Mold

Thursday, March 19

Today was Daniel’s last day in Chile. I was gathering some items of mine for him to bring home, and as I was digging through the closet, I was greeted by the most unpleasant surprise. We had mold in out closet that covered some of my shoes & spread to some of our clothes and jackets. I brought everything outside, and brushed the mold away. It came off fairly easily, but I was nervous of a return outbreak because the climate is so wet and damp down here, and our apartment has always had a musty smell. So I wiped everything down, washed all of the contaminated and possibly contaminated clothes, and opened all of the windows to air out the apartment. I hope this solves the problem.

In the afternoon, Daniel and I walked into town to hike up Cerra Phillippi. I wanted to show him the view of Puerto Varas from above, and despite the cloud cover, we were able to see the entire town. We snapped some pictures and made our way into town for lunch. We ate a local restaurant called La Marmusia. The food was ok, but very cheap. After all of the money we had been spending, cheap was the name of the game for lunch.

At home we had our 5th English lesson with Felipe. I think he is really getting a lot out of these lessons. As we taught, Daniel prepared dinner. We had sausage, peppers and onions Fenway Park style. It was delish. After some final packing Daniel was set to go for an early morning cab ride to the aiport.

Puro Toro: Pure Bull

Wednesday, March 18

On Daniel’s last day in Chile, we took a micro to Puerto Montt. We spent the final day exploring the industrial city to the south known for it’s once booming salmon industry now in crisis due to the ISA disease. Daniel couldn’t have put it better when he said, “This city could do a lot for itself with a little paint and a power-washer.” We walked to Angelmo, the local crafts fair, to find the last couple of gifts for everyone at home. We were quite successful as I was able to continue my bartering skills left over from Pucón. With the gift shopping complete and not much else to see in Puerto Montt, we headed back to Puerto Varas.

When Lily got home from work we made our way to Puro Toro for Daniel’s celebratory send-off dinner. You go to this restaurant for one reason…meat. When we arrived we were greeted by the worst news possible. The manager told us the entire restaurant had been rented out, and that they couldn’t accommodate us for dinner. Lily was heart broken, as she had been looking forward to trying this restaurant for months. She turned on her charm, and was able to secure us a table in the back room with one condition…order quickly because once the large party gets here we won’t have any service. We obliged and were graced with huge steaks and delicious sides of creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. The meal was outstanding. It was good practice for our trip to Argentina next week where red meat is an art. When the check came, we were in for another surprise. We got a 20% discount. Apparently in the off season, Puro Toro runs a promotion that on Tuesdays and Wednesdays you get 20% off your meal. What an unbelievable deal!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Tuesday, March 17

With the sun shining this was the perfect day to take advantage of a drive up Volcán Osorno. We scaled the switchbacks up the volcano until we reached the ski lodge located almost 2/3 of the way up the mountainside. As we exited the car, we could see for miles. This was the complete opposite from my last trip up the volcano when clouds engulfed the summit and I could barely see the ski lodge 10 feet from my face. There were no clouds to be seen, and we couldn’t have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day any better than wearing green at the highest peak in Puerto Varas. To make the celebration complete we cracked open some beers as we enjoyed the scenery. In fact these weren’t just any beers. The brands were called “Volcanes” and “Sol” respectively, which was fitting because we were enjoying these beverages on a volcano in the sun.

Engrossed by the spectacular views, we lost track of time. We were supposed to meet Lily in town to drive to Se Cocina for lunch! We saved this last surprise for the end of Daniel’s trip because I knew it would be a huge highlight for him. We rushed back to Puerto Varas, and picked up Lily before zooming off to Frutillar. Se Cocina was just as I remembered, and the food was equally fantastic. Daniel was in heaven. He spent the next 45 minutes in the open kitchen following the chef around as he prepared our meals with the freshest ingredients. The chef explained that he too came from Italian decent, and he promised to give us the best pieces of venison and rabbit because he liked our enthusiasm for his work.

We started with parmesan de machas and Pastel de machas for appetizers. Both dishes are very Chilean as the razor clams are quite common. For entrees, Daniel had the venison, I the rabbit accompanied by purple Chiloé potatoes, and Lily the merluza. For dessert, we dug our spoons into raspberry mousse and flan. This was the most outstanding meal of our trip, and Daniel was in absolute shock. This is his dream restaurant, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to share it with him.

Everyone was overcome by food coma. We returned the rental car, and made it home just in time to give Felipe an English lesson. We greeted him with green beers for St. Patrick’s Day and used this lesson to explain some American holidays and how they relate Chilean holidays. At the conclusion of the lesson, we rushed out to meet our friends at Pim’s Irish pub to celebrate the rest of the night with live music. Daniel and I couldn’t believe when they served us green beer. We thought that tradition was specific to the states, but it even infiltrated Patagonia Chile. We ended the night at Barometro before heading home. Today was one of the first days I felt at home, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day to it’s fullest.

The hike: Cancelled…but Thermal Springs!

Monday, March 16

It poured all night, and was extremely cloudy when we woke up at 6:30am. We strolled into town to check in at the Turismo AndesSur office. Our guides informed us that all of the other trekking companies had cancelled the trip due to poor weather and visibility. However, they gave us the option of driving up the volcano to the ski lodge to see if the conditions were any better. Often times, they explained, the weather tends to clear up at high altitudes once you get above the low lying clouds. Since Daniel and I were returning to Puerto Varas tomorrow, this was our only shot. When we got to the lodge we were steeped in thick cloud cover. We could barely see 5 feet in front of our faces, and when the van stopped, the guide turned to us and said, “So shall we go back down?” There was no chance of this hike happening due to the lack of visibility.

Turismo AndesSur refunded us in full and we made our way back to Ecole. Making the best of the situation I proposed a change of plans. We decided to check out of the hostal a day early and head back to Puerto Varas to take advantage of the rental car around Lago Llanquihue. However, before departing from Pucón we had two matters of business to take care of. First, we mailed Cilia and Simon some postcards from this new destination. Second, we wanted to experience one of the numerous thermal springs for which Pucón is well known. We drove out to Los Pozones because they have the reputation of being the most natural of the hot springs. Daniel and I basked in the steaming waters for hours, taking breaks for lunch and beers. This hot water treatment was well worth it after the hiking we did in Torres del Paine.

Back on the road, we made it home in about 3.5 hours…just in time to pick up Lily for dinner. We settled on La Olla because it is known as a local hot spot of good seafood for a low price. The food ended up being quite tasty, but the price wasn’t so low. I’d have to say the quality to price ratio doesn’t rank La Olla as one of my top restaurants in Puerto Varas. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and were excited for our final day with the car tomorrow.

Niebla and Bartering in Pucon

Sunday, March 15

Sunday began a bit earlier than we had expected…one hour earlier to be exact. We were walking around the city of Valdivia and it was a ghost town. Valdivia is a university city, home to Universidad Austral. We thought that like most college cities the students had been out late the night before and nobody arises from bed until the early afternoon. Little did we know, the clocks changed last night. One week after the US changed their clocks forward, we changed ours one hour back in preparation for winter. On the bright side, we were now on the same time as the US after having been 2 hours ahead all summer long.

One benefit to our timing mishap was that we were on of the first people to arrive at the Feria Fluvial down by Rio Valdivia. The Valdivia River runs through the heart of the city, and everyday there is a fresh fish market on the banks of the river. This fish market boasts something unique however. Behind the fish stands are about 30 sea lions frolicking in the waters. These sea lions have found paradise as they simply wait in the water as scraps of fresh fish come flying over the wall into the river. These beasts of the sea were enormous and I’m sure their gluttonous diet didn’t help much as they looked like some of the fattest sea creatures I had every seen. When they emerged from the water to wait on the docks or concrete slabs, they looked like Jabba-the-hut. Just massive blobs of blubber and flippers.

After eating a breakfast of fresh fruits and cheeses from the market, we drove to the town of Niebla sitting on the mouth of Rio Valdivia where it empties into the ocean. We visited the Castilla de Niebla sitting high upon the rocky cliffs, which acted as a defensive fort for the Spanish navy occupying these parts in the 1800’s. The fort still had barracks, cannons, and a well maintained and informative museum describing the history of the Castilla. The views were spectacular as we gazed as far as the eye could see out into the Pacific Ocean. This is definitely a must see for anyone traveling to Valdivia.

We got word of another feria in Niebla and found the fair tucked away in a small neighborhood just past the castilla. This feria was all about food. We had a sampling of 5 different kinds of empanadas made fresh to order. We washed them down with cold beers and munched on perfectly cooked anticuchos. For dessert, Lily grabbed some alfajores, which are typical Chilean cookies covered in chocolate with manjar filling.

The day was drawing to a close and Lily needed to catch her bus back to Puerto Varas for work in the morning. We dropped her at the bus station and parted ways as Daniel and I were off to the second part of out trip: Pucón.

We made it to Pucón just in time to shop the main drag for hiking expeditions up to the summit of Volcan Villarrica. This snow covered volcano was one of the few that was safe enough to climb. It involved a hike requiring crampons to the smoldering crater at the top. We couldn’t have been more excited. We shopped around at about 10 different adventure companies to barter for the best deal. It was great practice for my Spanish, and we settled on Turismo AndesSur for $30,000 pesos including all of the necessary equipment and transport to the volcano. In fact, this company seemed like the most professional of all of the companies we saw in addition to being the most reasonably priced.

After securing our spot on the hike, we checked into our hostel: Ecole!. This hostel was started by an American and is owned by a consortium of Chilean environmentalists and nature lovers. Two blocks from the center of Pucón, they have cheap clean rooms, and boast a delicious vegetarian restaurant on the first floor. Despite the reputation of the restaurant, we wanted meat. We wandered into town first to stock up on lunch supplies for the 8 hour hike tomorrow, and second to find a place to eat. We settled on a restaurant called Adventure Lodge, mainly because they have 2 for 1 drink specials. Daniel and I had a great meal, and were ready to conquer Volcán Villarrica in the morning.

The Kunstmann Brewery

Saturday, March 14

We had massive amounts of laundry to do this morning because we still hadn’t washed anything since returning from Torres del Paine. I was holding off because I didn’t want to pay the new price of $1500 pesos per ficha coin for the laundry machines. Reluctantly, I made my way down to the hall to buy the coins, and to my delight my friend Jaime was working today. I told him I needed some fichas and he gave them to me for the old price of $1000 and threw in an extra coin for free. It really pays off to be friends with the doormen.

With clean clothes we picked up the rental car in the afternoon and hit the road for Valdivia. The drive took about 3 hours, and we made it in time to check into our hostel and grab dinner. We ended up staying at Hostal Esmeralda right in the center of the city. Again we were going for bargain prices rather than 5-star acoomodations. The hostel was nice enough, and we had a large room to ourselves, but it smelled a little funky and the bathroom was in a closet. Irregardless, they did have parking in the back so at least we had somewhere to put the car.

For dinner we drove to the Kunstmann Brewery to experience the history and production of one of Chile’s best beers. Upon arriving we saw 15 foot high vines of hopps growing like grapes around the building. We entered and were a bit disappointed to see that there were no tours of the brewery and only a hokey little museum about the history of the Kunstmann family. After a quick brush through the museum, we sat down to dinner in the restaurant, and had a blast. The food was delicious. We sampled the 8 different kinds of beers on tap accompanied by some traditional German cuisine. I had one for the largest hot dogs I have ever seen in my life that was topped a mile high with condiments and palta. When it was time for dessert we got a full sampling of German postre including kuchen, mil hojas cake, and even beer ice cream wrapped in chocolate covered crepes. This was the perfect way to begin our weekend adventure.

Lavanda: Casa de Te

Friday, March 13

Friday arrived in no time, and we decided to use this weekend to see some cities up north. We rented a car through Tuesday and planned a trip to Valdivia and Pucón. With our weekend set, Daniel and I headed to Frutillar to experience the wonder of Lavanda: Casa de Té. Today was a bit cloudy and the lavender was no longer in bloom so Lavanda didn’t quite have the same charm as it did on my previous visit. On the other hand, we were the only ones there, so were able to kick back and relax with some homemade tea and pastry without having to worry about disrupting other patrons. In Chile, onces, or tea time, is quite popular and a part of everyday life. Because dinner is eaten so late, onces is meant to serve as the conduit between lunch and dinner to tide over a hungry stomach. We couldn’t have enjoyed Frutillar more….if only we had enough time to bring Daniel to Se Cocina.