Thursday, December 31, 2015

Riding day 2: Pucon - San Carlos de Bariloche

After having an excellent breakfast at our accomodation we first headed to the petrol station. We had driven about 400km since we left but still had some gasoline left. Later we found out in practise that we can actually reach even 500km with one tank of fuel. We decided to fill up the tank in every morning because then we don't need to worry about fuelling in the whole day.

From Pucon we headed east towards Argentinian border. The road to the border was quite relaxing country road with the exception of nice scenic curvy section at the end. 


At the border it of course took some time to handle all the paperwork both for the men and bikes. But the service was friendly and swift on both sides, Chilean and Argentinian. For the byrocracy we only needed passports and the documents for the bikes. Those we got from Moto Aventura when we left. 


Leaving from the border the landscape changed immediately. Chile is mostly located to west of Andis and therefore rain nurishes the ground every now and then. Argentina on the otherhand is behind the Andis looking from the Pacific Ocean. Therefore it is more deserted with lunar-like landscapes.

After we had tackled about 15km or so of nasty loose gravel roads we reached the smooth paved roads again. We rode south through Junin des los Andes and had lunch at San Martin de los Andes. From there on all the way to San Carlos de Bariloche was the most spectacular roads and views we had seen so far. Smooth winding roads and a lake after lake. Motorcycling at its truly best! The road to Bariloche went around the huge lake of Nahuel Huapi offering us plenty of beautiful views.


We had booked a bungalow-kind-of apartment for the night from the local Best Western hotel. The room it self was really nice and cheap. It was immediately obvious that the prices are quite a bit lower in Argentina than in Chile. We went to the hotel's Spa and were quite amazed to find a sign of "traditional finnish Sauna". Unfortunately the truth was something really else; steamy little room with very harsh and ascetic interiour. With our understanding it was more like "turkish sauna". Next door however  we found "traditional sauna" and it indeed was like a traditional FINNISH sauna. With the exception that the stowe couldn't handle the water we threw on it....


While having a dinner at the restaurant we noticed the locals everywhere seem to be very proud of their local beers. But for a change we decided to have local wine instead.  When enjoying this lovely local red wine we were wondering if the locals knew how famous Chilean and Argentinian wines are around the world.

Route: from Pucon to San Carlos de Bariloche
Distance: 355km
Distance traveled total: 759km
Weather: sunny (+25C)

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