Adventures in Transport

As NYC residents, we are well aware that public transportation is a grand adventure, but in South America it´s more than that...it´s a cultural education. On our trip, Jess and I have had a wide range of public transportation experiences. The buses in Argentina were 1st class and the buses in Bolivia were more of a 4-wheel drive adventure. In Patagonia, though, we´ve been downright amazed at the ability to reach the most remote locations via public transit. As a tranportation planner, I have to also say that I am quite impressed by the variety of services available on this bus system. Of course it carries passengers. It also carries mail, packages, sacs of potatoes, groceries, and gifts and personal messages from one person to another. People even put their babies and small children on to be delivered down the road. Of course, given the remoteness of the locations, luxuries such as bus terminals, advance tickets and assigned seats tend to evaporate. Rather, you set out with a vague notion of how to get somewhere, a pocket full of small bills, some fortifying snacks, and hopefully a little luck.

Our first inter-Patagonia trip was from Pucón to Puerto Fuy (foo-ee). This is a little town of about 300 people on the shore of Lake Pirehueco, close to Argentina and surrounded by virgin forest and glacial waterfalls. Two bus transfers later, we found ourselves in this tiny town where you are more likely to run into pigs, cows and horses on the street than cars or people. The next day was Sunday, however, and we found ourselves with 12km between us and the national park no bus. Therefore we proceded to walk the 12km. Just when we started to realize that this was taking a long time, a pick-up truck pulled up and offered us a ride. This was very generous considering the truck had one bench seat with two people already on it. We gladly accepted, however, and the two of us squeezed ourselves into the little seat for door-step delivery to the park. After some glacial waterfall viewing, we of course had no choice but to walk again. After some rejection though we were able to score a lift in the back of an overcrowded pick-up and were dropped at the door of a lodge where we were able to rent a tandem kayak for the afternoon.

The following day was Monday so there were buses but not until 3pm, so we got a late start on a long day of travel. After boarding in Puerto Fuy, we were immediately joined by another 60+ people, meaning that we had to stand in an overcrowded bus for the next 2 hours. This took us to Panguipulli where we flagged down a bus for the next leg of the journey as it was pulling out of the "terminal". This bus let us off on the side of the road where we were to wait for the bus to Osorno. What we didn´t realize was that it was a holiday. After 3 full buses left us standing on the side of the road, we had almost given up hope for the night and began to wonder what 2 gringos might need to do to find a place to crash for the night. Fortunately, on the next bus I was able to secure us 2 spots that were technically unavailable. We finally reached Osorno late at night in the pouring rain, one leg away from our destination for the day. We stayed in a cheap hotel near the bus terminal that served a free breakfast of stale bread and instant coffee. Thus nourished, we headed to a sheep farm just outside the small town of Puerto Octay, which doubled as a hostel. It´s called Zapato Amarillo (or Yellow Boot) and had a giant, yellow wooden boot on the side of the road. You are just supposed to tell the bus driver to let you off at the "Yellow Boot". This is where we relaxed and made plans for our next adventure.

We decided to search out some natural hot springs on the edge of the temperate rainforest and made our next bus plans. We boarded our 1st bus and were let off at the junction of two country roads. Here we were picked up by a 2nd bus that took us to the small town of El Poncho on the edge of Lake Rupanco. This town consisted of one supermarket that sold cookies and crackers. Here we boarded a ferry to take us to the end of the lake where we were to stay in a little cabin at the end of the lake on yet another sheep farm. This ferry accommodated about 10 people and facilitated door-step delivery of each person with their sacs of potatos and flour brought along on the bus. The bus gets close to the shore, the plank goes down, you jump off and the boat pulls away. No stopping necessary.

While this may seem like a lot of work for 2 people on vacation, we felt it was worth it as we lounged in our private hot spring, dug out of a black volcanic sand beach, on the edge of a crystal clear glacial lake, surrounded by temperate rainforest and several volcanos.