche was beautiful, we crossed the Andes, saw tons of monkey puzzle trees, emerged flatter hills that reminded me of Southern Colorado, stopped in a darling little lakeside town, San Martin de los Andes, that was all chic and tourist facade where I hung out in a coffee shop playing cards with a 19 year old English kid on his first big trip, drove through some wonderfully beautifully lakes while the sun was setting. It was lovely. It took forever. I had a wonderful conversation with a young Argentinian border officer on the bus. I stressed a lot cause I had NO clue how I was gonna get to Patagonia, IF I had enough time to go to Patagonia, WHAT I was gonna do if I didn´t. I f*$/%ing plan other people´s vacations for a living!! And here I was, with my own completely unplanned, completely loose at the seams, and I was not comfortable with it. I hadn´t even known that I was going to Bariloche until that morning. I was going to arrive at 11:30pm and I didn´t know how to get from the bus terminal to the center of town. Thankfully I´d at least called some hostels and made myself a reservation while in San Martin.
Bariloche is in a GORGEOUS setting. There are multiple lakes around, stunning mountains, its verdant and green with the sparkle of blue water. The town itself is right on the shores of a lake. The town looks like it was imported from the Alps. There are a lot of chocolate shops. A lot of wooden buildings that would fit right in in Switzerland. Luckily I worked out my travel plans by 12:30 and could go out and enjoy the town, hike up to a viewpoint and then to a little lake beach with a German I ran into and follow it up with chocolate and coffee with an English woman.
The Patagonia plans, which still feel insane to me, are as follows. Tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. I will start a two day bus/road trip down Ruta 40, which is sort of like Argentina´s version of Route 66 as far as folklore goes only Ruta 40 isn´t paved and isn´t a dead road like Route 66. That whole lack of pavement means that it isn´t fully alive yet. This roadtrip ends in El Chalten, a small town near some awesome stuff. I will spend a day and a half here before heading to El Calafate, a town near an awesome glacier but uninteresting otherwise. From El Calafate I will head back into Chile to Torres del Paine National Park, the crown jewel of Patagonia. I will rent gear and hike in TDP for 5 days. I will then go back to El Calafate, take a 6 hour bus to a town called Rio Gallegos and fly to Buenos Aires. If all things go to plan I will have a day and a half to recover before I start my CELTA course.
I will then plan out the next two months of my trip a little bit better cause I don´t really like flying by the seat of my pants.
I hope you enjoyed your little window into Leah trying to make decisions. It´s a delightful universe to exist in.
Addendum: Things that are popular in Chile
1. Wearing brightly colored tights under jean shorts, preferably with some sort of designs on the pockets.
2. Fanny packs, only not worn around your waist but across your chest over one shoulder with the pack part safely resting on your stomach.
3. "Completos" - a hot dog (nasty ones) smothered with avocado, cheese, tomato, and other stuff
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