Puerto Varas

Day 84 – A good thing it was a burglary not a robbery 

Of course, there was no hot water at 7am, or at 7.30am once it was too late for me to fit a shower in.  The lady did get up in time however to make sure we left the money on the bench as agreed before we left at 8!

We got to the bus station a bit after 8am to discover all buses to Bariloche were full and so immediately headed for an internet place to revise our plan.  We found a bus to Bariloche leaving from nearby Puerto Varas at 10am the next morning and so decided to book that bus and hang out for the day in up-and-coming-outdoor-adventure-town Puerto Varas rather than boring big-smoke-port-town Puerto Montt.  So off we went to find a local bus to take us the 45 minutes to Puerto Varas. 

We walked around town briefly before coming across Residencial Hellwig which looked nice so we were buzzed in and asked about rooms.  The landlady was very welcoming and we were shown a room, later realising this place was recommended in the guide book (although we didn’t see any other gringos only locals staying).  We dropped off our packs in the room, I pulled all my stuff out of my pack and finally got my shower and we hit the town to find breakfast which was fast approaching lunch.  After lunch we went back to the room to check the guidebook for recommended dinner spots (lunch was ordinary) and to pick up my box of stuff for home to take it to the post office. 

We went to the post office, but the price we were quoted to send the box was almost more than the value of its contents, so we decided to hold onto it until we were back in Argentina, where hopefully the price would be less than three figures!  So it was back to the room again. 

Having taken some photos of town already and the afternoon likely to be taken up with food/chocolate/ beer tastings rather than outdoor adventure sports, this time Matt dropped off his camera and document pouch and I got rid of the box I was carrying around and my jacket as it was beautiful and sunny outside.  And so out we went again for some afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea involved hot chocolate and a brownie at a new looking cafe that had opened up one block from our hotel.  The owner was obviously eager to please as we scored some extra chocolates when the brownie took more than 10 minutes to arrive at our table!  Then it was next door to the pub that had an awesome view over the lake front, some micro brews on tap and Wi-Fi for more Bolivia/Haiti research. 

The lake front.

Some locals enjoying the sunny weather.

 
Residencial Hellwig, the oldest residencial in town.

On the way back to the room we picked up some vegie burgers to eat back in the hotel sitting room and checked where the bus was leaving from in the morning.  After the vegie burgers we still weren't sated, so we went upstairs to plug in the laptop to charge and head out for ice-cream. 

The lock on our room door took us a few minutes to get open as the key was all of a sudden getting stuck.  It was when Matt went to get the charger out of his backpack that we realised there was no backpack.  It was so completely unbelievable that we both checked under the bed and in the cupboard before looking at each other and realising the whole thing was gone, along with Matt’s camera and my coat off the bed, all of our extra cash out of Matt’s pouch (but thankfully not his passport) and my box of things to send home.  I had actually meant to leave my entire bag in the room too when we went out, as all we needed was some money, but picked it up again out of habit!

So instead of going to get ice-cream we locked the room with our padlock, instead of the hotel provided one (probably too little too late) and went downstairs to speak to the manager (in charge of letting everyone in and out of the hotel!)  We asked him firstly if he had seen Matt’s gigantic backpack with an Australia flag slapped on the top walk out the door and secondly, to call the police.  Instead he decided to call the owners of the hotel, so we walked out and NEXT DOOR to the police station. 

The police were around in about 15 minutes time and we showed them the dodgy lock, explained that we had been back and forth to the room several times during the day, but it definitely happened during the last 3 hour outing because Matt’s camera and the box (being the last items placed in the room) were gone and attempted to secure a police report – the one thing necessary if we had any hope of getting some money back on insurance.  We had decided that if a whole backpack and sundry items could be walked out of a hotel with door security, then there was little chance of getting our stuff back.  Matt’s Spanish was completely pushed to the limit (we both joked that this should be a scenario bought up in all Spanish language exams!) but the police were reasonable, despite having a smoke and a laugh with the owner before interviewing any guests or taking down our story and refusing to note down everything we listed as missing in their report (causing some angst by me!).  They advised that we couldn’t have a copy of the report on the spot as it had to be typed (causing more angst).  The younger of the two officers finally cottoned on to the fact that we needed to have the report for insurance and we were promised it would be ready at 8am the next morning, something we weren’t sure would happen, but took comfort that this happened in Chile, one of the least corrupt of the South American countries.  It was then off into the night to find a phone booth to call our travel insurance, given the hotel manager wouldn’t let us use the hotel phone to reverse charge! 

After we called the insurance company, we wandered back to the hotel and tried to make light out of the situation.  Firstly, that we were burgled and not robbed (thank you Sarah).  We thought that the person may have been looking for our laptop and when they didn’t see it somewhere obvious decided to take Matt’s whole pack – mine being too hard as the contents was sprawled all over the floor!  Or maybe the thief wanted to do some camping with all the best gear!  We had done most of the camping we were going to do, so were unlikely to have to spend the time and energy replacing all that stuff and Matt was already an expert on shopping in Argentina (our next destination), given the first time around his stuff went missing!  The only item that wasn’t replaceable was my journal of notes and saved tickets etc. as thankfully we had a back up of all of our photos.  But the whole thing is a pain in the bum none-the-less…  

Chepu

Day 81 – There was smoke, but thankfully no fire.

The next morning, after stocking up on supplies for the next few days in the pouring rain, we caught a minibus to Chepu for our stay at eco accommodation Chepu Adventures (link) about 25km outside of Ancud.  The bus ride was not without disaster, the cabin filling up with exhaust fumes on more than one occasion with everyone having to get out, once the haze had become too strong, so the bus driver could pour water on the engine!  After the fourth or so stop, we were becoming a bit anxious as we had organised the owner of Chepu Adventures, Fernando, to pick us up off the highway and drive us the last 15km into Chepu.  We weren’t sure how long he would wait and didn’t fancy walking the 15km in the rain with all of our stuff and 3 days worth of food.  We eventually made it to kilometre marker 25 on the highway, where Fernando and his ute were waiting faithfully for us. 

The haze in the bus!

We arrived at Chepu to find a collection of little cabins and a simply designed common area over looking a sprawling view of the Sunken Valley, a natural phenomenon that had formed after an earthquake in 1960 caused a large area of land to sink 2m and flood.

The cabins and common area taken from our tent site.

The common area had a plastic see-through roof so that campers didn’t need lights during the day.

The view from the deck of the common area over the Sunken Valley.

   
Indoor camping – luxury!  (Taken by Fernando)

Given the rain and the fact that there was little else other than an internet connection and a wind turbine creating some electricity, we spent the afternoon blogging, catching up on email and waiting for a break in the weather to set up our tent.  That night we cooked up a big pot of pasta and ended up sharing with some of the other campers who hadn’t realised there were no shops out here.

 

Day 82 – The day Matt saw a sea otter…. and then didn’t shut up about it.

Today we arranged to go and see the local penguin colony.  This involved taking a boat to where we could pick up part of the Sendero de Chiloe walking track and walking 7km across private property and then into the Parque National de Chiloe to where the penguins were nesting at the end of a spit of land.

A guy playing soccer with his very young son.  We wondered how many times they had to get in the boat to go get the ball.

A waterbird.

The track started rather innocuously across some farm land with our guide, Alberto, taking us over and under various barbed wire fences and gaps in the bushes making sure we took as many short cuts as possible.  The track then opened up onto a beautiful misty grey beach which we followed for about 2km, listening to the blue jellyfish pop as we squished them under our feet (they were unavoidable) and watching a big red ship-wrecked barge grow larger in the distance. 

 

A fisherman with the barge in the distance.

 

Then it was up into the scrub again and deeper into the forest, where the MUD began.     

 

Whilst the four boys gracefully tiptoed around the ankle and sometimes deeper patches, I resigned to getting dirty early and just trudged through – mostly to keep up!   The last part of the walk down the spit of land to where the penguin viewing hut was, involved two sections of up to thigh deep wading.  The boys stripped down to their jocks and exchanged shoes and socks for sandals.  Meanwhile, not being able to get any muddier, I waded in shoes and all for a clean up!

Muddy again in five minutes after crawling up the vertical mud slope to the viewing hut, we crouched in the little hut and took turns at using Alberto’s binoculars to spy on the penguins.      

 

 

We also saw some kelp goose, a dead seal and…. a sea otter!  Matt managed a quick snapshot and we watched and watched to see more, but he didn’t seem to have any friends or family, much to little boy Matt’s disappointment.

So we waded back to dry land…

And back through the mud toward toward the beach…

 
A whale scull we saw on the beach on the way back.

We saw this little guy on the way back – alone and far far away from his mum and dad!  O-oh…

The wind had created an interesting effect on the beach, the sand being blown out from around the shells.

When we got back to the pier, our boat driver was waiting for us and we took the 20 minute trip back to Chepu.  When we got back, Alberto had decided the first thing I needed to do was be hosed off before I was allowed in to get a change of clothes!

That night we chatted with an English girl, Natalie, who I had actually met before, but didn’t remember.  About half way through our conversation we got to the name exchanging part and when I said my name was “Erin” she says “I met another Erin in Torres del Paine.  I remember her because she’d lost a sock and she only had one pair.”  When I pissed myself laughing, she realised it was me and I had to apologise that I didn’t remember her either, because I must have interviewed the entire campground when it went missing – eventually found by Andrew outside Natalie’s tent! 

After some more cooking in inside luxury, closely watched by Amalie, Fernando’s wife, who found our improvised risotto combination of rice, dried mushrooms, onion, garlic and soup mix very interesting, we hit the sack early, ready for our 5.30am wake up call.

 

Day 83 – The mystic sunken valley… and more otters.

Yes, we didn’t wake up at 5.30am for no reason!  Early early this morning we set off in the dark on a kayaking trip through the mystic Sunken Valley.  The trip was recommended to be taken at dawn to watch the sun rise and also increase our chances of seeing wildlife.  We didn’t see much besides twisted dead trees, beautiful in themselves, until it became light.  But even then we didn’t see much as it was raining!  It had been raining when we woke up too, but Matt rightly pointed out that we definitely wouldn’t see anything from inside the tent. 

All geared up and ready to go!  Aus/Pom couple Dean and Zarah along for the ride.

  

Just as we had given up and turned around our kayak, we saw an otter crossing the river in front of us and swim into a clump of dead trees on the other side.  Matt was very pleased, as now he had seen a sea otter and a river otter in as many days.  We carefully watched out for others and saw one more, this one letting us get a bit closer before he disappeared into some reeds.      

All this otter stalking had meant that we were running out of time to get back for our curfew of 9.15am where breakfast, coffee and a warm wood fire would be waiting for us, so we paddled like solo men all the way back to Chepu!

  
Matt with all his locks plastered to his head!  For those of you missing out on this hair phenomenon, it’s bordering on Foxxy Cleopatra (of Austin Powers) status!  One shake and poof – it’s boof!

 
Me, searching for some dry clothes before stripping off in the middle of the common area.

The rain didn’t let up the whole day, so we were confined to the common area to do some more reading and planning and chat to the other campers confined by the weather.  It turns out that Fernando and his wife Amalie are quite the eco-activists in the area, trying to urge others in Chiloe to take advantage of the natural beauty of the area through things such as tourism and to ‘live lightly’ in accommodation such as theirs.  With logging and other such activities a popular past time in Chiloe, and Fernando being a tree-changer from Santiago and not from Chiloe, this does not make them very popular.  Up until earlier this week, Fernando and Amalie had lived off premises in town about 3km away, however it seems that someone disliked their ideals so much that their house was burnt to the ground.  Not being within the required distance from a  fire station meant that they could not obtain insurance either!  So part of the afternoon was also spent discussing alternate building materials to build a new house on-site, including the possibility of straw bale (a particular interest of mine) and plans for Chepu Adventures to maybe extend and hopefully beef up profits a little, now that funds are in need! 

It turns out that another passion of Fernando’s is taking sneaky photos of his campers to put on his website.  We were presented with the photos featuring us as we prepared to leave, including this early morning photo below!

 

One last photo back over Chepu Adventures and the Sunken Valley.

At 5.30pm we caught a local bus into Ancud and after a last meal of Curanto and Cerviche we took a further bus and ferry across to Puerto Montt on the mainland.  Arriving at 10pm with no accommodation booked, we said yes to one of the gaggle of middle-aged ladies at the bus station searching for backpackers to stay in their homes, mainly because she said she had hot water and we had not had a hot shower in 3 days!  We checked for bus times to Bariloche before leaving the station, but weren’t able to book tickets as the requisite bus companies were closed and the only one open was full.

My last Cerviche meal!  (And Kunstmann, a Chilean brew we had fallen for…. but with such a bad name!).

  
A sign in the restaurant in Ancud.   Ahhhh…. the real reason Matt was so keen on Curanto comes out: “Curanto, helping people to have great sex since 1826”.

We were lead the four blocks (up hill) to bus stop lady’s house.  Matt had a shower straight away (after the lady’s husband turned on the hot water) and me, needing to wash my hair, asked if the hot water would be available at 7am in the morning for a shower before our bus at 8.30, to which the reply was yes, yes of course!

Castro

Day 79 – Room with a view

Needless to say, we slept like logs last night.  On the way to the bus station, we picked up a couple of random empanadas (mine being meat, which I hate and Matt’s being apple which he hates – so we swapped!) and managed to snag the 12 noon bus just as it was about to pull out of the bus station at 12.05 – the driver making a joke that he was waiting for us!

An hour or so later we were in Castro and in a very clean and comfy room in Hostel Cordillera with a view out over Fiordo de Castro.

The view from our room.

We took a walk around town and unsuccessfully looked for a hairdresser to deal with Matt’s locks and cave man beard, dropped off some washing, picked up a box at the post off to send home some presents and things and had a beer/coffee in the old fire station that had been converted into an American style diner. 

That night was a quiet one, eating in, Skyping our parents and catching up on some “Mad Men”.

Day 80 -   Crazy dogs, stilts, clams, hedgehogs and big mussels.

The Lonely Planet guide said that the Museo de Arte Moderno de Chiloe was a short 1km stroll out of town down Galvarino Riverros street.  What seemed like about 2km later, we stopped in at a kiosk to ask if we were lost.  The answer was no, but we still had at least 1200m to go!  It was spitting with rain and we didn’t have any coats, but we decided to push on anyways.  Right out of town, off the paved road, past some housing development and up a muddy slope, the museum was set on top of a hill with a view back over Castro and the valley before it.  Matt had to clean himself off before we went inside (some kind idiot had driven past us too fast on the muddy slope and splashed mud down Matt’s leg) and the place was completely deserted!  The shingled building itself was more interesting than the art, but still worth the walk up the hill.

  
A field of flowers from far away.

But up close they were clocks!

 
Insane graffiti on the walls and paper mache dogs with crazy personalities – there was princess dog, army dog, mardi gras dog, nature dog, political slogan dog…

   
Trudging back down the hill with community housing development as far as the eye could see.

After some leftovers for lunch we headed back out to have a look at some palafitos from the Puente Gamboa Mirandor which is a lookout over a group of shingled houses built up on stilts (the palafitos) along the lagoon.  These palafitos are now protected as a national historic monument and are painted different colours like beach boxes.

As we were walking back up the hill towards town, some people running a marathon came barrelling down the hill with a police escort.

Back in town to collect our washing and check out how much it would cost to send our box home (too expensive in Chile!!) we dropped in to the visitors centre to find out where the best place for some “Curanto” might be.  Curanto is a traditional Chiloe meal made by cooking shellfish, pork and chicken on hot stones in a hole in the ground covered with nalca or pangue leaves and damp cloths and then covering it all with dirt and grass and leaving it to simmer for two hours.  It’s not very often cooked this way in restaurants anymore, but there were a few places around that did it.

A model inside the visitors centre in the town square of Iglesia San Francisco de Castro (with the real thing in the background outside), one of the dozen or so heritage listed wooden churches on Chiloe.  

 
And the real Iglesia San Francisco de Castro outside. 

We walked over the the recommended Curanto restaurant, a big tin shed out the back of another restaurant on the square.  Apparently the shed only serves one sitting of Curanto per day at lunchtime and so we became a little suspicious, given the time and process involved and that the place was deserted, when we were told that we could have some for dinner… probably leftovers!  I was craving salmon anyway, and the only other items on the menu were big slabs of meat, so we decided to give it a miss.

Instead we walked over to one of the recommended restaurants in the book and to our delight the two daily specials on the board out the front were Curanto and salmon, served with something else I was missing: curry!   We went in and sat down but were told the specials weren’t available until after 9.30pm…. starving (at 6.30!) we left again only to find curanto and salmon on every second menu down on the waterfront.  We took a brief walk through the feria artisenal (handicraft market) and I took a liking to the colourful salmon skin products, but didn’t find anything I actually needed like a wallet for my wads of pesos!  Hungry and with the waft of the days catch all around, we headed to one of the busier restaurants ‘Brisas del Mar’ for our feed.

 
Tempted by the “Raw (Unriped) Plate of Hedgehogs”, we stuck to the original plan of salmon and curanto, after a yummy entre of Cerviche, the other Chiloe special made up of diced raw salmon, red pepper and fresh coriander and lemon.

Matt with his pile of curanto and a view of the water.

Over dinner we talked about what we might do next and in particular what volunteering opportunities there might be in Bolivia where it would be cheaper to be stationed somewhere for a while.  Back in our room, this research of course involved a bottle of red wine, part of which Matt spilt all over the bed!  (He will blame me, but it was his glass in his hand… !)  Anyways, one of the opportunities that we had come across was caring for and taking pumas and jaguars that had been confiscated from smugglers for a daily walk.  It sounded like a fun idea until we mentioned it to Matt’s Dad and he sent us this article he’d seen about the place:  http://outside1.away.com/outside/culture/200908/bolivia-jaguars-adoption-animal-rehab-center-1.html.

Being in a room with a TV also meant a bit of BBC World was watched and the thought of a flight to Haiti to work on a disaster relief team had crossed Matt’s mind more than once.