February 13th 2019: Chile's summer hot spots

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!