Chilean Lakes District

Our first new destination of 2008 was the Chilean Lakes District, of which a town called Pucon is the 'adventure capital'. We had been advised to stay in a town called Villarica, just down the road from Pucon, for its slightly more chilled out atmosphere. We'd also been recommended a hostel there with a good breakfast, so James didn't need much persuading to stay there...

The hostel, La Torre Suiza (the Swiss Tower) was owned and run by (no prizes for guessing!) a Swiss-german couple who had spent 3 yrs cycling round the world before setting this place up. We've met a fair few long-distance cyclists on our trip, and have come to the conclusion that you had to be a very particular type of person to pedal for 1000's of km's, over the harsh and often pretty desolate terrain of South America, sometimes not seeing another soul for days - for fun. Long distance buses may have their draw-backs but give me that over weeks of saddle-soreness any day! Still, whatever flicks your switch I suppose, and they had plenty of photos on the hostel walls of other crazy cyclists who'd passed that way as testament to the fact that they weren't the only ones with a few screws loose!

On arrival we were greeted fairly abruptly, and with typical swiss efficiency were shown the hostel amenities. We soon settled in though enjoying the hospitality extended by our hosts, and a swiss-sytle breakfast whic was indeed fantastic, including home-made bread, yoghurt and jam, as well as coffe, oats and fresh fruit. It seems like a simple thing, but in teh world of backpackers, where free breakfast usually consists of dry, white bread, jam and nescafe, it was really something to get out of bed for!

Villarica Volcano at sunset

Villrica and Pucon are overlooked by the volcano Villarica, whose perfectly-shaped snow-capped cone is visble for miles around. In order to reach the summit, you needed the services of a local guide, and many agencies in town offered tours. As a fitting end to our time in Chile, we decided to climb our first volcano, and signed up for the 4am tour. This involved a painful 3.30am wake-up call, but was worth it, as we reached the summit before the crowds, and got to do most of the climbing before the sun got too strong.

Dawn over Villarica

At 5am when we started walking, it was still dark, but before long the sun was creeping over the edge of the crater, and we were treated to a stunning sunrise. We were lucky to have picked such a small group, as we were only 5 plus 2 guides. About 1.5 hrs into the trek, we hit the snow-line and for the remaining 3 hrs or so zig-zagged slowly up the cone through the white stuff, but we made good time and when we reached the top we had it all to ourselves. We had been provided with ice-axes and crampons, but as the snow was quite soft we didn't actually need to use them.

The volcano is still active, and the length of time you could spend at the top depended on how much gas was present. Stopping for your picnic in the midst of a toxic sulphurous cloud was not to be recommended! The view from the summit was incredible, and took in at least another 10 volcanoes in the local area, one of which (about 80kms away) had errupted recently and you could still see where the ash had blackened the cone. When we'd had enough time to take in the view, it was time for the part everyone had been waiting for. The chosen method of descent from Villarica is somewhat unconventional, and involves donning waterproof overtrousers with a reinforced seat, and sliding on your bum down one of a number of snow-chutes, previously formed by others taking the same way down, using your ice-axe as a brake where necessary. It was great fun! and a lot faster and easier on your knees than the walking. We arrived at the bottom exhilerataed, if a little damp!

P & J sliding our way to the bottom of Villarica

'Tis the season to be jolly...

It was getting on towards Christmas time, (depsite temps in excess of 30 deg, which felt a bit surreal!). In the absence of friends and family, we had decided to spend the festive season somewhere familiar, so on Dec 23rd, we headed back to Bariloche in Argentina, and Periko's hostel. They even recognised us from our previous visit.

Carlos, Caro provide a warm welcome at Periko's

Christmas Argentinian style meant celebrating on Dec 24th (presents are usually given to eager kids at midnight) with (what else?!) a huge BBQ with the folks from the hostel. James predictably took the 'all-you-can-eat' part to heart, and chomped his way through more servings of steak and sausage than it is polite to mention, all washed down with the obligatory beer and vino tinto. Christmas Day itself was a chilled out affair, mainly spent soaking up the sun, swapping gifts and (for James) digesting! I have to admit, although neither of us are particularly prone to home-sickness (good job really!) we were both a more than a little sad at having to spend Christmas away from friends and family - it was definitely missing something this year! :-(

After a few more days in Bariloche, and a couple of good walks (unfortunately this time plagued by horse-flies, which had appeared in anger since our last visit) it was off back to Chile where, after another short trek to a volcano, we headed to a town near the coast (what am I talking about? all of Chile is near the coast!) called Valdivia for New Year.

We liked the place immediately. Not only for the fact that it was one of the least touristy towns we'd visited in Chile, but also because the moment we arrived at the hostel, we were invited to join (another!) big communal BBQ for New Year.

International BBQ in Valdivia

The beer started flowing early, as of course we had to celebrate the arrival of 2008 in all parts of mainland Europe and the UK as well as Chile. There must have been 15 of us altogether, from a variety of european and south american countries, which made for a great relaxed evening, with quality banter in french, spanish, english and german. We were even treated to a burst on the accordion by German our host!

On New Year's Day, the pace was understandably 'tranquilo' - we mosied to the coast for some sea air to cure the hangover. Then when we got back to the hostel we charged up the barbie again, and tucked into the meat mountain left over from the night before. A little hair of dog and we were right as rain!

Chiloe

Chiloe is the 2nd biggest Chilean island (after Tierra del Fuego), is situated about 2/3 of the way down the country and marks the start of Chile's crazy fijord-scarred coastline further south. It is famous for its unique culture and myths that have remained seperate from the rest of Chile. Amongst their beliefs are witches, warlocks and magic pirate ships! Chiloe is also the end of the world's longest highway - the Panamerica, which runs down the west coast of the Americas from Canada to Chile. Its end is the southern tip of Chiloe.

We saw the island from the Navimag ferry as we headed into Puerto Montt and we jumped straight on a bus in its direction when we disembarked. There are several small ferries that make the 30 minute crossing to the island. The water around Chiloe is amazingly rich and we saw sea lions and penguins in the water heading both ways. Apparently dolphins are a regular sight.

Our first impression as we drove south through the island was how much like England it looked. Its location jutting out into the Pacific means it has a wet climate making it perfect for farming. The island's gentle rolling hills are seperated into fields for livestock and crops. It was the first time we had encountered anything like this on the trip and it certainly brought bcak memories of good old blighty!

Houses on stilts, Castro

We spent a day in the capital, Castro. It is a bustling little city with houses on stilts to hold them above the water when the tide comes in and lots of little fish restaurants. It felt more like Peru than anywhere else we had visited in a while. There were lots of small shops, a chaotic bus station, a lot of indiginous looking people and more street salesmen than we had seen since leaving Bolivia. We really liked it!!

Chiloe's main tourist attraction are its churches. Every town and village has a small quaint wooden church. We however didn't visit any (I know, we're heathens!) and instead caught the bus to the National Park. It is situated on the Pacific coast and offers a supposedly lovely walk up to a refugio and camp ground and then beyond. We were understandably dissapointed when a Dutch guy got on the bus and told us not to do the walk - "the path is bad, there's no water, there is no refugio, there are squatters there that are unfriendly, the bridge is down so you can't go beyond the camping"........

Chiloe Beach

He seemed to know what he was talking about so we decided to walk along the beach and return the same day. Luckily another Dutch couple were setting out on the same walk and together we decided to push on and see what we found. Jan and Rian were great company and we enjoyed a good tramp along a beach and over a few headlands to the campsite. When we arrived we found water - there was a tap! There were people living in the refugio but not squatters - they were local builders constructing a new refugio. Whilst they kept themselves to themselves, they were chatty at times and certainly far from unfriendly. The only truth was that the bridge was down so it wasn't possible to go any further but that wasn't a problem.

Scenery on trek

The next day we had a leisurely start and strolled back the same way we had come - this time spotting the bridges over the rivers we had previously forded! As we hadn't pushed on beyond the refugio we had an extra night so camped for a night in the a campsite in the access village with Jan and Rian,. The next morning we caught the bus back to Castro for a relaxing afternoon and a nice meal in a local fish joint - my indoctrination into the world of fish continued with a serving of hake and a spoonful of Petra's crab.

Jan, Rian, Petra & James at campsite

All in all a charming island, a good few days and some more Dutch friends!!