Our last blog! On Friday 22nd we took the marathon trip from Puerto Varas in Chile via boats on 3 lakes and 4 buses, leaving at 8.30am and arriving in Bariloche at 9.15pm. The weather was unseasonably cold for mid-Autumn but gave the unexpected bonus of driving through snow and showing lots of snow covered mountains, at least what we could see through the low cloud. The highlight of a stay in Puerto Varas is supposed to be the view of the beautiful snow capped dormant volcano of Mt Osorno, but this is all we could see of it: The guide said this was the usual view of it and you have to be very lucky to see it on a sunny day. We stopped for lunch after one long bus ride, and one extremely slow boat trip along a lake which would do Switzerland justice. Lunch was in a hotel at Peulla, close to the Chilean/Argentinian border. It caused angst amongst some of us Aussies who had to wait 90 minutes, for cold meals, but we were more fortunate. Through the wearisome process of crossing the Chilean border, then climbed 800 metres up by bus to the Argentinian side of things to find snow. And here we are about to go into the Argentinian national park:
More queuing to do the Argie border bumf, plus welcome hot chocolate, and on to a very cold boat for a 20 minute trip past snow covered mountains to a short bus ride to the next boat at Puerto Blest. This was a quicker boat through the gathering dark to Puerto Panuelo, where we boarded our last bus in the dark to Bariloche. Slept well that night albeit in a very overheated hotel room. The best miracle was that all luggage arrived at the correct hotel, after all these transfers, and we didn't have to worry about it at all.
Woke the next day to very cold blustery winds and took a 3 hour bus tour of Bariloche and surrounds. Snow everywhere, which is very unusual for this region at this time (Bariloche is only 750 metres high). Mal was expecting Thredbo, but the town is very large and the district has 130,000 inhabitants. The views of many lakes and snow covered mountains are sensational - rivalling Switzerland. We took a chairlift to a lookout in freezing NW winds - we can only imagine what southerly winds would have been like.
Back to Bariloche for our farewell lunch in a nice BBQ place where Mal and Greg from Melbourne presented the tour awards for all the things we had noticed on the trip. For example, Julie won the Donna Hay Award for Pursuit of Excellence in South American Desserts, and Mal won the Alexander Downer Award for Diplomacy. Farewelled 2 of the party who left us to go to Llao Llao (pr "Jou Jou") a very swanky golf resort surrounded by lake and mountain views to die for.
Llao Llao
Then into town to buy chocolate which Bariloche is famed for apparently, and stroll around in hurricane like winds, to airport at 6pm for 8pm flight back to Buenos Aires. The smallish airport near the BA town centre was chaotic with apparently half of Argentina in town for Easter Sunday the next day, but we finally got our bags, and then a transfer car quite quickly.
Spent our last day here walking around BA in brilliant sunshine and 24 degree temps - back into the shorts after an extended cool spell since Puno in the high Andes.
Last view of our BA Hotel, the one with the Merc sign on top.
Plane leaves early afternoon Monday. Scheduled to arrive in Sydney at 6pm Tuesday.
Woke the next day to very cold blustery winds and took a 3 hour bus tour of Bariloche and surrounds. Snow everywhere, which is very unusual for this region at this time (Bariloche is only 750 metres high). Mal was expecting Thredbo, but the town is very large and the district has 130,000 inhabitants. The views of many lakes and snow covered mountains are sensational - rivalling Switzerland. We took a chairlift to a lookout in freezing NW winds - we can only imagine what southerly winds would have been like. 
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