Kuchen and Feuerwehr
After a short stop in the town of Puerto Montt that seems a little shady to us (only the fish market was impressive) we continued to the little village of Frutillar. This image is famous for its german heritage. The includes cakes (also called „Kuchen“ as in Germany), the architecture, the beer gardens, the gardens around the houses and the fire station. In the beginning of the 19th century Chile invited german immigrants to settle in the at that time very rural south of chile. The area around frutillar had very fertile grounds for manure and crops and the germans brought the know how and the technology to turn the region into a German like farm land. And it still looks like that. If you ignore the spanish signs and the impressive volcano osorno that stands above everything, we felt like somewhere in in the german country side.
In Frutillar we sat in a cafe that used to be an old grocery shop run by german immigrants and enjoyed the Kuchen with the impressive view over the lake and the volcano Osorno. The sun was shining and it truly felt like spring again. So we soaked up the sun so much that Linda got her first sun burn during that day. After strolling the promenade along the lake we found out that the local fire station is called „Feuerwehr“ and was the first german fire station in Chile. Also the german brought the system of volunteer fire fighters. Actually ALL fire stations in Chile are volunteer fire stations and funded by companies of the respective cities…. More on that in an upcoming blogpost. 😉 We also visited the cute immigration museum and asked a nice mechanic if he could look the crack in our windshield that we were already carrying for a few weeks and that was growing step by step. He ensured that it is not a security issue and will most likely continue to grow but that’s not a problem. Nevertheless we planned to get it fixed before it enters too much the sign of sight.
After another beautiful sleeping spot next to a travelling brazilian and a chilenean couple we headed to the Paso Cardinal Antonio Samore to enter Argentina….once again. The pass was at only 1300m but it was covered in snow, so we made a nice little lunch break in the snow before we descended to the famous rout of the seven lakes towards Sand Marina de Los Andes. The route was really nice, but after the amazing sunny weather in Chile we were driving the route in grey and rainy weather and somehow enjoyed the view of the lakes from Rosi while listening to the Fest&Flauschig Podcast.
When we arrived we San Martin de Los Andes we made a nice coffee break and strolled through town. We were both surprised how touristic it was but somehow it felt good to just walk around. We could camp at parking lot right next to town and did a beautiful hike up the mountains next to the town. Next morning we drove off to continue to famous route 40.
Oil Change
After a really quiet night on a parking spot right next to Ruta 40 right before Zapala, we had one important task. An Oil change for Rosi. Although the last one has not been too long ago, Rosi was crying for new oil every time we started, so we searched for a recommended mechanic in the next bigger town. When I entered the patio and saw multiple cars with open hoods standing around I had no idea what I did get ourself into again. A woman indicated me to the boss and I asked if we can do an oil change here for my car. After inspecting Rosi and asking for the kind of oil, he told me that he has the oil, but not the filter. I was so happy that I bought a few spare parts for Rosi and one of them was an oil filter. Immediately I was asked to park Rosi in-between a huge truck and their garage in the patio and the old oil was already out of Rosi before I had found the oil filter. Everyone there was really really friendly and interested in our trip. There ware about 6 mechanics and a very strict hirarchy. One older guy was the boss of the mechanics. His wife was responsible for the financials, then there were one other head mechanic, multiple mechanics and one young apprentice. But there was one guy that was out of the hierarchy and maybe the most important person in the garage: The Mate guy. He had one responsibility only: Making sure that everyone got Mate. All the time we were in the shop he was constantly going around and distributing mate to everyone, including us. He decided who gets Mate and than you have to empty the cup. Everyone drinks through the same straw. Additionally he was also giving freshly baked cake to everyone. So at times I saw the head mechanic filling the new oil in Rosi while eating cake with his other hand, while talking to me. It was surreal but at the same time we felt very welcomed. After 1.5 hour we were done, Rosi was happy and we continued. Another really positive mechanic experience.
The beauty of the scenery
We drove off the day and after a really cool coffee break in the little village Chos Malal we found another beautiful camp spot next to a dried salt lake. The views were amazing and the low light lead to incredible views. Linda could even use her bike for a little tour on the lake. It was incredible!
The next morning we knew that we had a challenging part of road ahead of us as the route 40 was again unpaved for many kilometres, but the views compensated for that. We drove through an unreal landscape. Hundreds of volcanos around us, and the land was shaped by the lava from these volcanos. Huge platoes with black rocks, deep and wide canyons, we had to drive through and narrow canyons shaped by Lava filled with wild rivers. It was incredible. I really suffered from the bad road conditions and the washboards streets let everything rattle, but Linda reminded me that we this is what we came for and she is right. We just took our time and tried to enjoy the scenery.
After the bad road and incredible scenery we treated ourself in the little town of Malargüe with a night on the camp ground. Since we started the trip we had only stayed a handful of nights on a camp ground, but the warm showers, and really well maintained gardens felt nice.
After a short visit to two incredible sinkholes and the high class ski resort Las Leñas, which looked really sad and dusty in spring, we drove off to el Nihuil and stood next to a large water reservoir. We had the plan to do a nice barbeque, but the millions of mosquitoes and four dogs who welcomed us, let us to switch plans and grill inside. While Linda (she is just the better cook of the tow of us, I had the chance to take some pictures of yet another incredible sunset (although Linda also takes better pictures than me). The next day we headed off into the Atuel canyon that starts at El Nihuil. The canyon is home to multiple electricity facilities and damns to generate green electricity for the full region, and there is the chance to drive through the full canyon until the city of San Raphael. The first 46 km are unpaved and at times pretty narrow and steep, but the views are definitely worth it and the canyon holds some incredible formations and side canyons. We really took our time and drove pretty much all the day with two little hikes in-between and a nice break at a restaurant at the end of the unpaved road. A few kilometres further we found a parking / bbq space right next to the river and finished the day with some beer at the river while rafting boats were passing and waving to us. This was one of the few spots so far where we had two other vans next to us. One very open and friendly argentine couple that haas been travelling the full world and pretty much all South America by van and a french family that was planning a very similar to us. It felt good to exchange about the plans and challenges that might occur on the way. From both conversions it was clear that Bolivia is going to be the biggest challenge in terms of Diesel and fresh water.
The next day we left the canyon and all the rafting stations that tried to stop us and convince us to do a rafting tour. We wanted to do some rafting but decided to do it somewhere else. Little did we know that this „somewhere else“ would occur just a few days later. But first we headed towards Mendoza and the road from San Raphael towards Mendoza was once again breathtaking. We were pretty much driving on flat land but looking straight at the Andes that seemed like a huge wall that rises straight up in the sky. We had to stop multiple time just to take a photo (and use the toilet. People who camp understand the game changer of having a toilet with you all the time).
Mendozä
First stop in Mendoza was the windshield repair. We were dragging the long crack in our windshield now already for multiple weeks and it constantly grew. A mechanic in Frutillar in Chile had told us that nothing can happen and the crack will most probably continue to grow until the other side of the windshield, but it is possible to fix and stop the growth. This is what we wanted to do in Mendoza. So we googled a windshield repair shop and stopped next to it. It was a tiny little shop with a very narrow entrance for cars that are not to big. The friendly guy looked at the crack and said wayyy to fast that he can fix it, stop the crack from growing and make it less visible, but he can only do it tomorrow since he has another customer today. This customer was standing right next to him and after he saw us, he said, that he will come back tomorrow and he can fix our windshield now…. I was so surprised, happy and grateful. It would have not been a problem for us to come the next day as well, but in the end it was way easier like this. So he started right away. For that I had to drive Rosi into his shop, which was physically impossible, but it was enough for him that the front part was in his shop, because he could not use his equipment outside. That let to Rosi blocking the full sidewalk which nobody cared about …yet. While the windshield repair guy started right away, drilling holes in the windshield to release the tension and than filling them again with UV curing resin, I tried to get a new oil filter (which did not work) and an additive for the diesel particle filter. I have learned from other travellers that this might help more modern diesel vehicles to regenerate the particle filter in very high altitude. Also I tried to buy some fast food for us at a place around the corner, which looked more like a prison. While I was away Linda waited in the van and shortly before I came back somebody indeed cared that Rosi was blocking the sidewalk. An older blind person pretty much ran into Rosi and Linda (of course barefoot in that situation) tried to explain that a „coche grande“ a big car is in the way. So the bild person turned left to the street. But to reach the street you needed to jump of a water spillway that was easily 70cm deep. Linda jumped out of the car to prevent that poor man from falling in the ditch and guiding him around Rosi. When I came back proud with my two sandwiches, fires and a coke, Linda was still shaking from almost guiding the blind person into a spillway. Exactly when I returned the windshield was ready and I could only see it since I knew it was there before. I was happy and after paying 38€ and getting some more travel tips we drove off. Our next goal was a big dream of me.
höme 
Leave a comment