Protein is free calories, right?

A passing comment before our steaks arrive at the table. It is our last night in Pucon, Chile and we find ourselves in a Uruguayan steak house. 

It has been an eventful week of fantastic skiing, long distance travel, mixed weather and a few setbacks.

Our week begins in sleepy Los Molles, where we arrive to blizzard conditions. 16, 10 and 27cm of snow has been forecast to fall over the next 3 days at Las Lenas resort which is further up the valley. In Los Molles, the poorer quarters for those who can't swallow the US300/night at the resort proper, the snow is already ankle deep. 

For two days we are cooped up in the lodge and the cabin fever sets in. On the third morning we are the first on the transfer bus to the ski field. Half a day in the cafeteria provides some new scenery and mild relief to the restlessness and after midday the snowfall has eased enough for us to venture out. The visibility is poor and makes learning a new field a challenge, but it's apparent that good things are in store for us if the weather clears.

In a past life these dogs did something awful

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The road travelled so far

Could have been Wellington, but it's the Andes

Hopeful signs for the next morning

And He delivers

The next two days are sunny and windless and unbelievably good skiing. Mintz, Inglis, Ormiston & Brett et al. I say no more.

Las Lenas resort, Argentina

Argentines prefer to ski the groomed slopes. For everyone else, there is this.

With our ski budget haemorrhaging, we say goodbye to Las Lenas and steel ourselves for the 16 hour overnight bus to Bariloche departing at midnight. When we wake up the view out the window is as below. Endless desert for a 500km stretch of road.

8 hours of this landscape wears thin

To curb the boredom, Carlos the bus conductor hands out number cards to all the passengers for a lively game of 'AndesMar Bingo', broadcast over the PA system in breakneck Spanish. A bottle of wine is on offer and we need sedation.

A Hollywood blockbuster will teach you to count in Spanish from 1 to 3. Two weeks in Chile and you're equipped to number your fingers, possibly even your toes. But from 21 onwards there's a murky quality to all the -s and -c sounds that makes everything that bit harder.

I take a conservative approach. I sacrifice every second number that Carlos calls to sound out the previous number. There is a flurry of assonance on a fuzzy overhead speaker. Sesenta y siete? or setente y seis?  Oh dear.

But there is little time to ponder this mystery and with just a few numbers on my card crossed off Nic is shouting bingo and scrambling past me to collect her prize.

The conductor was too kind to deny us the prize, despite our dubious numerical literacy 

At last we break out of the desert and into the beautiful lakes district around Bariloche

As we will have a week in Bariloche with my family in late September, we spent only two nights here this time around to check out the ash damage and sort out a few details for the return visit. The Puyehue volcano, which erupted in June this year, has blanketed most of the lake district in ash. This has had a big impact on the tourism industry as the local airports have been closed since the eruption and this is popular skiing hub in the winter. But while it feels like a dustbowl in town when the wind gets up, it doesn't detract much from the spectacular surrounds and busy town centre.

San Martin de Los Andes. Morning mist spoils the view back from the peninsula but well worth the hike.

We catch a bus from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes (which is to Bariloche what Wanaka is to Queenstown) for two nights stopover en route to Pucon, Chile. This is another charming town and not as badly affected by the ash.

Passing back across the Andes into Chile the sight of Volcan Villarica (below) is bittersweet. The skies are clear for this photo, but the forecast for the following 5 days is for rain and high winds and none of the tour companies are trekking to the summit. This was something we'd really been looking forward to and we're disappointed by the news. 

The news gets worse when we get an email from the ferry operator in Patagonia telling us their ferry has broken down and our 4 day passage to the deep south has been cancelled.

Volcan Villarica from our lodge window. The Weather Gods deal us our first dud hand and we miss out on trekking to the summit.

We're forced to make a change to schedule and decide to cut our time in Pucon to only a few days. With considerable help from Hans (Travel agent in Pucon. German. Knew the timetable for every bus, boat and plane company in Patagonia by heart. Godsend) we now have an alternate route south. So with the stormy weather looming we make the most of the clear spell, rent mountain bikes for the day and head out towards Lake Carburgua.

Bombs over Carburgua. Standing several metres away, Nic also gets tarred by the same flying dinosaur. Biggest, loudest bird shit ever. A signal that our fortunes may be looking up. 

Los Pozones thermal pools provide much needed relief for bike bum

So to celebrate our triumph over adversity - it does't take much justification, to be fair - and our last night in Pucon, we splash out. Another huge and delicious, calorie-free meal. Thanks Chile.

A piece of meat with its own candlelit shadow. Note to the wedding tour party: get ready for steaks as big as your face.