The Lakes District in Chile

On the beach near Bahia Mansa mid summer!

The Osorno Volcano, from the Petrohue Falls

It’s time to come home! Small things now irritate me - like toilet paper holders that fall apart when you try to get paper off a full roll, a couple of lukewarm showers, dull knives, gas stoves I need to ask Craig to turn on because using the cigarette lighter sideways burns my thumb....

But that’s enough for the complaint section - the country side is simply gorgeous here in the Lakes District - a vast area. There is Valdivian Rain Forest with many trees we haven’t seen before, and have no idea what they are. Except we have now seen Monkey Puzzle Trees also in the wild - it is the national tree of Chile!

Link to Chile’s Lake District pic’s

The view from our room in Bahia Mansa

The weather seems drier on the Argentinian side of the Andes. We have had more rain now, and this morning of our last day hoping to hike, fog.
You see snow capped volcanoes in many directions, and some of them are active - I was happy the cloud Craig hoped was smoke from one, wasn’t.
We have seen cyclo tourists several times; I only wish they would wear brighter colors. In some places near towns they have bike and pedestrian paths, some even separated by more than a painted line. But the shoulders are narrow in the countryside, and because we didn’t bike here ourselves, I really don’t know how nice, and safe it would be. There also seem to be lots of dirt roads.

Pucón was the ‘outdoor capital’ of our tour - LOTS of outfitters downtown taking you (= anyone) climbing on a volcano with crampons, white water kayaking, biking etc. We saw plenty of locals out biking and running, and there have been quite a few people in the various parks we visited, out hiking.

Puerto Varas

We started out in Puerto Varas, where the large Osorno Volcano and another one, dominate the view across the big lake. It was windy enough the lake had white caps. The town is touristy, and it was warm and sunny, so we saw plenty of people swim and play in the water.
We drove to a famous water fall, walked around some, but the next day cut our walk short due to horrendous large flies that buzzed around you despite bug dope. Not sure if my one bug bite was by one of these, but it’s not itchy.
Craig found various trails on maps.me, but accessing some of them turned out to be a bit challenging. He sees the difference between Argentina’s left-of-center government for many years, and Chile’s right wing such. Hiking in Bariloche we were only limited by me; in Chile you seem to need to pay to access trails, and the sites are very commercial. Bariloche resembles our White Mountains more, they have a local club that helps maintain trails, provides info etc. and the trail heads were just that.
There are long trekking routes through the Andes - we saw one crossing from Chile into Argentina near the water fall. You definitely need to be very experienced to venture out there.

Chiloe Island old church

Chiloe - the largest island in an archipelago off the coast west of Puerto Varas is recommended by many sources. There are 2 main towns, but we found neither one very attractive. The country side is pretty with rolling green hills. The island is known for its legends and many old wooden churches built by the Spaniards who lived here isolated for some 300 years. The local Mapuche Indians kept them from reaching the mainland, and the colonialists on the mainland lived north of the Mapuche. Charles Darwin made it also to here - on the same voyage that took him e.g. to the island of Tierra del Fuego, and the Galapagos.

We got to see a Pudu driving on the highway leaving the island! They are shy, threatened and the smallest of the deer species - only 14-18” (35-45cm) tall and around 22lbs (10kg) on average. I saw a sign stating this was a protected area for them.

There are lots of very steep dirt roads in bad condition, and our little Suzuki car with a tiny trunk, made it up in first gear with a little gas pedal input by Craig..
Both arriving and departing the island, we drove to the ferry terminal, and a ferry was there, in the process of boarding, and had room for us. Very efficient - Craig saw other ferries essentially waiting for ours to leave. The ride takes maybe 15-20 minutes.

Near Bahia Mansa

The whole coastal area we visited here was severely damaged in the 1960 earthquake, which is the strongest ever recorded. It measured 9.5 strength, for 5-10 minutes, and caused an 82-foot tsunami. It devastated Chiloe. I very much regret not asking our hosts in Bahia Mansa, a little north on the mainland, about this, because the Mom here likely lived through it on Chiloe. She might well remember quite a bit herself. We have not seen any evidence of this disaster, and Craig read amazingly many people survived because their homes were built to withstand earthquakes. But vast areas were affected - 61 people died in Hilo, Hawaii from the tsunami caused by this quake in Chile!

We really enjoyed our stay in Bahia Mansa, despite the rain. We had a new small hostel to ourselves, we enjoyed our walks along the ocean, we quickly got help when the car again wouldn’t start - this time on a tiny unpaved road, which mostly resembled a path... We had warm showers, a nice kitchen and super friendly hosts!

Pucón came next - the furthest north on this tour of the Lakes, and from here we came to Puyehue - a small town near a National Park by the same name. We for the first time on this entire trip had GREAT bread in Pucon - multigrain such, with a nice crust, from a bakery. Next to this bakery, we had the only lunch I consider special, except the nice salad I got when we arrived in Montevideo. It was a tiny ‘Mediterranean’ place, and am confident they had plenty of connections to Israel, because our Falafel Pitas were super, and they displayed this flag prominently.

The fog lifted by mid day today, we made it to the National Park, and found out neither one of the 2 longer trails was open. This was because of the Hanta Virus - a severe pulmonary infection that can kill even young healthy people. The virus is spread via rodent droppings, and people can inhale it.
But we enjoyed walking their 2 other short trails, again in the rain forest, which Craig loved because of all the huge trees.

Now we are back at the cabin, waiting for the manager/owner to come and check on why we have no warm water for showers... And despite at least one store having more dog food than chocolate, we managed to find this essential food group eventually.

It’s 2 days later and Craig is right now on his way to to Brazil to view the Foz do Iguazu, while I am waiting at the airport in Santiago to board a flight to his sister June’s in Orlando. These falls are bigger than the Niagara Falls, and are located on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It’s peak mosquito season, and for those of us >60, the Yellow Fever vaccine carries a significantly higher risk of complications. Craig is much more eager than I am to see the falls, so he received the vaccine for free in Buenos Aires at a Vaccination Clinic under a highway overpass. The building reminded me of Boston during the Big Dig.. It was also interesting to see how they managed this part of their public health system. I doubt JCAHO would approve, but Craig did fine.
In Orlando we will have a big party at June’s with family arriving from Denver and NC, and a friend from somewhere else.