Back from Vacation

Hello my adoring public, I missed you too. I am sorry to be so out of touch, but as warned, the nomad’s access to internet is limited, hence the disappearance, but I am back! Well, mostly…I still do not have an internet connection in my home, but vacation is over and therefore I am back working and using the office computer occasionally, but there are hopes of getting internet in my home soon. Oh there is so much to tell, for now lets cover the adventure part because that is the most picturesque part and I will fill ya’ll in on the rest in later posts (which will come soon I promise).

My “big” adventure for vacation was down south to Puerto Montt to visit Jill and to check out the surrounding sites. I must say that the sites were spectacular while the friend was not. I am still not completely sure what happened, but I do know that Jill is heading back to the states in early in March and I know that she was incredibly unwelcoming, therefore maybe she is just trying to sever all ties before leaving, but either way it was not the most harmonious visit to my friend, which was a bit of a bummer. BUT, like I said, the sites were amazing, so at least the trip was not a complete bust. Therefore I am going to focus on the good part and leave out the sad part of this account.

Puerto Montt is a port city in the south and is the end of the Pan American highway, it is not the southern most point but if you want to continue south, the best method is by boat or via Argentina. It is a nice city, nothing spectacular inside the city but the view of the surrounding areas is pretty incredible. The picture is the view across the bay to the cordillera (mountain range) and on a sunny day such as this it was quite spectacular. It was advertised to me that this is one of the rainiest cities in all of Chile, so when I got 4 days of pure sunshine, I felt pretty damn lucky.

My first adventure of the trip was to go with Jill and John (they are still together and living together there in Puerto Montt, that is until Jill leaves) to Petrohue, which is a park next to the Volcan Osorno (no this time I didn’t climb it, I just went next to it) and on our way we stopped in Puerto Varas, a neighboring city where Jill actually works, correction, worked until she quit about a week ago. Puerto Varas is a much more picturesque city as it is located on a lake, on the other side of which looms the grand Volcan Osorno, and on clear days you can see 2 other neighboring volcanoes, so it’s pretty impressive. As a result a lot more tourist go there and it’s a nicer and subsequently more expensive city. But of course, great pics… After a quick stop in Puerto Varas for some last picnic supplies and taking a few pictures, we headed towards the cordillera on a beautiful bus ride, where we actually passed another volcano, which although not quite as snowy or impressively large has an interesting story…
As you will notice, this volcano is not so pointy, and you will also notice that to the right the slope is a bit bumpy at the base. This is because a bunch of years back (I am not sure how many) the top of this volcano was blown off and went flying to the left where it landed and remains. Isn’t that wild!?! That you can just see that, perhaps it should be a warning to silly little tourists not to climb to the top of volcanoes and peer into their lavay centers, but I survived to tell the tale so I can just laugh now.

Our bus dropped us at the Saltos de Petrohue, which were a series of waterfalls, while not that impressively high in the height of the drop of the water, they were unbelievably beautiful with the backdrop of the jagged cordillera and the color of the water. I think pictures speak best.


After admiring the falls we headed farther upstream to the Lago Todos los Santos. It was even more beautiful, if that is possible. The lake is surrounded by beautiful mountains and scattered volcanoes, the water is crystal clear and a delicious temperature and of course Osorno looms above it, hence Lake of All Saints, because it’s that awesome. On the other side of the lake is Argentina and if I had more money I could have done a really expensive lake crossing, which I sure would have been breathtaking, but the view was pretty awesome as it was and I had no immediate need to go to Argentina, so the shore view sufficed for me.
After relaxing by the lake for a while we headed back home. Overall it was an incredibly gorgeous spot. In the evening we were also pleasantly surprised to find that it was the anniversary of Puerto Montt, and to celebrate they had fireworks. Jill and John live up high on a hill overlooking the bay, therefore we had prime seats.
My other great adventure of the trip was to go on a day tour of Chiloe. Chiloe is the second largest island in Chile, the first being the Tierra del Fuego, and it is also home to some of the harshest weather in Chile, but of course with my amazing luck I got the hottest day in Chiloe´s summer, around 82F, it was awesome. Now normally I hate tour groups, but it was the most economic and effiencent way of sampling the many corners of this large island. Just to give you an idea, it took about 2 hours to drive down half of the length of the island. This island was also a strategic point in the war for independence, actually a stronghold for the Spanish, this was their point of last defeat, therefore there are many forts of which we visited one, just outside the northern city of Ancud. The city was nothing amazing, it had a cool museum though, but I liked the fort the best.
Chiloe is also famous for its wicked old wooden churches, apparently the Jesuits were very taken by this island and decided to erect many a church here, and although I am not sure how many Jesuits are still around the island, their churches remain, some of them over 100 years old. I think I have mentioned before the there is not much old architecture in this country due to earthquakes, but apparently Chiloe is an exception to this rule. Naturally our tour featured them.
They were very beautiful and fully wooden, all of their interiors are also wooden and some are very intricately carved and decorated. The Chiloeite seems to be big fans of the wood because in addition to the wooden churches, they are also famous for their wild wooden shingles and their houses built over the water on wooden stilts.
This island has become a huge tourist attraction and therefore many areas have been restored with brightly colored buildings and slightly manicured plazas, so it’s a pretty nice place to visit, but considering I was traveling alone at this point (the Js were working), a day tour was sufficient. But with a car or boat and some good company I might enjoy coming back to this spot to relax and enjoy the ocean a bit more. But as it was, my tour was very nice and there were some very nice people on the tour and of course the tour guide was loving that he had a gringa on his tour and kept trying to practice his English with me, I have gotten used to that, I just respond in Spanish, saying I want to practice too and we are all happy. Well this is officially my longest blog post ever, I hope you have all enjoyed it. I apologize for my absence, but I am back and will post with more frequency so come back and visit me soon. Peace and Love.