Southern Patagonia

After our trip to Chiloe, we spent a week in Southern Patagonia. Patagonia is the large area that encompasses approximately the bottom 2/5 of Chile. It is known for its remoteness and the adventure it offers to travellers, including trekking, rafting, kayaking, and climbing. Punta Arenas (near the very bottom) is known as "the end of the world" because it is one of the southernmost large cities on the globe, with the exception of those in Antarctica. Cape Horn, Chile is literally "the end of the world" (not including Antarctica), but from what we read it is difficult to reach and the winds are unbelievable there. During our stay in Southern Patagonia, we spent three full days in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile's most famous national park, and arguably its most well-known attraction. We flew into Punta Arenas, spent a night there, and then drove our rental car North for about 2 1/2 hours to reach Puerto Natales, the "gateway" to the park. We liked Puerto Natales - it has a beautiful ocean view, the obligatory town square, and some good restaurants. From Puerto Nortales we drove another 2 hours, about half the time on a dirt road, to reach the park.

Spending time in Torres del Paine was an amazing experience. The scenery is breathtaking (photos don't seem to capture it - but we're posting some anyway!). The park is named after three rock towers ("torres") and surrounding dramatic, jagged peaks seemingly constantly engulfed by wispy clouds. Photos of this landscape are often featured in the media because it is so fantastic. In addition, there are stunning lagoons and lakes, some a brilliant teal color, as well as glaciers, some of which are a radiant blue. We wanted to visit Glacier Grey, the most famous glacier that includes a massive blue field of ice, but unfortunately were unable due to poor planning (on Nikki's part) and logistical concerns. Torres del Paine had massive forest fires right before we came. They occurred around Glacier Grey, so some of the ways to access it were closed. We will have to return some day to see it.

View of the Towers on our Way into the Park

Llamas

Ostriches

The wind that was whipping through the park during our first night there, and shaking everything in its path, unfortunately followed us on our first hike. We hiked to the base of the towers. This consisted of a lot of upward climbing, and the beginning was against an incredibly strong headwind (Nikki did NOT enjoy this part!). At one point, a woman in front of us was blown about five feet to the left by a big gust of wind! (Thankfully, there was relatively little wind the next two days. We probably could not have expected better weather in general because we had clear or partly cloudy skies and perfect temperatures - probably about 60-70 degrees Farenheit - all three days.) The view of the towers from the lagoon at the end of the hike is overpowering in its beauty. While the Grand Canyon may be the most beautiful place we have seen, it had a size advantage: the lagoon under the towers is perhaps the most beautiful (relatively) small spot we have ever seen.

The next day we had a  pleasant four-hour hike along a couple of beautiful lakes, with the view ahead always framed by mountains. This brought us to a cabin at Los Cuernos where we spent two nights. We had spectacular scenery, looking at a lake below a snow capped mountain from one window, and a towering peak in the other, all while hearing the nearby waterfall where we got our water. The mountains showed off their power by letting out a few loud rumbles. After one of the rumbles we were able to see snow falling over a cliff - the result of the small avalanche making the noise. The restraint of these mountains made the atmosphere all the more peaceful.

Sitting on the Deck of Our Cabin at Sunset (around 10pm!)

After leaving Torres del Paine, we spent a night in Puerto Natales and then returned to the Punta Arenas area. We visited a penguin colony in the Otway Sound, about an hour away from the city. It was so much fun because we got to walk on a long, winding bridge over land where the penguins burrow. We saw dozens of pinguinos on the walk, and at one point came within two feet of a small family. Penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere, so we are glad we had this opportunity to see them up close in nature.

We also decided to visit another national park in the area called Pali Aike. The only way to describe the landscape is bleak, forlorn, and as Greg repeated over and over again, "desolate." Driving within the park we watched hundreds of llamas, as well as ostriches and foxes (see the photo of the baby fox below!) eat and frolic on the steppe. This park was called home 9,000 years ago by inhabitants of a cave formed by a volcanic lava flow. We visited the cave, which was excavated in the 1930s when they discovered paintings. This was one of Nikki's favorite destinations because she loves history and historical artifacts. We stood in the cave and attempted to see traces of the 9,000 year-old paintings, but time seemed to have worn them away. Although we couldn't make out any definite images, it was so exciting to be there and imagine what it would be like as an ancient people living in that harsh but beautiful environment. Also while in this park we hiked over fields of lava to reach three very large, volcanic craters. The inside of one was red and inspired it's name, Devil's Crater. The largest one seemed to have its own little world down inside, complete with a group of llamas grazing! Greg enjoyed bounding about giant rocks and lava flows, and we both enjoyed the solitude. The entire time hiking in the park the only evidence of humans was trail markers and signs, one back-packer, and one van.

Baby Fox

9,000 Year-Old Cave

One of the Craters

Lava Field We Had to Cross

Traveling to Pali Aike by rental car was a somewhat nervous experience. Google maps showed a few small locations along the way, one of which was called San Gregorio. This town actually consists of about five (no exaggeration) abandoned buildings near the ocean, with one "cafe" (that served basically nothing). We were hoping we might be able to get a meal there but the old building with a "cocina" sign was of course abandoned! The town we ended up spending the night in near the park was frequented by truckers alone, which was reflected in our accommodations. We were surprised to find out there were no gas stations in town, and we weren't sure if we would have enough gas to make it back. We knew of only one other gas station along the way back to Punta Arenas that we had stopped at briefly before. At that time, the attendant had tried the pump and concluded there was no more gas left. In the town near the park we were told there was a gas station 50 kilometers away in the direction of Punta Arenas, and were able to find it on our way back. It was the smallest gas station we have ever seen, with two pumps and a small shelter from the sun for the attendant - very easy to miss!

We always thought the Latin American custom of eating dinner late at night was strange. However, it made a lot of sense when we were leaving a restaurant, realising it was finally starting to get dark and that it was past 11 pm! Due to its location, there are only roughly five or six hours of darkness in the summer in Punta Arenas. Travelling through southern Patagonia was a little exhausting, probably in part because it can be difficult to get enough sleep with the long daylight. Overall, however, it definitely made travelling nicer because we never had to worry about reaching a destination before dark! We hope to come back again here someday and visit the Argentinean side of Patagonia.

Northern Patagonia: La Isla de Chiloe and Puerto Montt

Chiloe Island was our next stop after the Lake District. It's very large and located right off the coast of Chile in Northern Patagonia. We flew into the city of Puerto Montt and drove to the small ferry to the island. You can take your car on the ferry and it takes half an hour.

During our three days on Chiloe we stayed in the northern city of Ancud at the Hostal Mundo Nuevo. This hostal has a lot of character. It is right on the waterfront, is very clean and tidy with wood floors throughout and a sun room off the front (which overlooks the bay), and has a laundry service (that we took advantage of). Below you can see that our room had a nautical theme with a boat-shaped bed. However, Ancud is not the best location if you want to travel around the island. If we returned, we would probably stay in the central city of Castro.

Possibly the best description of Chiloe is that it is dramatic and a little bit surreal, which Nikki really enjoyed. The weather on the island is unpredictable - there may be light rain, torrential storms, or beautiful clear skies - and that is just a description of several hours of our second day! A nice side effect of the weather patterns was a lot of rainbows - including a full double rainbow we saw! The island has many rolling hills and wild, lush greenery everywhere, as well as farmland with a lot of sheep. The wind can be wicked, giving us a taste of what was to come during our first day in the national park Torres del Paine (more to come on that).

Chiloe is Known for its Many Old Churches

The seafood we had on the island was amazing, especially for the price. A common traditional dish in Chiloe is curanto, which is a huge bowl filled with shellfish and topped with a piece of smoked pork, chicken, sausage, 2 large lumps of milcaos (potato bread), plus sometimes an actual potato, plus a broth or salsa liquid to dip your shellfish in (see photo below). It is SO good, and so filling! We had this for the first time when we stumbled upon what would be called a "clam bake" in the US. This was on the beach, and we paid $11 USD for two bowls of Curanto and a bottle of wine (this is a lot of food!). This was all while taking shelter from the most ferocious wind we have experienced while in Chile. At the "clam bake" Greg pointed to the food that we wanted. On our second day for lunch we ordered two curantos, not realising what they were! Although Greg polished off all the seafood and milcaos, we had some leftover meat that we fed to some stray dogs. That evening and the next, we ate at a restaurant called Kuranton. They have great seafood, and the price is very reasonable. Between the two nights we had:

• Carapacho (a dish consisting of crab and cheese, kind of like a really great tuna melt, but not a sandwich)
• Salmon stuffed with sausage, mushrooms, peppers, and cheese
• Shellfish including crab, all in mussel or clamshells, cooked in lemon, garlic, and wine
• Paila marina, a traditional fish stew

The paila marina was good, but all of the others were amazing! Greg is already missing eating the seafood in Chiloe.

Curanto

We drove around, exploring Chiloe, including taking a ferry to a nearby smaller island called Quinchao. We soaked in the beautiful country side, stopped along the ocean, and shopped for handicrafts. On Quinchao, we basically stepped back in time to a culture of farming and raising sheep and other animals. We got (too) close to pigs that had escaped from their pen (this seemed to be a common occurrence!).

Pigs Exploring a Ship on Quinchao

The next day we visited the Parque Nacional Chiloe. There we followed a trail that led us to the beach, right through a herd of grazing cows! Chilean national parks aren't managed as well as parks in the U.S. The entry fees are often just $2 USD per person, and there are not a lot of visitors to most parks. This park was the only one where we could drive a paved road almost all the way to the entrance. We got caught in the rain during our hike, but were prepared with our ponchos. It is always wonderful to be out in nature, although we didn't find our hike as exciting as our others in Chile.

After Chiloe, we drove back to Puerto Montt, driving past the city into the Parque Nacional Alerces. This was an amazing temperate rain forest, with dense vegetation, water running all around, and a muddy trail. A few parts of the trail were made of fallen trees that steps had been cut into. This was much preferable to the mud or worse: water with leeches. The hike featured a beautiful lagoon and old growth Alerce trees. An Alerce can live for more than three thousand years, making them the second-oldest tree, to the Bristlecone Pine, which can be seen in our home state of California. The trees were great, although we have now been spoiled by old-growth redwood forests in California that we find more majestic. The Alerce grove was small and surrounded by other vegetation, whereas we have seen huge redwood groves containing individual redwood trees multiple times larger than an Alerce, and the groves block out all direct sunlight, limiting other vegetation to just ferns.

We drove back to Puerto Mont and stayed at a nice aparthotel, awaiting our flight to Southern Patagonia the next day.

Villarrica - A Countryside of Lakes and Volcanoes

We had the pleasure of spending the first week of January in the Chilean Lake District, which is south of Santiago in the middle of the country. We stayed in the town of Villarrica, and really enjoyed this region! It is replete with lush greenery, beaches on beautiful lakes surrounded by mountains, quaint farms,  active volcanoes, and amazing national parks. It's not the best place for relaxing on the beach because the beaches are small, crowded, and many have a fair amount of trash on them - we still prefer Lake Michigan for lake beaches! 

To get to Villarrica, we had to fly into a tiny airport in Temuco with 2 gates, and then take a colectivo for an hour. We used Sky Airlines, and the flight was great - the jet was large and clean, and they served a small meal and drinks. Nikki was a bit nervous about using this airline because it's not the major one for South America (that's LAN), but it is much cheaper and everything was very professional. The center of the action for the Lake District is Pucon, which is easy to get to by bus or car from Villarrica a half hour

Our hotel, Don Juan Hostal y Cabanas, was also very nice. We had use of the kitchens for the use of any guests and a courtyard for relaxing. The rooms are a very reasonable price and are all panelled in wood, which gives them a cabin-like feel. There was a fantastic small butcher within a few blocks of our cabins that makes their own pate, sausages, and head cheese. We also bought food at the nearby supermarket and some small fruit and cheese stands. The quality of supermarket food is not that great (at least the produce), but we did enjoy some of their pre-made meals. The small stands and stores that you find can vary greatly in quality, but you can usually find some good ones. There is a German influence in the region and we enjoyed eating at some German restaurants in the region.

The highlights of our stay in the Lake District were visiting the Parque Nacional Conguillio, spending time at the hot springs Termas Geometricas, and climbing Volcan Villarrica.

We rented a car and went to the Parque Nacional Conguillio. It ended up taking us quite a long time to get there from Villarrica. But the drive through the scenic countryside was nice -- we saw rolling hills, wild greenery, farmland with sheep and cows, and sometimes mountains and volcanoes in the distance. The roads are not well paved in that area and even main roads are not alwasy well-marked if at all. On the way to and from we got lost a little and ended up doing some back-tracking. After arriving at the park entrance, the last few miles by dirt-road, we still had to drive through a tough dirt road to get to places in the park, which again are not always well marked.

The park was AMAZING, and we would definitely recommend a visit to anyone travelling to the area. Apparently a good part of the TV series "Walking with Dinosaurs" was filmed there because it has such a prehistoric feel. There are two volcanoes, vast stretches of lava fields, tree branches underwater in lagoons, and forests of Araucaria trees, called "las paraguas" (umbrellas) because they have an umbrella-like shape. There were not a lot of people at this park, probably because it's difficult to reach. We took a short 2 1/2 hour hike and didn't see a single other person along the way.

las paraguas

volcano and glacier

lava fields with volcano and glacier in the Distance

Lagoon with submerged tree trunks

The day after the Parque Nacional Conguillio, we went to the Termas Geometricas hot springs. There are a lot of different options in the Lake District for hot springs due to all of the volcanic activity in the area, but we chose these because our travel guide just raves about them. We were not disappointed! The site is set back in the country (it took us about a 1 1/2 hours to drive there from Villarrica, with about 45 minutes of driving on a dirt and gravel road, so it's not easy to reach), on a long and winding ravine with a beautiful waterfall at one end. There are about 20 different pools total of varying temperature. There is also cucumber water, tea, and snacks available. As you can tell, this attraction is totally not strenuous - people of all ages should enjoy this!

waterfall at the end

 

See the steam? There is sulfur in the air at the hot springs

Greg relaxing in one of the springs

For our big adventure in the Lake District, we climbed Volcan Villarrica. This is a volcano that is extremely active and has erupted about 65 times over the last 400 or 500 years. The last eruption was in 2009. It's about 8,500 feet high, and we had a view of it from our hostel room. We weren't too worried about an eruption because they detect activity and don't allow people around the volcano when they believe it is dangerous. However, Nikki has a fear of heights, and neither of us had actually summitted a mountain before. We booked a tour through Sol y Nieve, a tour company in Pucon. There were five climbers in our group, and two guides to take care of us. Our guides were Pati and Nico, and they were great. The company gave us all the necessary gear (boots, a full bodysuit for sliding down, a helmet, an ice axe, etc.).

The was just a steep uphill hike through snow, with rocky dirt at the bottom and hard rock at the very top. The ascent took about four hours. It was physically challenging, but nothing compared to the Grand Canyon (we could barely walk after that!). Nikki, however, really freaked out when we were about 10 minutes from the top. We had reached rock at that point, and the wind was so strong it felt like it might blow you over. She had to hold on to Nico's backpack and Greg had to be right behind her for that final stretch!

When we reached the top we were greeted by a ferocious wind blowing sulfur at us from the volcano , so we didn't want to stay for very long. Going down the mountain was the most fun part - you slide down on your but through luge-like tracks in the snow!

Volcan Villarrica from a distance

mountaineers at the summit!

looking into the volcano . . .

view from the summit

sliding back down for the descent

Feliz Ano Nuevo in Valparaiso Chile!

For New Year's weekend, we decided to head to the coast to celebrate in Valparaiso. It's a city that reminds one of San Francisco, with steep hills covered in colorful houses. The colors are brighter in Valparaiso, and the buildings older and architecturally interesting. The city is covered in "graffiti," which mostly consists of beautiful (and sometimes intricate) murals painted by people with real talent.

Valparaiso was very connected to our home town of Sacramento, California. When gold was struck in Sacramento, American men travelled on ships that went around South America and stopped in Valparaiso. A great earthquake struck Valparaiso in 1906, but the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 was much more economically devastating in the long run.

To get to Valparaiso, we took Tur Bus, which was a very clean and comfortable bus for travelling long distances. We had more leg room than on a plane, and the seats reclined more. There was a compartment under the bus for luggage. We booked a room in Valparaiso at the last minute, on the bay in the historic district and just steps away from the main square where there was a huge party on New Year's Eve. Called the "Hotel Garden," it is a building constructed in the 1800s (around 1870), with what appears to be mainly original decor (we could tell because the fixtures looked like they were from that period, and the wallpaper was peeling :P). While the hotel has a lot of charm, it is run-down (in our bathroom the sink was practically falling off of the wall!), and there was a horrible smell the first night from the cleaning agent they used. Also it was very loud at night -- there is a bar underneath the hotel that plays loud music, and in Valparaiso they party till the sun comes up!

When we first got into the city, we had lunch at a tiny "hole in the wall" with an entrance down an alleyway, which was recommended by our travel guide. It serves only one or two traditional Chilean dishes. We had a pile of fries covered in steak and eggs - here in Chile they seem to like to pile food onto fries - which is fine with us because it was delicious!

Most of our time in Valparaiso was spent walking around historic parts of the city and viewing its attractions. The Concepcion neighborhood has narrow almost labyrinth-like stairways and passages leading from one elevation to the next. There are old rickety wooden elevators around the city that you can take to avoid the tough climbs. We visited one of the homes of Pablo Neruda, a well-known Chilean poet (and, we learned, politician). Pablo Neruda had an eclectic collection of charismatic items, all of which had either an important or humorous purpose. One has the impression that he had three houses so that he could collect even more. The house is mostly five stories of vertical space. It has a clear view of the bay and is the perfect size for Nikki, with its low ceilings and narrow hallways :) We wanted to move in! We also visited the Museo Naval y Maritimo, which explains the history of the Chilean navy and offers a great view of the bay. We took one of the elevators to get there.

Pablo Neruda's House

Museo Naval y Maritimo

On January 30, we decided to use our Christmas gift from Nikki's Aunt Pat (many thanks to her!) to splurge on a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking the bay - the view was SO pretty, and the food very good!

We came to Valparaiso on New Year's Day to see the famed fireworks show over the bay. It was AMAZING! Even Nikki, who is known to prefer to stay home and comfort dogs on the fourth of July LOVED it! The show is essentially one very long finale of a normal fireworks show. The only downside is that so much smoke accumulates that it starts to obscure some of the fireworks! Our vantage point was of the main display, but we could still see other perhaps equally impressive displays farther down the bay.

We also got to take part in a huge celebration with thousands of other people partying through the night, although we left the party at 2am. There was a live band in the main square on the bay, which was so much fun. It was really an amazing experience!