A bit of a quiet week. Puerto Montt turned out to be a not so exiting city. We had a bit of trouble finding accommodation as well. The property Nienke booked on line turned out to have a wig in the toilet and another one the bathtub on inspection, so we hit the road again like Speedy Gonzales. The camping just outside of Puerto Montt everybody was raving about on iOverlander had ceased to exist. So eventually we ended up in an overpriced cabin of a rather overweight man who luckily did not have a cardiac arrest when I was there. Huffing and puffing he showed us our temporary home and to our great relief managed to leave the cabin without collapsing.
In our second attempt we managed to find Puerto Montt airport early in the morning and boarded our plane to Santiago. Jetsmart, the budget airliner was called. We can't fault them on anything. Ryan air, Easyjet and Jetstar can certainly learn something from these people. We headed for Santiago to visit WOMAD Chile, since this year we would miss WOMAD in New Zealand.
It turned out to be quite an experience. When we arrived the gates had already opened, not that we could find the gates. A nice staff member (I assume because of his yellow vest he was one and not an anti-Macron protester) gave us directions and suddenly we were standing in front of the main stage, not having passed any gate. We slowly walked to a gate to buy tickets anyway (honest Dutchies ay) and found nobody even slightly surprised we were coming from the wrong direction. We were quite surprised though, because although the festival had already started, we were about the only guests there.
Luckily a few more people turned up later on and we still had a great night with some good music from the Chilean band Guachupe, which has fans like they were a successful football club (flags, shirts, etc.), and Maria de Lurdes Pina Assunção (Lura for friends) from Cape Verde.
The biggest surprise was the Italian band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino. We'd seen these guys a few years back in New Zealand and tonight they were just as good again.
Next day I briefly visited a dentist. Not sure why, but one of my molars started sending mixed signals and with our upcoming trip on the boat for 4 days and Patagonia after that finding a dentist in Santiago seemed like a safe bet. The sweet cake and fizzy drinks on the receptionists desk made us think we were at the wrong address, but since we were already 2 hours late. 'Doce (pronounced dosse) quince' sounds exactly the same as 'dos y quince', one means 12.15 and the other 2.15) we opted to stay. A very nice young lady dentist told me I was very healthy (what's new) and the only explanation she had was one of my wisdom teeth (of course) pushing forward against it's neighbour. Nothing to worry about and certainly not something an ibuprofen and a Pisco Sour couldn't solve. So we headed for WOMAD again.
Last night when we tracked our Uber outside the stadium we found two desperate people looking for a taxi in this strange town. We offered them a ride and they turned out to be one of the artists from AfroTronix and the manager. Obviously we had to visit their act. Not sure why the IKEA lamps in Chad were no success, but they looked OK on their heads. The music was OK and we had a great night. Contrary to the Friday, the Saturday was a very busy night and Sunday even more.
Another Chilean band, Santaferia, again made the masses dance. And again flags in their colours dominated the dancing squads. Even a humongous one.
Although tired we tried to find a famous restaurant for lunch the next day. At one point we passed this odd church. Churches here are often surrounded by high fences and often the doors are firmly locked. Apparently the bishops and priests have better things to do than looking after their flock. In this case the faithful were even held at bay with nasty barbed wire!? The restaurant was a very quirky place where the decor was all built out of recycled houses. Would be a great idea for Wellington. After a really nice lunch we headed back to WOMAD again. Again a nice night, but 2 night staying till the end (2am) kind of wore us out and we quietly sneaked away, just before a few DJ's were starting the Terremoto drums.
We picked up our car on Puerto Montt airport ( a drizzle had given it back it's original colour) and headed for the ferry to Chiloe island. We were quite peckish and decided to eat something on the ferry. The Chilean cuisine is actually a bit boring. Every menu looks the same. One of the most horrible things they eat is a 'completos', a bun with a Franfurter (sausage) with a fatty salsa, covered with avocado and then a thick layer of mayonaise and often even mustard or ketchup. The name probably predicts the degree of blockage of the coronary arteries a month from then. Anyway, we ordered it (since the menu lacked any 'haute cuisine'), without salsa, mayo or other silent killers. An order like that (just like our coffees without cream) is often met with a look of 'estas completamente loco' (you are crazy).
We found this guy alongside the road, around 4 pm I think it was. No, no hit and run and I don't think he is dead (he is still holding on to his bottle). What else could you do on a nice sunny day, buy a bottle of Chateau Migraine and have a nap in the sun!
Chiloe island is a nice green hilly island with small fisherman's villages and a lot of picturesque churches in a very typical building style.
We found a nice spot on an inlet close to a beach. Our cabin was kind of swaying (literally) above the incoming tide. You couldn't walk from one side to the other without creating the impression of a 4.6 on the Richter scale Terremoto.
A few pictures of the churches on Chiloe island.
And we end with one of the weirdest '-rarias' we've seen in Chili. You see panaderia (bread), ferreterias (hardware store), carneteria (meat), sandwicheria, heladeria (ice cream), etc. This one though might be a bit odd. No, it's not a store were you can get 'fun', quite the opposite, it's a funeral home.
Tomorrow morning we boarding the ferry to Puerto Natales and we'll be at sea for 4 days. See you next week.
After a couple of days in Temuco it was definitely time to search for some peace and quiet, and visit more national parks. The quiet didn't last long when we found ourselves in the first real traffic jam of our journey so far. Driving to Pucon on the first Saturday of February turned out to be a very bad idea, as half of Santiago has the same idea....
So it took all day, but with a nice lunch stop in Pucon at the lake with a view on the beautiful snow capped volcano Villarica we made it to our cabana in the woods closer to the parks. Around the corner from these waterfalls, Ojos de Carburga. Too many people and very much catering for hordes of tourists, it was still a beautiful spot.
Three waterfalls end into the same lake and the blue colours are stunning. As with most waterfalls you visit here in Chile, they are located on privately owned land and you have to pay an entry fee, there is a parking and you can buy food everywhere, even if the walk to the falls is only 30 metres. Chilean food is another interesting topic, there is not a lot of variation in food you can eat when you go out. But we're also stunned by the quantity that the average Chilean eats; a lot! Low carb, no carb, Paleo - nobody cares in Chile :-)
We drove to Park Villarica to walk the Mirardor los crateres track, but unfortunately due to very strong winds the track was closed, so we could only make a little clip from the volcano. As you can see there is smoke coming out of the top, so yes this is an active volcano. Along the road there are warning signs that you are driving in the volcano hazard area should it start to spit. The road runs along the foot of the volcano so not sure how you are supposed to get away when it does.
The ranger advised us to do the Lagos track which would lead us to 4 lagunas in the park. We had to drive another hour to get there which of course he didn't mention..Anyway, it was a nice track but also we couldn't do the loop as part of the track was closed. Why would you mention such a triviality? Pfew! We left lake no.4 for what it was.
On our way back we saw signs for a Mapuche market with music and decided to check it out. Under the trees next to the river there were stalls with nice food and drinks and local crafts. A very nice hippy vibe, just our thing. It was another hot day and the river felt refreshing! Here Hans is testing his floating abilities - not for long as the current is a lot strong then it looks.
Our dashboard the next day when we had to go into Pucon (again in a 20 minute queue to get there) to get a few things and try and find some WiFi. Very clear why we had to get out of there as quickly as possible after we booked our flight to Santiago to go to WOMAD (yey!!) this Friday. Amazing the number of people that like to shop with 41 degrees.
A few more waterfall visits seemed like a far better plan, so we visited Salto de China which was a beauty followed by Salto de Leon which was the highest we've seen so far (92m). Always nice and refreshing to get near one of those big ones, I took a dip in the pool and Hans just tipped his calves in - but he got to be in the clip anyway :-)
Next on our list was a big hike in Parke Huerquehue, but guess what! You drive up for 30 minutes to find out that they decided to close the park because of fire danger. What a bummer! Fires here get started by visitors who think they need to make a little fire to cook some lunch in a tinder dry park with very valuable trees. So because of idiots like that they decide to close the park as a precaution. Luckily for us in this are there is also one very large private reserve, reserva Cani where there is a comparable hard hike to a viewpoint from where you can spot 5 volcanoes. So a later start than planned but at 10 am we started on our way up. Here I'm talking about the beautiful monkey puzzle trees again. Here in Chile these trees grow high up and form a breathtaking fringe against the high mountains and volcanoes. I am definitely going to try and find one in NZ for Sims Road.
It was our toughest hike so far, going up hill for 1200 m. It took us about 4 hours. And then around 3 hours to get down again.
(If you click on the photo's you get the enlarged version).
On the way up we passed a very nice lake, good for a short break. Very rewarding to finally arrive on the top, just amazing views of the volcanoes. The beers tasted very good when we finally returned to our cabin!
We escaped the Pucon madness the next day to drive to lakes to the south but another traffic jam changed our plans and we decided to go to Valdivia on the coast first. On the photo an installation of Mapuche masks in the museum of modern art.
Valdivia is in a very strategic location where three tidal rivers meet. So there are plenty of river tours to be taken and watersports to be done like on the photo (no the Dutchies didn't even try it..). We checked out the market and the historic museum about the Mapuche heritage and German settlement of Valdivia (large breweries!). One of the largest Chilean beer brands is Kunstmann, from Valdivia.
At the end of the day we visited the forts that the Spanjards built to fend off the English and Dutch pirates who tried to rob their ships. The forts are modeled on the earlier ones built by the Dutch who came out to Chile via Cape Horn to check out the trade route. It was funny to see such a typical Dutch structure here in Chile. The evening ended with nice folk music in the fort watching the sunset, not bad at all for a BD.
It was very nice to check out a national park by kayak this time, instead of climbing. Very relaxing as you can see, after some initial getting lost and getting muddy struggles as the water was very low because of low tide...We were the first tourists trying the self guided kayak tour we found out when we met the owner half way coming back with other another couple of paddlers.
So we did mention that a couple more 'guiding sticks' along the route would be helpful, so you can actually find the route that's on the map he provided on whatsapp (also not that handy if you want to keep your phone dry :-)). This very large male sea lion was enjoying himself having an easy time hunting for some very large fish.
On the way out of the side arms of the river where we started the current was quite strong because of strong wind and, as we realised later, also because of the incoming tide. So this time it was tired arms, calves intact! We passed this spooky abandoned house along the route. Scrambled up the very high jetty that was built for large ships and clearly not for kayaks to check it out. The river views were amazing and the vultures had the place to themselves. The house was built by one of the successful German settlers who came to Chile in very large numbers end of the 19th century. The Chilean government at that time really wanted the immigrants and their skills to come to Chile and start communities in the Lake District. A special law was passed to provide each immigrant with a piece of land for free. There were also large numbers of Italians, Swiss and Dutch, but the German heritage is the most visible with typical houses and churches. In Valdivia not much of that can be seen as a result of fires and earthquakes. Around the lakes some villages do have some old houses and certainly the cruches, but they don't look like they'll survive another century.
For lunch we stopped in the one tiny village on the river, where as it turned out there was a large food market to feed the drones of Chileans taking the river cruises. It made for nice empanadas and birthday cake! On the way back over the river we saw literally thousands of these black and white swans.
Very beautiful the black and white against the blue water and blue skies. Very shy too these swans so a close up was to much to ask.
With Zita, a good friend of my aunt Maria. We had a lovely 'once' there, with her husband Pedro taking this picture. Their garden is an oasis with amazing very old trees and lots of beautiful birds. We watched a large group of parakeets having a drink out of the pond.
From Valdivia we travelled south to another populair lake which was a pleasant drive. Visited a couple of the villages on the way and checked out the campsites on the lake front which were nice enough I guess, but not for people who like a bit of freedom and some peace and quiet. So we decided to leave the lake and head for the little villages on the north end of one of the large fjords just south of the lakes, in the Puerto Mont area.
We saw lots of back packers in hiking gear so the hike that we had read about must be a popular one.. We decided to set up our tent at one of the little camps at the start of the Junta track and walk it the next day. But as you can see on the photo of the church in the local village rain was on the way and provided us with a leaking tent at 9 am in the morning...
It had started raining at about 5 am and after 4 hours our 50 dollar tent started to have a hard time keeping us dry - it was also clear we were not going walking in the rain! We headed out to the village to check out local lodgings which we were lucky to find on the weekend, so we packed up the tent and moved to a lakeshore hospedaje with this view in the early morning the next day.
Rain all gone, blue skies - the perfect day to go and to go and check out the la Junta track - 26 km return to a beautiful waterfall and large granite peaks that seem to resemble Yosemite Park in the US. On the way over we snatched this second picture of the tranquil morning lake.
And wow, what a walk!! They told it is would be muddy and since it had rained we were prepared for some more. But not for mud streams in trenches flowing downhill. It was definitely interesting, having to find our way around the worst parts - other hikers had done the same so there were numerous little tracks which also made it hard to find the way up at times. We walked a good 4 hours up and passed some very cool camping spots and found two campings on the 'top' of the walk, very close to the waterfall. Such a popular spot, if you are between 16 and 25, this is the place to go in Chile to have a great party! You'll be sure your parents stay away because not many will be crazy enough to take their camping gear 13 km up a mountain.
These are the main culprits of transforming a track into a steady stream of mud and water; the horses doing the heavy lugging for the lazy campers (or campers that drink a lot). In the morning we met at least 4 groups of about 6 horses coming down heavily loaded. When we were on our way back we met all the groups of horses and their minders again, going up with new luggage. It's hard work for these horses but we understand it's a popular option, having met at least 60 or so youngsters walking up when we were walking down. Loaded with tents, shopping bags, stoves and on (never to be white again) trainers. Most of them looking like this was the first time every they walked, let alone walk up a mountain. And starting a 3 to 6 hours walk up at 5 pm - we had to snigger a little watching them but only said our friendly Hola hola :-)
Hans at the waterfall at La Junta, stunning blue underneath large granite rocks where the water provided a natural slide into the icy pool. Selfie paradise - every time we are at any beautiful spot we are amazed at the number of photos and selfies that are taken especially by girls. Three pics is not enough, I have to smile until I'm cramped up and have at least 60 pics of me, me and me!!
Sorry to sound old and cranky, but we just don't get it....
This guy was very photogenic as well, the very large and colourful woodpecker. We'd heard him before but he never put on a show right next to the track that we were on. Pretty cool dude with his red mohican. Because of the way we had to walk, picking our way around the mud the walk down unfortunately also took at least 4 hours and 26 km in one day is a bit too much for the knees but I want to do it anyway. Using two knee braces and a bit of ibuprofen I came down in one piece. As soon as the walk is flat I have no problems so recuperating goes fast.
Especially with a nice cold beer and empenadas for dinner on the balcony of our hospedaje. What a beautiful place this fjord (estero Reioncavi) and this little village Cochamo. From here we drove all the way to the end of the fjord to meet the Carretera Austral and take the ferry to Puerto Mont. In a few months time we'll be coming north on the carretera to take this same ferry - see if we still have blue skies then!
Now in Puerto Mont for three nights to 'do stuff' like buy a roof rack for our car to store the second spare tyre, the two little bars on there now can't handle the weight and the noise is driving us crazy on the gravel roads. And since we have to do quite a few thousand more kms on gravel we thought we'd better solve the problem now. Also booked the 4 day ferry that will take us from Puerto Mont all the way to Puerto Natales in the south on 22 Feb. Exciting that our adventures in the 'real' south are about to start!. We will go further south first probably and then drive the carretera Austral south to north. This morning we postponed our ticket back to NZ to 1 September, taking our adventure here to the max and visiting Holland from Chile (we're half way so it makes sense). We will be back don't worry - we love Kapiti and Kiwi's!
So we left Concepcion and the ocean again and headed for the Andes. Had our first taste of the stunning beauty of this part of the Bio Bio region at the Salto del Laja, conveniently located next to the highway. A busy place full of people trying to help you park, sell you unhealthy food and hundreds of tourist making selfies and standing in the way of my Pulitzer-price winning shot.
Quickly did our thing, bought a sushi roll from a street vendor, which surprisingly was fried as well??? An hour later we were at the tranquillity of Parque national del Laguna Laja. We decided to give our tent some more rest and opted for a vacant 'Cabana', which reminded me very much of the holiday homes my family used to visit in Luino, Italy in ancient times.
The view was amazing, the wild river on one side and the Hanging glacier of Sierra Velluda on the other side. Difficult to decide where to have breakfast or dinner.
The next day we visited some beautiful waterfalls. This video is of the Salto las Chilcas.
The valley was full of flowers. My knowledge of flowers does not go much further than tulips and chrysanths, but Nienke explained these were fuchsias. When I did bring home flowers in the past Nienke always asked if the farmacia rep had visited me again!
We both love the ocean and waterfalls. This is the Salto Trubunleo in the same park.
After the nice walk in 30 degrees C. we very briefly (the water came straight from the glacier) dipped in the river to cool of. Swimming was impossible as the force of the water would have brought us back to the coast in no time.
Some more chrysanths (even Nienke did not know the accurate name of these beauties) marked our trail to the hanging glaciers. In the correct colour, orange, too!
The Sierra Velluda is nicely located next to the Antuco volcano.
The closer we got, the more waterfalls presented themselves.
After a nice lunch acoustically accompanied by falling water and huge cracking sounds from the glacier itself we had to cross the remnants of the lahar caused by the last eruption in 1869 again. There had been some minor activity in 2013, but all was quiet now. A week after we left here a volcano just a bit north of here erupted.
We decided to take a detour through Argentina, partly because of the adventure of passing the border in a very remote area, partly because we discovered an amazing waterfall in Argentina and mainly, like we say 'down under' because we can!
The graves of the young soldiers are spread along the road passing the serene lake. This unpaved road took us to Argentina. Without troubles we passed the two borders (one of the officers had to be woken up from his afternoon nap).
Pretty soon we found the stunning Salto del Agrio where the high iron content and acidity of the river had couloured the riverbanks orange (what else?).
When we returned to 'the Beast' both rear tyres appeared to be very unhappy. One was even hissing loudly at us. @#$**@!$#, for the second time 2 flat tyres, probably caused by the sharp basalt blocks on our last turn. We replaced one and limped to the next town, where we knew a tyre doctor was located.
As it was Sunday dr. Tyre was not open so we settled in a cabana (no camping here) at the foot of the Copahue volcano. It still produces smoke since the last eruption in 2012. Luckily we did not encounter any lava, but in the middle of the night an earthquake woke us both.
In the morning our other rear wheel had given up as well. I gave it a bit of oxygen (one of our more smarter purchases) so we could cover the last kilometer to the tire doc. Luckily he had a drive-in clinic and both patients were admitted instantly.
While the doc was busy we decided to walk to 7 of the 8 falls around the turquoise Lake Caviahue. We walked through beautiful forest full of araucania trees (monkey puzzle trees) that grow between the 37th and 40th latitude only.
I'm pretty sure I have seen them in New Zealand too, but not in the abundance as here. We soon discovered Chili has even more of them.
We had lunch at the smallest but most romantic falls of the eight, fresh 'pan' with tomatoes, goat cheese and salami, carefully prepared with my Swiss knife.
The last falls were right opposite our cabana, 'just an easy stroll up the mountain, following a small track' said the guy who rented out the apartment. This is not Nienke having a leak in the bushes, but her head sticking out over the shrubbery that completely covered the track. Full of scratches on arms and legs we reached 'home' again, silently cursing at the ignorant manager. I could swear I heard the discharged 'Beast' say 'now you know how that feels' when we passed the car.
Passing the border back into Chili was again a breeze and we paused at a really lovely café where we celebrated the birthday of Nienkes dad Philip. If you are ever in the neighbourhood (I'd say within a 500 km radius) you just have to pop in. Such a nice atmosphere, kind people and amazing food. I think they gave Nienke the rest of the cake and left the cut off slice in the kitchen. My absolutely delicious 'sandwich' was the size of a shoe box, size XL. Needless to say, we did not have to eat anything else that day.
This is the kitchen queen on the porch of her 5 Itjeshorst stars establishment.
Of course a cake like that makes you thirsty so we had to visit the Salto del Princesa. According to our book this was the most impressive waterfall of the region, but we managed to find the Salto del Indio, even more impressive.
In Curacautin we looked for the tourist information which was not where it was supposed to be. Not surprisingly as we had just spoken to the proprietor of the cafe who told us that the sign 'abierto' (open) did not mean she could serve us coffee???
Anyway, the tourist information turned out to be located in an unmarked building. Needless to say it was not very busy inside. Campings in the park had prices similar to a modest Hilton hotel, but we did not want to stay in this strange town, so we headed for the park in the hope of finding something more suitable on our way. Close to the entrance of the park we asked a nice man for directions to the last camping outside the park. 'Well, why don't you stay here!' Well, why not indeed. It turned out he had 2 camping spots on his property and about 5 cabanas. We got a private bathroom/shower block that would have fitted a 5 start hotel easily. An American woman couldn't stop praising it. We met the American couple on a short walk and had a nice evening around the fire with them. Of course this nice bottle of wine did not survive the evening.
I can't remember Nienke ever giving me a hickey but this morning I was so lucky. After waking up my bladder directed me outside so I tried to put my T-shirt on in the tent and was suddenly stung in my neck. An insect in the Wellington Phoenix colours (black and yellow = wasp) had illegally taken shelter in my shirt and was not too happy when I woke her up. Nienke tried to suck out the poison but that did no prevent me from looking like the 'Hunchback of the Notre Dame' the rest of the day.
The Sendero de Sierra Nevada is one of the most beautiful walks you can imagine. It starts somewhere (there a different maps all saying something else).We started at the expensive camping (nowhere as nice as ours) on the lake side. A sign there said the moderate walk was 10 km and should last 3 hours. 14 km and 5 hours is more correct. Looking at all the exhausted teenagers we passed we'd also say 'moderate' is a it of an understatement.
A shot looking over Laguna Conguillio with volcano Llaima half hidden behind a monkey puzzle tree.
A lot of the 'teens' on sneakers and with half a bottle of water will not have seen this 'mirador'. On our way down we actually met 2 guys about 1 km from the start who asked us where they could get water and if they were close to the viewpoint. 'Immer gerade Auss" as we Dutchies always advise Germans who ask for directions.
'Flight command to H56 in sector 8, come in'. 'H56 calling in'. Flight command: "H56, targets are leaving sector 7. H46 has been shot down. Fire at will when targets are visualised". H56: "Roger that, targets in reach, commencing attack". This must be the kind of communication amongst the bloody hornets flying around us all the time. You kill one or run away from another and yet another takes over. They seem to be immune to the strong repellent we brought from Bolivia. Anyway, we were not stung and managed to whack quit a few out of the air.
It was warm, so reaching the remnants of the glacier was welcome. We found a nice spot close by for lunch with a view on the Villarica volcano, our next stop. This one by the way, last erupted 4 years ago and recently showed some activity.
Of course being Dutch meant we had to visit all the attraction of the park in 1 day as we did not want to pay the exorbitant entrance fee (for which you get terrible roads and misinformation) again. So we visited the Salto Truful and a few lakes as well. It was a long day but well worth the effort.
We're now in Temuco, the capital of the Mapuche region, a town on the A5. We visited the regional museum with some Mapuche history today. Bought a second spare tyre at the local car demolition shop and supplies for the coming week when we'll drive to the previously named volcano in the area of Pucon. Unfortunately it's probably going to be busy as holiday in Santiago has just started and Pucon is like the Queenstown of Chili. More news in our next blog. Cheers.
Welcome to our blog. On our blog we’ll regularly post about our adventures on the other side of the world. We moved to New Zealand in 2007 and settled in our small paradise on the Kapiti coast in 2010. A fantastic spot in Te Horo Beach. Nienke has been working as a manager for the Kapiti District Council in Paraparaumu in 4 different roles and has started her new role there in October 2019. Hans has been working as a part-time General Practitioner, first in Otaki and the last few years as a locum, mainly on the South Island.
Click here to translate the blog into your preferred language.
The restaurant was a very quirky place where the decor was all built out of recycled houses. Would be a great idea for Wellington. After a really nice lunch we headed back to WOMAD again. Again a nice night, but 2 night staying till the end (2am) kind of wore us out and we quietly sneaked away, just before a few DJ's were starting the Terremoto drums.
_+Lucky+shot+bij+Whangaroa.jpg)