Puerto Varas

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Two shorter days, one bright and sunny, the other soggy, have brought me to Puerto Varas. Puerto Varas is small, touristy town just 20+ km north of Puerto Montt.

Day One – Osorno to Puerto Octay
A beautiful ride on a sunny day today.

I knew I had a short ride today so took my time before leaving. Roads were still busy in town of Osorno. On my way outbound, I passed under Ruta 5, a major highway going from Santiago to Puerto Montt. My route was smaller, though still had quite a few trucks particularly at the start.

In the Chilean countryside, I see more of these small churches.

At 20km, I passed a huge Nestle plant. Several of the farms later also had Nestle signs, persumably because they sell milk to the company.

Election day is coming, November 19th I believe, and I see many signs along the way.

Small house with sheep along the way.

Tire shop.

As I got closer to the lake, I saw several large volcanos along the way.

Reached the town of Puerto Octay with a pretty central square including these carvings.

Signs, in English, on several establishments.

There was a great little campground. Initially I was the only one and set up my tent in central spot. After that, walked to town for lunch and to explore further.
Day Two – Puerto Octay to Puerto Varas

Last evening another person came to the campground. Not sure why the owner did this, but he told him to put his tent up in my space as well. Just a few meters from my tent and then got to hear him snore overnight.

These cats were taking advantage of the morning sun. I also waited a bit to make sure my tent was throughly dry before packing off and taking off. Good thing as the first showers came around 9am and then had off and one rain showers during rest of the day.

Another of these country churches, and unfortunately also a solar traffic signal in front.

At 25km, I came to Ruta 5 again, the major divided highway. It wasn’t far to Puerto Montt now, but I’ve read better things about Puerto Varas so made that my destination first.

In some sections there was a small service road that I cycled instead of the shoulder of the highway. The speed limit was 120 km/h but there was a reasonable shoulder and grades were not as steep as the, ~12% grades I found on the smaller road first.

I thought it was interesting to see a billboard whose target audience was Chilean potato farmers.

Not just one billboard, here was another.

and another

and yet another.

I left Ruta 5 and cycled a few kilometres back to the lake and downtown Puerto Varas. There were several fancy hotels downtown but I cycled back around up the hill to find something more reasonable. First two were full but found a third hotel with nice room. Plan to double check the weld on the bike again, just in case, but otherwise, I now have some time before I need to be just 20km away and join TDA on November 21st. Still figuring out how many days to spend in Puerto Varas vs. Puerto Montt.

Osorno, Chile

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Two days cycling have brought me to Chile.


I had taken an easy day in Villa La Angostura. Went for a short ride on my day off and encountered a group that seemed to be on a bike race/ride coming the other direction.

Once I got to the turnoff of the road heading to the border I turned back and otherwise had an easy day.

Day One – Villa La Angostura to Lago Puyehue

Next morning I was back on the road. Reached the turnoff sign, this time with a loaded bicycle. It was 15 kilometers to the border station but another 17 kilometers after that to the border.

Overall it was a beautiful area as I slowly climbed past snowcapped peaks.

This was just before the border station.

The border controls were simple. Just prior to the border, I passed a police kiosk on the road. They handed me a paper with room for several stamps. At the border itself, I needed to complete the stamps: first to have my passport checked, second to look at other documents and then back out. A little past the border control was a second police kiosk where I now handed off my stamped paper.

There was still another 17 kilometers to the border itself and 39 kilometers to the Chilean station on other side of the pass. It was a beautiful ride.

One of the volcano peaks near the summit.

The summit area itself, where I took the photo at top of this page.

Elevation 1321 meters. Not as high as further north, but still high enough to have snow everywhere.

After this a good descent down from the pass. I passed through this area where the trees were all dead. I believe this area had a volcanic eruption two years ago or so and assumed the ash along the road and dead trees were related, though the trees might have died from other causes.

Near bottom of the hill I reached the Chilean customs. They also used the method of having an extra paper that contained stamps for each of the steps. I first went to the passport control. My passport was carefully examined and I got a stamp for Chile. Next stop was customs control. I completed the customs declaration and indicated I had with me dairy (cheese) as it was listed along with fruits and vegetables as one item under control. Once the customs official realized I was traveling by bicycle, she called me back and had me provide details of my bicycle so she could write up a document that carefully described the bicycle that I was “importing”. I saved this document away as I expected it could come in handy on exit from Chile. The final stop was outside where inspections were performed.

I now learned what happens when you declare cheese on your customs declaration. They made a quick inspection of rest of my bags, though didn’t open everything (presumably realizing I was honest enough to declare the cheese and not finding anything on the other bags they quickly checked). I was given an option of eating the cheese right then – so ate several bread rolls with cheese. I showed them the empty cheese package and they then stamped my third stamp indicating the inspection was passed.

I cycled to end of the customs station and away. It was mostly downhill from here, though several steep little uphills as well. Overall the day had more than 1400 meters of climbing and only 500 of that was net climb from Villa La Angostura to the top of the summit.

Here was a small church I passed along the way.

This field of tulips was close to a large company that indicated it grew the bulbs.

Once I came close to Lago Puyehue, I came past more tourist vacation areas. Peak season appears to be January and February so many places were still closed. I stopped briefly at a store and then not much later passed a campground where I stayed for the night. There was only one other party camping there that evening: two young women from Boulder, Colorado who were in Chile and Argentina skiing volcanoes. I was impressed that even this late in the season (November), it was still possible to ski.

Day Two – Lago Puyehue to Osorno
It rained overnight. Not hard, but enough that I packed a wet tent. There was also off and on drizzle on my ride today.

Picture of a boat by the lake, taken at the campground.

The little village of Entre Lagos was 9 kilometers away. This restaurant was closed, but thought their sign was amusing.

This bakery was fortunately open. I bought breakfast items here.

Along the way, I passed this interesting looking set of dwellings that seemed to be partially underground.

The road slowly became busier until I reached middle of town of Osorno. This is the central square.

There is a large church on the square.

Apparently the fifth church built in this location.

While Chile is predominantly Catholic, this church had a banner proclaiming the 500th anniversary of the reformation.

Fruits sold on the street corners.

630 Chilean pesos the dollar and prices above are in liters so gasoline is more expensive than in the USA.

Otherwise nice to get to the larger town and walk around the area.

Villa La Angostura, back again

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Back on the road again.

After three weeks in Bariloche, I cycled back towards the Chile border to Villa La Angostura. Stayed in the same hotel that I stayed before Bariloche. The day started clear and became more cloudy and ended with light rain.

This photo from the end of Lake Moreno looking back towards Bariloche. It seemed like my progress was awfully slow until I noticed that my speed was in kilometers but the distances reported were miles. After that it made more sense.

Still enjoy seeing the peaks in the distance.

A protest against eviction but not clear the exact situation.

On my way north I met an Italian cyclist heading south. It was an interesting test of my Spanish. Many Italians speak excellent English but I’ve also met a few where my Italian was zero and their English was minimal. We resort to Spanish and that somehow is more difficult than with a native Spanish speaker. Today we struggled some, but I did feel like this conversation was easier than before.

I also met an Argentinian cyclist from Tucuman who was cycling south to Ushuaia. Once again, I appreciated having better grasp of past tenses, subtleties of Argentinian pronunciation and it was nice to get a sense, “glad I had that class.”

Near Villa La Angostura it was a touristy area.

Wood carvings along the way.

Overall, I made it to town by mid-afternoon. It was lightly sprinkling and then started raining more later. I exchanged some Argentinian pesos for Chilean. Also checking the weather as I expect it to be wetter on the Chilean side of the mountains.

Bariloche, la ultima semana

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Time goes fast, already three weeks of Spanish class in Bariloche. I worked further through grammar topics such as differences in “por vs. para” and a lot of the different past tense conjugations. It has been helpful overall and I have a good set of summary notes for grammar basics to review again later. Bit by bit, nice to work further on my Spanish and these weeks have helped.

Last weekend I retrieved my bicycle and on Saturday morning bicycled to nearby Cerro Catedral ski area.

As far as weather goes, that was the nicest part of the weekend as later on Saturday afternoon it started to snow. Sunday was also a mix of snow and rain and good day to stay indoors. Normally, the winter season in Bariloche has snow between mid-May and mid-September so this was unusual.

Otherwise nice to wander around Bariloche further.

Our Spanish class had a few activities including a visit on Wednesday to climb up the clock tower and view the mechanism. Interesting to learn that temperature had an effect on the accuracy of the clock. At a temperature of 23C, the clock was accurate and more or less it would drift.

I still plan to go out with other students late this afternoon as well as a little bit of homework on the last day. However, the main classes are done.

The world is interconnected and while Argentina doesn’t celebrate Halloween, there were still references downtown in the tourist areas.

Sadly, also flags flying at half mast after an attack in New York City killed five Argentinos.

In addition to cycling to Cerro Catedral, I’ve done a few short bike rides this week. There is an facebook group, “ridingeverydayinNovember” and I’ve cycled short distances each day while taking part.

I’ve also done some further writing down of previous bicycle trips as well as editing content I’ve already written. It is a fair amount of work to write these sections about previous trips, but also fun to go through the past rides. Above is the book cover I am using for now.

I have just over two weeks before the TDA trip departs from Puerto Montt. The direct distance is only 350km or so, but I’ll depart somewhat early to make sure the welded bike continues to work fine. I expect it to be very unlikely, but if I have a problem with the weld, then this may give me some time to last minute retrieve a different bicycle. If not, I’ll also have some extra time in Puerto Montt before the TDA part of the ride.

Bariloche, segunda semana

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Second week in Bariloche. The big news is that my bike is back from the shop including a fixed frame.

However, let me start back at the beginning…

Last weekend I brought my bike into a local shop for a basic service. Check for worn parts like the chain and brake pads, replace what was necessary and check and adjust everything else as necessary. I returned on Monday but the bike wasn’t ready yet. When I went to pick up the bike on Tuesday, I had a surprise. The proprietor showed me a crack in the right chainstay. Can it be fixed? He said yes and told me to pick my bike up at end of the week.

This afternoon I retrieved my bike. The photo above gives an idea of the location of the crack. Notice the asymmetry of the extra weld in the bottom of the photo.

Here is a photo from the inside.

Needless to say, it was a surprise that introduces a little a wild card. Looking at it now, the extra weld looks fine, and I expect it to last the rest of the trip, particularly since after Puerto Montt, I’ll have less weight because my gear will be carried on the truck. However, I’ll do some test riding around Bariloche this next week since if absolutely necessary, I still have a small window I could go back to Austin and retrieve my other mountain bike (the one that I cycled through Africa).

Other than bike shop fun, this week was fairly routine at the Spanish school.

The school lets people start most any Monday and we are divided into groups based on ability. These past two weeks, myself and another student have formed a group together, so this means a fair amount of individual attention. We had an assessment exam yesterday and as I reviewed material, seems like we’ve compressed a one-semester beginning Spanish class into two weeks of four hour daily lessons. I had seen most of the material before but forgotten some and taking it more intensely definitely helps. It also helps to speak Spanish with my host family. All in all, it has been both a good grammar review and speaking/listening experience even if I grumble sometimes about the past tense conjugations…

Three afternoons this week we’ve had activities with most of the students. On Monday the weather was so-so and we played Monopoly in Spanish. Wednesday was a trip to the local museum and Friday was a picnic in the park. Thursday we had an extra class session that made up for the holiday last week.

The museum explained more about the area including this display of about the winds and others about flora, fauna and history of this area.

This week was my partner student’s last week, so next week my lessons will turn into private sessions. A little shorter than this week, but at least as intense. After that, I’ll have two weeks to cycle to Puerto Montt for the start of the last phase, the ride with TDA to Ushuaia.

Bariloche, fin de semana (weekend)

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The first week in Bariloche taking my Spanish class. It has been a nice change both in class and also staying with a host family. I still have a bunch more Spanish to learn, but the structured class environment is helpful.

Monday was a holiday (cultural diversity day) in Argentina and we didn’t have classes. On the other days, my routine has been roughly as follows:

  • Wake up when rest of the family gets up, eat breakfast and get ready for school
  • Walk to school, approximately six blocks away
  • Attend classes from 9am to 1pm. There are only four students this week (typically more in middle of both summer and winter), so myself and another student are with one of the teachers. Our classes go through a mix of grammar/written work as well as oral conversation. Two students and a teacher means lots of individual and focused attention in areas we need help
  • After class, get lunch nearby. On two of the days, we’ve also had afternoon “excursions” that I’ll describe more below
  • Return to the family house, finish my homework, read, relax, etc
  • A later dinner, at least compared to typical times in the US
  • Go to sleep

Overall a simple routine, but also a change of pace from cycling.

On Wednesday our afternoon excursion was to the nearby settlement of Llao Llao (in Argentina, unlike many other Latin American countries, the “ll” is pronounced with a “sh” instead of just a “y” so this is pronounced sh-ow sh-ow where the “ow” is as in the word now). It is a photo above is two fellow students and an instructor.

It is a spectacular area that includes a fancy hotel and golf course. We were told the Obamas had stayed in March 2016 and also met the Argentinian president (Macri) there. Overall, it is fancy enough looking that it isn’t on my to stay list.

We took the bus both for our visit to Llao Llao and for an excursion today (Friday). The second excursion was to Dino Huapi, a small settlement to the east of Bariloche. I had actually cycled through the area on my way to Bariloche, but it was still nice to get out.

Otherwise, I’ve had a nice time hanging out in Bariloche. The town has ~130,000 people and hence is one of the larger towns in Patagonia. Ski season just ended and now it is not quite yet the summer trekking and camping season. Bariloche has a lot of outdoor shops and is otherwise one of the jumping off points to explore a lot more of Patagonia.

I’ve read more about the Carretera Austral as well as figuring out my potential alternatives as I depart to Puerto Montt in two weeks. The shortest route is back along the lake and across the Andes at a distance of roughly 350 kilometers. That is the path I’ll take if the weather looks bad or unsettled.

Another alternative would be to head a little further south to see some more of the Argentinian lake district south of Bariloche before then crossing into Chile and going either north to Puerto Montt or south to the ferry at Puerto Chacabuco. Overall, that is a wetter region as can be seen by the “recommended clothing” above that the ferry advises tourists to have.

I’ll wait and see how it all settles out. For now I can see that spring in Bariloche is already volatile. We’ve had reasonable winds on most days and a shower on Tuesday and one on Wednesday and that all seems to be normal for the area. First two more weeks of being a Spanish language student…

San Carlos de Bariloche

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A day mostly cycling along a lake has brought me to San Carlos de Bariloche. This is a larger town where I’ll take a Spanish class the next weeks. Monday is a holiday (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity, formerly Columbus Day) so class starts on Tuesday. The weather has slowly been warming up and overall a great ride today.

Photo of a line at local ATM this morning, fortunately I didn’t need to get cash.

Argentinian ATMs are not my favorite. There is a maximum limit of 2000 Pesos (a little over $100) that can be pulled at one time. Regardless of what one pulls, there is a fee of ~105 pesos at each ATM (over 5%!). The ATMs are good about having bilingual instructions between Spanish and English. What they aren’t good at is clear messages when there is no cash available. Sometimes it says “incorrect amount” and less often it will tell you no cash. I don’t need a lot of cash, but only about half the hotels seem to take credit cards so one needs to have enough cash for a few days of hotels – in case all the ones in towns are out of money.

It looks like that ATM must have been refilled when one sees these queues.

The start of the route brought me along the lake. It wasn’t flat as I still recorded 750m of climb today, but none of the hills were long.

There are more free-flowing rivers here and these are also clearer than the sediment laden rivers I had seen further north.

At 45 kilometers I could see Bariloche in the distance even though I needed to go around the lake for another 40 kilometers to reach the town. The roads were busier today, though traffic seemed to either give me room or wait until it was safe to pass.

There were light tailwinds for the first 3/4 of the route and after that not much in headwinds.

Without much trouble, I found myself into the town. I found a hotel for tonight, but they didn’t have a room for tomorrow, so will need to see where I can otherwise stay. Nice to get to this town and chance to make it easier for a few weeks. I was able to do a quick reconnaissance to find both the main square and also the Spanish language school.

Villa La Angostura

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Two days cycling through the Argentinian Lake District have brought me to Villa La Angostura. It is beautiful riding and I can’t quite get enough of the snow-capped peaks along the way. Also hilly with many short steep little hills topping 10% grades.
Day One – San Martin de Los Andes
The weather forecast called for snow flurries in the morning and a shower or two in the afternoon. It was cold but I was pleased to find no snow showers and no wind.

On the way out of town, I passed the bus station. Argentina seems to have many of these long-haul tourist buses and I’ve seen the same names on the road.

I passed perhaps half a dozen lakes today, the first one as I was leaving town.

There was a 500 meter hill to climb and a sign indicating this was an area for tire chains. Fortunately, the road was dry.

Close to the top was a turnoff to the ski area. Apparently still open at end of the season.

One of the lakes I passed along the way.

This small church was tucked in beside the road.

Sign for the second park I cycled through today.

At 60 kilometers I came to my selected stopping point near Lago Traful. There is a pay camping ground at the lake with a restaurant. However, earlier campsites I had passed were still closed for the season. So rather than go down to the lake, I went used the designated free camping area near the river.

Just as I started to put up my tent, it started raining. I got everything inside and was nice and dry as there was a light rain for the next four hours, stopping just before sunset. I was the only one camping in this area. Alex (boundlessbiker.com) had come past earlier in the morning but was headed further. He has hopped back and forth across the Chilean border a few times.

Day Two – Lago Traful to Villa La Angostura
Beautiful ride today.

A scene from my campsite this morning. It was below freezing and didn’t warm up past freezing until after 10am.

Getting closer both to San Carlos de Bariloche as well as the Chilean border crossing. This crossing is the closest one to Bariloche.

One of many snow-capped peaks along the way today.

The trees seem to have some sort of parasite on them. Also looks like it is still early in spring so normal leaves have not come out yet.

I met an Argentinian at one of the viewpoints who told me spring was a notoriously poor weather season for Patagonia. I couldn’t quite tell if he was referring to this year or in general. However, this year it seems the Chilean side has had periods with multiple days of rain and the Argentinian side has had multiple days of high winds. In that regard, it will be nice to spend some time in Bariloche and let the seasons catch up before heading further south.

Viewpoint at one of the lakes along the way. It was a nice sunny spot and much warmer than riding had been up to this point. I could shed some mittens and clothes I had bundled up and warm up here in the sun. While I was taking a break, at least four tour buses arrived with passengers all waiting their turns to take an obligatory shot of family members and the sign in front of the lake.

Next lake along the way. I couldn’t get enough of these views.

Not sure why, but the snow on the peaks ahead reminded me of powdered sugar on Dutch olliebollen. Maybe I was hungry.

Next lake along the way.

There was a fox here that was remarkably unafraid of people. Some others tossed him food, but I figured best to stay clear.

I was at Villa La Angostura early. This is a small tourist town spread along the lake. Many signs for tourist hotels and similar services.

It is even possible to rent mountain bikes and skis here.

Ruta 40 bar and grill.

Otherwise nice place to stop early in the day and get everything caught up on the web. Still in a beautiful touristy area between seasons. Once can both mountain bike and ski, but seems like it is very late in ski season and still cold to do much mountain biking.

San Martin de Los Andes

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Short ride on a cold windy day. Ended in a ski town.

I took my time leaving this morning as I knew it would be a shorter ride. A cold headwind kept the 42 kilometer ride from being trivial, but I was still in San Martin in plenty of time.

The main street of Junin de Los Andes. Businesses are spread out, so not much of a main street feel to it.

After a few kilometers, back in the more open countryside again. Fewer trees here, but more later in the ride.

A welcome sign for a park as well as mountains ahead. This is a more touristy part of Argentina than I’ve been before. Traffic was busier on the road as well.

A sign marking the 100 year establishment Fort Maipu – my rough translation:
“we do not have meat, bread, or grass, nor tobacco and even the stockpiles are concluding, but we are Argentines and we have duties to finish”

The last 8 kilometers gradually got busier as I came through edges of San Martin. There is Chapelco ski area some 19 kilometers from town and this appears to be the place with lodging, ski rentals and similar services. It is close to ending of the ski season but the ski area is still open and reports 10 cm of snow at the base and 160cm of snow at the summit. My route from here to Bariloche should bring me slightly closer and also close to the elevation of the base.

What I found interesting was a surprising amount of English on signs such as this one advertising a “winter sale”.

While ski season may come to a close soon, there is also a bike shop that advertises rentals.

This town is not larger, so I was surprised to find a double decker city tour bus.

Even more surprised to find two of them.

I’ve made a reservation at the language school in Bariloche, so won’t cycle all the way down to Puerto Natales prior to Puerto Montt. This gives me a week before I need to arrive in Bariloche and my plan is to take it slow through the upcoming scenic area. The combination of hotel and town were nice enough that I’ll start with a rest day here tomorrow before continuing south.

Junin de los Andes

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Two days riding has brought me across the gap to Junin de Los Andes. The first day was long but not much wind. The second day was climbing over the last hill with a stiff headwind. Overall the winds were much less than the three days before my departure when I took extra rest days in Zapala.

Along the way, I had both acts of kindness and one act of rudeness:
There was a car that passed me very slowly on the first day. They seemed to want to just scan and see what this strange cyclist might be up to. Shortly thereafter they pulled over. I stopped and they were offering both a sandwich and some water. I kindly thanked them for the gestures but had enough food and water to get through so declined.

The second day, a bus coming the other direction flashed its lights. I was climbing a hill into the wind, so most any excuse would do to stop. I waved. As the bus came past, I could see the driver flipping me off. It seemed so strange and mostly funny in my mind.

Fortunately, the acts of kindness have outnumbered the rude behavior and typically when I hear a “honk honk”, I assume it is intended as a friendly salute.
Day one – Zapala to abandoned store

It was breezy overnight and still windy when I set off. Fortunately, this seemed to be the end of the storm and later in the day was much less wind. Almost immediately leaving Zapala the road went through desolate areas. There was a bike path on the left but I figured it would end anytime so didn’t cross to it. It turns out the bike path went for eight kilometers at the airport before stopping.

It was not a big airport as can be seen because there is a closed gate to the entrance.

The route went across a steep drainage at 13 kilometers and then climbed up and over several hills.

There were fences on both sides of the road and otherwise not very many inviting looking places to camp.

A few houses along the way like this one, though no businesses.

Sheep.

Looks like an unfortunate tale. A mangled truck next to a small shrine.

This was close to top of a hill at 108 kilometers. I had originally thought to go halfway and started looking more seriously for camp sites at 102 kilometers. This climbed up and over a hill at 108 kilometers and then more descent on rougher roads. A combination of not very inviting areas and slightly easier riding downhill meant I got to 128 kilometers before finding a spot at an abandoned store. This was near an intersection of Ruta 24 and Ruta 40 and there was a suprising amount of people stopping through earlier.

One group stopped and eventually picked up a passenger from a bus that also stopped.

Several police trucks came and initially parked along the road. They could see me setting up my tent and came over. They asked for my documents and I showed them the passport. I got the sense they were curious more than anything else and they took a while to go through the stamps and visas inside. Otherwise listened to a podcast and went to sleep.

Day Two – Abandoned store
It was cold overnight. My sleeping bag is rated to -8C/17F and I initially wondered if it wasn’t working as well. However, once I started my bike GPS and saw it was -6C/22F I realized the sleeping bag was fine, it was just cold. Fortunately not much wind.

Here is a photo of the abandoned store I had camped beside.

The route went level for a few kilometers before climbing the first of two larger hills for the day.

A sign to a school 14 kilometers away. Otherwise, very desolate area. I find it interesting how often there are signs to schools in middle of nowhere. These are not likely to be big, but still have signs.

I stopped to get a photo of this touring motorcycle that was stopped. The driver was nearby. He gave me a tale of being broken down. I didn’t quite get all the story in his quick Spanish, but some 20 kilometers later when he came past, the problem had been solved and he was on his way again.

One of the houses along the way.

Near the top, I had great views of snowcapped peaks including this one.

The road was marked for 15 kilometers of winding descent. It was still a reasonable descent down the a larger river.

The road split here with the road to left taking a more direct route to Bariloche. The road to right that I took headed towards a more touristy area including Junin de Los Andes. This was also start of a 20 kilometer long hill. The hill wasn’t particularly steep, but it became tougher when the wind picked up and came down the canyon. I went very slowly and took many stops.

There was a viewpoint here with descriptions of condors as well as the local geology.

Here was the actual mountain from the condor sign.

It was a welcome sign at the top to see the downhill. It was still windy but much easier to ride. This brought me the last 10 kilometers into Junin.

I knew I was close when I saw the Las Malvinas sign.

Just outside town there were cars racing around the track. Hard to see from this photo but the car on the left is zooming past.

This brought me to Junin de Los Andes. The town has many hotels and seems fairly spread out. I found a reasonable one but it doesn’t seem to be close to much else. Otherwise, looks like I am the more touristy lake district with a lot more trees than those barren places I passed to get here. It will be a few days to Bariloche, and not sure yet where there are towns but expect I’ll make a short day tomorrow to San Martin de Los Andes.