January Travels South - a summary!

As we mentioned in our last post a while ago, after New Year in Valparaiso we headed down South to start making the most of our summer break from teaching! We've been on the road since Anna's birthday on the 3rd January, so haven't been able to post for the whole month. Here's a summary of where we've been, hopefully we'll find time to post in more detail later (or at least post the rest of the photos) - although we're off again in a couple of days up to the northernmost part of Chile and into Bolivia!

We planned a loop heading south overland ultimately ending up in the southernmost city in Chile (though not the southernmost settlement by any means, that and a few other places we didn't get to will have to wait for another trip), Punta Arenas, and then taking a boat part of the way back up to Santiago, through the desolate Patagonian fjords. We're trying to see as much of the country as possible so we tried to avoid flying - we had to take one short flight to cover a stretch of northern Patagonia but otherwise it was all boat and bus (and foot), literally thousands of kilometres in all. At some point we'll try to post a map which shows our route. 

Valdivia riverfront

So first stop, Valdivia, about 10 hours south by bus from Santiago, the attractive capital city of the Los Rios Administrative Region of Chile in what is broadly known as the "Lake District". It sits on a major river estuary so was a key strategic port for the Spanish conquerors. The surrounding area is characterised by the old coastal and island forts built by the Spanish to control the area, but the city itself is dominated by more recent Germanic architecture as it was heavily settled by German immigrants after Chilean independence.

Old map of the river estuary

cannon battery from one of the restored Spanish forts

As this is just a summary we won't go into too much detail about each place - for now it's a few photos then move on!

The Germans brought pretty houses, but more importantly really good beer!

We celebrated Anna's birthday on our first night in Valdivia - amazing steak in a place called "Thor's Barbecue"!

we didn't really cook them ourselves, it's pretend

Our next stop was a great little lakeside town called Puerto Varas, another place heavily settled by Germans, and now known for adventure and watersports, and proximity to the awesome Osorno Volcano.

Our hostel, straight from northern Europe

Volcan Osorno

Us mountain biking to the Volcano

Sunset over Lago Lanquihue, Volcan Osorno in the background

From Puerto Varas we took a boat from the nearby port Puerto Montt onto Chiloe Island, known for its myths and legends, slow pace of life, and beautiful wooden churches. To an extent it's a place of contradictions - the last part of Chile to win independence from Spain but one of the least "Spanish" and most indigenous parts in character - known for a huge number of UNESCO protected wooden churches but also the place where Christian missionaries had the hardest time converting the locals and where pre-Christian religion was visibly suffused with Christianity to win souls.

Chilote Church

Chiloe ferry

Chiloe is also known for its iconic palafitos, originally fishermen's homes built on stilts overlooking the coast with a balcony and boat moored at high tide.

Palafitos at low tide

Chilote at lunch

us with ceviche (fresh chopped fish cooked in lemon juice) by the sea

Chiloe was incredible, but time to move on. We went back to Puerto Montt and took a 50 minute flight down to the capital of the Aisen Region, Coyhaique, a town which grew up around cattle farming. Puerto Montt is for some Chileans the de facto end of Chile, it's where civilisation ends. The far south of mainland Chile, southern Patagonian Chile, is actually very accessible as a major holiday destination for people from all over the world and many visitors fly straight into Santiago and then down to Punta Arenas perhaps via Puerto Montt for a connection. We were determined to see something of Northern Patagonia and Pinochet's great project, the Carretera Austral (Southern Highway).  

Pinochet forced a road the length of those parts of Chile that are not glaciated, and prior to doing so the area south of Coyhaique and north of the Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur) was largely accessible only on foot, by boat in places, or air. The Carretera Austral now runs from Puerto Montt through Northern Patagonia down to a tiny town called Villa O'Higgins. It is "bridged" in three places by ferries across lakes or fjords, and is for most of its length essentially a winding gravel track with just about two lanes. 

don't mess with the Carretera Austral

We took a couple of packed local buses down the Carretera Austral from Coyhaique to Villa O'Higgins with a stopover halfway at another tiny remote town called Cochrane, passing through national parks on the way.

Cochrane and Villa O'Higgins are truly remote places, largely without paved streets and where the next town is a 12 hour bus ride, and the available fruit and veg makes that in the supermarkets in Santiago look cheap and top quality (which it really isn't).

look for the dog!

from inside the bus, eek

Pinochet's declaration

Villa O'Higgins was a good place to spend a little time, with an excellent hostel and some great walks.

Struan in the excellent Hostel El Mosco

However the big prize for getting to Villa O'Higgins was the chance to continue south but across the border into Argentina, a two day journey across the Andes by boat, trek, and bus. The ultimate destination was a small town in Argentina called El Chalten, with a stopover at a small farm in Chile in a hamlet called Candelario Mansilla. The farm provides lodging and meals to hikers who first have to get there on a boat across the lake from Villa O'Higgins via our first Patagonian glacier (O'Higgins Glacier). 

Glaciar O'Higgins from a boat

whiskies with glaciar ice!

After staying at the farm (more of which another time, but it was great, we shared the place with 4 friendly Germans, and entertained/ were entertained by the owner's 4 year old grand-daughter), we had to hike 22 kilometres over the Argentinian border with our backpacks carried by packhorse.

the sideview of our lodgings

packhorse being packed

After yomping 22km we were rewarded with this view of Lago del Desierto, which later that day we crossed on another boat and then took a minibus to El Chalten, Argentina.

El Chalten is known as the "trekking capital" of Argentinian Patagonia, situated on the edge of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It's a fantastic little town with the feel of a ski resort, plenty of excellent bars and restaurants in town for the evenings, but the trails all start from just outside the small street grid - no need for buses to get to the walks, and no park fees to pay!

view from a very steep hill

the beautiful freezing cold blue lake on the other side of that hill

Like Chile, Argentina has a big sky

It's not too far from the town, El Calafate, that serves the other sector of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, where the famous Glaciar Perito Moreno is.

Glaciar Perito Moreno

El Calafate is named after a berry endemic to southern Patagonia, this photo was taken later in Chile, but here it is anyway. Apparently if you eat one you will definitely return to Patagonia, we had some in some mousse in a restaurant which presumably counts. 

the calafate berry

So after a few days in Argentinian Patagonia, we headed back to Chile, down to Punta Arenas. We were lucky to get there because while we were in Argentina huge protests in Punta Arenas (against rising gas prices) forced closure of the border, and for several days nobody could cross either way. Nobody likes bigger heating bills, but it's a particular issue when you live in a part of the world where you have to heat your house year round.

No to the rise in gas

Anyway we got there, and Punta Arenas definitely deserves a post of its own. Here's some highlights from this fascinating town rich in history, made once great by daring and entrepreneurial German, British and Croatian immigrants.

overlooking Punta Arenas

Charlie Milward's house/ castle - a British pioneer brought some crenellated style to Patagonia

these beautiful flowers are all over Southern Patagonia

the cemetery in Punta Arenas

We did various things while in Punta Arenas but one to note is visiting the geographical centre of Chile. Santiago is obviously the political and economic centre of Chile, and is roughly in the centre of mainland Chile, but when you include Chilean Antarctic territory the geographical centre of the country is actually much further south, almost at the southern tip of the South American continent.

Struan at the geographical centre of Chile

The final part of our trip was a 4 day boat ride back up to Puerto Montt through the Patagonian fjords (and after that a not fun 14 hour overnight bus trip back to Santiago...). The boat left from Puerto Natales, also known as the gateway to the hugely popular Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, so we made sure we got there a few days early.

Puerto Natales is another commercial port once thriving at this end of the world on trade and various industries (such as cattle farming), but now making as much of a living from the tourists visiting Torres del Paine. 

Cordero Patagonico al Palo (Patagonian Lamb on a skewer). Yum. 

The Towers of Paine

So onto the Navimag Ferry, headed back north to complete our loop!

The Evangelistas in port

Briefly, the shipping company Navimag runs freight ships from Puerto Natales up to Puerto Montt carrying cargo including live cattle. A few years ago they decided to convert decks of their freight ships to take paying passengers. It's not exactly a cruise (it's strange for one to be out at sea and smell cattle as if you're actually on a farm), but it's comfortable and really well run with a great social side.

Anna on deck

We loved it and saw a largely uninhabited part of the world which it simply isn't possible to see any other way. Sailing through that part of Chile where the coastline breaks down into archipelagos was an amazing experience and it was really satisfying to complete a loop heading north parallel with where we had a couple of weeks earlier come south down the Carretera Austral, almost as remote in its own way.

spot the rainbow

and again

Struan with the pilot

a dead ship

the open sea

We hope this has given you a good idea of what we've been up to. For us, apart from good travelling fun, it's been fascinating to see how the country changes - in landscape, the people, the history, the weather, the architecture and so on - as you head south. Hopefully we'll have chance to explain and show more in other posts. For now, we're off to the far north of Chile next for something a little different.

Chao!

Valparaiso and New Year's!

Ask any Chilean and they will tell you that Valparaiso is the place to be on New Year's Eve! So we went back to the city for three nights including New Year's to see what happens.

sash windows just like home!

Great Britain Avenue

We stayed in an excellent hostel with a great view across the bay, run by a group of really laid-back chilenos - jazz in the morning with homemade brown bread and fruit for breakfast, and reggae in the evenings. The hostel has a big metal spiral staircase through the atrium, going up to the gallery where the rooms are, topped by a lamp-post.

We'll get onto New Year's shortly, but first we went to see Valpo's cemeteries. We posted a distant photo of one of the cemeteries in our previous Valpo post, but this time we decided to go and see them up close. Photos not allowed but here's some from outside. 

The Protestant Cemetery - for non-Catholic Brits, Germans etc

In the photo above you can see a couple of the family mausolea that characterise these cemeteries. Some are huge and very ornate, like small chapels, others just like a large plain chest of drawers - but with sarcophagi rather than drawers. The most interesting things about the cemeteries are the names of the buried and the varying states of repair. On the first, it's possible to find many English, German and Dutch names on the graves which, along with the obvious architectural clues elsewhere in the city, give a good idea of the immigrant communities that contributed to Valpo's population. 

Most of the graves/ crypts we saw had internments dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with some as late as the early 1980's. Some of the mausolea were in pristine condition and obviously visited regularly, while others were in terrible repair. In several we could see inside to a coffin, and in one an eery torn bag of bones. Much of this is due to the earthquake but some is clearly many years of neglect - inevitable in a city of immigrants fallen on hard times due to changing trade patterns (the Panama Canal almost finished Valpo as a working port). Many families that were 100 or so years ago wealthy enough to build these fabulous crypts would either have lost their fortunes and/ or be long gone elsewhere.  

Sort of related to this, we were in Vina del Mar again also during this trip (beach on New Year's Day of course!), and a body had been fished out of the sea. On the way back to our hostel we saw the police forensics examining the scene. Probably way too much party on New Year's Eve.  

the small orange thing at the back of the truck is the end of the bodybag...

 On to less sombre matters, here's Struan with a beer and a proper chorrillana.

Chorrillana can involve various things but generally involves a heady combination of griddled beef, sauteed onions, fried eggs and chips. We've had them in Santiago a couple of times, but had been reliably informed that the best, or the real ones, are in Valparaiso as that's where the dish originated. 

We can report that this is true, this beautiful mountain of food is more chips than it's possible for two people to eat in one sitting, topped with thick pieces of griddled beef fillet, and a sort of patty of mixed sauteed onions, scrambled eggs, and melted cheese...

Another food thing that Valpo does really well is onces, which we've mentioned before - afternoon tea, the concept borrowed from English immigrants, but done Chilean style (and inexplicably called "elevenses" if you translate directly).

Here's one we had in a cafe we've been to a few times:

coffee, freshly squeezed apple juice, toast, ham, cheese, rhubarb jam, spicy apricot jam, scrambled egg, chocolate cake...

So, plenty more wandering around Valpo, then New Year's Eve. The highlight is a huge fireworks display which has its focus in Valparaiso but stretches around the bay through Vina del Mar to several towns and beach resorts further north, and includes batteries of fireworks on boats in the harbour.

Firstly we popped down to the port front to see what was going on and found hundreds of Chileans camped out on the quays to get ringside views.

tents, fold-out camping tables...

There was some early music in the main square, which people were enjoying, together with the count-down clock, which was for a while running 2 hours slow until someone noticed...

correct at this time, but shortly before showing as 18:40, which would have been embarrassing later

One obvious difference between New Year's here and in the UK is that it's summer here. This means that it's much more about being outside. Rather than cram themselves into bars the majority of people buy huge stocks of booze from botillerias and find a space in the street to drink and dance, watch the fireworks, and shout "feliz ano nuevo" at each other. We had a drink in a bar before going back up to the hostel for dinner but most places close their doors to the general public and put on an expensive dinner for reservations only. Many people also have a family dinner in their houses, with the parilla outside cooking meat:

the people are inside, this is the pavement

Our hostel put on a great little dinner for all of the guests (about twice as many as the place could actually sleep because people were happy to cram onto the dorm floors just to have somewhere to sleep...) of wraps and kebabs, and pisco sours. It was great to spend the evening with not only Chileans, but also with people from all over the world staying in the hostel. In the hostel we even bumped into someone who we had met in a hostel in our first trip to La Serena. Then everybody went up to the roof terrace - which got too full, so then everybody went up onto the hostel roof - to watch the fireworks!

the city from the hostel roof

hostel guests on the upper roof, and one of the staff cracking out the champagne - woop!

We obviously got loads of photos of the fireworks themselves, here's a video:

...and here's a few pics so you get the idea. It was awesome, but we can't post them all. If you want to look at the other million or so, then click on this link to our online album - it becomes strangely compelling clicking through them after a while...

After that, and finishing the champagne, we went out into the streets to get some atmos'. This was taken at about 3am, in a heaving square above which someone had opened the windows to their apartment and was blasting out some classics on a huge sound system:

It was a great night, and we can totally see why New Year's Eve Valpo style has such a good reputation.

New Year's Day we dragged ourselves out of bed to go to the beach in Vina for the day, along with a huge number of Chileans. Some of the people in the photo above were still there when we walked through the square on the way to the metro in the morning.

big hamster balls for kids to fall over in

Ever stylish Valpo, back in town later we found this beautiful old car:

Once again Valpo was a fantastic place to visit, and fortunately it's not going to be the last time as we will go back to explore the city more and use it as a base to explore a little more of the central coast. For now however, school's out for summer and it's the start of our farther flung travels. Tomorrow we get on a bus to head 10 hours south to a city on the coast called Valdivia, as the start of a trip that will take in the Chilean Lake District, Patagonia in southern Chile and Argentina, the deserts and mountainous altiplano in the far north of Chile and Bolivia, and more Argentina - in some places with various people who are coming over from the UK to visit us. Yay!

We're not sure what we'll be doing about the blog as we won't have time or regular access to a computer to keep posting, at this kind of length at least, while we're on the road.  

Anyway, spare a thought for Anna who will be spending her birthday on the bus south, but we'll find some fun in Valdivia for sure!

chao and feliz ano nuevo!