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Published: July 16th 2017
Geo: -40.7644, -73.8326
At 6 AM on 12th of January I took a bus back to Valdivia. I was so lucky as to have a very nice argentinian woman to have next to me. She told me that the educational system and the universities in Argentina are really bad and we talked about the hitch-hikers in South America. I told her that I prefer to take a bus but that I saw lots of hitch-hikers on "la ruta de los 7 lagos". She told me that there have been some incidents in the last years and that now nobody wants to give hitch-hikers a lift anymore; you just don't know who will enter your car. So it was a good decision to take busses. :-) Our bus-tour arrived 2 hours late even though we gad no problems with trafic nor at the border. Can you understand how the heck this is possible? I can't... :-S
Anyway, I absolutely wanted to get to Bahia Mansa that same day what meant a few hours more in busses. When we arrived in Valdivia, I was very lucky and the bus next to ours was leaving 5 minutes later to Osorno. So, I shifted my luggage from
one bus in the other and ran to the bathroom and bought water in less than 5 minutes. xD
I had the honor of sitting in the codriver's seat and for once had a great view. I exchanged also with the driver and his wife who were very nice people. She wanted to see my itinerary on my maps and before we arrived she managed to find a few nice men in the bus who would take me to the stop where I had to take the "taxi collectivo" - like a public and cheap taxi - and one of them had to take the same bus direction Bahia Mansa as me and joined me so that I couldn't get lost. He was friendly but from all this bus drive I was so tired that I understood only half of what he said and si I was kind of relieved when he left the bus and I didn't need to listen anymore.
Then we arrived to Bahia Mansa and I was shocked : there was absolutrly nothing in this port and village! No guesthouse, nothing! What to do? 2 other people with their son were in the same situation as me and
they decided to camp on the beach. I would do the same thing but I feared it could get really cold... I saw my only chance in entering the only restaurant at the beach and asked the young waitress if she new about any guesthouse in the village. And YES, she did! Her grandparents had one, so she called them and asked her grandpa to come and get me. This was sooo nice! And it turned out that her grandparents were even more friendly and welcoming. I loved the place! The rooms were small but lovely. Somewhat later came the other guests : a young woman and her 15 years old son from next to Puerto Montt, Rosa and Joachim. We had a nice conversation and they invited me to do Caleta Condor and later Maicolpué together with them and they offered to take me to Puerto Montt on friday by car. I actually wanted to be in Chiloe by thursday evening but with almost no hesitation I accepted their invitation.
You have to seize the moment and the oppotunity and that was definitely one. :-)
Anyway, this travel is not only about doing my sightseeing program but also about
meeting people and being spontaneous, so here we go. And it turned out to be a good decision because I would come back only kate in the evening the next day from Caleta Condor and could never have made it to Chiloe anyway.The owner of the guesthouse, señora Licha, insisted that I leave my tent and my heavy unnecessary stuff at there house so that I could enjoy my travel more.
There still are amazingly helpful and kind people in this world, and this is great to know! :-D
And now starts the big adventure! We get to the port quite early (7:30 AM) and we watch how slowly more and more people get there. Except the captain, he's nowhere to be seen. People start forming a line and fortunately we're quite in front because now there's lots of people. I really didn't expect THAT on a wednesday morning. When finally came captain David and brought the boat to shore he told us that only people who reserved before could get on the boat but that there were still people on the island who would come back the next day so that he couldn't promise anyone that they would be
able to come back the next day. IS THAT A F***ING JOKE ? There was no mention about reservation nowhere and it took a long time to figure out the thing. My new friends Rosa and Joachim fortunately had a reservation (I didn't...). When all were on the boat there was one elderly nice man working there who made me come on the boat. He said : "Come on, we have enough space for one more person, don't worry!" But 2 minutes later captain David came and told me to leave again. Great! Thank you! :-S So, we were 14 people who absolutely wanted to go even though there wasn't enough space. Captain David was sorry for this circumstances (at least he said he was) and said for 200.000 $ he would come and get us later and bring us back tomorrow. We sorted this out between us and agreed that the 4 people with their 5 kids pay 100.000 $ and the 5 others pay 20.000 $ each. He said he would come at 1 PM and so we split up and each spent the waiting hours differently. For my part I made the best of it, went to
the beach, read my book, went back to señora Licha to get my tent (since there were so many people on the island better be prepared not to find a guesthouse), watched the cooking show they made on the shore (it was delicious! Pieces of fish with ciboulette and potatoes with small pieces of chorizo) and ate some delicious empanadas with fresh seafood. At 1 PM we all assembled at the shore but of course David didn't come until 2:45... I must say I was quite relaxed all day and this delay wasn't bothering me, I was having a good time and enjoying being at the seaside. While waiting we got to know each other and I particularly like Alejandro and his girlfriend (don't remember her name, really complicated one!). 2 of the others bothered me from the beginning because this woman was so negative and complaining a lot. Since I'm trying to stay away from such people I avoided talking to her and her husband.
I forgot to mention, while I was on the beach that morning, Ghislaine, a testimony of Jehova, came to talk to me. We had a nice conversation about god and whatever higher force there
might be. Reading "eat, pray, love" I was quite on that subject already anyway. I really liked this girl, she was nice and open-minded. It was interesting to hear her point of view though personally I can't and don't want to believe in the god the Bible paints us and she was interested in my point of view and told me that she actually heard from quite some people that they do believe just like me in this higher force that presents itself like an all englobing energy. Well, I won't bore you with religious aspects, but sometimes it's interesting to hear someone else's point of view if nobody is judging the other or trying to convince the othe other to change her believe.More about the tour. During the 1:30 hours boat-trip, almost everyone got sick (fortunately not me, I was just enjoying). When we finally arrived in Caleta Condor, I put my tent and spent the time on the beach reading. The place was beautiful! On one side there was a big river starting right there and the water coming from the mountain into it was delicious (like in most of the parcs and places on the mountais were
I was you could just drink the water from the river). On the other side of the beach (5 m away), there was the seaside with it's wonderful blue, "türkis" water. The only bad things were the fact that the water was freezing cold and that there were lots of big flies that "stechen" really hard. That evening we ate fresh fish baked in garlic with potatoes and salate, really good! The night in the tent was sooo cold and it was really humid, but the sky was completely clear and I never saw more bright shining stars in my life! The next morning I went up the mountain to a point of view (not much to see) and on my way down I came across a point from which I could overlook the beach. It was a nice hike after these last days of bus riding.
I had breakfast and watched how most of the people left. Rosa told me later that it was the same game as the day before : first David didn't want anyone to get on the boat, then in the end everbody got in anyway. Since the water was really low, they couldn't go get
some of the local people who were supposed to come so that in the end there were like 15 empty seats and the people who stayed and would leave the next day by walking back (9 hours!) because they told them there would be no space could actually have gone with them. Worst organization ever! And it seems like that happens often... :-S
I spent the morning trekking trough the woods along the river and when I came back I packed my bags trying not to get eaten by this aweful insects. There were so many and they were hurting so much that I kept on my big hoodie all day. When I wanted to get lunch they told me, Alejandro and his girlfriend that all the women left this morning beacause the boat wouldn't come back until next tuesday and even though we were promised lunch there was no food. Juhuuu! :-( In the end we found one house where they sold us some bread and eggs at least and so it happens that I had lunch with Alejandro and his girlfriend. They told me about the really bad political situation in Chile (getting almost as bad as in
Argentina), about the violence and robberies in Santiago where there are lots of very poor people and about the high expenses for studying (the fee for 1 year university is around 7 to 15 million pesos!!!). Sounds like it's not a good idea to move to Chile. Rosa told me that studying in Chile is almost unaffordable but that the universities are really good whereas universities in Argentina are for free but quite bad in what concerns it's quality.I spent the afternoon reading and sleeping on the beach waiting for the boat to come get us. Instead of 4 PM like David said, he came around 5 PM and we left around 5:30/6 PM.
To my huge surprise, when we arrived there were Rosa and Joachim waiting for me to take me "home" to our guesthouse. That was sooo nice! :-D Then they took me to Maicolpué where we had delicious diner (chupe de jaivas for me) and we went for a walk on the beach. It was a very nice evening. :-) A word about our guesthouse Licha : it was like being at your grandparent's home. They were really loving and did everything to make you feel at home.
Saying "goodbye" was almost sad and she offered me a little book "Viva con esperanza" as a goodbye-gift. I can only recommand you to go there if you spent a night in Bahia Mansa (I can give you the address and phone number if you're interested) !
The next day Rosa and Joachim gave me a lift but instead of just dropping me off at the bus station they showed me their city Llanquilhue and made an incredibly delicious lunch (merluza baked in egg and persil sauce with rice and vegetables) and I got to meet her husband Javier who runs a mini-bus company. They were so nice, I'm very grateful I met them!!! :-)We talked a lot and I was quite surprised when they gave me a different version of the Pinochet-story than books and museums tell. They told me that before Pinochet, under Allende, there were lots of internal problems in Chile. Most rich people had to give their territories to the Mapuche and chilean people who wanted to possess domains but who didn't want to work. So all territory was diveded lots of times but nobody actually used them and if Pinochet wouldn't have taken over there
would really soon have been a civil war. It's not like they said everything that happened under Pinochet was good, but they say that not all of it was bad for the country either.
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