San Carlos de Bariloche, we had heard, is a beautiful town and famous for its nearby ski resorts. We decided to have a look.
The scenery on the way to Bariloche was impressive.
Arriving at about 3:00 we drove around a bit and had a pricey lunch over which we made our own decision about the town before heading back to Chile to ride the Carratera Austral. Bariloche was obviously expensive, and didn’t really appeal to us. It’s probably not the town that people rave about, but the area.
As we headed for the mountains, it started to sprinkle, and we could see heavy clouds ahead. Oh well, what’s a little rain, right?
Then as we approached the Argentina border, it started to rain hard, and while we were inside the immigracion/aduanas building, it looked like a Hollywood rainstorm outside. “Sheets of rain” would be the appropriate term.
Thinking the Chile Border crossing was just a few hundred meters down the road, we waited for a break in the downpour, and left the Argentina building. Down the road we found out by way of signage that the Chile Frontier was 17 kms away, on the other side of a high pass – high enough for the rain to turn to snow! Luckily it wasn’t accumulating on the road, but we held our breath as we rounded one corner and saw the shiny downhill slope ahead. The strong wind blowing up that section of pavement had given it a nice icy glaze. Don’t touch the throttle, don’t touch the brake and steer as slowly as possible. Luckily it was a short slope, and there were no mishaps! Sorry, no photos this time. Riding one handed was not the thing to do.
At the Frontier we completed the necessary paperwork to import the bikes and immigrate to Chile… again!
On the downhill side, the weather quickly changed and we were back into warm temperatures and sunshine.
A short distance later we arrived at the town of Osorno where we had decided to hole up. Good thing we’re only staying the night. This place reminded us of east-end Calgary. I didn’t even take any pictures and for me that’s simply wrong.
