Left Aluminé after a leisurely breakfast, driving slowly up to Villa Pehuenia. The name comes from the Mapudungdun word ‘pehuén’, denoting the araucaria (monkey-puzzle) tree. As I got closer to Villa Penuenia these were increasingly in evidence.
The seeds of the pehuén tree. known as ‘piñones’, are a staple food for the indigenous people of the area, who grind them into flour and use it to make many food forms.
It was a very short and relaxing day’s driving, also taking in a side trip to Moquehué, a small town som twenty km from Pehuenia. Lots of lakes around here, and the tourist season just beginning to wake up.
Tomorrow I cross into Chile, through a new pass (Icalma, a crossing that I don’t know). I’ll be aiming for Temuco, a big city and quite a change after these idyllic little settlements.
For this short trip I decided I was not going to write a blog. This is it. The map shows my intended route as I set out: from SM north to Villa Pehuenia, West to Temuco, south to Quellón (on the island Chiloe) and back to SM through Puerto Montt and Villa Angostura.
Left San Martín de los Andes about 07.30, driving first to Lake Tromen in search of Pehuén pine cones. Easily found but needn’t have bothered as later in the day I saw lots on my route.
Drive from June to Pio Lil good, fast tarmac if a little twisty. From Pio Lil to the turn for Quillen the road was worse than ever, but still a beautiful drive. Thenceforth twenty km of broken tarmac and lunch in Aluminé – a tasty lamb stew.
Sadly my favourite pasta restaurant (Posta del Rey) had closed down – seems the owner died, but the food under the new owners was good, if not meeting my dreams.
After lunch drove out to Ruca Choroi – another familiar road, where I found more and better piñones. Then to my hotel for the night, impressive to look at and above my usual standard but only £25 or so for the night.
Skipped evening meal (huge lunch) but found bowls of (pehuén) pine kernels which I ‘stole’ with permission, so my collection is now complete.
Tomorrow I’ll be doing the short drive to Villa Pehuenia.
I am writing this entry some days later. Sadly events (work, basically) took over and I had to make a beeline home to San Martin de los Andes, via Esquel, where I spent the night in the same lovely hotel as before.
Had an early breakfast and got on the road to see the Caves of the Painted Hands. Good light, good road (mostly) and got there by 09.40. Nice to be on fast flat roads instead of twisty mountain gravel.
Very different scenery to Chile: dry, and more desert-like.
I did well to leave early, as there was no one else there and I got the guide all to myself. She was excellent, and the whole tour was fascinating. As we finished I saw the next tour assembling – there must have been at least twenty-five people waiting.
The wall paintings are in a long cañadon (canyon) providing some protection from the elements.
As expected there were many painted hands, in a variety of natural pigments from different periods. dating back as early as 7350 BC. This figure has been arrived at through radio carbon dating, and is challenging earlier theories of migration times and patterns.
But more than hands: there were scenes of hunting guanaco and other animals. The guanaco provided the nomadic peoples with food, protective clothing, sinews and tendons, bones and grease. They also ate tuco-tuco, choique (lesser rhea), puma and other small animals.
And there are glyphs and artwork whose meaning we can only guess at.
I saw a lot of birds on the road: ducks, geese and swans in the many creeks the road crossed. But I had decided not to include wild life this time, so I’ll limit this to a couple of elegant black-necked swans.
And the road was littered with guanaco, hundreds of them.
Then back to Perito Moreno, where I stopped for Lunch. Then I watched the big football game (in Brazil, Boca against Fluminense). Sadly Boca lost 1-2, in extra time.
Tomorrow I drive back northwards, towards Esquel, breaking the journey in Gobernador Costa.
Woke up at my usual 06.00 to a freezing room in a freezing building. Ice in the bedroom. All ideas of a morning shower evaporated, as did the prospect of waiting in the cold until breakfast at 08.00 so I decided to cut my losses and drove off in the dawn.
It was actually nice at that time of the morning – all a little crisp, and improvable with a coffee but nothing was open in Puyuhuapi or indeed down the Carretera Austral for more than a hundred miles. But I had some juice and biscuits in the car, and the views were again stunning.
I was puzzled by what seemed to be rhubarb growing abundantly on the roadside – must be some other local plant.
I stopped to admire the view a few miles along my way and chatted with some cyclists who were just striking camp. Hardier than me, they were cheerful enough and seemingly not bothered by the cold. Oh, to be young again.
The road was partly paved with excellent asphalt, partly made up gravel and partly nightmare through some of the hilly sections, where there were small amounts of snow and very twisty pot-holed roads that made me grateful there was no ice by the time I reached them. But most of the road hugged lakesides and was mesmerisingly beautiful …
… and in the absence of heavy slow good to drive on.
Had coffee and a sandwich along the way, in a town called Amengual which had one of the beautiful chapels you see in southern Chile. Apparently this was built in the 1880s by one man, with no building or architectural knowledge, who carved every wooden pantile* by hand (if that’s the word?). Reminded me of the chapels Caroline and I saw in Chiloe.
Stopped for another coffee at a COPEC in Mañihuales, and remet some fellow travellers. It’s inevitable when you’re all doing the same long route over several days that you’ll meet up, and kind of fun too.
Got to the days’s destination, Coyhaique, in the early afternoon ready for my delayed shower. Nice comfy hostal, good shower (hot, good water pressure). Coyhaique is a sizeable town so I’ll hope to find a decent restaurant for supper tonight.
I’n staying two nights in Coyhaique as I have some Peer Review work to catch up on and the Internet connection is good. Another good thing is I don’t have to think about the route, hotels, diesel, etc for another twenty-four hours.
A hard drive today, with little to report other than a warning light that came up on the dash to change the transmission belt. Lost a few hours locating a new belt and a willing mechanic but eventually was back on the road with my wallet US$100 or so lighter.
No hotels at all on or near the RN14 until I finally spotted a YPF Motel at Cuatro Bocas.
Nothing here other than a service station and no cooking facilities so I guess it’s fast food tonight. Or I could open a jar of Rabbit Escabeche I bought out of curiosity a few days ago.
We’ll see. Bird of the day, spied from the car window, a Maguari stork.
Left cabin in San Ignacio for the first of three Jesuit ‘missions’ in the area – there were many more, but these three were handy: San Ignacio, Loreto and Santa Ana.
San Ignacio is the best preserved/reconstructed, with much ‘replacement’ stonework robbed out of the other two sites.
The entrance to the main ‘temple’ is perhaps the most known Mission archaeology in Argentina, being reproduced frequently, but the whole site is rather splendid.
There were dozens of grey-breasted martins nesting in and flying around the inner walls of the temple, making the species an ideal choice for bird of the day.
I only visited these three missions, but there are/were many more:
Loreto was interesting to me, as I had visited Loreto in Corrientes, whence the population of the Loreto in Misiones had fled to get away from slave-traders.
The ruins here were only partly uncovered, making the overgrown site a more natural place.
Similarly with Santa Ana, although there was a little more original stonework there.
The plan shows the original layout. All the missions (also known as ‘reductions’) had the same features – main temple, chapel, workers’ quarters, Jesuit quarters, orchard and vegetable garden, cemetery, etc. – but the layouts varied considerable.
I then spent a couple of hours chasing an endemic bird (yellow-headed blackbird) but he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, so I dipped again. You can’t win them all.
Spent the night in a quite cabin just outside Posadas. It was a long way from anywhere, so I cooked myself some onion soup for supper.
Tomorrow the journey south continues, with intentions to spend the night somewhere near Bonpland, Corriente. The hard driving commences too, but hey, I have to get home.
Strange noises in the night turned out to be a nest by my bedroom window – can’t identify the species.
A picnic breakfast of leftovers and a visit to the humming bird garden before leaving Puerto Iguazú.
It’s a very small garden but is full of birds, mainly humming birds.
Here’s one of the humming birds in the garden – there should be between 10 and 16 species if you know how to distinguish them (I’m learning!).
So I don’t [yet] know what kind of bird that is, and won’t have time to work on the 250 photos I took until the journey is over.
My bird of the day is a thrush-like wren that I spotted high in a palm tree in the street outside – not a great photo, but a lifer.
I liked this sign in the bird garden …
… and I made friends with a turtle there (no idea what species).
After nearly two and a half hours I had the final remains of my picnic breakfast and drove on to San Ignacio, to the friendly hotel La Toscana where I was ready for a siesta.
Tomorrow I hope to visit the Jesuit ruins at San Ignacio and if time Loreto and Sta Ana before continuing south.
First stop of the day was the Güira Oga rescue Centre, fortunately just around the corner from my cabin.
I had been there before a few years ago, but it has been ‘improved’ in the sense of the whole experience, with much more information provided by the guide, the whole trip being more of an educational experience.
As before we set off in a train to see some of the animals that cannot be returned to the wild: those intended for rerelease are kept on an island 40 km away.
Different animals from my last visit, with more birds than I remember. From these I chose my bird of the day, a bird I had not seen before: the macuco, English name solitary tinamou.
There were other animals too – I liked the jaguarundi …
… and the southern tamandua – the last one I saw was a road casualty.
On to the Iguazu Falls which were as splendid as ever, from a distance …
And close up.
I was hoping to get a picture of the great dusky swift – but dipped this time. It would have looked like this (Park publicity photo).
Some of the walkways have been improved at the falls since my last visit. It was very hot, and I was glad to get back into the car and drive on to the point where RN 101 enters the National Park. This is a famous birding strip and I was interested to see the someone had built a hide a couple of kilometres in (forgot to take a photo).
Then back to the cabin for a second night. Tomorrow I start the long journey home.
