After crossing the border into Chile the air cleared and there was no sign of ash anywhere. However, the clouds were low and so the volcano was not visible.
We were on our way back to Chile and heading for Puerto Varas. This time no more skipping back to Argentna. Puerto Varas is referred to as the new Pucon with lessons learned - in other words Lonely Planet in its wisdom is trying to say that puerto varas is going to be a big centre for water-based adventure sports but is not over-commercialised. well they got the last bit right. It's actually a nice little town next to a lake but in mid-November - immediately pre-high season - it was rather quiet. the best bit of being there was definitely the cakes. As mentioned previously, there's a lot of German influence in the Lake District and one rather excellent result of that influence is kuchen. The cakes were enormous but some of us were up to the challenge -especially when I could wash it down with a schop (draught) grande of Kunstmann beer from Valdivia! The beer is a dark blonde beer - halfway between a lager and a bitter and quite heavy. ( I do remember being told by someone in Crewe that I'd miss out on my beer in South America - he was drinking Carling at the time!)
Anyway .... the hostal we stayed in was a bit more down-to-earth than in Argentina in general and in Bariloche paricular. It was owned by a swiss-chilean couple and they ran it very much on hostel lines and kept a rustic feel to the place.
We didn't really take a lot of photos of Puerto Varas as we were too busy eating cakes.
And so we moved on to Castro on the island of Chiloe. According to 'the books', Chiloe was a special place that had its own character distinct from the rest of Chile (much the same as Patagonia really!) and therefore was a must visit. however, not many of the travellers we had met seemed to even know of it much less intend to go there.
Anyway we'd already booked a place that had rave reviews on all the websites and set off on the relatively short bus ride (4 hours). On the same bus was this German guy who we'd briefly met in Puerto Varas and he decided he'd check out the hostel we were going to. It wasn't central but that means it was a 10 minute walk. He had a quick look at one of the rooms and said he would go and see another place before committing. We didn't see him again but we found ut that he'd gone elsewhere, hadn't liked that place either and went straight back to Puerto Varas on the next bus. We found this out via another we'd met in PVaras, a Belgian, who reported that the German bloke had said that Castro was a dump and he was afraid that he was going to get his throat cut in the hostel we'd booked. Some people are strange!
La Torre de Babel (the hostel) is run by Luis and Martin a couple of really friendly and incredibly laid-back blokes who were always offering advice, help and quips to keep everybody happy. It was a very relaxing time and we met and chatted with quite a lot of people (mainly, as they stayed one or two nights whereas we stayed for 5). We also cooked a few times as well!! (pasta and tuna!).
Castro was rather different from places we'd visited before - it was a working town full of everyday working people who had very little to do with the tourist industry except occasionally to share a microbus with tourists. as a result the place wasn't tarted up very much, there were hardly any souvenir -type shops, there was very little evidence of granola and so the place didn't look like the kind of place we'd been used to. Perhaps this was why the German guy thought it was a dump. To be honest we felt a little tinge of anxiety but it soon disolved as we adjusted to the new surroundings.
However, there were things to do and see in the town and the island as a whole. One feature f the island were the stilted houses PALAFITOS.
Most palafitos in Castro are not lived in but are hotels , hostels, restaurants or offices. Outside of Castro they are generally lived.
There'll be more information on other features of Chiloe in the next post.
We were on our way back to Chile and heading for Puerto Varas. This time no more skipping back to Argentna. Puerto Varas is referred to as the new Pucon with lessons learned - in other words Lonely Planet in its wisdom is trying to say that puerto varas is going to be a big centre for water-based adventure sports but is not over-commercialised. well they got the last bit right. It's actually a nice little town next to a lake but in mid-November - immediately pre-high season - it was rather quiet. the best bit of being there was definitely the cakes. As mentioned previously, there's a lot of German influence in the Lake District and one rather excellent result of that influence is kuchen. The cakes were enormous but some of us were up to the challenge -especially when I could wash it down with a schop (draught) grande of Kunstmann beer from Valdivia! The beer is a dark blonde beer - halfway between a lager and a bitter and quite heavy. ( I do remember being told by someone in Crewe that I'd miss out on my beer in South America - he was drinking Carling at the time!)
Anyway .... the hostal we stayed in was a bit more down-to-earth than in Argentina in general and in Bariloche paricular. It was owned by a swiss-chilean couple and they ran it very much on hostel lines and kept a rustic feel to the place.
 |
| architecture and cakes!! |
And so we moved on to Castro on the island of Chiloe. According to 'the books', Chiloe was a special place that had its own character distinct from the rest of Chile (much the same as Patagonia really!) and therefore was a must visit. however, not many of the travellers we had met seemed to even know of it much less intend to go there.
Anyway we'd already booked a place that had rave reviews on all the websites and set off on the relatively short bus ride (4 hours). On the same bus was this German guy who we'd briefly met in Puerto Varas and he decided he'd check out the hostel we were going to. It wasn't central but that means it was a 10 minute walk. He had a quick look at one of the rooms and said he would go and see another place before committing. We didn't see him again but we found ut that he'd gone elsewhere, hadn't liked that place either and went straight back to Puerto Varas on the next bus. We found this out via another we'd met in PVaras, a Belgian, who reported that the German bloke had said that Castro was a dump and he was afraid that he was going to get his throat cut in the hostel we'd booked. Some people are strange!
La Torre de Babel (the hostel) is run by Luis and Martin a couple of really friendly and incredibly laid-back blokes who were always offering advice, help and quips to keep everybody happy. It was a very relaxing time and we met and chatted with quite a lot of people (mainly, as they stayed one or two nights whereas we stayed for 5). We also cooked a few times as well!! (pasta and tuna!).
Castro was rather different from places we'd visited before - it was a working town full of everyday working people who had very little to do with the tourist industry except occasionally to share a microbus with tourists. as a result the place wasn't tarted up very much, there were hardly any souvenir -type shops, there was very little evidence of granola and so the place didn't look like the kind of place we'd been used to. Perhaps this was why the German guy thought it was a dump. To be honest we felt a little tinge of anxiety but it soon disolved as we adjusted to the new surroundings.
However, there were things to do and see in the town and the island as a whole. One feature f the island were the stilted houses PALAFITOS.
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| this one is lived (unusually!) and is on an island off the east coast |
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| these were in castro |
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| another lived in! (Castro) |
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| this one is a retaurant (posh!) |
Most palafitos in Castro are not lived in but are hotels , hostels, restaurants or offices. Outside of Castro they are generally lived.
There'll be more information on other features of Chiloe in the next post.
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