South America Day 45 - 47

Day 45 - We had a nice lie in today after a tiring two days only getting up at 9am.  Nigel went off horse riding with Evita at 11am for a couple of hours, I declined this time, my inner thighs quite bruised from the spade sledging yesterday!  I went for a wander around Pucon with five others from our group visiting the lake and a cemetery area which had great views over Pucon town. Pucon is a pretty little tourist town on a lakeside setting located in the heart of the northern Chilean lake district, a big centre for adventure activities.  We stopped in a cafe for some lunch then returned to the hostel. 

I met up with Nigel again, he had a great time horse riding in the national park, even survived some galloping and an unintentional jump!  We went back for another short wander around town then returned for a chillaxing afternoon at the hostel.  In the evening Claudeo, the hostel owner, cooked a great BBQ for us all.

Day 46 - we left Pucon at 8am on a private bus, our truck Amber was still in the garage in Santiago getting fixed, hopefully she'll be fixed and catch up with us in Baraloche.  It was an hour and a half drive to the border of Chile/Argentina at Mamuil Malal where we left our Chilean bus behind.  It was a very small border station this time so we were stamped out of Chile quite quickly, without our own bus Amber, the only problem we had this time was a 1.5km walk down a dirt track through 'no mans land' from the Chile border building to the Argentina border building with all our bags.  Our Argentina side private rented mini buses were waiting for us after the Argentina border.  It took us about an hour to get through, much quicker than the last couple of border crossings.  It was then a three hour drive to Baraloche through some stunning scenery again. We arrived at 2pm at our hostel about 7km outside of Baraloche town itself on a beautiful lakeside setting on the shores of Nahuel Hapi Lake, surrounded by Andean mountain peaks. In winter Baraloche is a popular centre for skiing and in summer the focus shifts to outdoor activities such as walking, mountain-biking, horse-riding and kayaking on the lakes. Baraloche is also famous for it's hand made chocolates.  It appears a very rich, well to do area, lots of fancy houses and properties.  We had a wander around the area near our hostel and on the pebble beach then went food shopping and bought a bus card so we could venture in to Baraloche town the next day.

Day 47 - we had a free day today so we caught the bus into Baraloche and had a wander around the town.  It was a sunny day but with a cold wind, around 12°C, it's the start of their spring season.  We had a look in a few of the towns chocolate shops, they all seemed to be selling similar chocolates.  We resisted buying any chocolates, they were very expensive, but couldn't resist an expensive chocolatey cake treat in one of the chocolate shop cafes.  Everything in Argentina seems expensive compared to the rest of south America, their economy is in a right mess though.  Back to the hostel, which was cosy and warm we had a relaxing afternoon and evening.