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Published: November 18th 2013
I awoke when the bus slowed down as it entered Tranquilo, and then groggily started the search for a hostel. I found one with a private room for 8000 pesos. I still didn't know how much that is... But it was in line with what I paid the previous night in Chile Chico.
What is there to do in Puerto Rio Tranquilo? Well, it's famous for the marble caves, which is a marble rock formation that has been work away by the lake to make caves. Lucy had told me she had gone kayaking through them. So I set out to look into some places about kayaking to the marble caves, but most places were only interested in boat tours. I eventually found a company that offered a kayaking tour the next day at 10 am for a decent price.
With that taken care of, I bought a bottle of wine and decided to hike up the mountain behind town for a view. There was no trail, but I did find a gate and a cattle trail. It may have been private land for grazing, but I figured it was probably ok.
I hiked up to find a
lookout point overlooking the lake and the town. This place reminds me a lot of the Shuswap. I drank my wine, and returned to town feeling happy.
I went and used the internet at only place in town that has internet (this place is very small) and went back to the hostel to drop off stuff before going out for dinner. But I fell asleep instead, and it was only 8 o'clock. So my body must have needed it.
After dragging myself out of bed after one of the best sleeps I've had all trip, I went and grabbed breakfast. I went over to the kayaking place, but they told me that it wasn't running today after all. It was good Friday so this was understandable.
Ok, decision time... Do I stay another day? Well, I really did only come here to kayak into the marble caves, so leaving without doing that would be disappointing. Ok, so what to do today then? They offered me a mountain bike for the day, so I went for it.
They suggested riding down a quiet dirt road to Lago Tranquilo about ten kilometers away. I set off, and made
it there in a little under an hour, so I decided to keep going. I was moving pretty slowly overall, and it started to get a bit chiller, and the clouds were starting to hang overhead. Most of this was probably due to the nearby glaciers, and it probably wasn't going to rain, but I really didn't want to chance it, so I decided to turn around at about the 18 kilometer marker.
Going back took a lot less time than going out. The wind at my back helped, and it was more downhill in general. I was making good time, so I stopped at Lago Tranquilo and climbed up to a lookout. Since I didn't have any wine, I read a book for a while, but eventually I just felt like being done, so I set off again. The road is pretty washboard, so my butt hurt pretty bad. Overall this wasn't the best mountain biking experience. I'll take a bottle of wine up to a lookout point over an average mountain bike ride any day. Even the lake itself was disappointing.
Overall though, it was a decent way to spend a day, and at least I
did something. The weather was alright, and when I returned the bike I met the guide that would be taking me out kayaking the next day, and he was super nice. Ok, glad I stuck around, but it's going to be time to move on after kayaking.
I decided to get a proper dinner, since I missed out last night. So at least I managed to look after myself a little better. Fingers crossed on the weather tomorrow.
It was freezing cold this morning in my guesthouse. I have now noticed that there are no heaters, so that's a big part of it. There was also a frost last night, so that means it definitely got cold. Summer's over.
After breakfast, I met up with Francisco (a.k.a. Pancho, my guide). We loaded up his truck with gear and drove to the launch to get into the water. My kayak skills, limited as they are, were pretty rusty, but I eventually got the hang of it again.
Lago Buenos Aires / Lago General Carerra (name changes depending on which side of the border you're on) is pretty huge. It's the second largest lake in South America, after
Lake Titicaca. The marble caves (Capillas de Marmol) are very cool! They're carved out of marble that's 360 million years old. That's (apparently) quite young, and the marble here is not as hard as the Italian marble that the famous sculptures used. But the softness means that the lake has worn caves in them, which look incredible! And being in a kayak, we got to paddle through the caves and go many places that you just can't in a boat. So take that boat tourists!
And there were several boat tours that rolled through. But there were times when it was just Pancho and myself, slilently floating through the caves. It was awesome!
Pancho is a really interesting guy himself. You can tell that he loves what he does. He's a carpenter, and he built the guesthouse that the tour company operates out of (which he also owns with his wife), and it is beautiful! It's all natural wood finish, and... just beautiful. He specializes in building backwoods vacation cabins. Him and his family have moved to Coyahaique (several hours north of Tranquilo) when the kids were middle school age because there are no middle schools or high
schools in Tranquilo. He was kind enough to offer me a ride to Coyahaique with his family if I was unable to make my way out of town today.
With the afternoon free, I did some sink laundry and went to the beach to dry some clothes. The dogs here are interesting. There's definitely no leash laws, and the dogs just roam free. And they hang out together. I watched a group of about four running around and chasing each other in and out of the water. And another couple of dogs strolled up near the bench where I was drying my clothes and just laid down in the sun.
I've seen that the dogs get along great for the most part, unless one of them is riding in the back of a truck. They hate that. They go nuts, and chase the truck barking like crazy at each other! But I'll bet if the dog that was in the truck was just walking in the street, there would be no issue and they'd be best friends. I don't know what upsets the dogs so much about a dog in a truck. Maybe it's a class thing?
The last bus north to Coyahaique leaves very early in the afternoon, so I'd already missed that by going kayaking. So I tried hitchhiking. For three hours. Totally unsuccessfully.
It is Easter weekend, so every car is already full of families travelling for the holiday. It doesn't help any that I don't speak Spanish, have no hitchhiking experience (except for one time in Albania), and this narrow gravel road in the deep Southern part of Chile only has about one car every ten minutes on the Saturday of Easter weekend...
Defeated, I went back to the guesthouse I had been staying at to ask for one more night. I definitely have to get out of here tomorrow....
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