Going North
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
318
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Puerto Varas,
Chile
Monday, April 9, 2007
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It took me some time to get ready before leaving the hostel in Castro. I also had to hide the easter eggs in the living room for two girls who spent a hell of a time finding them, the landlady being much better and stealing eggs from them.
Early in the afternoon I made it to the bus terminal, and took off to Ancud. I was tired and slept in the bus and almost decided to stay inside till Puerto Montt. But the travelling rules got the best of me: if you don't know it, go and check it out (and even if you know it by the way). So I got off in Ancud, a town in the north of the Island of Chiloe. I left my bags at the terminal, took a taxi collectivo (like a bus, but in a car), and got into the center. Very quiet, very dead. I had read that the city had suffered an earthquake, and was rebuilt. The church did not look pretty from outside, I did not even get in. The museum, which looked interesting, was closed. In there there was a replica of the ship Ancud, a small craft that sailed in the strait of Magellan and claimed the land in the name of Chile, setting up Fuerte Bulnes, that I had visited a few weeks before, south of Punta Arenas.
The water front offered no traditional house on stilts, but I walked into the fishing harbour, which hosted embarcations of different sizes, and centolla (king crab) traps. It is not the centolla season, so I don't know what they catch with them.
On my way back to the bus terminal I stopped at the municipal market, where I chated with the guys at the fish and mariscos stall. There were also stalls selling dried seaweed, common throughout the coast since Patagonia.
Then I found the liquor stall, hehe, liquors and sweet juices made from all sorts of fruits and other ingredients. I tasted quite a few, getting late for my bus. I even got to taste vintage 7 and 9 year old beverages (in coca cola plastic bottles), it was delicious.
In Puerto Montt I walked directly into a minibus that took me to Puerto Varas, where I arrived in the evening. In the distance, over a couple of kayaks paddling in the lake, I could see snow-capped volcanoes... Welcome to the lake district, which extends over Chile and Argentina, a land of deep blue lakes, raging rivers, and volcanoes covered with glaciers....
The hostel I landed in was very nice, run by a french guy. I ended up playing chinese checkers and we cooked all together. My avocado with hand made mayonaise was ruined by the bad shrimps I had put in, but Thomas had made a gratin dauphinois, something that definitely smells and tastes like home!
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Comments
hmm
le gratin de la mort ! ca me donne faim, par contre faut être courageux pour les fish ..
a plus
Yves
Re: hmm
Apres 3 mois en amerique du sud, j'ai enfin fini par trouver un vendanges tardives (semillion moscatel). Mmmm, faut que je RE-compare avec vos crus alsaciens, hehe...