The Araucanía and Villarrica

February 25 Bariloche to San Martín de los Andes

February 26 San Martín de los Andes to Villarrica

February 28 Villarrica and Pucón

February 29 Villarrica to Lima

March 1 Lima to Vancouver

Almost all of the towns and cities we visited in the Argentinian Andes had roses along their streets. These are in San Martín de los Andes.

When we got off the bus in San Martín, we looked around for somebody who was renting rooms. There was a man there at the bus station, handing out flyers for his hostel. Its name was La Grieta ("The Crack") and it was quite a nice place to stay overnight. We never asked where the name came from.

Not on the main commercial street of San Martín de los Andes, but on the next street over, was a basket-maker selling his wares from a truck.

We didn’t see any wild Araucaria (monkey-puzzle) trees until we had nearly reached the Chilean border. We entered Chile via what Argentina calls Paso Tromen, next to the base of Volcán Lanín.

From Pucón we got our first view of Volcán Villarrica. It is still active; the clouds above it are not weather. Its last major eruption was in 1984, and there are still residual mudflows in the outskirts of Pucón.

We think this market in Pucón was selling real flowers, although even after looking closely we couldn’t tell for certain.

In Villarrica we stayed at this hostel, named La Torre Suiza by the Swiss couple who owned it. From our window we could see Volcán Villarrica, at least until the weather turned cloudy. The young daughter of the owners had a terrible cold, which we brought home and spread to several people in Vancouver.