snrtobias

2/14/2009. Happy Valentine’s Day. It is a little over a week since we left Santiago (I still need to write my post about Santiago and about the Guzman family) and took a bus overnight to Temuco, a city south of Santiago.  The Guzman family saw us off at about midnight. Get out your map of Chile so you can follow along.  Also, remember to follow the following directions to read the rest of the story and to see the photos. 

We rented a car in Temuco and spent several days having a good time exploring the Chilean lake district.  First we went to Villarica, which does not mean Rich Town but is an Indian word for something like sandy bottom. It is a busy tourist town, but has remained fairly modest compared to some we saw. We had a good time getting to know it a little bit.  

In addition to the large and beautiful glacial lakes, the area has a lot of volcanos. We hiked  in the area around the Villarica Volcano, but did not go to the summit. 

I also enjoyed shopping at the various artisanal fairs in the town. There was one that was organized by a collective of Mapuche people, and was more interesting than the run-of-the mill ones. (Street/craft fairs are all over the place.) 

 

 In Villarica we stayed in a room in a private home.  The home was over-decorated with artificial flowers and the lady’s collection of ceramic plates and figurines.  Not to our taste, but interesting in a curious kind of way. Very German, I’d say. (See more later about the German influence in this part of Chile.) Anyway,  the woman and her husband were very nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Villarica/Pucon area we headed south to the Frutillar/Puerto Varas area. We planned to make a circuit around Lago Llanquihue (pronounced Yankeeway). We based ourselves in Puerto Varas, where we stayed in the Hostel Helmut House.  Andres just opened up this place the beginning of February and was still getting organized.  The room was large and comfortable, the breakfast was good, and Andres was a bit eccentric. Andres had given up his job in an insurance company and was following his dream. He ended up endearing himself to us and by the end of our stay, it felt more like we had stayed with a friend than in a business establishment.   One thing he did was make real coffee for us in an Italian type espresso pot.  Most Chileans drink instant Nescafe.

(As an aside: Steve recalled a scandal some years ago in Chile because poor people were giving diluted – to make it go further –  Nestle instant baby formula to their babies, resulting in malnutritian.  The Nestle Company bore some responsibility for promoting their product over breast feeding.)

 

 

Throughout the region, the towns vary from fancy touristy places to small, more depressed or neglected places.  Rio Negro is one place that didn’t seem to benefit much from the tourist trade.

 

It is also a curious area culturally because around 1850 the Chilean government recruited immigrants from Germany to settle in this heavily forested part of the country, to develop it agriculturally and improve the economy of Chile.  This they did, with the help of government policies that, among other things, took land away from the indigenous Mapuches. The prevalence of lace curtins and kuchen, as well as farmland that was all forest at one time,  speak to the success of this effort. 

The history of the Mapuche people, their resistence to the Spanish conquistadores of the 16th century, issues related to the German immigration and their current efforts to maintain their identity and claim their rights make for good reading.

History and politics aside,  the landscape is beautiful throughout.  As I suggested earlier, get out your map of Chile so you can find the region and our favorite place, which ended up being Las Cascadas.  It  is across Lago Llanquihue from Frutillar. 

 

 

A few km on the dirt road going out of Las Cascadas towards Ensenada we happened upon a place called Bavaro Beach Lodge. It was quite lovely, peaceful, with a beautiful black sand beach, good food, lovely grounds.  It was across the road from the dump that Lonely Planet recommended. 

Bavaro Beach was just what we needed.  We had a simple,  but nicely furnished and decorated room with our own bathroom for around $50.00.  There were larger, more elegant ones for a little bit more.  If you ever want to take a quiet, restful vacation in Chile, I highly recommend it. It is owned by a guy who left Bavaria, Germany where he was a dairy farmer.  He told us he knew nothing about the history of German settlement in the area when he bought land in this part of Chile about 15 years ago, set himself up as a farmer raising trees for lumber, calves to sell to others who then raise them for beef, and sheep which he raises for meat that gets exported to Europe and the United States.  About 4 years ago he decided to build Bavaro Beach Lodge, using lumber from his farm, and add tourist business to his resume.

We did not see much of the town of Las Cascadas, but it does not seem to have much going on. For more action, it is not a far drive to Frutillar or Puerto Varas, which are major tourist towns. In Las Cascadas, we took a beautiful walk to a waterfall.  Two kms on a dirt road in the car and then a 1 km walk through woods and across streams to get to the waterfall. The walk , the woods and the falls were magnificent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to hurry back to Puerto Varas because we – I should say Steve –agreed to take on the task of returning the car in Puerto Montt, the largest city nearby.  That turned out to be somewhat of a hassle because it needed to be returned to the airport, which was difficult to find. Then Steve had to get back to Puerto Varas where we are spending the night. Figuring out all the logistics, and getting exhausted in the process,  are among the ”joys” of traveling.
  
Tomorrow morning we are taking a bus to Bariloche, Argentina and from there we are going to El Bolson, said to be the Argentine version of a hippie town in a valley in the mountains.  Backpackers and hikers flock there as the base for their adventures. The mountains that I’m referring to are still the Andes, though further south and not as high as those near Mendoza. And the area  is lush and green, though the mountains themselves rise above the  tree line.

Then we plan to go to Esquel and the  Parque Nacional de los Alerces, a forest with big, ancient trees called Alerces, maybe comparable to the Sequoias in California (which we’ve never seen). We have only two weeks left until we must return to Buenos Aires.  We don’t yet have definite plans for the remaining two weeks, but have ruled out getting further south to the glaciers. Time is short and the distances are great. Unfortunately the distances do not get shorter even though time goes by more quickly.

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