Sunday was another rainy day but we’d had enough relaxing so we bought 2 tiny umbrellas that wouldn’t hold up in the wind and went for a walk down to the bay area where there are some lookouts.
About 1km down the road a German Shepherd cross (not sure what) came running down a very long driver headed straight for us. The dog was hooking and Matt and I both hestitated and froze a little as we wondered whether she was going to have a go at us for walking across her driveway, or just say hello… Turns out she was saying hi!! She checked us out, ran circles around us, and then stuck to Matt’s side like he’d accidently said “heal” in Spanish to her… She also attracted another bigger German Shepherd with a collar and his mate a big black and white dog. They sniffed each others bums a bit and all peed on the same poles trying to override the others sent (the German Shepherd with the collar seemed to prefer to sniff the others scents than pee himself). They’d occasionally have a go at each other, then at a car driving past… then come back to us. The 3 of them were so BIG we were actually always a little nervous about what they were going to do and we hoped that they would leave us soon!!!
NOPE! the rest of the 3kms down the road, we were the seemingly new owners of 3 large dogs. We got all the way to the bay, checked out the sites, got a few photos and then headed to the national Park. National Parks don’t allow dogs in to protect the animals and the surrounds. By this stage the black and white dog had taken off which we were happy with as we didn’t like him the most. We went into the Park office and out the back door in an attempt to lose the dogs. This worked on the German Shepherd… but our little friend from the driveway sniffed us out and came running around the building to us! She was actually really friendly and we did like her but we didn’t want her to follow us into the National Park. So Matt yelled at her to stay and go away (in Spanish also just in case) and she frowned, did a sad face… and stopped… We would walk a little bit and turn around and sure enough, she was following us Happy as Larry! So Matt yelled again and got sterner with her… finally, we turned around and she wasn’t there anymore. We had grown fond of her and were a bit sad but figured she might be down there when we return.
Meanwhile, the views were beautiful, but it was rainy!! So it was a little dull and the clouds limited our visibility. The walk was very nice though. We went back to this stop on the Tuesday, on a sunny day, and the difference in our photos was incredible!! Here’s a couple that show how different the views were on these 2 days…
At the top of the first look out (we had walked up a few hundred meters for about 45 mins) I turned around and see running towards us again, massive smile on her face, our little mate from the driveway!!! We figured she was our dog for the next little while so we named her “Shazza”. A true blue Aussie name. She stuck next to Matt and if she ran ahead she would turn around a look and wait for us. She also didn’t bark, and when Matt told her not to walk off the path she wouldn’t!!! We couldn’t have trained her better ourselves!! haha
We stopped and had a yummy pizza for lunch at the bottom of the hill and Shazza waited out in the riain for about 45mins for us. Then we continued back up the road we had come with her. We were quite attached, but knew there was no way she was coming to the hostel.
As we got towards the driveway she’d come from she started walking towards it… She stopped at the driveway and looked at us like “you coming up”? When we kept walking she stayed behind us for the first time and stared at us (seemingly confused)… Then after a few short pause she started walking towards us agian. So this time we told her to go home, Matt yelled it in Spanish and in English and she stopped… Looked at us and watched us walk down the street. Once we were significantly far away, I saw her turn around and go back up the driveway. Such a cute, good natured street dog we’ll remember for a while!!!
Monday we ventured to Cerro Bayo again and I hoped for epic powder once more (even though it hadn’t snowed). It had been too cold and alot of the snow had iced over so we had a much cruisier day up there than the Friday. We sticked to the lower tracks that were decent and practised our buttering!
Tuesday we walked to the same spot we’d walked with Shazza on the Sunday (no Shazza this time :() This time we planned to walk the Bosque Arrayanes National Park, a 3 hour jounry to the edge of that peninsula and catch a Catamaran back. The Catamaran left at 4.30pm so we had to be there by 4.20pm. We grabbed some food then walked up to pay our entrance fee at the park gates. We asked to pay the fee and the lady at the counter said the park was closed and it was too late to do the walk…. It was 12.30pm which meant we should arrive at 3.30pm with plenty off time but apparently this was too late!! We found it a little strange, we asked a few more questions and she told us to go and ask the Ranger… so we walked to the Rangers office (5 mins away) he told us to go quickly and we walked back to the entrance and she let us through. Meanwhile it was now 1pm and they were all still being serious about the fact that we wouldn’t make it and to walk quickly and not stop, don’t pass go, proceed straight to the Catamaran.
We knew we could walk at a pace that would get us there with plenty of time so we did pass go, and we went back to the lookouts we’d seen in the rain. They were spectacular! The bay area is just gorgeous and we can see it would be a massively busy spot in summer (probably for the rich!) as it’s a great place to dock your boat and enjoy being on the water.
The walk was not that pretty. It was only bush, there were no views and just a boring path for 12kms so we weren’t sure why they were so worried! There are 2 lakes on the peninsula and the first one we couldn’t see. The second one we could get to and it was very pretty.
The whole walk was centered around getting to a forest at the end of the peninsula which is the only forest in the world of Arrayanes, a type of orange tree. They usually grow only in wet areas like river beds and lakes and they’re actually a shrub not a tree! But in this forest they look like trees and some were 600 years old making them quite a massive shrub!!! We caught the Catamaran back to town and as usual I feel asleep on the transportation.
We really loved Vlila La Angostura. It’s such a gorgeous quaint, pretty town with good shops and good food. We’d definitely come back here and recommend others to come. There’s a lot to see and do there and you’d have a nice adventourous/relaxing holiday there.
Wednesday was the bus trip back down to Bariloche. Guess what??? Our last trip with the board bags… and no bus boys to fight off! Bag went straight on the bus. At the Bariloche end was a nice young boy who we gave a normal tip too and all was fine! PHEW! 🙂
Timeframe: Sunday 11th – Wednesday 14th August 2013
SORRY FOR THE DELAY NIGEL! 😉
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