On the road with Maximum Velocidad

---

---

A visit from the sponsors is always a tricky affair. Do you shower them with Champagne or impress them with your cunning frugality in the spending of their money ? Ideally both, which with good wine in Chile available cheaply seemed to be entirely possible. For this section of our trip we have been joined by Kim´s Dad Steve and his newly betrothed Margaret. Both have just retired this summer and so far their feet don´t seem to have touched the ground. After periods touring Italy, Scotland and Italy again, plus moving house, they decided on their own mini Round-the-World jaunt through South America and Australasia.

In the past, Steve´s holidaying habits have been the stuff of hectic legend, but retirement seems thankfully to have calmed him, and he is now intent on reclaiming all those years of early-rising that are owed him as a career teacher - an hour each working day for thirty odd years or so. Margaret also seems happy to take things as they come, although expresses some concern as to exactly how steep and how tough this mountainous country is going to be. So far the going has been tough, particularly as Steve has been suffering from a bad cold for the last week or so, which Kim has now picked up, but in true Blitz fashion we are soldiering on. To quote Winston Churchill on being informed that a Cabinet Minister had been caught naked in a local park with a prostitute - "Last night? But wasn´t it below freezing .... My God, it makes you proud to be British." Indeed.

Chilean towns are ramshackle affairs, but they are generally pleasant nonetheless. This seems to apply from the smallest hamlet all the way up to the capital City of Santiago. Most of the creaking structures in the country are wooden, in varying states of dilapidation, but mostly functional and always quaint. Internally, guest houses often have an air of those lining the promenades of the English seaside in the 1950s. But beware, these are local shops for local people. As we move further into the wilds of the South it becomes more and more like Twin Peaks, except the coffee is damn awful, not ´Damn Fine´.

Chile is a country where mountain bikes outnumber mobile phones, dirt roads outnumber sealed roads, cold showers outnumber hot showers and jars of Nescafe outnumber Espresso machines. Operation Raleigh are busy building new playgrounds, mountain tracks and refugios when clearly the country needs an injection of working boilers and proper coffee. And fast. In an impoverished country like Bolivia these minor hardships are only to be expected, but Chile is proud of its status as developed, not developing, and prices itself accordingly. When we praise Chilean wine to our maitre´d his eyes moisten and he stands erect, his shoulders back and his chest out, adopting the same posture as the haughty waitress, also proud of Chile and her ample Latin-American bounty.

The Chilean people themselves are generally helpful when needed, and ignore us the rest of the time; surely the sign of people that are either comfortably well off, or poor but proud. In Chile I suspect there are elements of both. Either way, our money disappears fast and sticking to our budget is hard.

It is election time and the land is lined with grinning faces, with perfect shirts and perfect teeth, leering at you from roadsides, buildings and even peering down from treetops and remote mountain-sides. All the candidates are attempting to look fresh and young, wearing bright colours and open collars, rather than the dark suits and sobre gravitas that tells the world ´We´ve got all the weapons and we´re just itching to use them´. But then Chile seems to want to project itself as a positive country, with the highest growth and gdp per capita in South America, bettered in the Latin-American region only by the victims of NAFTA, Mexico (I suspect if "most common" income is measured as opposed to average income then Chile will come out ahead. Out of interest, Bolivia is third from bottom, but still double that of last place Haiti. More on this at the end of the blog). In Santiago and its immediate environs you could be fooled into thinking "Chic Chile" is now only one step behind "Cool Britannia" in the trend stakes, but head into the wilds away from the regional capitals and the major tourist areas and you encounter the dourness of a Scottish fishwife, which is perhaps unsurprising given the remoteness of existence in many places.

In fact Tourism in Chile is more style than substance. The first thing to realise is that Chilean tourism exists only in January and February, when the people of Chile are on holiday. Outside this time the tourist office may well be closed, the lovely hostels described by your guidebook may also be closed (actually full with long-term lets), the bus or ferry service you were looking for may not be running or the vineyard from which you expected a hearty welcome has decided not to bother opening its doors today. The next thing to understand is that lots of wonderful mountains does not mean lots of wonderful trekking. Your local tourist information will provide you with lots of lovely glossy brochures containing out-of-focus pictures of people on horseback looking miserable and then direct you to the nearest expensive hot springs on a map that would just about qualify as a road-atlas. If you want a decent topographic map make sure you buy it in Santiago. I can´t comment as to whether they are decent since we never saw any - well actually one, which looked pretty inaccurate from what I could tell. But then a map is probably not much use as outside the National Parks their don´t seem to be any trails of any description whatsoever. Much of Chile is private land, so if you do find somewhere to trek then brace yourself for a fee, which may or may not be steep but may well be collected by a drunken hillbilly who will enthusiastically jabber at you in Spanish until you escape his clutches by scattering so he can only chase one of you. This land is tough, so outside the farmers fields there are no paths whatsoever, simply because the locals would never want to bother going there - hence the need for the support of the likes of Operation Raleigh in building the infracstructure, any infrastructure.

Also beware of misinformation. There are two types of ignorance here - honest and dishonest. The latter we have encountered in most countries we have visited, where a local would rather make up the answer to a question rather than admit they don´t know. The former is perhaps more worrying. Ask where to find a bike rental place and the tourist information people will give you a shiny map with them all marked on. Go to the places in question and they will happily tell you, ´No, we´ve never rented bikes´. Take the beautifully produced leaflet of Cerro Castillo which describes in detail a number of walking routes around the spectacular mountain and try to follow the Eastern trail and you´ll find it doesn´t really exist - but the people handing out the leaflets wouldn´t know, they´ve never been. Arrive to collect tickets for your fourteen hour ferry trip and you´ll find it is actually thirty six hours - and this was booked by a fluent speaker of Spanish, German and English. In consolation the ticket office will tell you to take plenty of beer, but don´t worry water is available - whilst on boarding you find all alcohol is banned and water must be purchased from the "bar". Etc.

But despite this, we´ve survived, and despite atrocious weather for long periods we´ve managed to have a reasonably good time. I think.

We met up with Steve and Margaret in Hotel Londres in central Santiago, where thankfully they had booked us a room. This small area is lovely, with beautiful colonial architecture, public benches adorned with lovers and stone steps adorned with art students languidly sketching the blissfull scene. However in our previous explorations we hadn´t found anywhere nice to eat in the vicinity, so we were pleased when S&M led the way to a trendy little suburb full of stylish bars serving wine and tapas. We sat in balmy sunshine sipping smokey-smooth Cabernet Sauvignon whilst sampling beautiful cheese and antipasto whilst discussing our plan of attack. Chile is going to be good we thought.

Our first idea was to whiz out of Santiago to the wine-growing town of Curico, about two hours South by bus. Booking the ticket was easy - they have a computerised system instead of the pad of paper we had become used to. The easy-to-use underground metro whisked us to the bus station, the nicest I´ve been to anywhere, where our platform was clearly numbered and easy to find. Wow, we´re in a proper country.

That was where things started to go wrong. Curico was at first a bit of a shock - more ramshackle than we expected, but once installed in our cheap but adequate accomodation we realised it was all quite pleasant, and after all it was still sunny. Then we tried to find Tourist Information to see which wineries we could visit, but it was closed. Instead we found a security guard, who directed us to a place where they run wine tours. These were prohibitively expensive (more than 25 gbp each for a half day visit to two wineries) so we said we´ll rent a car and go ourselves. But the helpful young lady said you can´t, they won´t let you in. Ah. Then I asked about the nearby region of Colchagua, where I really wanted to go, particularly to visit Casa Lapostolle. No problem, she said, lots of wineries are open round there.

So we rented a car without to much difficulty, for just over 25 gbp for the day, and drove the 40km to the equally ramshackle and equally pleasant town of Santa Cruz where, of course, we encountered exactly the same problem.

If you come to Chile and want to taste some of their often wonderfull wine (and you should), don´t bother with the wineries. Get together eight of you from your hostel in Santiago, chip in a tenner each and go to the nearest supermarket. Get four Sauvignon Blancs (including the fume from Montes), a few other whites, a Camenere and a Malbec if you absolutely must and a couple of expensive bottles of Montes Alpha (Syrah or Cab Sav) and Casa Lapostelle Cuvee Alexandre. Borrow some glasses from a local cafe and sit and drink them in the park. Trust me, you´ll have a much better time, it will be a lot cheaper and you´ll learn a lot more about Chilean wine.

I don´t have a mobile phone and never have had. The only time I relented and tried to get one I eventually refused when I realised that the Orange tariff cost me more per call the more I contracted to pay them each month and they refused to publish the cost of international calls, which I would be making a lot. The idiot salesman at Carphone Warehouse smugly said ´What are you going to do, you need to upgrade don´t you?´ at which point I said I don´t have a phone and don´t really need one, and hung up.

The tasting charges at the wineries we did manage to visit in Colchagua were of a similar nature. In several places you were required to pay 4000 Chilean pesos each to sample four bottles of wine that cost 3000 Chilean pesos each in the supermarket (900 pesos to the gbp). There were four of us, but they generously offered to give us the rest of the bottle afterwards. When challenged they admitted it was silly but often refused to compromise. All we could do was taste bottles that had already been opened, if there were any, which in several cases there weren´t.

Despite all this we managed to have a reasonably good day, and gained a broader understanding of Chilean wine. We actually started with Torres vineyard owned by the large Spanish winemaker, a short taxi ride from Curico. They had had a tour earlier that day so we were able to taste six of their offerings. In the end only the Santa Digna Sauvignon Blanc was worth remembering, a reasonable drop at 3690 pesos but Chile can do Sauvignon Blanc to rival Marlborough so there is stiff competition.

In Colchagua we started with Monte Gras, who supply to Sainsburys, including Sainsbury´s own brand. As with many (most) big Chilean producers the UK is their main market. They happened to have a couple of bottles opened, and we convinced them to let us buy a third at shop prices and taste it there and then. The Cab Sav from their Reserva Range was good at 5150 although we liked several others more. The Carmenere at 4900 was good for Carmenere but I struggle to see why anyone bothers with this grape unless for blending. Encouraged by the Cab we bought the Limited edition Syrah but frankly it was rubbish. Oh well.

Next up was Montes, next door to Casa Lapostelle and with an impressive vineyard clinging to the steep slopes at the edge of the valley. Montes sells mostly to the US with the UK second. After a bit of a struggle we managed to taste four wines for 7000 pesos each, but this was worth it as they were all crackers. We´ve also bought some others since and can happily say that all their three Sauvignon Blancs are excellent, and retail for only 3000 pesos at the cellar door (these are from grapes grown in the Casablanca region, west of Santiago). Their Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon is very good, with the same smokey, smooth and earthy flavours that you get with Casa Lapostolle, and is around 5000 pesos in supermarkets. The Premium Alpha range seems to be even better - the 02 Chardonnay was excellent, soft, complex and well structured whilst the Alpha Shiraz was fantastic with good tannins, structure and the same smokeyness that we have now come to expect in the better Chilean reds. Here the Alpha range retail for around a tenner in Supermarkets but we bought a bottle for 7000 at the cellar door - an absolute bargain. The only chink in Montes armour we experienced was the Reserva Merlot, which was ok for a cheap merlot but I wouldn´t buy it again.

Out of interest back in 2000 Wine Spectator Magazine ran a test of ten year old wines (1990 vintage). As you would expect the top places were taken by the Bordeaux Grand Crus, but Montes Cabernet Sauvignon (Alpha I think) ranked tenth, equal with Penfolds. Not bad for a wine that is less than tenth of the price of most of the others. We subsequently bought two bottles of Montes Reserve Cab Sav and compared it to the Casa Lapostolle equivalent. Both are excellent and I couldn´t really decide between them.

Our successfull visits were concluded with Vina Viu Manent, who also run a lovely looking restaurant and have a relatively sensible tasting strategy. Their winemaker is a Kiwi, and as you would expect the Reserva Sauvignon Blanc was very good. If you like Malbec then try this one which is probably as good as any at this price. I think the Cab Sav is going to be good but the 04 was too young. However if you like desert wines the Late Harvest Semillon was a bargain at 4000 pesos for 500ml. We had it later with strawberries and chocolate. The most bizarre thing about this winery was their Premium range, called Secreto as it has a "secret ingredient." We tried the Viogner and the Syrah and both were, well, awful. It´s an odd world, making wine.

If you like good red wine and haven´t yet tried Casa Lapostolle Cuvee Alexandre, please do so now. It was recommended by both Chris and Mark at Food and Fine Wine and Mark is so miserable he doesn´t like anything.

A long bus trip down the smooth and straight toll-road that runs from Santiago to Puerto Montt and we arrived in the town of Temuco, on the Northern border of the Chilean Lake District. Unfortunately at some point we crossed an invisible border known only to God and meteorologists, and we left the warm sunshine for thick, low cloud. For the next two weeks we were to see the sun on only three days. After shopping around we rented a car which came to roughly 40gbp per day when the drop-off fee for Puerto Montt and the collision waver were included. Renting a car in this region is quite hard as most people drive 4WD trucks. These tend to be more expensive to rent and would have proved problematic for us with four people and four sets of rucksacks, so we settled for a low-slung slightly sporty Toyota Corolla. We hadn´t realised that most of the area was dirt road, and even the metalled road had magnificent potholes that you really appreciated when you hit them at 100km/h.

The lovely tourist town of Pucon is only a short drive inland towards the Andes from Temuco. This place has the generic feel of a Western mountain resort, and could easily be located in Colorado, the Victorian Alps or South Island, New Zealand. It feels more American than European, something the developed areas of Santiago could also be accused of. In the off-season rain it managed to raise itself above drabness. Just.

The main activity in Pucon is climbing the volcano Villarica, one of the most active in South America. This requires a crampon and ice-axe apparently, and the authorities state it is forbidden to climb it without a qualified mountain guide. Hence you have to pay upwards of 40gbp for the privilege. Apparently from top you can peer into the bubbling crater below but the pictures we saw were less than inspiring. As it was the weather robbed us of the chance to say no.

We did manage a waterlogged walk in nearby Parque Nacional Huerquehue, which was not particularly inspiring but at least delayed the inevitable onset of cabin fever for a day or two. The park is famous for hosting many araucaria trees (a type of Monkey Puzzle) which were pleasant enough, and in the heavy rain the many waterfalls were quite dramatic.

Bored with Pucon we headed South on dirt roads to the much less well frequented hamlet of Conaripe. Here we stumbled upon an excellent set of cabins situated on an island in the middle of a large river. Needless to say the island was close to flooding and the dramatic torrent surged on either side of our cabin. We were the only guests, and our host happily advised us to keep our stuff on chairs or better still on the top bunks of the beds. As it was the advice was unecessary as the waters subsided the next day. We spent our time in this area driving around bumpy roads looking for beautiful lakes, and instead finding low cloud and drizzle.

Driving through the Chilean Lake District is a varied experience. One moment you will be staring at Swiss Alpine meadows stocked with picture perfect beef cattle, the next you will turn a corner and be faced with a Scandinavian shoreline on a beautiful lake, then you will be amongst the wooden houses and woods of Bavaria and finally find yourself driving down a country lane in middle England. If you are lucky enough to have a cloud-free day then the backdrop to all this will be a set of the perfectly conical snow-covered volcanos towering over everything like victorian schoolmasters guarding a rebellious assembly.

Finally, at Entre Lagos, half-way down the region, our luck with the weather changed and we were granted three beautifully perfect days of sunshine. We chose to attempt to ascend Volcan Puyehue at 2440m, or at least overnight in the refugio on the upper slopes. Despite this Volcano being in a National Park the access to it is private land and they charge 7000 pesos per person to gain access, whatever you are going to do. In return the landownders also provide the refugio, which is free, so we felt for once this charge was justified, although for a day walk it is a bit steep. The refugio itself is a 1000m climb up through the native woodlands, which is fairly straightforward except you are carrying a big pack, and near the top there is some steep and slippery volcanic scree to negotiate. Margaret, a relative novice at this sort of jaunt, was a little nervous, but managed wonderfully. Halfway up the steep section I returned to offer to carry her pack but she was determined to make it on her own. I only offered the once.

The Refugio itself was rather a simple affair, but adequate - if you have a tent I would use that instead. The location however was wonderful, in a small clearing in the trees just on the treeline, with views up to the volcano and views around the whole area from nearby. We spent a pleasurable night and next morning Kim, Velocidad and I set off to tackle the snow covered slopes of the Volcano, another 800m or so of climb. The going wasn´t easy but it wasn´t dramatically difficult, the view from the top was stunning, with pretty much all the major Lake District peaks visible. The descent quickly accelerated into a long snow slide and we rejoined a rested Margaret for lunch and the long walk back down.

We had no accomodation booked that night, and the landownders also operated a nice looking restaurant called "El Caulle". Kim managed to negotiate a hefty discount on the accomodation as it wasn´t quite ready for the season, and we sat and watched the sun go down over the local ranch with the mountains in the background. The food itself was fantastic and highly recommended, and whilst double our normal budget for eating out (we had been mostly self-catering) it didn´t break the bank and rounded off a really great couple of days.

We moved on to an excellent hostel, Zapato Amarillo, near Puerto Octay in the South of the Lake District run by a Swiss gentleman, intending to do some more walking. However the weather changed that day and, after consultation with the owner we decided to change our plans to take the Wednesday ferry, from Quellon on the South of the Island of Chiloe to Chacabuco in the Southern section of the wild and remote Carratera Australis. We wanted to spend a little time on Chiloe so we had to get going.

A night was spent in Puerto Montt, which is the last big town in Chile, before Puntas Arenas, but really doesn´t amount to much. Kim was tired, but as it was Saturday night Steve, Margaret and myself decided to go looking for nightlife. This consisted of a choice between very rough and ready looking local places, with silhouettes of young women on the signs and local oompah folk music blaring out, or the safer looking Bronco Billys (I think). We tried the latter, which was full of bored looking Chileans watching the football. Several of them clearly supported one of the teams and half-heartedly cheered when they won. Once the match was over they just sat looking glum, staring into their beers. They didn´t even discuss the match with their co-supporters. I guess Puerto Montt is a rough place to live but a smile once in a while can´t hurt. Can it?

The 250km long Island of Chiloe appealed for a number of reasons; a chance to be by the sea again, the fact that with low hills it might not matter about low cloud obscuring the view, and the relative ease of transport links in comparison with continuing South along the mainland. As it turned out it was a fairly dreary place in the rain. As most backpackers do we skipped the main town of Castro for the smaller village of Conchi and the highly recommended Hostel Esmerelda. In the end the latter was a bit of a disappointment, and I would have preferred to stay in Castro, even if the accomodation were not quite as good.

In many ways Conchi resembles a remote fishing community on the West Coast of Scotland. I´m sure that with time the simplicity and remoteness will grow on you, but unlike the Scotish varient the Chilean version feels quite dirty and unkempt, and not entirely pleasant. The more touristy town of Castro about 20km up the road seems a lot more appealing despite being the larger and more developed place. We took a tour with the hostel across the Island to the Pacific West coast but really there wasn´t a great deal to report. There is some nice coastal scenery which a photographer with a couple of spare days might well like to explore, as would those to whom rock pools and seaweed appeals, but other than that we were left rather unmoved. At least we got outside for the day.

Despite Carlos, the owner of Esmerelda, trying hard to dissuade us, we stuck to our plan of taking a ferry from the Southern Port of Quellon down into the midst of the Carretera Austral at Chacabuco. Most travellers attempting to travel Southwards from Chiloe were either going across the bay to Chaiten or taking the expensive Navimag ferry (sorry "luxury cruise ship") all the way to Puerto Natales, a four day trip costing several hundred dollars. Thanks to the chap at Zapato Amarillo, whose advice we trusted, we had found an inexpensive (17gbp) and little known alternative, which proved fine until we got to Quellon to collect our tickets and the fourteen hour trip mysteriously expanded into thirty six hours (one night into two).

After spending the afternoon in Quellon watching Liverpool hold Chelsea whilst Man Utd went out of the Champions League in the group stage, I boarded the ship unsure as to how I felt. On the one hand it is nice to see a rival team falter but there are several important England players in Man Utd and they don´t seem to be playing all that well. Without going into details I hope they manage to pick up but I have long thought a new manager is overdue.

Sorry, back to the ferry. Whilst this was very clearly a small local ferry, big enough to take a handful of trucks, our route might well have been that of a cruise ship, as we wove in and out of the fjords of Western Chile, visiting remote fishing communities clinging to rocky outcrops with no roads, houses joined by elevated walkways instead of a main street. The trip was mostly cloudly but on the final morning we gained glimpses of jagged snow-covered peaks adorned with glaciers and precipitous icefalls - something more of what we expected. The only problem was the final night when the ferry became overcrowded and sleeping on the cold and windy deck was the only option if you wanted to stretch out. Nonetheless I would recommend this route highly if you are a backpacker keen to make further progress down the difficult west coast of Chile without resorting to spending a fortune, and don´t mind a bit of hardship.

A short couple of hops on local buses and we arrived in Coyhaique, the regional capital of Northern Patagonia, a pleasant town surrounded by 2000m mountains and less ramshackle than most. Finding accomodation proved difficult however, and it took us most of the morning which was annoying as we had had little sleep the previous night. In the end we got an excellent word of mouth recommendation for a comfortable Bed and Breakfast where the owner couldn´t do enough for us. The rest of that day and most of the next morning was spent organising onward travel which proved problematic, even with four of us to tackle it, but at least the weather was now sunny and was predicted to be so for several further days.

We rented bikes and cycled to the nearby Reserva Forestal Coyhaique. As it turned out this was a stiff climb up a dirt road outside town, and we could probably have walked more quickly than biking. We persevered, and continued climbing through the Reserve to the beautiful Laguna Verde. Here the other three rested and decided to return whilst I continued on a loop that took in the other Lagunas. It turns out Reserva Forestal Coyhaique is hiding a dirty little secret - if you are an experienced biker then the walking trails form fantastic singletrack. Now don´t start mumbling into your beard - we saw precisely two walkers the whole time we spent in the Reserve, so if you are there out of the tourist season I don´t see any harm in using the walking trails for biking. As for erosion, you can do no more harm than the herds of gigantic cattle that also use the trails, making it hard and bumpy going in places as their hooves have churned up the path. If you decide to have a crack it is best to cycle up to Laguna Verde on the roads or you will be hiking your bike up lots of steps, but from just past there you get some really pleasant undulating trails followed by a great descent ... just don´t be put off by the sign that says ´Frequent Habitation of Pumas´.

Equipped with our rented 4WD pick-up truck (the roads around here are so rough no-one rents cars) we set off on a Sunday morning to head South to the stunningly beautiful reserve of Cerro Castillo. Or at least we attempted to. It was election day, and our dodgy rental agency hadn´t provided us with a tarp for the back of the car. Needless to say trying to find a tarp on a Sunday in Patagonia during a General Election is quite difficult, even if you are a harrased Chilean with four angry tourists on your back. As it was he waived the days fee and we finally got underway early afternoon, having spent the morning waiting around. Sadly this is fairly typical of the level of service we have come to expect.

After a pleasantly spectacular drive we found accomodation in the sleepy little hamlet of Villa Cerro Castillo, just below the delightfully serrated ridge above us. I went off to try to get a good sunset shot whilst the other three went to look at some 10,000 year old kiddies finger paintings in a nearby cave. At 9.00pm, with a good hours walk back, I gave up as the sun was still high in the sky and I wanted my tea.

Next day Steve, Margaret and myself set off to try to climb to get some better views of Cerro Castillo itself. Kim was feeling unwell so slept in the back of the ute, which was maybe a good choice, but she was replaced by a local dog with a pleasant disposition which Steve named "Sandy". After a couple of hours of gentle meandering uphill trying to follow a vague path through the steep-sided woodlands I left Steve and Margaret as I needed to get a move on if I was to make the top. By chance this was where the supposed path went from unsettlingly vague to totally ridiculous. After about twenty minutes trying to follow fruitlessly up and down steep scree slopes I gave up and decided to just "go straight". At times this was hard, and would have put a lesser mortal off, though I say so myself. Even Sandy the dog, who had been bounding around whilst we were on the trail he knew, decided he´d better stick close to my heels as he was clearly in uncharted territory. It turned out to be a good a decision, as after another couple of hours of climb directly uphill, through a variety of obstacles, I found myself overlooking Cerro Castillo and the icebound Lago Cerro Castillo, watching avalanches tumble down the face, large lumps of ice tumble into the water, and a pair of condors circle overhead. Sandy, clearly unimpressed, lay in the scant shade by a rock, apart from brief spells where he was required to pose for photos, an activity to which he took like a duck to water, Minister.

Apart from the fantastic panoramic, with views all the way down to Lago General Carrerra, the second largest in South America after Titicaca, the advantage of being on top was that I could peruse a variety of ways to descend. This made me realise how stupid the route of the original path was, and I decided to descend more or less in a straight line back to the car, as this took me through a large unforested area of alpine ´meadow´.

First however was the very steep descent over loose scree, aided by some very useful snow gullys. I couldn´t help laughing with joy and a feeling of freedom as Sandy and I bounded down relatively effortlessly given the speed of descent and the wonderful scenery. At one point Sandy decided to scratch his back in the snow, but misunderstood the laws of physics and went hurtling off down the slope with legs flailing. I asked him to do it again for the camera but apparently it wasn´t in his contract.

I returned to the car after four hours up and just over one hour down to find Steve and Margaret hadn´t yet made it back from where I left them. Sadly they had persevered in trying to reach any kind of viewpoint and had spent the day rather vainly wandering around the woods - not exactly "wasting the day" but a rather sad reward for a lot of effort nonetheless (don´t worry, we´ve had a lot more success in Argentina).

That evening we spent three hours driving down stunningly scenic but very potholed dirt road to the aptly named Villa Tranquillo on the shores of Lago General Carrera. When people say that "The Lord of the Rings" could only have been filmed in New Zealand they are incorrect if they are referring to landscape alone - it could have been filmed in Chile, and this part resembles some of the most beautiful bits of South Island quite closely. We took a simple cabin by the lake and watched as local lads galloped their horses through the shallow waters and the setting sun whilst we scoffed our ever so tasty sausage casserole.

We finished our little three day excursion with a trip down a side road towards the sea - they are building this road to reach the world-renowned glacier at Laguna San Rafael, which is currently only reachable by a long and expensive boat trip. We settled for a twenty minute walk up to yet another glacier, where we rescued and took in a small puppy that we found stranded amongst the large boulders of the extensive terminal morraine. In true Chilean style he accompanied us on the return journey, with only a little help when he got stranded, and then left us to play in the daisies without so much as a thank you. Still, he had added to the trip.

A long drive back to Coyhaique, another pleasant night and we arose early to take the bus and boat across the Eastern side of Lago General Carrera and into Argentina. Continuing South in Chile from Rio Tranquillo is possible for another 350km (approx) but then the road runs out at the town of Bernard O´Higgins. As far as I´m aware the only sensible way forward from there is to take a boat across a lake to the Chilean border, where you then hike 35km into the nearest civilisation in Argentina. We decided to take the simpler option of grabbing a bus down across the wild and lonely Pampas - but that is a tale for the next blog.

If anyone actually got to the bottom of the Tasmania blog they may have noticed Kim´s question - "Why is the sea salty?". For those to whom the reason is immediately obvious, or have bothered to look it up, here is a trickier one ... "Why is the sea not getting saltier?". By chance I´ve read a supposed answer to this but that just left me thinking ... "Then why is the sea not getting less salty." Maybe it´s time I got a proper job.
A note on backpacking budgets and gdp per capita
If one stopped to think about it, a western budget traveller travelling in a developing country might expect to spend far more per day than a country´s daily gdp per capita. Travelling in a richer ´developed´ country they might expect to spend an amount equal or perhaps less than the daily gdp per capita. After all, budget travellers are generally trying to live very cheaply, but no amount of discomfort approaches what the real poverty stricken suffer on a daily basis.

Chile seems to be an anomaly. The IMF World Economic Outlook 2005 puts its GDP per capita as US$6,224 per year, which is roughly US$17 per day ( 9.69 gbp per day ). We´ve been spending roughly 28 gbp per day. This seems extravagant perhaps. Ok, let us note that for all except 4 nights of 24 we´ve stayed in accomodation aimed at Chilean tourists or locals. Those four nights were no more expensive than average. We´ve cooked a lot, splitting our costs between four. We´ve taken absolutely no tours and paid minimal entry fees to attractions, and with the exception of car rental we´ve taken local Chilean buses. If you take the car rentals out of the equation we spent about 23 gbp per day - nearly two and half times what the average Chilean is supposed to live on - but we would have had no transport for eleven days. Yet, even in the sticks, we´ve seen fancy cars, well-dressed people and full restaurants. Yes the place is ramshackle and there clearly are a lot of poor people, but they don´t seem so poor that they are living on less than 10gbp per day - not like Bolivia say where such people are obvious and ubiquitous.

Were this Argentina or Brazil, where we know there are huge populations living in extreme poverty then that would account for the low number. In Buenos Aires Steve and Margaret watched the street kids sifting through litter bins in the midst of the beautiful old colonial architecture, and anyone who has seen "City Of God" will understand something of the extremes of existence in Rio´s slums. But does Chile have such great numbers of such extreme poor? (I could go on to calculate what percentage of Chile´s people would need to live below the the 9.69gbp figure in order for a substantial number to live on, say, 24gbp per day, but I haven´t got time at the moment - my tea (dinner) will be going cold).

By way of comparison, lets consider the UK and Bolivia. I reckon a backpacker in the UK can travel as we have been doing for between 35gbp and 45gbp per day. It may be more in London, but not if you can find cheap accomodation, although I don´t know if such exists. The IMF puts the UK figure GDP per capita at 21,191gbp (that´s actually 2006 projected but there isn´t a huge difference) which is 58gbp per day, leaving plenty of room to buy a few bottles of cheap Bulgarian wine from Sainsbury´s and get hammered every night - that is if you ignore the 5 quid each way taxi ride from the town centre to the ring road.

By contrast Bolivian´s survive on US$1,025 per year or US$2.8 per day (1.6gbp). The average traveller spends US$22 (12.5 gbp) per day in Bolivia according to BoliviaRanking Srl, whilst we spent more like 22gbp per day in supporting Kim´s growing Coca habit.

I realise I´m in danger of going a bit too far with this supposed analysis, as any number of error bars in any number of my suppositions could conspire to act additively to explain the anomaly I think I´m seeing. However, just for kicks, lets imagine that 5 million of Chile´s 15 million population (who have a 95%!l(MISSING)iteracy rate btw) are too old, young or unwell to work. Let´s assume that 2 million people earn above the average 9.96 gbp per day, and that the average income of this group is actually 22gbp per day - which seems believable from our travels around the country. That puts the other 8 million on an average income of 6.5 gbp per day. For comparison, the official minimum wage is 4.36 gbp per day.

If anyone can be bothered to read this and think about it, or perhaps do some research, I´d love to know if I´ve made a mistake here, if my assumptions are wrong - perhaps I´ve completely misunderstood the meaning of gdp - or if Chile is hiding a lot of very poor people somewhere that somehow subsist in this relatively expensive country.

Update I've subsequently read, in a guidebook, that despite having the top GDP per capita in South America, 22%!o(MISSING)f Chileans live in acute poverty. 'Accute poverty' isn't defined, but clearly this helps account for the difference in costs we saw with the reported average income.

Photographers
Pablo Valenzuela Vaillant
This chap has published several books of Chilean photographs and his website seems to have a good selection and is well worth a browse.
Andres Morya
Also has books and calenders of Chile in print, although sadly the website is more designed as a stock library. Still worth a look though.
Augusto Dominguez
Also presented as a general stock library of Chilean pictures, but take a look at the Banco de Images anyway.

---

Photos

Cerro Castillo (2313m)
All jokes about ´Kim´s lost weight´ on a postcard to Viz Letterbox, PO Box 69, Newcastle upon Tyne. Otherwise Sandy the dog is available for tv, films, adverts and children´s parties.

Thermas Geometrica
Expensive but rather scenic hot springs in the Chilean Lake District.

Volcan Puntiagudo (2490m)
The Chilean Lake District.

Stiltworld, Castro
Chiloe Island.

Sajama (6542m), Bolivia
I think higher volcano at the back is Bolvia´s highest mountain, Sajama. The chocolate sundae foreground is in Chile. From the plane, contrast increased.

Montes Vineyard
Colchagua

Restaurant, Viu Manent Vineyard
Colchagua

River, nr Pucon
Chilean Lake District

Big swollen waterfall
Parque Nacional Huerquehue

Stream
Parque Nacional Huerquehue

Lake ...
... with Auraucania Trees (Monkey Puzzle).Parque Nacional Huerquehue

Another big waterfall ...
somewhere near Puerto Fuy, Chilean Lake District.

Another big waterfall ...
from below. Somewhere near Puerto Fuy, Chilean Lake District.

Thermas Geometric Hot Springs
Between Conaripe and Park Nacional Villarica. I wanted a model for this shot but at eleven quid a dip Kim declined.

Maximum and Velocidad ...
... in repose at the Refugio El Caulle, with Volcan Puyehue (2236m) in the background. Chilean Lake District.

Monte Tronador (3554m)
On the Argentinia Border, Chilean Lake District.

Volcan Orsono (2652m)
Chilean Lake District.

Looking down to Lago Puyehue
Chilean Lake District.

Nice clouds
Chilean Lake District.

Queer bird
Quite large, about the size of a chicken, it strutted along the ground outside our camp, much like a chicken, until chased into a tree by a bored photographer.

Kim and Velocidad
atop Volcan Puyehue.

Kim and Velocidad
atop Volcan Puyehue, with Puntiagudo and Orsono in the background.

Typical Lake District scene ...
... when the clouds finally clear ... most of the time we just saw the Lakes and not much of the District.

Typical Lake District scene II
A nice German church in the nice, clean and well organised German settlement of Puerto Octay.

Seaweed and Cows, West Coast, Chiloe
I won´t be entering this for the Turner Prize but I think it evokes the emotions I was feeling at the time.

Elderly but tough hitchhiker, West Coast, Chiloe
We picked her up in the middle of nowhere and took her along 10km of sandy beach driveable only in 4WD. She seemed to be trying to get to Castro, another bumpy 60km or so away.

It´s getting near Christmas, West Coast, Chiloe
and I think this sole irate and jittery Turkey knew it.

Island in the middle of nowhere.
Somewhere in the fjords of northern Patagonia, on the ferry between Puerto Montt and Chacabuco.

Village in the middle of nowhere.
This one may not have been on an island, but there were no roads, just a small tarmacked area by the dock so a lorry or a couple of cars could embark, to stand stranded waiting for the next ferry.

Comments

[Martine]

Incredible sights
Just have to say - your photos are astounding. what amazing acuity and colours. Glad I stumbled acrossed your blog.

[MVP 2005 2006]

Your pictures here are absolutely gorgeous - and I'm particularly fond of all the Stiltword photos. Your mentioning of the two types of ignorance - honesty and dishonesty - resonates in virtually every country, to some degree. If it's any consolation, Jamaicans take their ability to fudge the truth to a whole new level...it would almost be admirable if it wasn't so annoying.

[beniblanco]

Photography
Hey mate, just like to tell you that you seem to have a nice talent for photography! Good luck rest of your travels!

[George]

Photos
Didn't have time to read the whole post - but your photos are excellent! I aspire to capture the world so artisticly. Well done.

[Deep]

Numbing
My Jaw dropped to my knees .......this is totally out of the world. The pics are breathtakingly fresh...keep getting them in and enjoy your travel.

[Stephen Paul]

please, thank you
Your pictures make me sick! they are so good, they make me feel foolish for even attempting to capture the things I see. Every post is stunning, you must sxpend a lot of time on a laptop organizing and choosing the pics to post. Whatever method to your madness, nice work. One more thing- Dont ever go back to Chile. That way when I move there my pictures wont look so amateur-ish!! :) KEEP TRAVELLING AND KEEP POSTING!!!

[Rodrigo]

Bellas fotos y bello viaje
Chileno viviendo en Madrid y que ha disfrutado mucho de ver los bellos paisajes que mi país tiene. Espero que lo hayan disfrutado mucho.

[Corax]

Queer Bird?
Your "Queer bird" is called a Caracara - probably a Crested Caracara. It's a bird of prey, similar to a hawk or eagle, that prefers to stick close to the ground. Also a very pretty bird, and a good picture too!

[Chris and Nikki]

Wow, this picture is amazing!