Australia!

Since we were little kids, we've both wanted to go to Australia. The Outback, the kangaroos, the funny accent; All of it seemed foreign and very cool. Now that we're finally in Australia, it is indeed very cool (no kangaroos yet, though). But it's also surprisingly familiar. We've been in Melbourne for a couple of days, mostly wandering around town, recovering from jet lag and a 30-hour journey, and replacing broken camping gear. And in those wanderings, the place has grown on us. It's kind of like Boston or San Fran, but more laid back, and with beaches and very expensive beer ($25 per 6-pack, thanks to very high taxes and an historic national drinking problem).

Tonight we're headed to an Aussie Rules Football game (aka "footie") and tomorrow morning it's off to Tasmania for some camping and hiking. In the meantime, we're enjoying Melbourne's laid-back vibe.

Chile Redux

We figured a 13 hour flight to Australia would be a good opportunity to recap our time in Chile: the good, the bad and the surprising.

Favorite thing about Chile
Brook: The trout.
Erin: Los Chilenos! They may be the friendliest and just plain nicest group of people I've met traveling. And, yes, I've been to Ireland.

Most dis-liked thing about Chile
Brook: Trash. Everywhere. After a while you learn to look past it, but it's just sad in such a beautiful country.
Erin: Throwing toilet paper in the trash cans. At first I thought it was just a hostel with old plumbing, but it turns out that the whole country can't flush toilet paper. I know, it'll seem luxurious when we're in Mongolia.

Best moment in Chile
Brook: Watching Erin catch a king salmon on her first real fishing trip. Maybe we'll convert her to a fly-fisherwoman.
Erin: Seeing the Valle Encantado in Torres del Paine for the first time. It's one of the most beautiful, untouched places I've been to and how I imagine Yosemite looked before they built a road through it.

Worst moment in Chile
Brook: When the woman at the Avis counter told us that the super-cheap car rental we booked months ahead of time was an impossible price and refused to rent us a car.
Erin: Coming back from a 15-mile hike exhausted and ready to have a beer to celebrate finishing the circuit only to find our tent pole snapped and rain fly shredded by the Patagonian wind.

Thing that was most like home
Brook: $160 "reciprocity fee" charged to all Americans when they enter Chile. Fair, because the U.S. charges the same fee to all Chileans.
Erin: The music, which was not always a good thing. Especially when we sat down to one of our few nicer dinners and spent two hours listening to a medley of 30-second clips from the 80's and 90's.

Biggest surprise:
Brook: How crowded the circuit hike was, and being able to buy beer in the backcountry of Torres Del Paine.
Erin: Internet and cell service nearly everywhere. Turns out they passed a law mandating cell phone service to communities throughout Chile, which means that the goatherd we met after a 2-hour horseback ride through shrubby desert had cell phone service, and could get internet.

Would you go back?
Brook: Yes, but I'd spend most of my time in Patagonia hiking and fishing.
Erin: Yes, but I'd want to stay a while in one place, practice my Spanish and go to all the hard to get to places we missed along the way.

Ham, cheese, corn and empanadas

We've gotten some feedback that we're sharing too much information about what we're drinking and not enough about what we're eating. That feedback is actually just from our mothers, but we figured it would be good to share a little of what we've learned about Chilean food.

Breakfast: Based on the breakfasts served at our hostels, Chileans eat a lot of bread in the morning, with Nescafe and ham and cheese. Sometimes there's also scrambled eggs, fresh fruit or yogurt. And there's almost always some delicious jam made from local fruit. And in a few, special places we also got freshly made juice, often watermelon. But overall, lots of bread, lots of ham and cheese.

Onces: 'Elevens' is a kind of tea-time for Chileans. It's important because lunch isn't usually served until 2pm and bread and jam only lasts so long. We generally skipped the onces because we couldn't fully adjust to the Chilean eating schedule and were planning lunch by then.

Almuerzo: Lunch is big in Chile. We usually made our own sandwiches or picked up some empanadas or humitas (a delicious corn dish) on the street. But a few times we sat down to a real lunch, like the parillada we ordered in Vicuna that included six sausages (two made from liver), two steaks, two pork loins and two pieces of chicken - it lasted us three meals and we ended up throwing some of it away. Our favorite lunch experience, though, was a little roadside spot we stopped at in Hurtado en route to Hacienda Los Andes. We got bread and salsa to start, goat meat stew with veggies and a humita on the side. And for dessert we got a stewed plum in plum juice with barley. All for about $5 a person.

Dinner: A big plus to staying in a hostel is being able to use the kitchen to cook for yourself, so we ended up making dinner many nights. The ingredients in Chile are amazing and very fresh, so we had no trouble cooking up delicious meals full of local fruits and veggies, salmon, steak, and seafood from farmers markets and the ever-present UniMarc grocery store. Another plus to cooking for yourself is being able to eat an earlier dinner than most Chileans. Prime dinnertime at restaurants is usually around 9pm and many don't open until 8pm. As I said, we never did adjust to the Chilean meal schedule, so we were usually the first ones in the kitchen cooking, or eating in an empty restaurant. Some habits are hard to break.

While the food in Chile is excellent - much of the country is covered in farms - the cuisine is simple and reflective of local products. One area we were in (dry, scrubby) raised a lot of goats, and so goat cheese was big. Another area had plenty of farmed salmon and shellfish, and so the focus was seafood. Overall tasty, fresh, and fairly healthy, except for those empanadas...

The Desert Valleys of Central Chile

About six hours north of Santiago lies a string of valleys on the edge of the Atacama desert, which is one of the driest places in the world.  But these valleys have been transformed into lush oases by centuries of snowmelt running down from the Andes, snow melt that is less and less frequent as climate change takes hold.  The water is used primarily to irrigate vineyards that are used to produce pisco, a type of brandy distilled from young wine.  There also are a few boutique wineries in the area, and many farms growing table grapes, quince, melon, and all sorts of fruit. It's a strange and stunning landscape of contrasting desert hills, cacti, and vineyards.  The wine, beer, and pisco was the best we had in Chile.

In the Elqui Valley, we met with the owners of a pisco distillery and a winery, and both mentioned more erratic rain, less snowfall, and irrigation issues over the past five years. And in the Hurtado valley we met an 80 year old goatherd who has seen his flock winnowed by a lack of water and forage.  All of these people were proud of their works, but concerned for the future.

The area also has the clearest skies on earth, and many international observatories are based here. We visited a tourist observatory and saw many others perched on the hills. We based out of Vicuña, a town at the beginning of the Elqui Valley, where we stayed in our favorite hostel in Chile: A Spanish-style home with an open courtyard and built by the grandparents of the six siblings that currently run the place. We also got a chance to attend an annual rural fair and go horseback riding high in the sierra above Hurtado.

It is a rugged and remote area, relying on a tenuous water supply for its crops - crops we depend on in the US all winter long for our fruit.  And unless something changes soon, it may dry up entirely.

Here's a link to our photo gallery. (If the link doesn't work go to this address: https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/5981706248478208673)

Vertical Valparaiso

The hills in Valparaiso make San Francisco look flat. The port (which boomed during the California gold rush) is 44 meters deep about 10 meters from shore, which gives you a sense of the slope. The hills form neighborhoods, and those hoods each have their own flavor - some funky, some old school, and some just mazes of staircases and ramps. The preferred form of public transit is via Ascensore, a near-vertical elevator contraption up the side of a hill (like a funicular but different). They're pretty cool, and we love them. Especially going up.

Hippies

This just about sums up the young folks we've met in Chile:

Altos de Lircay - Feb. 9-11

From Talca you can access a few parks in the Andes. Chile isn't wide, and so 24 hours (including a night in Talca) after visiting the coast we found ourselves camping in Altos de Lircay with a British ex-pat who lacked a camping stove (which, apparently, is a requirement for entering the park - regardless of whether you  plan to cook). On day two we had a great 12-13 mile hike up into the Andean foothills (about 7,000 ft.).

Pics here: https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/5981084450504891633

Talca looks bad, Constitutíon smells worse, but they're well worth a visit.

When we told Chileans we were planning to visit Talca, without exception they gave us a look of concern mixed with confusion and asked: ¿Porqué? Why?

We would explain: it's surrounded by vineyards, there's a funky old train to the coast and easy access to national parks. They would nod politely and suggest somewhere else - usually Pucón. The ticket guy on the bus checked with us twice to make sure we really did want to go to Talca.

When we arrived, it wasn't hard to see why everyone was confused by our choice. Talca suffered severe damage in the 2010 earthquake and things only recently began to reopen. The original train station was falling apart, buildings still had entire walls missing and anything fixable was under construction. It's also not a town set up for tourists - people live and work there, but not many just come to visit.

We liked it. Being Americans who couldn't speak much Spanish, we were a novelty and people went out of their way to help us figure out the local bus to a winery and the train to the coast. While it isn't the prettiest of towns, it has tons of fresh fruits and vegetables (thanks to miles of surrounding fields and vineyards), an easy to use bus system that will take you almost anywhere, and constant (bad) street entertainment.

We were less enamored with Constitucíon when we arrived. It's a papermill town on the coast that also suffered in the earthquake. A tsunami destroyed many of the beach side restaurants and drowned hundreds camped in the islands near town. Because of the papermill, it also smells pretty bad. Fortunately, the beach is upwind from the paper mill (by about 100 yards). But is downwind from the large sea stacks along the coast where hundreds of pelicans, seagulls, and cormorants were nesting. So, its one or the other wafting in the breeze...

We ended up having a nice beach day in Constitucíon, thanks to a lucky off shore wind, but the best thing about the town is getting there and back. The Ferrocarril Constitucíon is a 1961 passenger train with two cars that follows the Rio Maule from Talca to Constitucíon with views of the valley and vineyards along the way. It stops in one- or two-building towns with no other public transportation, or in some cases, no road access, all surrounded by fields. These are the places whence your organic grapes and tomatoes appear on the shelves of Whole Foods in February.

Much like Chile itself, these two somewhat gritty towns are very honest in their aspect. Imperfect, but hard-working. Confusing, but friendly. And above all, looking forward.

You can find a few pics here: https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/5981082374574962225

Sights of Chiloé

We posted earlier about Chiloe, and how hard it was to sort out travel there. But in the end, it's a beautiful place with long, empty beaches, colorful towns, and wildlife from penguins to parrots.  Here's a sampling of our photos, including some hikes in Chiloe National Park, the market and Palafito houses of Castro, kayaking at dawn at Chepu, and hiking along a deserted coast to a Penguin colony. It was a full five days..

https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/5980623192709602817

Dogs

The streets of most towns in Chile are full of dogs. Some mangy, some adorable, and mostly very polite. It's something of a political question down here, as locals debate whether to run an expensive sterilization campaign or simply round them up and kill them. Luckily, the latter option seems less popular. Besides, how could you hurt this little guy?

Patagonia recap

It's been well over a week since we left Patagonia,  but it's still with us. The wide open landscapes, stunning scenery, and unique wildlife were a great way to begin this whole adventure while hiking the Circuit in Torres Del Paine. We also spent about a week in Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas, two very southern towns.

Puerto Natales, despite being on the water has a distinct mountain - town feel.  Buses of trekkers roll out to Torres every morning; the cafes, hostels, and pizza joints are packed each night with tired but happy adventurers, grins on their faces; and dirt bag climbers in beat up vans await a break in the weather for their shot at glory.  It's a cool little town with its own distinct rhythm, buzzing with high-season energy while we were there, despite the daily rain showers.

Punta Arenas is a different beast. Hard by the strait of Magellan, it's where Sir Earnest Shackleton recovered from his ordeal and organized the rescue of his men. Today, it's a bustling town from which cruise ships, antarctic expeditions, and other excursions depart. Including one to a penguins colony, which we joined on a rare sunny day. 

In short, Patagonia was awesome. Here's a link to a gallery of a few photos from P. Natales and P. Arenas, penguins included:

Album link: https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/5977817781627453121

Erin, la pescadora

We had two days in Puerto Varas and, as usual, Brook wanted to go fishing.  Erin was more reluctant - fishing guides aren't cheap, Erin doesn't really fish, and there was a 100% chance of rain. But enthusiasm prevailed over logic and so we went.  Carlos, our guide, picked us up at 8 AM and we were on the water by 10.  Floating the Petrohue that morning, Brook took a couple of hours to figure out how to catch Patagonian trout, but eventually got the hang of it and was landing feisty rainbows and huge browns, sometimes in back-to-back casts. He lost as many as he landed, but a dozen or so trout and one sore shoulder later, he was a happy camper.

But that's not the half of it. On her first real fishing trip, Erin dutifully followed the guide's instructions, plying the deep water with a huge spinner in search of King Salmon. And, well, the pictures speak for themselves. One 15+ kilo salmon (which she hooked and landed alone, after a 20 minute fight) and a couple of very fat rainbows. She's not a convert yet, but a few more trips like that, and she might need her own fly rod in the near future...

Figuring out Chiloe

The Lonely Planet guidebook describes Chiloe as "an archipelago whose wild western woodlands are darker than the Black Forest and traversed by trails leading to secluded ocean beaches with rolling dunes." Followed by descriptives like "ideal for sea kayaking", "Chile's most diverse seafood", and "roadless wilderness."  We were sold.

Chiloe started out easy enough. Our hostel in Castro - the "big" town in the middle of the island - was lovely and we picked up some fantastic clams and smoked salmon ($4 per kilo!) at the local farmer's market (which did have an amazing seafood selection). But when we asked our host about one of our destinations, Parque Tantauco, he was not optimistic: We would not make it up the park road in our rental car and the nearby town was not nice. Another American couple was also hoping to make it to Tantauco (probably reading the same guidebook) but were also stymied by transportation obstacles - apparently, you need a boat that only goes sporadically and only in good weather.

So that afternoon we decided instead to head to Chiloe National Park, where we found a small network of nature trails and a cafe. The walks were pleasant and there was a beautiful secluded  beach, but we wanted more hiking. And so we asked (using Erin's passable Spanish) if there were longer trails. Yes, there was one - a four hour hike to a refugio on a beach, no reservations needed.

The next day, we packed up our camping gear (including our pieced together tent), bought food and headed back to the park. We kept driving, and driving, looking for the trail, until we realized we were on the trail. The trail was really a dirt road through a native settlement. Hmmm....With the bus loads of Chilean 20-somethings we kept passing, ominous skies, and a taped up tent, we decided to turn around and find a place to stay nearby. A good decision as it turned out because the ominous skies opened, raining torrents all night.

On our way back, we saw Jeroen, a friendly Norwegian we met on the Circuit. Jeroen was also stymied by Chiloe - it had beautiful wilderness, but how to explore it? He was considering heading to the north of the island for a "kayaking at dawn" excursion. We were thinking about doing that too (same guidebook?). He needed a ride and we had a car, so we got his email and planned to head to Chepu, Chile for kayaking.

The next day we turned off the island's main road and headed 13 kilometers down a dirt road to Chepu Adventures, an ecolodge/kayaking spot where you can stay the night in a dorm, get dinner and breakfast and go kayaking at 6am near the "sunken forest", a roughly 25 square-mile marshland created by the 1960 earthquake, which dropped the land by 2 meters.

This was the Chiloe we were looking for. Quiet, full of birds (parrots!) and wildlife (Jeroen saw a Pudu!), kayaking, and a hike to a penguin colony. Chepu Adventures is also completely off-grid, piquing Brook's environmental interests and, because you can continually monitor your water and energy use, satisfying Erin's love of data. We stayed an extra night.

But the next day we woke to driving rain and wind, so we packed up the car and headed north. As we left, our hosts gave us a warm goodbye, but with a hint of happiness that they had their little piece of Chiloe back to themselves. And maybe that's true for most of Chiloe - they want you go come and explore, but they don't want to give up the really good stuff too easily or else you might not leave.

Hiking Torres del Paine

The Patagonian wind is swift; the internet, not so much.  It took a few days but we finally culled and uploaded photos from our Torres hike. You can view the album by clicking here (or go to https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/5973629455686129089).

After a few days of down time in Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas (including a trip to an island with 300,000 penguins - but more on that later), we flew to Puerto Montt, picked up a rental car and drove down to Chiloe. This is a huge island with a rich history and lots of fishing, aquaculture, and farming. There are also a few national parks, and we're headed out tonight for a couple of days of camping on the coast.