I have never been in wind so strong - Tim and I literally had to hold each other down!
Monday, 22 December 2008
Mirador of Torres del Paine - view from the top
The view...
The huge statue of a Milodon which welcomes people into the city
We were knackered after the vertical climb up and didnt fancy the 11km walk back into town so we stuck our thumb out and got a lift straight away from a local. We had two huge steaming cups of tea when we got back and then went out for a good feed. We met a couple from Holland in the restaurant who were celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary! They had had a few too many pisco sours and where telling us to buy the 14 bedroom house over the road for 90,000 pounds and set up a hostel - tempting considering the situation back home!
Puerto Natales
Finally we arrived somewhere which perfectly fitted the descriptions of Patagonia we had been reading about - windy, barren, moody and dramatic...Puerto Natales.
We found a room in the home of a local lady for a tenner and then got our walking shoes on to climb up to the mirador. We first had to walk about 11Km out of town to get to the mountain and when we finally arrived we were accosted by a group of farmers who were either pissed or a bit mental asking us for money to cross their land! We were taken into a woman`s cabin and asked for 5 pounds each to climb to the mirador, and have tea afterwards. In the middle of explaining this to us the woman had to leave to be sick in the loo, nice! We weren´t going to pay a fiver for the climb so we claimed we had no money again and again until she let us pass.
Every time I end up half way up a mountain I ask myself, why am I doing this??? I HATE climbing up hill, but the view is always worth it and this time we certainly werent disappointed..
Cute little sandwich bar made from wood, we fueled up on hamburgers before the climb
Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas, the most southern city in the world, was a windy experience! We ended up just spending a day there as we were keen to get to El Calafate and Trelew for glaciers and penguins.
We were surprised at how big the city was, and how amazing the cemetary was - people in the city must have some serious money to be able to be burried in such a grand way.
The museum was fascinating and we got to see the hair of an extinct animal: the milodon which was an herbivore of great dimensions and mentioned many times in Chatwin´s book.
Main plaza
The amazing cemetary
Mausoleums and grave sites fill the huge site, new burials are placed in niches in the walls
Piece of Milodon hair in the museum
We were surprised at how big the city was, and how amazing the cemetary was - people in the city must have some serious money to be able to be burried in such a grand way.
The museum was fascinating and we got to see the hair of an extinct animal: the milodon which was an herbivore of great dimensions and mentioned many times in Chatwin´s book.
Main plaza
The amazing cemetary
Mausoleums and grave sites fill the huge site, new burials are placed in niches in the walls
Chiloe
The reviews of Chiloe intrigued us - the island which evolved for centuries isolated from mainland Chile, had developed a strong, self-reliant culture, rich in folklore, mythology and tradition. Having both read Bruce Chatwin´s ``In Patagonia`` we were also more than a little intrigued, plus a little disgusted, by his account of Chilote witchcraft and the invunche...
In the Chilote folklore, the Invunche is a legendary monster that protects the entrance to a warlock's cave. According to legend, the Invunche was a male child kidnapped by, or sold by his parents to a Brujo chilote (a type of warlock of Chiloé). The Brujo chilote transformed the child into a deformed hairy monster by breaking his legs and twisting them over his back, applying a magic cream over the boy's back to cause thick hairs and, finally splitting his tongue to produce a forked, snake-like, tongue.
We had to go and check the place out!
We read about a hostel in Chonchi in a little booklet about Chile, it sounded lovely:
Rustic and on the sea front
Wild garden
Owner hosts fish suppers and gives tours of his sea food farm
Homemade breakfasts
So we decided to head straight for Chonchi rather than spend any time in Castro, the capital.
The journey from the terminal to Chonchi was beautiful - wild flowers adding patches of yellow to fields of lush green, sparkling water and clear blue, cloudless skies.
When we got to Chonchi we made our way to the hostel, stepping over a old man sprawled in the street who had obviously had a little too much of the local brew. Esmeralda By The Sea looked a little tired when we arrived but the owner swept us in and told us about the local witch down the road who has ten dogs and sets them on people (mental note - do not walk down to the end of the beach). He then proceeded to bombard us with information and tell us about a friend of his who claims their friend was killed by a witch. I was starting to feel a little spooked and wasnt really paying attention to our surroundings and lodgings. So we found oursleves signed up to two nights in a place that can only be described as a dump!
The `wild` garden would be more aptly described as ``over grown`` and ``unkempt``, the toilets were dirty (I had to clean them with my facial wipes!) the shower was a make shift dark thing (it did have hot water which was a bonus), there was no mention of breakfast but there was a dirty kitchen. There were no trips to the owner`s farm and the walls were papper thin so you could hear every conversation, cough and sigh which meant that sleeping wasnt easy. Why did we stay two nights? I really dont know!!!
The saving grace was the resturant round the corner - huge helpings of amazing fish and chips and salad for next to nothing.
Yum! 
In the Chilote folklore, the Invunche is a legendary monster that protects the entrance to a warlock's cave. According to legend, the Invunche was a male child kidnapped by, or sold by his parents to a Brujo chilote (a type of warlock of Chiloé). The Brujo chilote transformed the child into a deformed hairy monster by breaking his legs and twisting them over his back, applying a magic cream over the boy's back to cause thick hairs and, finally splitting his tongue to produce a forked, snake-like, tongue.
We had to go and check the place out!
We read about a hostel in Chonchi in a little booklet about Chile, it sounded lovely:
Rustic and on the sea front
Wild garden
Owner hosts fish suppers and gives tours of his sea food farm
Homemade breakfasts
So we decided to head straight for Chonchi rather than spend any time in Castro, the capital.
The journey from the terminal to Chonchi was beautiful - wild flowers adding patches of yellow to fields of lush green, sparkling water and clear blue, cloudless skies.
When we got to Chonchi we made our way to the hostel, stepping over a old man sprawled in the street who had obviously had a little too much of the local brew. Esmeralda By The Sea looked a little tired when we arrived but the owner swept us in and told us about the local witch down the road who has ten dogs and sets them on people (mental note - do not walk down to the end of the beach). He then proceeded to bombard us with information and tell us about a friend of his who claims their friend was killed by a witch. I was starting to feel a little spooked and wasnt really paying attention to our surroundings and lodgings. So we found oursleves signed up to two nights in a place that can only be described as a dump!
The `wild` garden would be more aptly described as ``over grown`` and ``unkempt``, the toilets were dirty (I had to clean them with my facial wipes!) the shower was a make shift dark thing (it did have hot water which was a bonus), there was no mention of breakfast but there was a dirty kitchen. There were no trips to the owner`s farm and the walls were papper thin so you could hear every conversation, cough and sigh which meant that sleeping wasnt easy. Why did we stay two nights? I really dont know!!!
The saving grace was the resturant round the corner - huge helpings of amazing fish and chips and salad for next to nothing.
Yum!
The first night I didnt sleep well, and it wasnt because of the loud Germans next door, the dogs were going crazy, they were howling for ages and then I was convinced the witch from down the road was below our window. My imagination was in overdrive and I couldnt stop thinking about the descriptions in Chatwin`s book.
The next day we decided we`d try and go fishing. The owner reccommended a lake so off we trotted. On the bus there was a really old woman who I couldnt stop stealing glances at, her grey hair was in long plaits, she had whiskers on her chin (she put Tim`s beard to shame). Her face and hands were weather beaten and lined, she was missing a lot of teeth and she was all in black... I was convinced she was a witch. She got off at a little narrow lane that led to a small house, not somewhere I was going to be visiting in a hurry!
The bus dropped us at the park entrance but when we got to the gate we found it closed and locked. Having got this far we decided to jump over the side and enter the park. It was deathly quiet and a bit spooky and there was no sign of a lake. We walked for about an hour and still didnt find a fishing lake, we did find another lake but there was no way of accessing it. Throughly fed up at having wasted most of the day we made our way back to the entrance and found a map in the deserted office, which also had a dead bird in it, that showed there were two lakes in the park, we realised we must have been dropped off at totally the wrong entrance!
View of the lake we did manage to find
View of the lake we did manage to find
View of the bay
Chonchi has a huge mussel industry
Our hostel, Esmeralda By The Sea - described as wild and rustic we thought it sounded authenic but the reality was unkempt and dirty. I wish we had read this review before...
Friday, 12 December 2008
Puerto Varas
Back to Chile, which is fast becoming our favourite South American country (amazing countryside and climate, good and cheap wine and food, lovely people...), and Puerto Varas - a small city with amazing scenery. It`s located on the shore of the Lake Llanquihue, one of the largest natural lakes in SA. The perfect cone of Osorno Volcano and the snowcapped peaks of Mt. Calbuco and Mt. Tronador are clearly visible from the lakefront.
As we arrived over the weekend many places were shut (on Sundays towns become ghost towns) so there wasn`t much else for us to do apart from enjoy picnics in the sun and see how cheap we could buy a decent wine for. We made the mistake of trying Gato Negro in a carton, it was foul and had to be poured away, but it was only 60p down the sink!
Pretty garden infront of the church that bellowed out music, not of the choir variety, during the day
Osorno Volcano, a dramatic view from the pebble and black sand beach
A religious parade through the streets which must have involved most of the locals as all the shops and businesses were shut for the day
The street we stayed on, doesnt look like much from the outside but it was lovely inside!
As we arrived over the weekend many places were shut (on Sundays towns become ghost towns) so there wasn`t much else for us to do apart from enjoy picnics in the sun and see how cheap we could buy a decent wine for. We made the mistake of trying Gato Negro in a carton, it was foul and had to be poured away, but it was only 60p down the sink!
El Bolson
´Hippie´El Bolson is a couple of hours from Bariloche on a bus, as it was Sunday we thought we`d head there for the market which is raved about in Lonely Planet. When we arrived we realised our timing was pretty good as the yearly jazz festival was on! We walked around the market and purchased some empanadas, which are fast becoming our staple food, then found a spot to lounge in and listen to the music and people watch (lots of interesting hippie types). It was hot, hot, hot so ice cream and cold beer was also on the menu!
View from the market
Marching jazz band
Stage for the Jazz Concert
It´s a hard life this traveling lark!
I was so tempted to jump into that spinkler with the kids, it was soooo hot!
View from the market
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