Category: Travel

Chile: On to Patagonia

JWF Leave a comment

PUNTA ARENAS

This morning we flew south from Puerto Varas to Punta Arenas.  This city is located on a peninsula just north of the Straits of Magellan and is part of Chilean Patagonia. This puts us at one of the southern most points in Chile as the Straits separate Chile from Tierra del Fuego.  Going south here is like going north in the U.S.; it gets colder, but the sun sets much later and rises earlier too!

Early in its history, Punta Arenas was a significant port, important for defense, and also the site of one of the largest sheep farms in the region.

When we exited the airport, it was very windy, a gloomy gray, and colder than we’ve experienced thus far. I immediately added my down jacket on top of my fleece. The drive to our hotel in town was about 25 minutes, and took us past lots of industry and warehouses and then finally along a stretch with a grassy median. It might be spring, but the only flowers blooming were a spread of dandelions. With the overcast sky and the slightly scruffy appearance of the real estate, it all felt a bit bleak. But then, it was getting past 1:00 pm and we hadn’t had any lunch yet.

Our hotel is an old building up the hill from the main downtown area with lots of steps to get into it and then stairs only (no elevator) to the rooms. Fortunately, we’re only one floor up from reception. They use an ingenious wire basket that looks to be on a pulley to hoist luggage up to the upstairs rooms.

The owners are the offspring of ranchers and each room is named for a trade. We are in the wagon wheel room and there is a big wooden wheel on the wall above the bed and the ceiling light fixture consists of bulbs hanging from another wheel. Bathrooms were added as they did not exist with each room previously.

We were lucky that our room was ready, but the hotel dining room was totally full so we began to walk down the hill to find some place to eat. We had gone about five blocks past lots of banks and other commercial buildings and with our hunger pangs becoming more insistent and me getting cranky, we stopped in Livorno, which looked okay from the outside and had diners inside. We should have ordered pizza and we really should have consulted the short list of restaurant recommendations from our travel agent, but we did neither of these things!

Instead we ordered the meat and fries platter which came with an overflowing mound of French fries and a piece of the toughest beef steak I’ve had in many years! We ate enough to get through the afternoon, the fries being quite good, and then continued to walk around the town.

Believe it or not, we’ve been on a mission to find a night light. We always travel with one and somehow ours got left behind on Easter Island or elsewhere. It’s a small item, but drugstores here don’t carry them, and we’ve yet to find a hardware store. In desperation, in Puerto Varas we purchased a small LED disc that took batteries, but when we got it back to our room, discovered you pushed a button to turn it on, but it didn’t stay on! For those nighttime trips in the dark, I’ve been reduced to using my Kindle.

I think that if you’d been down in Antarctica for some months and returned first to Punta Arenas, you would think it was nirvana! Clothing stores, cafes, restaurants, and at least five pharmacies (I went in all of them!)  

The Sacred Heart Cathedral is another beautiful building with a white exterior trimmed with yellow and inside a sanctuary that has a deep rose ceiling and a warmer feeling sanctuary than many churches.

NEXT DAY
This morning dawned bright and sunny and Punta Arenas was more appealing. We took a short turn around outside and snapped a few photos including one of a lovely flower garden. I think if we were going to be here longer, we’d definitely explore the museum and the cemetery, both noted sites.

 

 

 

 

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Chile: Chiloe Island

JWF Leave a comment

 

A DAY ON CHILOE

It was a brilliantly sunny day with cool crisp air and an occasional band of puffy clouds. We left the hotel just before 8:30 with our good guide Jaime from the day before and a new driver, Javier. After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the coast and the pier for the car ferry to Chiloe island. Chiloe is Chile’s largest island and was the last part of the country to become part of it. The ferry service is continuous all day back and forth and then hourly at night. This ship accommodates cars, vans, tractor trailer trucks, and even tour buses, and the crossing takes about 30 minutes.

Its motion is slow and gentle, and the water was calm as we viewed it from up on deck.

You arrive at Chacao, a charming small town of colorful houses and shops and a beautiful church with blue trim and a partially blue roof. We were entranced and took many pictures of the church, both inside and outside, as well as the shops.

This is one of the only times I can recall a Catholic Church featuring a risen Christ in the central spot behind the altar rather than the more traditional crucifix. Here the crucified Jesus is much smaller and off to one side. On the other side is a sculpture of the youth Jesus and Joseph.

 

 

 

From Chaco, it was another hour to Castro, the capital of Chiloe which was founded in 1576. It was bustling and busy with a most attractive town square and park and the beautiful yellow and purple San Francisco Church. The church was founded 450 years ago, and this current building (early 20th century) is all made of wood.  The steeples are purple while the rest of the facade is painted a bright lemon yellow.

 

Apparently, it’s quite common for churches in Chile to be painted in bright colors, and periodically, this one has worn other colors besides these. The interior was beautiful wood, a warm honey color, and the statues and embellishments were simpler than other cathedrals we’ve visited.

We could have lingered longer in Castro, but as it turned out, we got our look at the church interior just before the doors closed at noon. It was a short drive then on to the outskirts of town to see the houses on stilts built by sailors and fishermen.

These palafitos boast bright colored facades and many today are hostels or restaurants; only a few remain as private residences. We decided to lunch here and sought out La Cevicherie. None of us ordered any of the ceviches, but we did like sampling some very good empanadas, one ham with melted cheese, and the other salmon and shrimp also with melted stringy cheese. They were far superior to the deflated, almost empty-of-any-filling, ones we’d had in Valparaiso.  We then re-traced our steps back to the ferry.  It was a day saturated with color.

One observation. We drove on Route 5, part of the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Alaska all the way to the south of Chile. What interested me was seeing the bus shelters (signs indicate parada, means the act of stopping with an icon of a bus) placed along the side of the highway about every mile. This is a toll road and you pay if you leave the road at an exit; however, there are local roads which run parallel to the highway and don’t seem to require any payment if you exit there.

The parada are conveniently located near these local roads.  Often there is a little bridge from the local road to the parada or even a set of stairs leading from up above down to the bus shelter. The shelters can be simple plywood, unpainted, like a chicken coop tilted on its side. Open in the front with a short bench, but a peaked roof, partial back and sides. I wanted to get a photo of one, but there wasn’t an opportune moment. In the cities and town, the shelters are more elaborate, painted, and sometimes constructed of stone or concrete with fancier roofs.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

CHILE: LAKE DISTRICT

JWF 2 Comments

ARRIVING IN PUERTO VARAS
Yesterday we left Santiago, endured the agony of lines in that airport, and flew to Puerto Montt.  Puerto Montt is south of Santiago and is the capital of this state in the Lake District. We were met and driven a short distance to the neighboring town of Puerto Varas (population 44,000) on the shores of Lake LLanquihue. This is the second largest lake in Chile, formed by glaciers, and its name is pronounced, “yunkeyway,” which you’d never guess from the spelling!

Lutheran Church in Frutillar similar to others

The architecture is squarish low wood buildings with the German founders’ influence evident in several Lutheran churches with simple steeples topped by a cross. With its temperate climate (the opposite of tropical Easter Island) and the lush green vegetation, it reminded us of Upstate New York with a bit of Switzerland tossed in.

Our hotel, Cumbres, is on the summit above the lake and just a short way down a pedestrian path to the business district.  After we settled in, we took a late afternoon walk into town, noting the variety of restaurants and the number of stores selling outdoor clothing and gear. It’s a hub for hikers and climbers. It began to pour so we and others took cover under an outdoor market next to the town square until the rain let up.  Overall, the town is attractive, but a bit tired looking, and would benefit from some fresh coats of paint.

Tasty grilled Chilean salmon on quinoa

We enjoyed dinner at our hotel and were the first, and for awhile, the only diners. Lunch had been sketchy, burgers from the airport McDonald’s around 11:30, so we were ready to eat at 7:00. Like other Spanish speaking countries, Chileans operate on a later schedule than we Americans. Hotel breakfasts often don’t begin until 7:30 or  8:00, lunch is from 1:00 to 3:00, and dinner usually begins at 8:00 with the locals not arriving until 8:30 or 9:00.

FALLS AND FRUTILLAR
This morning we met our guide Jaime and our driver Fernando at 9:00 am and soon were in the countryside, noting the many summer cottages (cabanas).  We were on our way to Chile’s first national park, Vincente Perez Rosales, which was founded in 1926 inspired by Teddy Roosevelt’s interest in the outdoors and in preserving nature.

The park encompasses Petrohue Falls, a magnificent topography of stone outcroppings, deep channels, turquoise pools, and many examples of falling water. The various paths take you up and down stone steps to a number of lookouts above the water and then down along water’s edge to see falls from another angle.

We were there before the onslaught of tour buses and had the place mostly to ourselves. It was quiet except for the roar of all that water.

We then drove farther east to the shore of Lake Todos Los Santos (All Saints Lake) which is still within the confines of the park. Along the roadway and here at lakeside was gray ashy sand, evidence of the 2015 eruption of one of the nearby volcanos. The lake area was calm and peaceful.  

Our next stop was the village of Lago LLanquihue where we ate box lunches (actually from a paper sack) sitting on a bench facing the lake. We couldn’t help but know where we were with the prominent waterborne letters!  

Lastly we continued farther on to the charming village of Frutillar, a music and cultural center for the region. Their large performing arts center, opened in 2010, features bands of wood of different colors and overlooks the lake.

Performing arts center in Frutillar

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small houses and a blazing red firehouse cum café line the opposite side of the street. At one end of the promenade a decorated pier which re-opened in 2008 (header photo) graces the landscape. In all of the towns in the region, you see the German influence in the architecture and in the food, lots of good strudels and cakes. In our hotel, the sumptuous breakfast buffet includes doughnuts and breads, but also several kinds of cake!

The morning weather was sunny and very pleasant (temperatures in the 60’s) while the afternoon clouded over until a thunderstorm around 5:00 pm cleared the air. Sunlight then glinted through the clouds.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Chile: More Easter Island Sights

JWF Leave a comment

EASTER ISLAND PART 2
On our second day we began with the local museum, MAPSE, which is funded at least in part by the Easter island Foundation. This small museum has an excellent exhibit on the history of the island and the arrival of the Rapa Nui along with a number of artifacts including one of the only moai that has female characteristics. The Rap Nui people are considered to be Polynesian in origin and culture. I was particularly struck by a panel that showed a map of the Pacific with the Polynesian triangle of Easter Island on the west, Hawaii at the point of the triangle, and New Zealand at the eastern corner.  Having been to New Zealand last year and to Hawaii in September, seeing this graphic was meaningful.

One of two moai with female characterics

After the museum, we toured several more moai sites with Chris. This time we began with Tahai, a site on the edge of Hanga Roa that we hadn’t seen on our brief walk the day we arrived. We actually were glad that we waited to visit it with Chris since he provided context for it, and we had learned a lot the day before which enhanced our appreciation.

What is especially noteworthy here is that one moai (a reproduction I believe) that stands alone has its eyes painted white. What a difference this makes in how you feel this king’s penetrating gaze! Archaeologists discovered fragments of white coral near some moai and have postulated that this coral was put into the deep eye sockets.  The moai you see today no longer have color in the eye area.  

 

We also visited a site, Vaihu, with what are purported to be seven young explorers (Chris debunked this, even though it was on the explanatory signboard), the restored village of Orongo, where we saw examples of the special houses used in the spring during the Birdman competition for the first egg, Ahu Vai Uri, a lone moai up the hill in some brambles (see header photo), and the mountain and crater from which the Rapa Nui dug out the red scoria stone for the Pukao or top knots. It was another incredible day, and we felt very lucky to have this whole Easter Island experience!

Supposed young explorers
Red scoria stone

Dining room at Hare Noi

At dinner last evening, we were about the only diners and began with drinks. The Chilean waiter, whom we’d seen on breakfast duty the day before, but not interacted with, was very chatty in an almost sweet way. We learned his name is Ignacio and, when he asked whether either of us had a cigarette lighter, he said that they were unable to light the kitchen fire to cook our dinner. We said no, but while his kitchen mates hurried off to get some sort of lighter, he then was able to make his lighting device work and the matter of dinner was resolved.

Lovely little shrimps in a spicy sauce

The Chief Penguin then joked that his name was significant and that he was an “igniter” and Prometheus, bringer of fire.   Ignacio also told us his nickname was “Nacho” and I replied I loved nachos which led to some more repartee. Humor exists around the world!

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).