Over the Andes

Traveling up the mountains

 ....28 switchbacks up, dodging trucks in a double decker bus (see right for proof!) before we're even close to the border of Argentina and Chile, but so stunning!

Mt Aconcagua, highest mountain in the Americas

As an alternative to flying between Santiago and Mendoza, there are a number of bus companies who offer services across the Andes. We chose Andesmar who have really nice buses and if you book early enough, have seats on the second level at the very front for uninterrupted views as you go hurtling between snow-capped, jagged mountains.

Little church dwarfed!

There are some picturesque mountain towns along the way and unsurprisingly, very stunning views at just about every turn, including Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America at 6962 meters.

An Andean village

Customs and immigration between the countries can be pretty long and tedious (and the thin air can also be challenging), with all bags unloaded and searched. No food items etc can be brought though and from my understanding, officials seem to look for new electrical items being brought from Chile across to Argentina to avoid tax (unconfirmed but this is what I've heard) however, it was an unforgettable journey and takes the term 'armchair adventurer' to another level!

If you would like more info on the trip, please feel free to email me at info@travelapasionado.com.au

Chilean wine valleys in style

Casitas Lapostolle; luxury in the vineyards

A week touring the Chilean wine routes is a fantastic way to see the countryside, learn a little bit about the Chilean people's culture, try local foods and to drink some very nice wines. Chile is a beautiful, safe country offering high-quality accommodation, food and wines, including a red variety not grown anywhere else in the world, called Carmenere, and also some very impressive white wines.

Vina Perez Cruz, Maipo Valley, Chile

There are a number of influential and important valleys producing wine in Chile, and depending on how much time is available, all are interesting to visit. In 6 days we saw the main wineries in Casablanca, San Antonio, Maipo, Colchagua and Aconcagua valleys as well as some important landmarks, a world-renowned museum and I learnt a HUGE amount (from a fairly low base I'm afraid to admit) about Chilean wines. We chose to travel with a driver, Hugo, (who was also an absolute wealth of information about anything & everything we thought to ask!) and Karen, one of Chile's foremost wine experts and also a consultant to Wines of Chile. I would highly recommend this team as words cannot express how above & beyond they went to ensure we had a trip, truely, of a lifetime.

Carmenere grapes, Colchagua Valley, Chile

Fresh, delicious local foods included salmon, trout, ceviche (fish 'cooked' in lemon & lime juices and some spices), humitas and tamales (corn-based dishes), plenty of red meat, empanadas and very importantly; pisco sours - an alcoholic and very delicious drink!

Biodynamic Emiliana vineyard

Red varieties, especially Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon, are very popular in Chile but for us it was the white varietals - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Gris - that really impressed. Very different in style from Australian & NZ wines, they were 'minerally', linear, elegant wines with nice fruit & excellent balance. It was a treat to try these wines and I could easily see how Casa Marin (in San Antonio Valley) won the best Savignon Blanc in the world in 2010.

Carmenere was brought to Chile from France pre-phylloxera mistakenly as Merlot; it has since flourished and become something of a national grape for Chile (although Cab Sav is arguably the most popular locally) as it is now the only country in which the variety is produced. Low in acid, the wines made from Carmenere are deep, rich coloured with velvety, chocolate nuances and fragrant aromas. It is very late ripening, with the leaves turning a brilliant red in autumn. There are some excellent examples made and they are truely world-beating wines; Clos Apalta from Lapostolle as an example (it is a blend but Carmenere is the prime varietal)

Vina Montes, Colchagua Valley, Chile

Vina Errazuriz, Aconcagua Valley

 While international tourism to Chile's wine regions is really in its infancy, the quality and striking architecture of the wineries made us think a little of Margaret River on steroids - several have been designed by world-renowned architects, all that we visited had beautiful (often breathtaking) grounds and views, and some also have excellent restaurants and accommodation options; one or more certainly to suit even the most extravagant budget. The valleys are beautiful and there is a lot of history that can be soaked up simply by visiting the country and visiting the local towns and vineyards.    

For more information on visiting Chile and/or its wine regions, please email me at: info@travelapasionado.com.au     
www.travelapasionado.com.au

Peulla to Puerto Varas - Finishing the Andes & Lakes Crossing

Rio Negro, perfect mirror-image lake near Peulla

After me being very adventurous and canopy-gliding through the forest - insert Tarzan joke here - (and it was great fun and I think handily looked more daring and scary than it actually was) on our last morning in Peulla, we boated off towards Puerto Varas. This crossing should have been stunning as we passed over the Andes and several volcanoes; unfortunately it was completely cloudy and we saw absolutely nothing! The ups and downs of travel...

Mt Osorno from the town of Frutilla

...However this view made up for it once we arrived in Puerto Varas! Mount Osorno is just one of the volcanoes easily visible from the town, and is spectacular. The town of Puerto Varas is cute and has a DELICIOUS restaurant, Las Buenas Brasas, that was so good we ate there for both lunch and dinner on the same day. Centolla is King Crab and there is so fresh and scrumptious if you're like me, you'll dream about it for a long time to come!

We also did a 1/2 day trip to Frutilla which is a little town not far from Puerto Varas. It has a very strong German heritage and in effect is a little German village; just to confuse our language efforts even more we had to try ordering Kuchen in Spanish.

If you would like any more information on travelling this route, feel free to email me! info@travelapasionado.com.au and for more pictures, Travel Apasionado has a Facebook page

Cruce de Lagos; the Lakes Crossing, Patagonian Argentina to Chile via Peulla (Part Two)

Room with a view; from our hotel in Peulla

Following from yesterday's entry where my mum Ann and I travelled from Bariloche in Argentina to Puerto Alegre, where we were stamped out of Argentina we pick up our plight, stateless in the Andes...

At Puerto Alegre, which is not a town but rather one shop & a customs building on the border of Lago Frias, we were torn between the mandatory stamping of our passports out of Argentina, and the delicious smell of hot chocolate wafting from the nearby sells-everything shop. It turned out the chocolate was cooked in saucepans and mixed with fresh hot milk by the store-lady on request; the shop also exchanges pesos for pesos (Argentinian to Chile) which is of utmost importance; there's little love lost between the countries and nowhere in Chile will accept the other kind of peso.

One thing I should mention is that on the short bus ride from Puerto Blest to Puerto Alegre, we passed a 700 year old tree, Alerce, which has the potential to join it's cousins in the nearby forest in growing to 4,000 years old. Just imagine!

Blue-eyed llama, Peulla

After departing Argentina officially if not literally, a 1.5 hour bus ride took us through a beautiful forest past the official border between the countries where we hopped off to photograph the moment. It may sound like a lot of bus-boat-bus-boat, and of course it is, but the guides are so informative and helpful, and the scenery so beautiful and interesting, that it never felt tedious. Travelling to Peulla past fields of alpacas, llamas, cows and horses, all in lush fields framed by the mountains, was truely fantastic. We passed the glacier of Mt Tonador, icy blue and sparkling in the sunshine, then broke out into the flat plain of Peulla with the tiny little town of 140 inhabitants in the distance.

A very serious customs process greeting, with bags searched for fruits, animal products etc that could harm Chiles delicate and important agriculture and native plant species, and we were officially stamped in to Chile. The country, because of it's excellent controls and thanks in no small part to the natural borders of the Andes and the ocean, is free of many diseases and pests such as fruit fly, bird and swine flus, mad cow disease.

Peulla is almost beyond description; a little Eden in the middle of the Andes with a lush evergreen forest on one side, and the beautiful snow-capped mountains of the Andes on the other. Because it is in a National Park and so isolated, there are really only people involved in customs or tourism in the town and it is an absolute gem. This is the place to get away from everything - or to treat yourself to a slice of nature's paradise.

TBC!! (sorry....slow internet connection + being somewhere so exotic leads to inconsistent blog updating)

Cruce de Lagos; the Lakes Crossing, Patagonian Argentina to Chile via Peulla (Part one)

I'm limited in the photos post-able on this blog; there are some great ones that really give you a feel for the land & journey if you look at the Travel Apasionado Cruce Lagos facebook album

If you'd like more information on Cruce Lagos, the Lakes Crossing, feel free to email me at info@travelapasionado.com.au 

Lovely (haughty!) llamas, Peulla

Seagulls swooping down for a snack, Nahuel Huapi

Breathless! Crossing from Argentina (Patagonia) to Chile has been the most fantastic experience. We didn't really know what to expect (booking was a little hairy; all in Spanish and limited correspondence) and were amazed to find a remote little treasure in the middle of the Patagonian Andes. It's been quite a mission and every step of the way not only worth it, but a gift for the eyes.  The story begins in Bariloche...


...We were picked up from our hotel in Bariloche and driven to Puerto Panuela, Llao Llao Peninsula, where we caught the first boat on the lake Nahuel Huapi. Our guide Leonardo was very helpful and really set the tone for the rest of our journey; he was able to help my mother Ann identify all sorts of plants and even to give their botanical names, impressing her which is no mean feat! This boat section is hour and a half, the highlight being when seagulls swooped down to grab biscuits out of our hands in the *very* fresh air; this led to a) some great photos and b) an attack of hunger for us as well, after all that fresh air. Somehow the carne (meat) empanadas on the boat that looked so ordinary, tasted so delicious! As did the chocolate caliente, hot chocolate. It doesn't take mountain air long  to work!

Lago Frias

We arrived to Puerto Blest, on the Rio Frias, then bussed to the Lago Frias, a lake coloured by the minerals coming from a glacier and so fine that they sit on the top layers of the water, giving it an unusual milky-blue colour. Surrounded by mountains all around, it was spectacular. And looked like it lived up to it's name; cold. This lake was very quick but also very pretty to cross; it took us to the Argentinian border control who stamped us out of Argentina, although we weren't quite in Chile yet...stateless, I now take my leave. Internet connection is very slow so I will complete the Lake Crossing story tomorrow!
'ta luego....
*Postscript: Next part of the Lakes Crossing here

Bodega* Fin Del Mundo; the End of the World is delicious (and great value!)

A very generous glass of Reserva Malbec, Argentine bife, papas al horno, pimientos dulces, Reserva Viognier , queso de cabra (goats cheese) with figs & honey and $15 AUD for the whole thing....and it was half gone before we thought to take this picture!
 Riquisimo!

More info on accommodation or sites? Please feel free to email me or view my website: Travel Apasionado or the Facebook page!

*'Bodega' = winery 

The Winery at the End of the World
Meandering around Palermo Hollywood, Buenos Aires, one day in between appointments with hotels (I don't recommend hotels I haven't seen), stumbled we did not upon Experienca Bodega Fin del Mundo. Why not? Because the building is huge and modern and a destination in its own right and it would no doubt take offence at anybody saying they had stumbled upon it.
Bodega Fin del Mundo was established in 1999, is located in the Neuquen Provence, Patagonia (Argentina) and produces wines from some of the southernmost vineyards in the world. Patagonia was considered to be unsuitable for wine production until the doubters were proved categorically wrong as over the years following 2003 Bodega Fin del Mundo scooped a number of gold, silver & bronze medals at international wine awards around the world. ( The awards are listed here if you'd like to know exactly what they've won)

However, it is their gourmet, no-expense-spared venture 'Experienca Del Fin Del Mundo' in Palermo Hollywood, Buenos Aires that so impressed us (and Neuquen, Patagonia is really cold and a bit hard to get to). As noted, it's impossible to miss and is absolutely worth popping in to for a copa de vino and to rest those weary legs. Plus, now you can say it's educational...

Technology plus!
Buzz if you'd like the bill
or better still...another glass

The impressive, dark-wood-and-stone space is a restaurant, open for lunch, afternoon tapas snacks, and dinner. It also caters for functions, runs wine tastings, wine educational sessions and special events with renowned chefs and wine personalities from around the world.

As an afternoon, 'how can we not go in' visit, we were not looking for a main meal however were, as one would expect, open to trying some new wines! There is a full list of the bodega's wines, including wine-making, taste, and blend descriptions with a number of wines offered both by the glass or by the bottle. A great way to try the wines is with their 'Tapas y Vinos' menu, which offers a small dish matched to a specific wine. Malbec with Argentinian beef and Viognier with goats cheese both matched perfectly and it was a treat to eat local foods with the delicious wines.

When the waiter came by to top up our glasses a faint look of panic appeared on my face; maybe it wasn't 2 glasses my fabulous Spanglish had ordered but 2 bottles?! Nope - they just come around and top up your glass so it's not un-artistically full the first time. Sigh. Problemo? Just press the buzzer on your table for the waiter, the bill, or cancel the call if pressed accidentally.
And now for the piece de la resistance - all of the above came to a crushing total of AUD $15.
Margaret River, you have slipped a looong way down my list.