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Published: December 8th 2005
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Ferry
Sunset on the way from Puerto Monto to Chaiten Happy Immaculada Concepciòn day when all is closed and if you're in the middle of nowhere there's not much you can do except wait until tomorrow!
It´s been a busy few days since last I wrote. We tried to change our return air tickets to the 11th of January in Puerto Montt, but the earliest available flights were on the 23rd, returning us to Tassie on the night of the 25th. At least this means we can get back in time for Christie to catch up with Kim, but now means we have thirteen days to kill doing something ... Christie is all in favour of 13 days in Bariloche eating chocolate, and I'm all for thirteen more days of cycling ... no doubt we'll sort it out between now and then ... or one of us might fall overboard on the ferry back from Puerto Natales. All things are possible.
We managed to get on a ferry to Chaiten (The only company running their is
Naviera Austral) which ended up leaving three hours late, and arriving in Chaiten at 1.30am in the morning. The ferry crossing was worth it though, not great, just worth it. The seats have just
enough leg room for children under 7 years of age, but the rest of us have our knees up our our ears. The cafeteria service was the worst in the world. I stood for 15 minutes watching as he made three instant coffees, he took a further 10 minutes to then make my cafe con leche, walked away without giving me milk, which when I finally got his attention again and asked for it, was told they didn't have any. 25 minuts for a cup of coffee I didn't want to drink. yay.
If it wasn't for the fact that I was able to watch the last two Harry Potter movies in spanish plus Shrek II for the third time, violence might have happened. No, the sunset was beautiful, and I got chatting to the few other travellers on the boat and generally had a good time.
Stayed the first night in the dodgiest Hospedje in Chaiten ... but she did meet us at the ferry and the bed was clean. After standing a freezing cold shower for 5 minutes the next morning, I later found that her interpretation of ¿Agua Caliente? (hot water) which everywhere else is
Ferry
We're off to see the Carretera Austral, the wonderful, wonderful Carretera Austral ... interpreted as does you shower have hot water? for her had been interpreted by boiling the kettle in the morning and when I walked into the kitchen proudly saying ¡Agua Calienete!. Loving it.
Wandered into town after that to find out when buses leave and what tours were available. An hour later we'd figured the answers to be none and none. Fairly simple really. Nothing was open, the place was aghost town. By this time most of the Gringos in town had all congregated to one spot (sometimes I think we're a bit like lost children seeing each other and running over to see if anyone else knows where mummy is). So standing there waçondering what to do, the last two gringos on our ferry rock up in this 4WD, jump out and ask if anyone else wants to share the costs of a tour. Christie and I were in.
Spent the rest of the day with Yoshi, Merau and Pablo (our local guide) walking up to this nearby Glacier and then soaking in some hot springs. We returned to Chaiten that evening and Pablo cooked me the best steak I've had since I've been in South America.
Not so hard a day.
I managed to get stuck between two streams at one point of the walk when Pablo, Yoshi and myself decided to try and get to the base of the glacier. After jumping across one branch of the stream from a large overhanging rock, then finding that I couldn´t jump back, nor could I find another way across the creek. I asked Pablo to throw some large stones into the water, so I could use them as stepping stones. He happily oblidged but proceeded to get me so drenched in the process that I ended up just walking across the stream anyway.
Yoshi (Swiss) and Merau (Israeli) were a great couple to spend time with. Both were strong practicing jews, and they both really new how to have a fun time. At the same time it was this constant learning experience fo rme about the little things to do with their religion, for example you'd offer them some chocolate and they'd have to check the ingredient list, and at night they went into the kitchen and cooked their own kosher food. They also have to arrange their travel plans a bit ahead as they
Glacier
Using the zoom to pretend we're close. can't do long distance travel on Friday or anything on Saturday ... it was just really cool to be around some people who really embraced their religion but still had fun at the same time ... their beliefs were´t seen as a barrier travel. I loved it, it was very energising.
I can highly recommend Pablo's tours and accomodation at the Cabanas Tranqueras del Monte (www.tranquerasdelmonte.cl) as he speaks excellent English, is a great guide, lots of fun, and an excellent cook. If only he had managed to get the hot water on long enough for a shower it would have been the perfect stay, but that didn´t bother me as much as Christie who got sprayed with cold water half way through washing her hair. tee hee.
Yesterday we headed down the Carretera Austral with Yoshi and Merau on this cool little bus. We had a big fight initially with the lady we bought the tickets from as 10,000 pesos disappeared somewhere between us paying and her giving us the tickets (we think a genuine misundertanding) but we were worried that one of us wasn't going to be able to get on the bus without coughing up
Yellow Flowers
On the way to Glacier another 10000 pesos and I was the one without a ticket in my hand. Fortunately the bus driver was muy tranquilo about it, and after chasing around town for an hour trying to find enough gas to get to the next petrol station we headed off for the 12 hour trip to Coyahaique.
The road trip remined me of our time on Easter Island in that it was nothing so fantastic that you could say wow, fantastic, and yet at the same time it completely exceeded my expectations as you wound down these long valleys following crystal clear rivers runing between snow capped peaks. It was just perfect for me.
So now we are in Coyahaique, everything except this internet cafe is closed, but we think we've managed to organise transport down to a ferry this afternoon which will get us across to Chilo Chico from where we can cross the Argentinian Border again and hopefully get on the bus to El Chalten on Saturday. We´ll see.
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Rach
non-member comment
It all sounds muy tranquillo! (god knows what I just said..hehe)...lol @ u getting wet..and those cold showers don't sound that great...but all sounds fun and interesting...like you are meeting some cool people...hope C's knee is feeling a bit better..love to you both, Rach : )