The R&R Big Adventure

“You’re not from round these parts”

Given we had two volcanoes practically on our doorstep in Puerto Varas, we wanted to see if we could go up at least one of them. The drive yesterday morning from our hotel was pretty straightforward, but as we wound our way up Osorno, the cloud cover was becoming increasingly thick. By the time we reached the ski station, and as far as the road took us, visibility was pretty poor. Still, we had come this far, so persevered to see how far we could walk. The ground was either soft ash that crumbled under foot, or patchy frozen ice that was very slippery, especially up the slopes. We ascended about 300m but then the slopes became increasingly steep and icy. With another three months of our trip to go, now was not the time to get a broken ankle. We called it a day and continued driving to the beautiful Saltos del Petrohué waterfalls, which also had a great view of Osorno, the summit of which remained teasingly under cloud cover.

Further along the river to Petrohué itself, the road ran out: clearly a sign to stop for lunch. The nearby 4* hotel looked inviting, but was totally deserted, despite having amazing views of the surrounding forest and lake. The waiter looked surprised when we wanted to order lunch. The menu was limited, and we both decided on a hamburger. Did papas fritas (chips) come with that we enquired. No, he replied, only popcorn. Could you ask the chef if he could do chips with the hamburgers, we asked (not unreasonable, we thought). He came back and replied in English (and R and I agreed afterwards this is what he said): “It would be difficult to do papas fritas, as we are working with them”. So the chef is working with them… and I suppose they were outraged when we suggested having them with our hamburgers? Clearly that was the case, as that old family favourite, hamburgers, with a side of popcorn, was what he served.

After lunch, we decided going for another walk near the beautiful lake that was surrounded by pine tree-clad mountains. What was going to be a 2hr walk ended up being over 3 1/2 hrs, as we extended the route and took advantage of the brighter afternoon weather. We crossed two very wide river beds that had absolutely no water in them – a sign of global warming perhaps? After all that walking, we slept very well last night.

This morning the weather finally cleared and we got a great view of Osorno across the lake from our hotel. We then drove to Chiloé, an island south of Puerto Montt. It is proper rural Chile and, from the stares we were getting from the locals when we arrived off the car ferry, it would be fair to say that they don’t get that many (Chilean) mainlanders, let alone English off- off-islanders. Our first stop for a coffee on the island was in a town called Quemchi. Nearly all the houses on this island are wooden structures, the newer ones no more than wood-clad Portakabins, and most could do with a lick of paint, or three. We found two cafes on the waterfront – one had a workmen drilling in the middle of it, the other was more down-at-heel, with badly hung net curtains. We went for the one with net curtains. The menu board said they did Americano and espresso doble (amongst other hot drinks). We asked for these. The owner nodded in understanding. We then both got identical mugs of instant coffee.

As we continued our journey south down the island the scenery got increasingly better – the road going up and down like a rollercoaster ride, each hill summit giving a better view of an estuary, or of meadows in various shades of green, punctuated with yellow gorse (in bloom everywhere in this region) or livestock. This definitely felt more like rural England – save for the six vultures we spotted, picking over the remains of a run-over cat ☹.

The long drive to our hotel was worth it – set on a hill, overlooking both fields and an island in the middle of an estuary, and unlike the rest of the buildings we had passed, it is ultra modern; very Scandi and hygge: lots of cosy cushions, throws, and sheepskins around the place. R went for a run and confirmed that the shower – with its own window overlooking the landscape – was amazing. We are looking forward to truly feeling like we are getting away from it all here for a couple of days.