Two weeks in the south of Chile

No sooner had English Summertown ended than we were making the first
(of many!) trips to the Santiago airport to pick up friends and family coming from the U.S. to visit. Our first visitors were Judy and Joe, both of whom had been to South America several times before but had never been to the beautiful Lakes District in the south. We decided to see as much of the south of Chile as we could in the two weeks they were with us.

Our first stop after leaving Santiago was Chillán, where we stayed at our friends Catherine and Dan's house along with John, Melinda and Amelie who were with us for the first few days of our trip. We visited the beautiful market in Chillán, the modernist cathedral with its 36 meter-high cross commemorating the thousands of people who died in the devastating 1939 earthquake, and the Mexican School, donated by the Mexican government after the earthquake, with its superb mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros. Bill, Melinda and John made us a delicious meal one night with the fresh vegetables we had bought at the market and delicious meat, including the longaniza (sausage) for which Chillán is famous.
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Our next destination was el Parque Nacional Conguillío, and for a short while we were convinced we were hopelessly lost. The landscape near the entrance to the park was eerie and desolate, resembling the lunar surface, with no one in sight. Soon, however, in the midst of the lava fields we saw the sign indicating our cabins at La Baita were just ahead. What an incredible find! The cabins were beautiful and the surrounding landscape, with Volcán Llaima (over 10,000 feet high) towering just above us, impressive. What a perfect place to relax and enjoy the beauty and peace of this National Park which is off the beaten tourist path. We did some hiking and explored the volcanic rock fields left from an eruption of this still very active volcano. We saw landscape here that looked prehistoric and had, in fact, been used to film the PBS documentary, Walking With Dinosaurs. There are three very beautiful lakes in the park, formed just a few decades ago when a lava flow dammed the Río Truful-Truful. Laguna Arco Iris is an incredible blue-green color and Laguna Captrén has trees poking up from the middle of the lake. One of our favorite hikes was up into the forests with thousand year-old araucaria trees, also known as monkey-puzzle trees, and other Chilean species such as raulí, coigue, oak and cypress.

We would have loved to stay here longer and explore more of the natural beauty around us. Also, Loreto, the chef at La Baita, was feeding us the most incredible meals in the very cozy lodge there. It was hard to leave, but we were on a mission to see as much of the south of Chile as we could, so it was on to Pucón and Villarrica. Unfortunately, we found out the hard way what ripio is. You take the highway, and we'll take the ripio, and you'll get to Pucón about two hours before us. Ripio are very bad, gravel roads.

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Pucón is a very touristy area, with nice resorts, shopping and restaurants. It is a beautiful town on the lake, with the smoldering Volcán Villarrica for a backdrop and huge pink, purple and blue hydrangeas everywhere. Our first day there we were a bit disappointed to hear we had to be up and out of the house where we were staying, a couple of miles out of town, by 7:30 a.m. because there was a half Iron Man triathlon taking place in Pucón, and they would be closing off the street leading into town. We were in slow motion mode on this trip, largely due to me slowly recuperating from the intense school year that had just ended. But it was good to get an early start for a change. What a surprise to see that we knew someone who was participating in the triathlon. Keith, a Fulbright professor here in Santiago with his family this year, was standing by the bikes putting on his wet suit when Bill spotted him in the crowd. We had a lot of fun in Pucón that day, with the swimmers, bikers and runners energizing the whole town. From time to time, taking a break from our explorations of the town, we would stand by the curb and watch for Keith to run by and then cheer him on wildly. Roxy and Sarah became very inspired watching the athletes and decided to start training right away for a triathlon.
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Running alongside the car to our next destination, near Lake Llanquihue, the girls got a good workout and a good start with their training. With all the shopping Judy and Joe did, the van was getting terribly crowded, and we desperately needed to free up some space inside. Here we had the only rain on our trip. Clearly, it rains a good amount in the beautiful, lush Lakes District in the south, and I was told that, traveling there in January, we were probably going to get a lot of rain. Fortunately it only rained one day, while we were staying at the cabin in Ensenada, right on the lake. This place had a heated indoor swimming pool, very hot and steamy, and we had a relaxing swim there one night. Running out of clean clothes, we had them do some laundry for us. We were sure surprised to get the $60 laundry bill! We sure won't make that mistake again. While staying in Ensenada, we made a trip to nearby Puerto Varas, with its lovely rose-lined streets, Frutillar, which has a wonderful German museum and a beautiful theater on the lake, and Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park. Click below to see the impressive sight of Osorno Volcano and the Petrohué Falls:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bdoody61/VolcanOsorno/photo#5041188189503074034

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From there it was on through Puerto Montt and then to the ferry which brought us to Chiloé Island, the second-largest island in South America, after Tierra del Fuego. Here in Chonchi the Lonely Planet travel guide let us down a couple of times. In one of their recommended hostels we walked in and walked right out. For some reason, Joe had a problem with the shower being in a different building than his room! Luckily, just down the road a bit, we found a hostel in a big, beautiful, old house run by a delightful and very hospitable woman. When we first arrived, she invited us into her living room and poured us each a glass of licor de oro (gold liquor), an interesting local concoction of milk, alcohol, sugar, cloves, lemons, saffron, almonds, vanilla and cinnamon. We rented the cabin in back of the house, which was perfect for the six of us. We would have done well to have cooked dinner that night in our well-equipped kitchen. Instead, we went to one of the only restaurants in town, another recommendation of the Lonely Planet, where everyone but Bill and I had a terrible dinner. Our fish sandwiches were quite good, and I gave the others some helpful advice: "When in a fishing village, order fish!" And to Judy: "When in Chile, order pisco sour, not margaritas or sangría!" But then, who would think you could mess up either one of those?

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Some highlights of our visit to Chiloé Island:
Beautiful sunsets like this one. The ferry ride to the island with several hundred pelicans following us. Going to the end of the Pan American Highway in Quellón. Seeing the palafitos (houses up on stilts) in Castro. Visiting Parque Nacional Chiloé on the beach. Seeing the beautiful, unique churches in several of the small villages on the island, though the seemingly endless search for these villages on badly-marked dirt roads was certainly not a highlight of Bill's (the driver of the van). Staying at the Hostal Lluhay in Ancud. Seeing Comet McNaught big and bright in the clear, night sky. And visiting Museo Chilote and Fuerte San Antonio. It was at this fortress in Ancud where, during the wars of independence, the last Spanish flag was flown in Chile in 1810.
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I had hoped to make it further south in Chile, but it is such a long country, I soon realized that one year is not enough time to see and do all I'd like. Turning around and heading northward, we planned to meet up again with the Heiners in Valdivia, a charming town on the coast 300 km from Ancud, on Saturday night, just in time for the annual German beer festival held there. We found the cabins that Melinda had reserved easily enough, unpacked, and set out to join them at the fest. We thought parking might be a problem so we got in a couple of taxis and asked them to take us to the festival. Well, taxi drivers in Santiago have a reputation for not knowing where they're going and also not having change. Apparently it's not just Santiago drivers, because these drivers brought us to the Kuntsmann brewery, not to the beer fest. The good news is that Kuntsmann beer is excellent, the best in Chile. The bad news is that the restaurant at the brewery is horrible and the place was dead. Of course! Any self-respecting beer drinker was at the beer fest that night. Notice the different atmosphere at the fest and at the restaurant:

The next day we had a great time in Valdivia. We went to the feria fluvial (the riverside market), took a boat ride, visited the Museo Histórico y Arqueológico, and ate lunch at a nice place called Approach before leaving the city and continuing on toward Santiago. The ride back that last day was relatively uneventful. Most noteworthy was a surprisingly delicious lunch at a hard-to-find restaurant in Rancagua, Doña Emilia's, where a tuna performed for us. A tuna is a musical group of university students, a tradition that began many centuries ago in Spain.

Before Judy and Joe had to leave for home, we got in one last day trip, to the coastal towns of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. It was great to just relax on the beach and watch the boobies. Before you get the wrong idea, that is what we call them in English, but in Spanish they are called piqueros. They are birds that swim over the ocean and then suddenly dive from way up high, plunging into the water and swimming after their prey.

Now we have about a week to rest up and get some things done in Santiago before we have the next three back-to-back groups of visitors coming, which will take us right up to school starting again. This is going to be a very short summer!

Click here to see photos from this trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/bdoody61/TripSouth