Ceramic Tile Notch Size

8 February 2011

It is so hot today my brain is melting. And yet I must / should write something down for our English speaking friends. It is only about 2 weeks of our South American journey left... Time just flew from the last time I did some work on this blog.

Last time I made a note here I promised some comments on the Cueva the Las Manos (the Cave of the Hands) tour we had booked from Perito Moreno. Honestly I did not expect it to be very exciting. And yet it was just amazing. A big, deep, beautiful canyon, where the Cueva (the Cave) is hidden would be enough to overwhelm us. We (about 8-10 people altogether) walked along one wall of the canyon until we reached the Cave. Cueva the Las Manos is famous for its imprints of human hands on the walls (check our pictures to know what I mean). The imprints were actually made outside the Cave, in many colours and look almost contemporary. Really, as if someone made a modern decoration or a happenning. And yet the oldest are ca. 9 thousand and the youngest ca. 1 thousand years old. I do not know of many civilizations which would maintain a custom in over eight thousand years! There are other drawings as well, mostly of guanacos. And finally there is one hand which has 6 fingers. We walked and admired and then our guides took us down to the canyon bottom where we crossed a river (barefoot) and climbed a sand dune made of volcanic ashes. Then we had to climb the other wall of the canyon to get to our minivan. It was quite dark once we got there and I was a bit scared we would get stuck on the narrow path with no light but we made it.

The next day we took a buss to Bariloche. It is a long trip in itself, about 13 hours and in about a middle our buss broke down. We had to wait some 4 or 5 hours for replacement busses. But our pilot organized it all perfectly, called our accommodation to let them know we were delayed and eventually brought us just in front of our hostel so we cannot complain.

Bariloche is yet another tourist location, crowded with visitors and with... chocolate cafes and factories. The very first day we went to the most reknown (and most expensive) place called Mamushka, apparently with Russia theme and yes, serving very good chocolates. Other than that, the most important thing we did was finding a car rental agency (we checked a dozen) and booking a car for 2 weeks as well as booking a return buss ticket from Bariloche to Buenos Aires.

But as soon as we were done, the very next day we took a tour to Nahuel Huapi National Park and did a several hours hike to the Black Glacier. The Black Glacier is indeed black, but only in its lower part. At the upper part, as it comes down from Tronodor Mountain, it is still blueish-white. But as it rolls down it carries rock sand with it, thus getting the black colour. The result is really nice, especially as the icebergs floating on the below lake are of mixed colour, some black, some white.

The next day we picked our rented car and finally can enjoy the freedom it gives us. After all, a buss does not always stop as we would want it, and with the car we are so flexible, choosing a road as we wish. First we went to Villa La Angostura, a small town in the argentinian Lake District. The road there was really beautiful, going along the lakes and among green hills. The weather luck however left us there and we had to cancel our plans to visit a small national park near Villa but at least we could catch a breath before driving on.

The following day we crossed the border to Chile and soon after stopped in the by-the-road restaurant serving true chilean meals accompanied by true chilean guitar music. A not expensive and tasty lunch. By the way, my observation is that in Chile, by contrast to Argentina, they finally use veggies. No, I mean, the meals are much more diversified and apart from grilled meat and sweats they offer a whole variety of soups, sallads and so on. In shops (and outside, to be exact) we could finally get fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, peaches... What a treat after rather poor argentinian diet.

We drove on to Ensenada (a tiny village) mostly to see nearby falls and, for the first time in Ands, volcanoes. From Ensenada one can watch a perfect snowy cone of Osorno volcano. It kept its perfect shape by having craters around the base, thus any lava flows come out there. There are two more volcanoes visible from that locations as well and from our hostel we could pretty much see all three.

The next day we drove to Pucon from which this post is being made. Pucon is very, very touristy place, but has several pluses for us. First, there is Villarrica, another perfectly shaped volcano, with snow at the top and white smoke coming out of its crater. Villarrica is the most active volcano in Chile, last erruption took place in 1984, so it feels a little menacing to be watching that white smoke. The next thing is Villarrica National Park, in itself not very attractive, but there is one hike that lead us to the top of a nearby mountain from which we had a fantastic view of the mountains, several other volcanes (including Lanin shared by Chile with Argentina) and of course close view of the Villarrica volcano and hardened lava path. You can't get much closer unless you climb that mountain, but for that you need to be really in shape (and lets face it we are not... yet).

Finally there is the Huerquehue National Park, much larger than Villarrica P.N. and offering several hikes, one of which we attempted. We would do better if not for the fact that Lonely Planet claimed that it only takes 4 hours round trip (7 km). Instead it was 4 hours one way so we had to give up at some point. But we did climb to some 1300 meters and reached a very lovely spot with 3 mountain lakes.

Today we took it easy and it turned out to be the best option. It is some 30+ degrees and it is almost impossible to breathe. We decided to go to see nearby falls, Ojos del Caburgua, and after that update our blog and picture sites. Tomorrow we leave Pucon and go back to Argentina, among other to visit Lanin (the volcano) National Park.