Carlita, Josefa & Luka.

After waiting for our clothes on the line to dry more, we packed up and climbed to the high point on the carretera (650m). The surface of the road is worse than expected and I realize that I could put wider tires on my bike to get better traction. We had to get off our bikes and walk for about a fourth of the last 6k to the top. Julie started feeling weak in the afternoon, due to a cold (and we discovered that the cookies we ate were over a year out-of-date) so we are staying at a smaller town than planned, with a view of Cerro La Emperatriz, which resembles the Matterhorn.

Parque Pumalin is privately owned by The Conservation Land Trust.

The pavement ended on the Carretera Austral after the first 31 km on a sunny day with snow-capped peaks poking up everywhere. We ate a gourmet lunch at a lakeside hotel then camped nearby. After washing clothes we took the 6k hike through this temperate rain forest to get closer to the Ventisquero Yelcho glacier.  We passed by Pumalín Park, a nature sanctuary owned by The Conservation Land Trust which was founded by Douglas Tompkins; an American billionaire who started North Face outdoors gear and Esprit clothing.   Though many Chileans are skeptical of a foreign-owned national park, they seem pleased to have it saved from development.

Reflections in the Rio Yelcho.

The Ventisquero Yelcho glacier.

Julie in Wonderland, under a canopy of Nalca, or Pangue, leaves. They look like gigantic rhubarb plants, and their stalks are also edible.

Castro harbor at low tide.

Valentine’s Day is the anniversary of our first date. Little did we know then that ten years later Julie would be following me to the ends of the earth. We crossed the Gulf of Corcovado on a seven hour ferry ride that showed a pirated copy of the movie Avatar. Two years ago Chaiten was buried buy mud after a volcano heated up and melted a glacier. The town was evacuated in time so that no one was hurt. The government has decided to move the town and has not restored the power and water systems; but many of the townspeople have no plans to move. (We heard that the day after we left, the town was put on yellow alert due to volcanic activity).

Mud flows buried Chaiten in May, 2008.

Blue & orange church.

We reached the end of the Panamerican Highway today, at the southern end of Isla Chiloé.  Tomorrow we’ll take a boat back to the mainland and continue cycling south on the Carretera Austral.  I put my bike on a bus for the first time ever; going back to Castro on the stretch of road we had just spent the day cycling.  The boat from Quellón sails at night from midnight to five am and the boat from Castro sails during the day; so we’ll be better able to enjoy the cruise from Castro.  It is important to me to bike every stretch of the road.  Even though I’m not setting any records, I don’t want an asterisk added to my journey.  Like some athletes who have an asterisk to their record (* drug abuser) I don’t want an asterisk (* a bus user).

St Michael stepping on the Devil.

The Conchi church.

Tidal conditions here help create an abundant seafood supply.

We have extra time to spend on this enchanting island since the boat across the gulf of Corcavado only sails one day of the week.  I think we may need the extra rest before tackling what may be the biggest challenge of this trip: the Carretera Austral. It is over a thousand kilometers of mostly gravel highway that was just finished in the 80s.

Inside the Achao church, built in 1767.

Wood carving in the Achao church.

Fishermen's houses on stilts are called palafitos.

Ignacio & Alonso are "Los Clandestinos"

Rain greeted us as we began our tour down Chiloé Island where we will spend the next five days.  Because of its southern location (far from the early governments in Santiago), its temperate, rainy Pacific coastal climate, and its separation from the mainland, a culture unique in Chile has developed, a culture that mixes the traditions, religion, architecture, stories, foods, and skills (to name a few) of the Chono, Huilliche, Spanish, and German peoples (to name a few).  Perhaps part of the hospitality we have been experiencing comes from this mix.

Our plan to spend the day biking an 80km route to and around the city of Ancud dissipated in the soaking drizzle.  We got a late start, drinking coffee leisurely at our breakfast as the wind blew and the rain misted.  When finally ready to load the bikes, David remembered the flat tire he had on his bike from the night before.  Delayed about 15 minutes as he patched the tire, and we were on our way.   After 5km or so, David´s cable on his rear derailleur snapped.  Hoping there might be some shelter from the misty wind at the top of the hill where he could fix the bike,  one such shelter appeared…a covered bus stop.  It always amazes me how quickly David deals with break-downs.  I  barely had time to translate one page of our Spanish guide book before he had replaced the cable.  Back on the misty, chilly road, a cup of coffee seemed a good idea.  We came upon the Parque Ecológico y Mitológico de Chile, a privately run park we had been told was for children.  We stopped to check it out and see if they had a snack bar with coffee.  No coffee or food was sold, but we were invited into the family’s home by Francisco, a Santiago policeman, who with his family was visiting his father, the park’s creator.  Francisco offered us coffee, bread and cheese.  His three sons, Alfonzo, Juan, Ignacio, and his niece Daniela, played and sang folk music for us, music they had performed at festivals as members of the band The Clandestinos. Then Francisco gave us a private tour of the park sharing some of the stories and myths of the island.  The park was a labyrinth of paths in the thickets of the woods.  Various creatures, carved from wood by Francisco’s father stood in small clearings, caves, branches of trees, under swinging wooden walking bridges, inside miniature wooden houses, all constructed by Francisco’s father.  My favorite was the bruja (witch), a very wise old woman who held all the knowledge of the culture, understood healing and balance, and was consulted by all with their problems.  In the religion of the Huilliche and Chono people she was the shaman.   You have to love a tradition where old, wrinkled woman are honored and respected.   Of course, such a strong figure was called a “witch” by the proselytizing Jesuits in the 16th century and relegated to children’s stories (I think, perhaps, she lives on in the island in the guise of a strong Catholic Mary).

After touring this work of love by Francisco’s father, David and I got back on the bikes.  The rain continued off and on as we rode a short 20km or so arriving in the late afternoon in Ancud. Once the capital of the province, Ancud suffered greatly in the 1960 earthquake, the strongest earthquake ever recorded, measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale.  The town seemed a little shabby at first glance.  This impression did not last.  First we met Lorena, hotel manager, who gave us a lovely room and didn’t turn up her nose at our soggy appearance.  In our exploring of the town the next day we toured a very good museum that introduced us to the wooden churches for which this island is known.  The cultural mix and the climate’s available trees produced unique architecture in its churches that UNESCO has declared World Heritage sites.  We will see some of these churches in the next few days.

Wooden churches in Chiloe have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I was prepared for the rainy days of the southern Lake District of Chile, especially after shopping in Bariloche (and it has been fun wearing my new rain gear!), but I wasn´t prepared for the exceptional warmth and hospitality we are experiencing over and over here.

It first began at our hostel in Puerto Varas, where Christian, the owner of the hostel  and the owner/gourmet chef at the adjoining restaurant, made room for us at his full hostel and then discounted the price of our exquisite dinner at his posh restaurant.  We biked the next morning in a misty, drizzly rain, away from the pristine lakes, big trees and volcanoes of the area, through the more industrial port of Puerto Montt, past small hog and cattle farms,  and larger fish processing plants to the quiet town of Pargua.   We quickly caught a ferry that took us to the even quieter town of Chacao,  the northern most town on the Island of Chiloé, Chile´s second largest island, after Tierra del Fuego.   We enjoyed watching swimming seals and dolphins on our 25 minute ride.

Arriving at the end of our day in Chacao, in its lowly tourist office, we met Jessica, artist, poet, and tourist office manager extraordinaire.  She enthusiastically pointed out areas on the island map we would enjoy, including the restaurant owned by her family in one seaside village.  To our question of where to stay that night she explained there were two hospedajes down the street, but we might not have any luck with them.  In that case she had a room in her home for us.  We ended up staying with her that night.  In the morning she shared some of her poetry and art, which exuded her love of the island, the serenity she found in its natural surroundings, and her love of life.  Her energy was infectious.

Jessica Ojeda Care

Master Chef Christian Alvan prepares our next course.

A north wind blew and the rain continued off and on as we biked with surprisingly little traffic along the south shore of Lago Llanquihue (pronounced “yankee way”) to this town which was settled in the 1850s, the same time as the Twin Cities.   We stayed in our hostel all afternoon as the rain continued unabated.  Julie and I then ate a delicious gourmet meal at the Divino Mesón Bistró next door where we sat at the Chef’s counter to watch the chefs in action, just like in the movie Ratatoullie.

Scallops on the half shell, garnished with fresh tomato.

Sous Chef Martin uses liquid hydrogen to make ice cream.

Cold, fresh ice cream created before our eyes with chocolate, cream, & red wine.

Rainbow over Brazo Puerto Blest.

When we heard that the CruceAndino trip to Chile via three boats and four buses cost $230 each we thought of changing our plans.  Since we have bikes, and won’t need to bus between lakes,  it ends up costing us only $80 each. The heavily overcast day prevents us from seeing the snow-capped volcanoes ringing these deep, glacier-carved lakes that are really freshwater fiords.  The 27k road across the border is not connected to the road system of either country; it is only reachable by boat.  We intended to camp between the boat crossings; but the three kilometer, 300m climb up was not as tough as we expected, and the 800m drop down on the Chilean side went smoothly on the gravel road. The four o’clock boat departure was within our grasp until Julie got a flat tire (I get twice as many flats as Julie).  We still rushed the last 10k (no time for photos) and arrived at Chile customs at 3:45.  The friendly customs officials let us go to the front of the line and we boarded our boat on time.

Aerial view of our crossing (right to left) from Argentina to Chile.

No traffic at this remote border crossing.

Lago Todos Los Santos is also called Emerald Lake because of the color of the glacier-filled water.

The odd, triangular needles of the Monkey Puzzle tree. (So named because it would "puzzle a monkey" to climb)

Leaves larger than an elephant's ear.

The historic Llao Llao hotel and cloud-covered Cerro Lopez.

We are staying at a rural youth hostel near an overlook reached by a chairlift that, supposedly, is one of the top ten panoramas in the world.  We skip it, and instead bike a 25k loop (the circuito chico) through old growth forests and around lakes rimmed by rocky mountains on this drizzly day.

This view from Punto Panoramico is lower than the view from Cerro Campanario.