A Fed Bear Is A Dead Bear: ensenada

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Chile: Part Three

We woke up the next day, saw the sunrise on the volcano and over the lake, and headed towards Puerto Varas to check out the city there and get food for camping. The wall of different types of hot dogs in the store was unreal, ha!

The Wall of Hot Dogs!!!!!!!!!

We headed back out to Petrohue area, and went to the Saltos de Petrohue. Its’ maybe US $2 per person to get into the trails to the falls, and maybe $1 per 20 minutes you are parked, so lingering can add up. Here is where we really experience the horseflies for the first time, so lingering wasn’t a problem. When I say there were horseflies, I mean there were around ten flying around you at all times, sometimes more, sometimes slightly less, but they wouldn’t forget about you for long. Apparently they are only there in the month of January though, and not at all the rest of the year. Note to self….We headed on a wrong trail for a while, but it was very pretty, and we figured it out about 15 minutes in, and headed back towards the falls. The waterfalls and river flowing through all the small lava canyons was pretty impressive here. And the volcano loomed over the river here too, making it very picturesque. The horseflies were everywhere, and as a lady took our picture, I got scared she’d try to swat with the hand holding the picture and end up tossing my camera. Luckily she didn’t, and got a pretty good one of us, as we held still trying to not be bothered by the horseflies everywhere.

Chillin!

Jungle Jane

Drinkable

The source of the river

Saltos de Petrohue

Trying to hold still and not swat the horseflies

I thought the lady was going to throw our camera as she swatted horseflies while holding my camera

Real

Lago Petrohue, nicknames the Emerald Lake

We headed back up further into Petrohue, stopped and ate lunch, then headed towards our camp at Hospedaje Kuschel. We figured there was plenty of light left for the day, so we started to do a hike along Lago Todos Los Santos, towards the volcano, as we read it head impressive views. It was very pretty, but we only hiked in about 20 or 30 minutes before we were over swatting constantly at the horseflies (tabanos). We headed back, defeated, still swatting, and packed up to go camp. We had to take a boat across the river to the camp. “It’s our first boat in campground!” Mel squealed. We got over there, and set up our tent, swatting at the tabanos and gnats that would swarm occasionally. They were pretty bad, which was a shame because the lake and the site was absolutely beautiful, and was only $4,000 pesos ($8) for the campsite, which was anywhere you wanted along the large area near the lake. Fires were allowed also, but the bugs were so bad that we spent most of the evening in the tent to avoid the bugs. The lake, Lago Todos Los Santos, is nicknamed the emerald lake because the color of the water is so green and blue and clear. It was cold though so swimming would have been short-lived. A dog (assuming he belonged to the owner of the property) decided to spend the whole evening and night right outside our tent, so we went ahead and pretended he was ours; he was pretty awesome.

Think I've just noticed that these sunglasses look crooked in every photo with them...

"Our first boat-in campground!!"

View from the tent

We got up the next morning, the bug weren’t super bad, and the horseflies were maybe taking a while to wake up, although some were out. I watched the fish slurp at the surface of the lake everywhere. There were so many bugs on the surface of the water. I wished I could just cast out right there, as it would have been pretty easy it seemed; they were everywhere! We packed up, played fetch with “our” dog, and boated back across, enjoying the views. We dropped off our friend from France in Ensenada and we got some breakfast, and then drove the roads down to Ralun area and towards the beginning of the Carreterra Austral, wishing we were heading to Collin. We turned back after driving on gravel roads for quite a while, and then searched for Kuchen and came across someone selling it out of their house! Big score. This stuff was thick!

Morning view

Our dog

He was good at fetch

Worst thing we ever did was leave this guy

View down towards Ralun

Bridge leading down towards Carreterra Austral

We went to Puerto Varas ate got asparagus and corn pizza, and then went out to go white water rafting! Three full boats went out and we were with two Australians, two Germans, and two Argentineans, who were all pretty awesome. The other two boats were filled with Argentineans too, so I got to observe the subtle differences in Chileans and Argentineans. The rafting was awesome, through Ko Kayak. It was 30,000 pesos (60 bucks) per person for two hours actually on the raft, plus the instructions, and treats afterwards. The guides were awesome and the horseflies were plentiful. We were on Rio Petrohue and it was very consistent rapids (Class III-ish)! No big big drops, but awesome consistent rapids. Mel and I were smack dab up front and it was so much fun. At any given moment there were at least 50 or 60 horseflies around the raft/us, even in the rapids, but we were suited up so it was ok actually. We got to jump off a small cliff at one point and even float through some gentle rapids outside the raft, which was pretty awesome. When we got back to their base, they had pisco sours and cookies and chips waiting for us! Psyched!

Jacked!

First rapids with Mel up front, she liked it...

Most rapids were like this, which weren't the biggest, but it was non-stop and awesome

View coming down the river

Cannonballll!!!!!!!!

Going down!

Eeeeeeeeeeeee

Whoooooooooohoooooooooooo

Another view of the river and land

We headed up to camp in Frutillar area and ended up at a place in someone’s yard, which only cost $3,000 pesos per person (total of 12 bucks). We got up and headed to downtown Frutillar and walked around some until places opened up at 10ish. We got some coffee and after initially refusing Kuchen, we saw others get some and couldn’t resist. Apple and blueberry were our choices and they were incredible! Matt’s new favorite food!

Best ladder set up I've seen

Opera house on the water at Frutillar, Pretty awesome looking

Not the prettiest wood pile, but pretty large

Kuchen!!!!!!!

Then we walked around to some Artisanal shops, wishing we could get stuff back safely. We headed to Puerto Varas for the day and night, got some food, and ended at our place, Hostel Margouya. It was very colorful, with a friendly staff, and nice people staying there. We checked out the lake for a bit and got in some (again regretting I didn’t bring swimtrunks), and then headed back to relax and make food for the potluck that the hostel was organizing. Drinks were a plenty and the food was awesome. Ranging from stomppot (mashed potatoes, cabbage, and sausage), corn, salmon spread on crackers, rice and veggies, crepes, salad, fresh olives (Matt’s new new favorite food) tortellini, dulce de leche ice cream cake and - it was all awesome. Mel drank quite a bit a let her loud Chilean-ness come out, which was funny. We headed to the lake for fireworks at midnight with everyone and they were awesome. We headed back to the hostel to get a little bit of sleep before our early morning the next day.

Hi guys!

Stompott!

About to feast

Feasting

Partying!

Happy New Year!

There she is!!!!!!

Chile: Part II

We hopped on the 13-hour (about 800 m????) bus ride from Santiago to Puerto Montt on December 26 at 7 AM (it was a little late, true Chilean fashion). We went ahead and took some Dramamine to help with the swaying of the bus, and between that and the lack of sleep from being with relatives the previous days, we slept most of the ride – Mel slept at least 10 hours, while I was probably close to 8 hours. The views in between sleeping consisted of tattered bus stops and towns, open fields, and ultimately to volcanoes, mountains, lakes, and the sea. We arrived in Puerto Montt and stayed at a hostel called Casa Perla that night. It was $20,000 Chilean pesos (about US $40) in total for both of us for the private bedroom (not dorm style). The hostel was an old one, with plenty of local decorations from past years, and although it was small, it was pretty cute. The host was very nice as well, and offered some help on how to catch the morning buses to our next destination.

Comfy bus ride down to Puerto Montt, upper deck style!

Free breakfast!

Leaving Casa Perla

Windy awesome morning waiting for the bus by the water

Scoped out the Puerto Montt skatepark.... looked a little rough, but gets points for that and its cooling setting by the sea

Awesome nativity set in Puerto Montt. Each figure was made from an Alerce root, a local tree. Awesome! Enlarge this one.

After the free breakfast in the morning, which consisted of tea, coffee, bread with homemade jam, and various fruits and yogurt, we headed to the bus station to catch the first one to Ancud, Chiloe. The bus fare from Puerto Montt to Ancud included the ride on the ferry. It was $3,700 pesos ($7.40 US) each for the bus ride, and it was about 80 km to the ferry, then another 30 km to Ancud after the ferry ride. We got to see the beautiful coast on the ferry ride, along with some seals playing around in the water. In Ancud we explored the city throughout that day, checking out an old fort on the northside of the town, waiting for the bus we thought would be running that afternoon at 4 PM. Turns out, the bus we were hoping to catch only runs from Ancud to Chepu on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM. It was Tuesday for us though, so we caught a bus in that direction and had them drop us off at the “cruces de Chepu”. This was the intersection between the main road to Castro and the dirt/gravel road that led to Chepu. Chepu was another 13 km down the gravel road so we started walking and “haciendo dedo” (making finger = hitchhiking). The first guy that picked us up took us all the way to Chepu Adventures in Chepu, where we were camping. Chepu Adventures is an eco facility with four campsites, five or six dorm style rooms, and five or six cabanas to stay at, along with different activities offered. Fernando runs it and he is legit! The facility is powered buy their own wind turbine (which I think he kept calling Hank as if he’d named it), and they have solar heated hot water and showers, and a very unique rainwater collection system! Ask him about it! He tested my Spanish in a sort of stern way, which was intimidating but fun, and we talked at length on the energy efficiency and sustainability of his facility when I told him I am in that field of work.

Riding the ferry over to Chiloe

Got a huge piece of salmon in Ancud. Neither of us could finish this and it was pretty awesome.

Cool view of a cove from a fort up on the hill in Ancud.

Exploring the coastline by Ancud

Made it to Chepu Adventures!

Tent spot at Chepu Adventures

Down by the river, soaking up some sun

Sunset over the river

Mel lookin over river

The next morning we got up at 4:45 AM and up to the main building for instructions on the kayaking at dawn! We were on the water by 5:15 AM (an hour before sunrise) and headed out towards the sunken forest, which was created by a tsunami in the 60s I think. HOLY COW! Coolest sunrise ever, and we saw a river otter! The pictures say it all! Well worth it to check this out. Fernando also told us about the local fishermen who do tours to the penguin colony nearby, where you get to trek to the penguins and be very close to them, without disturbing them obviously. It sounded awesome, but we unfortunately did not have the time to do this. After hitching a few rides back to the main road that day, we headed back up towards Puerto Montt to pick up a car we’d rented through Europcar. They sucked. We had a reservation for three days, but turns out they wouldn’t be open on the third day, so we’d have to only have it for two days, or pay more for a fourth day. So we chose to have it for four days. Then it turned out they didn’t have a car actually there for us, so we had to wait a couple hours for one to arrive. They weren’t overly helpful or sorry it seemed for these discrepancies even though it was though a reservation, but I guess the person at the front desk had nothing to do with these things really. We got the car and headed to Ensenada!
We ended up at a spot called Camping Montana, which was car camping, but right up against Lago LLanquehue, and at the base of Volcan Osorno, so it was pretty awesome! It was $5,000 pesos (US $10) for the site, fires were allowed, and would was already provided too! We ate some empanadas from a local store, which turned out pretty bad (one was beef and onion (ugh), the other was some meat with tomatoes and cheese). There weren’t horseflies here so that was pretty nice. Near the lodge at this site there was also free Wifi, so Mel was able to get her facebook fix here too.