Blooming dogs

Today we thought it would be a good idea to walk to the next town round the Lake. The Viewranger app showed a footpath running alongside a disused railway line and along the lake shore. We had a false start as the way to the footpath was blocked so we had to retrace our steps. We had been barked at by some dogs fenced in and worried that there maybe loose dogs along the path. Martin found a hefty stick and I picked up a large stone.

Once on the path we could not see the lake. The land has been parcelled up and sold for the development of some luxury homes. There was no need in the end for our stick and stones but we were barked at constantly (not woof woof but ferocious barking and desperation to get at you) along the way which spoilt the walk.

We had our lunch by a fast flowing river.

Martin getting inspiration;

Mucking about on the lake shore;

We caught the bus back and spent a frustrating hour trying to book a hire car - we managed it eventually so we are happy that we will get further afield over the next two days.

Vicky the owner of the hostel lent me a book which I needed to read in two evenings then return to her. It was written by her mother. Vicky is one of 8 children and when they were aged from 3 to 17 her father decided to travel to Russia with them all, in a converted bus in 1960 at the height of the Cold War. He wanted to show Russians that the average (?!) American family was friendly. The journey took 2 years. It was a great read.

Sunday

Despite the comfortable bed we didn't sleep brilliantly. Bandurria birds roost in nearby trees and are noisy and there are some ferocious guard dogs nearby who don't seem to sleep. It was election day in Chile so all the shops and businesses were closed but luckily the local buses were running. We worked out a day trip using the bus.

The buses are all tiny and get packed;

It was an hour and twenty five minutes to our destination and Martin was wondering where the volcanoes were. Suddenly as we rounded a corner... wow there was the largest.

Our walk was on a lakeshore along black sand pathways and on the beach so it was good exercise even though we didn't go many miles. We had lunch with this view, no other people just a fishing boat on the water.

There are some waterfalls on the drive here but when the bus stopped the place was packed with coaches and people and you had to pay for the view so we skipped that.

Many photos were taken of the volcano as the weather changed. There are 2 volcanoes here - this one last erupted late 1800s but the other erupted in 2015.

Sculpture in town - just see the volcano under her train.

Punta Arenas to Puerto Varas

We started our breakfast at 7.30 and to our surprise the Korean chaps came in a few minutes later apologising for being late. I really didn't think they would get up to see us. We had another good chat and Guy was full of questions like are you glad you were born in England? He also commented on the fact that Martin had cooked the first night and I washed up then I cooked the next night and Martin washed up. He maimtained that it's still the women who do all of this in Korea.

Lots of hugs and goodbyes then we were on our way to the airport in Samuel's car. The flight was a little late leaving and was a budget airline so no free drinks nor snacks. I was in the middle seat and had a chubby young chap next to me who took up a lot of space and didn't mind sticking his elbow into me. After take off he fell asleep and gradually leant into the aisle. When the cabin crew came with the trolley they couldn't get past his head. They tried to wake him up. No response. I shook his left side they were shaking his right and saying "Senor, senor" louder and louder. There were 3 cabin crew and I think for a moment we were all thinking the worst. But no it was just a very very deep sleep and he did come round and sit up.

We got a transfer bus to Puerto Varas and it was raining with low cloud. We knew there were volcanoes but no sign today.

We had a hostel here booked earlier in the year. We then discovered that they had ended their association with booking.com but were keeping our reservation. Just before we left it transpired they had gone out of business and booking.com weren't aware. I quickly booked an equivalent alternative and booking.com stated that they would pay the difference in price. (Battle to commence on our return).

Well this new place is stunning. It's an old potato barn and when the owner Vicky bought it it was just 4 walls. She has done an amazing job. The B&B is on the top two floors, she rents offices and has her apartment on the next floor then rents out shop and cafe space downstairs.

Shared kitchen;

Vicky was married to a member of the Roth family. A Roth purchased land at the border of Chile and Argentina and his descendants have benefited from the lakes border crossing which goes through their land and is a very popular way of going between the two countries. Vicky also runs another house which is rented out, is a partner in a US baby food company and has a shop and chocolate factory!


I have been looking for horse trekking at each place but so far no go. Another guest here has two ranches about 2 hours drive away. He explained that there were day treks a few years ago but that has changed. There are more and more independent travellers who want to go camping in the mountains. This has meant that old horse trails have been turned into gravel roads with more and more vehicles. So the horse trekking has had to retreat further into the mountains and means overnight stays. Ah well.

We visited the tourist office and had bad customer service - the girl couldn't take her eyes off the computer screen and said all trekking is with guides and you can book on excursions. Every time I asked her where something is e.g. the supermarket she waved her hand and said 4 blocks and I had to keep asking her to show me on the map as I AM A VISITOR i.e. I don't know the town!

I was thrilled to see a book exchange in the B&B with some in English so, after reading many on my phone I can now hold an actual book.

Punta Arenas

We took a local bus to the Museo Nao Victoria. It's always an adventure catching a local bus - finding the stop to get on, working out where to get off. Even though we knew to ask for Rio Seco our pronunciation foxed the driver. Luckily there was a sign Martin could point to. When the bus driver said "ah si, si, Rio Seco" it sounded very different to how we said it! He had a very old cash box and ticket system.

The museum has life size replicas of four ships/boats. The Beagle, the Ancud, the Victoria and the James Caird.

The Victoria was captained by Magellan who discovered the Magellan Straits. There are lots of statues of Magellan around the city including in the main square. You could go right down into the bowels of the ship and imagine the conditions the men lived in for the 3 years they were at sea.

The Beagle was much bigger and there were cabins with privys seemingly for the Captain and for Darwin.

I learnt that Shackleton spent some time in Punta Arenas planning the rescue of his men left on South Georgia. This is a replica of the lifeboat he and a few others arrived in.

Even Martin would baulk at being in the Southern Ocean in that!

After lunch in Magellan Square we went round the cemetery - very colourful with a lot of silk and plastic flowers and well tended tombs. We then walked up to the viewpoint to see the city with the Magellan Straits.

We spent a while with the Koreans in the evening then Samuel and Marcela joined us and poured us all some wine. Marcela has a list of what people round the world say when clinking glasses and there was great hilarity when we added "bottoms up". From L to R Guy, Marcela, Samuel, Elena and Hwan.

The Korean boys said they wanted to join us for breakfast before we left even though they didn't need to get up early.

Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas

I've given the B&B in Puerto Natales a 10/10 on booking.com. We had a great stay. Jorge the owner gave us a lift to the bus station. We told him he needed more sleep.  He runs the B&B making breakfast to order from 6am then works all day on the family farm. If guests are coming in off a late bus he will then be up past midnight waiting for them to arrive.

There are over 20 buses a day which do the 3 hour journey to Punta Arenas. Travellers use the route as Punta Arenas has an airport, and locals go for major shopping trips. For some reason there is a tax free zone in the city. We were also flying out but decided to have a whole day in the city so we booked in for 2 nights. Nothing to report from the journey - we left the mountains behind and the view out of the window was a bit boring.

On arrival it was a short uphill walk to our next guest house which is a family home (Mum Marcela, Dad Samuel and two girls aged 6 and 8) but they rent out as many rooms as possible and all guests share their kitchen. Marcela and Samuel were so lovely and friendly. As  they have limited English they have employed a Russian girl called Elena who speaks good English and lives in one of the dorms. There was also a man called Francisco who again lives in and who cleaned and also cooked our breakfast. Absolutely no English but again a great chap. It was a real feeling of sharing and being welcome in a family home.

We went on our usual trip to the Tourist Information office and also investigated how to get to the airport as there is no public transportation. We bumped into Mandy and Laurent, the betrothed couple who still hadn't announced their news!

Whilst we cooked our dinner we chatted to two young Korean men - one of whom has been travelling for over 18 months and who talked about looking everywhere for a wife. They were keen to hear about our week in South Korea.

Rest day

Today has been a rest day before we move on again. We had a meeting at the head office of the company which runs the campsite. We have followed this up with an email so we wait to see the response.

We had a coffee then started to walk along the lake shore. However the infamous Patagonian wind made its presence known together with some icy rain showers. We ducked into an art gallery - mostly pictures but also this;

The remains of a Mylodon were found in a cave near the town so they have adopted this as their logo.

There are lots of dogs running around here but they leave us alone. Strange how it differs in each town. In Ushuaia they were aggressive and in El Calafate they tagged onto people and mutely followed them.

Swans?

Christmas is coming;

I'm having to get used to Chilean pesos - I keep thinking that things are expensive because I've had over 3 weeks working with 1000 Argentinean peso being worth £5 - but now in Chile 1000 peso is only £1.20.

We chatted to some Aussies who had crossed at the same border crossing as we did last week. All of the tourists paperwork had been fine, the bus drivers paperwork was fine.. but the driver had forgotten the paperwork for the bus! They had to sit at the border for 6 hours. Oh my.

Back to Puerto Natales

I slept really well and didn't even hear Martin go out to the loo, nor the 4am sunrise trekkers. (Still not a camping convert though!)

This morning we were on the later breakfast shift. It was chaos. No clean cutlery nor crockery, no milk and no food for 35 minutes. So many people were complaining about this and the check in process and those who were in the dorms had been freezing cold during the night.

I collected our lunch bags and I was told there were no nuts. Oh yes there were - a bag of nuts and a nutty cereal bar.

After breakfast I asked to see the Manager. A boy turned up and it transpired that the actual Manager was off for a few days. I went through my list of complaints and asked him to notify head office that we would be visiting them once back in Puerto Natales.

Our tramp back down the mountain was much better than coming up. The weather was good and we were facing the wonderful views. I did feel sorry for those coming up. We saw Claudio coming up yet again - no wonder the poor boy slept on our day trip.

At the bottom we still had 4 hours before our bus back to town so we skipped the shuttle and walked the 7km back to the entrance. The Park Rangers were back at work. I asked if anything had happened and they said that the boss came down from Santiago and had agreed to pay them more.

We got back to our lovely B&B again about 5pm and got a load of washing done and resorted our bags.