San Martin de los Andes
Monday, August 10th, 2009For a few days I plotted my escape from bariloche. It didn’t make me happy to leave the place but time itself was running out before I was to meet Marilyn in Santiago. When I left I figured I had 7 days before she was to arrive into Santiago.The route which piqued the most interest was to grab a bus to the mountain village of san martin de los andes and then grab a boat to the Chilean border, walk 12 kilometres to the border and then a further 2 to a ferry which traverses a lake called pernipucho which by some accounts is one of the most pleasing to the eye border crossings in this part of the world. It sounded perfect, too perfect. On getting to SMDLA I discovered that the boat was not running for the 1 month low season that this town experiences. Well balls anyways!! I decided to try and traverse the border by other means. I packed up my mochilla and headed on out to road that heads to the Hui Hin border crossing. I figured that surely there would be plenty of traffic on this road, but alas not. I stood for a couple of hours before someone willing to pick up this gringo came by. It was a bit of a rust bucket but it did thtrick, I jumped into the back of the pickup truck and held onto all that was firm and fastened. The road was not sealed so it made for a seriously dusty ride, dusty and bumpy. I was thrown all over the place for the 35 or so kilometres.I dismounted at hui hinn as far as this farmer was going, I was still 12 km short of my target and the sun was in the sky. I had only 1 hour to make the border and beyond to the ferry. It the only option of transport I wasn’t willing to take the risk that there would be no accommodation on the Chilean side so I had to accept defeat and headed back to San Martin. Luckily enough there was a tourist bus visiting a local waterfall that picked me up, I must have been a rather amusing sight for the SLR totting argentinian tourists, I ignored the giggles and sat back in for the journey to San Martin.
Phil Gill