| Jan 12, 2006 - Panguipulli, Chile
| (click to enlarge)
 |  | (click to enlarge)
 | | (click to enlarge)
 | | show all 11 | | Volcano Villarica from the first bus | | Same volcano | | Volcano Villarica again | | |
| These next few entries all go together, and you'll notice that some have the same dates. Let me explain. Even though there was a direct bus from Pucon to San Martin de los Andes in Argentina, we wanted to cross a different way. We had heard that there was a much less used but much more scenic way of crossing the border that involved passing many of the lakes of this Lake District, as well as crossing one of them on a ferry. We weren't exactly sure how it would get down, since you cannot by these bus tickets in advance, but I had spoken to some people in Pucon and they told me the route it would take so we decided to go for it. Which is why we needed to start early. The first move was catching one of the local buses that runs from Pucon to Villarica, a town only 30 minutes away on the same lake as Pucon. These small shuttles leave every half-hour so that was not hard, and we did that at 11am.
Once in Villarica we had to ask around and find out where exactly we could get to next. There was a more developed and trafficked road that would get us to Panguipulli, but that took us far out of the way, would cost more, and would not be nearly as scenic. Besides, where is the adventure in that? And we got lucky again, because immediately after arriving we caught a bus to Lican Ray, a tiny tiny town farther on along our way. In Lican Ray we were supposed to catch a mini van type transport to Panguipulli, where we would catch the bus to Puerto Fuy and the ferry. We got a little nervous at first since we could not get any definite information on this transport, but we waited where we thought we should, on a street corner in the center of town. We passed half an hour eating some empanadas, and then came our van. Not sure if we would have known to get on this one otherwise, but since we were asking the drivers of every van that passed where they were going, we were able to locate our man.
We got into Panguipulli (Pang-ee-Poo-ee) alright, and discovered we had another 45 minutes to kill before our bus left for the port. The ride down there was just as spectacular as advertised, with mountains, volcanoes, and lakes dotting the landscape for our viewing pleasure. We sat outside the terminal and made our lunch of salami sandwiches, avocado, cheese, etc. But here is also where we got the devastating news. Yes, we had executed our day to perfection and were going to get to the Puerto Fuy, the port, in time to catch the last ferry that crosses it. However, the connecting bus on the other side that brings you across the border and to San Martin de los Andes only runs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Today was Thursday. Hm. What to do? Oh well, let's go for it. "We'll figure something out, we'll hitchike if we have to, we came this far let's not stop now." Right on boys. We inquired about any hostels on the other side of the lake, just in case we were stranded, and we were assured there as one, but nothing else. The woman who sold us the bus tickets was also a tour agency or something, and she was giving us all this information. She even said that there was a guy in a nearby town who owned a pickup truck, and when we got across the ferry we should ask the hostel owner and maybe she could send a horse to get the guy and then MAYBE he would take us. It sounded wierd, but that was only the start to how wierd this place "across the lake" were prove to be.
But whatever, not to be discouraged, we boarded the bus at 3pm that was supposed to take 2 hours, more than enough time to catch the final 6pm ferry. This ride was even better than the last for scenery, if that is possible. I have no poetic metaphoric way of describing it, but it was amazing. However, we didn't count on the fact that this bus would operate in the school bus fashion, and go for miles off the main road down tiny back roads of gravel and dirt just to drop someone off at their house. I swear we were even off-roading at times on roads I would be skeptical to take an ATV down. As 5:45 came and went I started to get nervous, but the driver assured us (us who were the ONLY remaining people on the bus) that we would get there in time, and that the ferry would wait for us. Ok. Well we did pull into Puerto Fuy with about 1-2 minutes to spare, and the boat workers rushed us on as they were lifting up the back hatch of the boat to close it and take off. We made it.
We were then treated to a lovely and scenic 1.5 hour ferry ride on our way to Puerto Pirehueico, the port on the other side. During this ride we met Nenet, who was another American traveller in the same predicament as us. She had reached the ferry and only then found out that no buses would meet her to take her across to Argentina. To make matters worse however, she was completely out of all cash, and there were no ATM's on either side of the lake. Not to mention she was alone. So we agreed to take her on as one of our own and make sure she'd be alright. Well, at least as alright as we'd all be. |
| |
| |
