February 1st 2019: Waterfalls, hornets and a hickey.

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!

We passed the monument of the 'Martires de Antuco', a tragedy in 2005 claimed 45 lives. An act of pure stupidity of a Chilean major resulted in 45 people freezing to death. The idiot served 45 months in jail, but many families lost their 19 year old sons.

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.