Rain, rain, rain...........finally sunshine

  Vina del Mar, Chile
Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Mon 8th Dec at sea-Puerto Montt-Castro (Chiloe)
Those partying all come to bed about 3.30am (later hear that a lot of them had cameras, etc stolen from the seats while they were dancing in the pub). Get into outskirts of Puerto Montt about 6 am. Murray's up on deck taking photos. Have breakfast at 7. 30 am, and then watch our cattle departing. There were more than we thought, as the car deck extended all the way through to the front of the boat under the accommodation deck. We get off during a break in the unloading. Decide to head straight for Castro, on Chiloe, the third biggest island in Chile, which forms the west side of the channel leading up to Puerto Montt.
Walk through the streets of Angelmo, the port district. Take photos of colourful wooden buildings that our now used as a craft market. Puerto Montt is a big town (110,000). Some modern high-rise, and some large traditional hotels, but the overall impression is lightweight construction in either sheet-metal or wooden shingle siding.
At bus station, told next bus will be one and a half hours, so look round, and in typical fashion find one leaving in five minutes, going the whole way to Castro. Stay on the bus when it drives on to the ferry for the half hour crossing to Chiloe, but then notice some people getting off to look at wildlife in the water, so join them. Can't believe it! There are dolphins, sea lions, penguins, cormorants, ducks and pelicans everywhere!! See far more on this half-hour crossing than we saw on the whole three-day boat trip. Continue on to Castro via Ancud, which is on the seaward side of the channel crossing. Quite a big fishing fleet (fishing is one of the island's main sources of income). The island is relatively flat (hills, but no mountains). Quite green with native scrub on the West side, and green fields and hedges on the East side. Starting to rain (of course) as we're coming into Castro, and don't have a map, so when tout offers to take us to Globetrotters, take him up on the offer. Fairly basic room in a house. Share a bathroom with whole household (reminiscent of Cuban homestay) but can't be bothered looking for something else, and only 10,000 pesos, so take it. Now nearly 3pm, so off in search of lunch. Down the quite steep hill to the waterfront where there are restaurants built out over the water on piles, one of the features of Chiloe architecture. It's a public holiday today (Immaculate Conception) and the restaurants are packed. Restaurants are colourful, but up close they're pretty grotty, as is the water underneath. Have a mediocre set menu. Dianne has mussel soup, but decides not to eat the mussels, after seeing the water outside, and also reading that there was an outbreak of Marea Roja, which is potentially fatal in humans, in the shellfish in 2002. After lunch continue walking along the waterfront, which has a lot of sheet metal, and shingle-clad wooden buildings,


then up to main part of town, where there is a large Cathedral, which was built in 1906. Looks likes conventional stone, but on closer inspection is clad in small pitch corrugated iron. It's painted in lilac and pale orange. Inside all surfaces are clad in tongue and groove pine. Very impressive. Back to room. Out later to explore some more, and upload to travelpod. Get money from ATM with Homeside card with no problem - must be back in Chile. Not very hungry, so to supermarket, but end up only buying some dried fruit, and sit up in bed eating it and crushed biscuits we'd bought previously. Walking 7 kms
Tues 9th Dec Castro (Chiloe)- Puerto Varas
Think we've seen all there is to see in Chiloe, and basically Chile as well, and very sick of overcast skies, and it raining every hour or so. Have been reading our French Polynesia guidebook, with photos of wonderful blue water and palm trees, so stop at Lan Chile office to see if we can get our flights to Easter Island and Papeete brought forward four days. Even though we have a ticket on which we can change the dates, and we've checked the Lan Chile website and know there are vacancies on the flight, they tell us we have "M" seats, and there are no "M" seats available! This means we have eight days before we fly out. We've seen some of the Northern section of the Lakes District, so decide we'll head to Puerto Varas on Lago LLanquihue, in the Southern section. Have to get off our "through-bus" at Puerto Montt. Puerto Varas bus station is on the outskirts of the town, which looks very ordinary, and yes, it WAS starting to rain. Find the centre, which looked a bit better, and get an accommodation recommendation from a private tourist agency. Room is above a flash restaurant, and is attractively decorated and looks upmarket, but has no heating or TV (for 22,000 pesos). Out to walk around town. Too late for lunch (5pm) and too early for dinner. See a kid eating hot chips, and quiz him as to where he got them. Buy a packet, and some local cherries (cheap but good) and sit at the lake eating them, when it STARTS TO RAIN. This area is famous for the wonderful volcano views, especially Mt Osorno (2,680 metres), with its snow-covered cone. All WE can see is rain clouds, and a vague shape of the far shore! Back to room for a while, then out to dinner. Dianne has an excellent steak sandwich with all sorts of things on it, includng great avocado with dressing, and Murray finally gets to try the local congrio (eel) speciality, which he also likes. Back in room, find that rooms are not very soundproof, when someone above us, in the attic, goes to bed, and we can hear each of his boots drop, and the bed squeaking as he gets in. Walking 5 kms
Wed 10th Dec Puerto Varas - Lagos Todos los Santos-Frutillar
We want to see the East end of the lake, and Lake Todos los Santos, which has the famous boat trip across it, connectioning with Bariloche in Argentina. Have a vague plan to stay in Ensenada, 50 kilometres to the East, and take a day trip, or two, from there, so take our bags with us down to the minibus stop. When we get there, find the 10am minibus is going the extra 16 kms to Petrohue, which is where the boat trip leaves from, which makes us consider changing our plan. The East side of Puerto Varas is obviously where the upmarket development is. Lots of "for sale" signs, and the typical multi-faceted roofs of "mansions", but in comparison with those in Australia, the buildings are actually quite small. In between the modern developments are the origiinal farms with large shingled barns, very weathered and covered in moss ( I wonder why! ). The developers and time-share get-rich quick crowd are definitely not as active here as in Pucon, further North. When we arrive in Ensenda, can't see anything like a village centre, just a strung-out series of tourist facilities, and it's raining, and we're not impressed, so stay on bus. After Ensenada, we enter the National Park, and start getting tall trees on both sides of park. Stay on when we pass the Salto de Petrohue, and get off at Petrohue, the end of the line. Catamaran is just departing, but we have no desire to be on it, as it is very windy and unpleasant, and raining, so take a quick photo. Decide we don't want to stay here either, so arrange to leave our bags in the kiosk, while we go for a walk. Go across an old channel from the volcano, full of volcanic ash, and down to the lake. Unbelievably, it stops raining for half an hour, and a fair bit of the snowy slopes of the mountain emerges from the mist. Take some good photos, including the lake, which give a deceptive picture of what we actually see most of the time. Can see that it would be spectacular in good weather. Dianne carries on a bit more, while Murray goes back to rescue the bags before the shop closes at midday for a couple of hours. A minibus turns up, twenty minutes behind schedule, but suiting us, as it's now starting to rain again. Get dropped off at the Salto (waterfall) and arrange to leave our bags in the ticket office. While waiting for the current shower to pass, talk to girl who was on our boat, and has just done a training trip to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands, so that she can be a guide next year. Raves about it, South Georgia in particular. Falls were much better than anticipated. A very big flow of crystal clear water, runs steeply downhill towards the falls, where it splits into multiple streams, including one fifteen metre straight drop and a number of chutes. Trees hanging over it, and ferns and greenery growing on rocks, together with the multiple streams, remind both us, and the French couple we talk to, of Iguazu.


Good access by a series of platforms, though these tend to dominate photos. Do a couple of nice, but muddy, nature walks along the river and through the forest below the falls. Have an hour wait for our bus, so sit down to do the diary, but interrupted by - a heavy shower. Watch the trials of a tour bus full of schoolkids, which has broken down with a flat battery. Kids continue to play soccer in the cold and wet. When our 3pm bus passes, late, on its way to Petrohue, we hop on for the extra ride, as it's warmer and drier than where we are. On the way back, we stop and lend the bus our battery to get them started.. Back in Puerto Varas, we've just about decided to go on to Frutillar, half an hour further on, and described in our guide as possibly the most attractive, and expensive, town on the lake, when our mind is made up for us. Murray sees lots of smoke, and says he thinks our hotel of last night and this morning, is on fire. And it is. The large fire in the ground floor dining-room (which we warmed ourselves at last night) has set the chimney alight, and large flames are shooting out of the chimney, three floors above. The police are there, and the fire engines arrive soon after. Makes us very pleased we've been dragging our bags around all day, rather than in the room we had, which is very near the chimney. Probably the strangest thing is that they needed a roaring fire at 4pm on a summer afternoon!
Frutillar (population 5,000) is pretty low-key, and not as upmarket as we expected. The first room we look at is exactly what we want - own bathroom, cable TV and glass sliding doors onto a first-floor balcony which looks over the lake across the road (and would have views of the volcano if there weren't thick clouds everywhere), and only 16,000 pesos. Go for a walk around the lake, which is interrupted by a very heavy shower. Shelter at the local yacht club where the marina breakwater is almost destroyed, and now being repaired. Once again, have missed lunch, so waiting for restaurant to open, which it does at 7pm. Both have steak, but definitely not as good as Argentinian ones. Back to room, where Murray watches TV and Dianne uses the hotel internet. Have recently found out that the fast catamaran we hoped to get from Tahiti was not operating in September, but can't find out if it is back in action. If not, we will need to arrange to fly. Walking 13 kms.

Thurs 11th Dec Frutillar
As we have comfortable accommodation, decide we'll have a day of rest. Have breakfast at 9am as part of room rate. Better than most - have some ham and cheese, as well as normal bread and jam. Also give us a slice of cheesecake with berries, and apple pie ( our restaurant is actually a "salon de te". One of the main activities around here seems to be going for tea and cakes - not exactly an exciting place!). We go back to room and take it easy, waiting for the weather to improve. Go out about midday for a walk around the other side of the lake for a couple of hours, trying hard to find something interesting. Checked out the cemeteries, which were full of gravestones with German names. The whole area has a very German flavour, as it was founded by German settlers in the 1850's. Weather has improved, as only two light showers during our two-hour walk! Back to room for more vegging, then back out about 6pm. Walk through the forestry reserve run by the Chile University, then to dinner for more steaks, which once again are a let-down. Walking 7 kms.
Fri 12th Dec Frutillar -Temuco
Wake to overcast sky, but no rain, and no volcano views. We're now heading North to Santiago and Valparaiso and Vina del Mar as fast as we can. Get a colectivo (share taxi) for 500 pesos to top section of town, which is not at all touristy. Hop straight onto bus going to Osorno, an agricultural supply town about 65 kms away. Get off bus, and straight onto another going to Temuco (another 230 kms North), via Valdivia, which is close to the coast, where a couple of big rivers meet. Pass through pine and eucalyptus plantations. Pass a big prison and a wetland. Day warms up as we go - off come the Polyfleeces, and the warm socks, and we see blue skies, with no rain. Arrive in Temuco about 3.30pm. Were going to continue on, but not many buses going, and we can get a direct bus from here to Santiago in the morning, whereas if we go further North, may have to get a more local bus. We were in Temuco on the 18th November, exactly 24 days ago. Since then we've done a whole circuit of the Lakes District and Patagonia.
Get a room in the town, and out for a late (again) lunch. Temuco (population 225, 000) is bigger than it looked when we came in the from North. It's not a tourist town, which is very apparent from the price of things. Buy wonderful cherries for A$2.50 a kilo, and have a meal of an enormous piece of fried fish with rice, and a dessert, plus quarter chicken with enormous plate of chips and eggs, with a beer and a coke for just about 6,000 pesos (about A$12), less than half that of last night, for a similar meal. Try to find information about Tahiti flight from the internet without success, so decide to book at a travel agent. Takes a fair while to get our message across, and Lan Chile won't answer their phones, and then it's 7pm and Lan Chile is closed. Travel agent has made our booking, but can't issue our ticket. They don't open till 10am in morning, and we have a bus ticket for then, but decide it's more important to have the plane ticket, as not many seats left, so change our bus ticket, and arrange to come back in morning to pick up plane ticket.
Walk around town, and check out their main plaza, which is very nice - the edges are planted with very high trees, and inside the square is nicely grassed (may have something to do with the rain).. Not much old architecture, as all its wooden buildings burned down following an earthquake in 1960. Have 1 kg of cherries for dinner as still full from lunch. Walking 6 kms.
Sat 13th Dec Temuco - Santiago
Open our curtains in the morning, to find it raining and overcast. Can't believe it - we were sure we'd left the bad weather behind.
Down to the travel agent at 10 am to pick up our tickets, only to find that we've encountered a real catch-22 situation. The only company that can issue the Air Tahiti ticket is Lan Chile, but they can't issue it from Chile. If we were in Argentina or Bolivia they could! Have to admit defeat. They will now cancel our booking, and we'll be back to where we started. Send an email to Air Tahiti, and one to people we are exchanging with, and will just have to wait to see what happens. Buy another one and a half kilos of cherries, which we demolish during the day.
Get taxi to bus station, and our bus finally arrives at nearly 1pm, late. We had hoped to get to Santiago (679 kms) in time to get another bus to Vina del Mar, another two hours away on the coast, but now looks like we'll be too late, and will have to spend the night in Santiago.
Fairly boring, uneventful trip to Santiago. After 10 pm when we arrive, and go to place we stayed at before. Luckily they had a vacancy (seems someone who lived there had gone away for the weekend) so get a very good room with own bathroom, TV etc for 10,000 pesos. This renting rooms in houses is a funny situation - no privacy at all for people who live there, but obviously the money makes up for it. Out for a very greasy chicken, chips and eggs, then to bed about midnight Walking 3kms
Sun 14th Dec Santiago - Vina del Mar
Get 11am bus to Vina del Mar - couldn't decide between Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, so left it up to the booking clerk to choose one for us. Pass through dry hills with fertile, flat-bottomed valleys planted with grape vines, and some fairly pretentious wineries. Some extensive eucalypt plantations. Surprised just how far it was to the sea - two hours by bus. Decide we want something a bit upmarket for our last few nights. Get taken in hand by official baggage handler and part-time tout. Has good apartment quite cheap, but we decline when we find it's in the area our book says is a bit rough. He then pulls out a pocket-full of cards, and gets us a smaller, respectable older-style hotel near the Casino in the centre of the action of Vina del Mar for 25,000 pesos. Drop our bags, and then down to the seafront., where there was a cold wind blowing. Up to now it had been quite hot, and we were in sandals and short sleeves (at long last). Have to go back for warmer clothes. Walk along the waterfront all the way to the end of Valparaiso (a LONG way ). It's Sunday, and various stalls are being set up for some kind of carnival. Valparaiso has the business centre, strung out on narrow streets along the edge of the bay, and above it, covering the hills (cerrros) is a multi-coloured agglomeration of fine mansions, and tattered houses and shacks. The lower and upper cities are connected by steep, winding roads, flights of stairs, and fifteen ascensores or funicular railways dating from the period 1883 - 1914.


Have lunch, then get Turri (Concepcion) ascensor up the hill. Surprised just how nice the area at the top was. Great views back over the bay, where a cruise boat was leaving. There is a marked 2 km walk here, which we follow most of the way, till we lose the signs. Some very colourfully painted houses and a number of grand old houses which have been renovated.. Get another ascensor down the hill, and bus back to Vina del Mar. Surprised just how far we walked. Take a well-earned rest, then out for a McDonald's dinner about 11pm. It may not have been haute cuisine, but at least we knew what we were getting, and didn't have to wait forever! Walking 11 kms
Mon 15th Dec Vina del Mar
We've both finally succumbed to being wet too often, and both have the flu. Murray's has gone to the chest, so he starts on antibiotics. Spend the morning resting, then out about midday. Walk to the historic cargo crane, which used to meet ships in deep water, but is now in the surf zone as the shoreline has moved further out. It's now used as a restaurant area. Check out the beaches to the North (Las Salinas, Renaca, Cochoa and Concon, which is 18 kms away). Travel by a mixture of walking and local minibuses, which are pretty exciting. Santiago and here have more public transport than anywhere we've been. Here they have hundreds of 28-seat minibuses. From what we can gather, they have to clock-in at various points, and not being late seems to be their "raison d'etre", much more important than picking up people who are waiting for them. Stop to watch the sea lions at Cochoa, which are twenty feet up the cliff, but still getting wet from the very rough seas.. it's a very rocky indented coastline with lots of kelp and weed growth on the rocks, and quite rough as it's beyond the lee of Valparaiso point. There's more high-rise development up this way - some has been stepped back up the hill in a reasonably sympathetic manner, but others are vertical high-rise stuck on the top of a hill, and can be seen (obscene) for miles. Buy yet more cherries. Back to room, then out later to walk to what turns out to be an enormous supermarket (over 60 check-outs) and shopping area, to buy some food supplies for French Polynesia. Back for our 11 pm MacDonalds dinner. Despite this being a day of recovery for invalids, we manage to walk 11.5 kms