Struggling with the god of weather ... or better: welcome to Patagonia

Once again it made me sad to leave Buenos Aires ... but I know I will be back end of January :o) A quick trip of only 22 hours in the bus beamed me almost instantaneously into Bariloche. Besides the pain of being trapped in a bus seat for ages, the landscape was quite amazing. Canyons and lakes with deep blue water. Looked incredible. Even more I appreciated the repeated drug controls during the bus ride ... I think we were checked like 3 times. At the very last control point some younger people in the bus even got some "very special treatment" by Mr. Drug Control Officer ;o) The moment I arrived in Bariloche the weather changed to windy and rainy and the next day it even started snowing in the valley at night. Perhaps I should have sacrificed some of the huge beef I had before departing to Bariloche to the god of weather ... but, yeah, I don't like to share my food! Being cold for one day was rewarded by a fantastic view the next days. All around the lake the mountains were white ... and that in summer :o) The landscape strongly reminds of the Alpes. Also Bariloche could easily be a European mountain village ... at least the fancy touristic part of town. I did some hiking and biking and enjoyed the once again rising temperature. The last day I could sunbath at the lake ... and got a decent sunburn :o)

Time to move on! Next stop Chile! Hence I took the bus to Valdivia. Going to a new country implies border crossing! Actually I thought Chile/Argentina is an easy one ... well, it is ... for me ;o) (Kisses for my passport!) After 2 extra hours of local people's paperwork and interesting alternative methods to search for drugs on the Chilean side (if the drug dog doesnt feel like sniffing, then there simply is no drug search) I made it, delayed as usual, to Valdivia. I have been here already 6 years ago on my first trip to Chile. I think the main attraction is the fish market at the river with the (fish) rubbish eating sea lions in the back of each vendor. Living trash bins!

Quick stop, taking the obligatory pictures and the next day I continued to Pucon. Well, to be honest, this was already my 3rd time to Pucon. Time to finish the unfinished business: hiking to the top of Vulcan Villarica! Since the god of weather was kind of mad at me once again I had to face his rainy day with good water sports. They call it Hydrospeed. You get a wetsuit, a pair of flippers and a thick body board and you float down the rapids. Great fun. Definitely better than rafting ... a bit like cayaking. To warm up I visited some hot springs at night. There nothing better than hotsprings, pisco and nice company :o)

The next day the god of weather had a day off and we were left with sunshine :o) Being equipped with snow boots, spikes and an ice pick we climbed through the snow to the top of the vulcano and had a fantastic view into the vulcano (though the lava was quite deep that day and we couldnt see it) as well as on the neighboring vulcanos around. Chile is full of vulcanos! Since hiking down in the snow is boring we used little sleds to slide down the vulcano. Great fun!

After too much snow I needed sun. Thus I took the night bus to Viña del Mar (close to Santiago). Today I spent all day at the beach :o) For the next 3 days I will work on my Xmas tan! Wednesday I will go to Santiago. For now sunny greatings from Viña y hasta muy pronto!