 los caminantes by Sara Barth & Erich Pfuehler Erich and Sara's report from Puerto Montt and Chiloe ¡Hola amigos! When we last wrote, we had arrived in the scruffy port town of Puerto Montt, Chile. People compare it to Seattle (it's actually more akin to Olympia). Indeed, it is perched on a hill, overlooking a bay, with spectacular snow-covered conical volcanoes in the background. But, for the most part, it feels like a working port town, with fish smells everywhere, and, unlike Seattle, only one coffee shop and no cool places to hang out. Perhaps the best thing we can say about Puerto Montt is that we saw a great Inti-Illmanti show there for free in the municiple gymnasium. It was the culmination of a festival celebrating the 150th anniversary of Puerto Montt's founding. Leading up to Inti-Illmanti (the headliners) were a series of smaller groups from around Chile which were participating in a contest to perform the best song honoring the wonders of Puerto Montt. Given Puerto Montt's actual qualities, it was really more of a fiction contest. However, the winning act, Beautiful South, was actually pretty good and sang a really memorable and poignant ballad. Regardless, when the headliners arrived, we weren't disappointed. It was a wonderful show. They are an extremely talented group with every member playing multiple instruments --- and playing them well. They perform folkloric Chilean music with both traditional and non-traditional instruments. It is no wonder that they have found some modest success in the U.S. And, of course, the local crowd went wild for them. In addition to hearing remarkable music, we also got an extremely close look at Chile's intimidating carabinieri (police force) who stormed into the gym in flak jackets and fascistic brown military outfits to roughly remove some folks in the crowd who had gotten too rowdy. As it turns out, they're path of choice out of the gym was directly next to us and we worried we'd get swept away. Though the mostly foreign trouble-makers were very obnoxious, and appeared to be in need of a little "discipline," we wondered about their future. Jail time a la ¨Midnight Express¨? We also had our first group-living experience in Puerto Montt at a grim little place called Hospedaje Rocca. Memorable only in the fact that we are not seeking to share a bathroom with 20 other people nor are we interested in taking freezing cold showers again anytime soon! We have found, far too often actually, that Lonely Planet tends to lead us astray! We enjoyed perusing the artesania, wool and seafood markets in Puerto Montt, but mostly used our time in the city to plan other phases of our adventure. We also happened upon a group of old hippies who owned the one ¨coffee shop.¨ Turns out they were from California and very familiar with Senator Boxer's wilderness bill --- a bill Sara helped write! They had been in Chile since 1967 (during the entire reign of Pinochet and the coup of Allende), which made us very curious. They must have had a serious reason to stay out of the U.S. if they were willing to live in Chile during Pinochet's reign. Like all the Chileans we have met, these ex pats were not shy about sharing their disdain for Bush's actions with regard to Iraq, but we would love to get the news and perspective from our friends back home. Our primary excursion from Puerto Montt was to Volcan Orsorno ... a volcano about an hour and a half out of town. We were actually able to drive up most of it in a rent-a-car and were truly in awe of it's beauty and enormity! Though we had visions of disastrous breakdowns at the top of a remote, glacier-covered volcano, we actually ended up with a pretty schnazzy vehicle that proved to be quite hardy. We had coffee in a small hut (a Refugio) near the top and sat amazed at how far away (literally and figuratively) everything else seemed at that moment! We decided to be a bit adventurous with our rent-a-car and used it to shepherd us around the island of Chiloe, which is accessible only by ferry (reminding us of Vashon Island in Washington State). We arrived on Chiloe in the small town of Chacao, which had a bevy of birds along the beach, including a very large brown raptor with a beak that would give even the carabinieri a hard time. Chiloe is a lovely island of rolling hills (some actually quite steep and challenging --- even for the best of rental cars, let alone a Toyota Yaris) that are blanketed with farm land and forests. Spread across it are small fishing villages, isolated farms, and a few towns connected with a paved road that, remarkably, is the terminus of the Pan American Highway (who would guess that such an amazing engineering feat would finish so anonymously and with such little fanfare on the island of Chiloe, but we drove it to the end). The island was the last outpost of the Spanish occupation of Chile. In fact, as the Chileans were vying for their independence the Spanish tried to give it to the British instead of conceding it to the Chileans, but the Brits didn't want it! So now it's Chile's, but the people and the culture are distinctively different from anything we have seen elsewhere in the country. The island is noted for its folklore legends and its wooden churches (which have been identified as world heritage sites). The churches are indeed impressive in part because there are so many of them on such a small island (a testament to the reach of the Catholic church) and in part because it is remarkable that structures composed only of wood can survive the damp, rainy, windy climate found on Chiloe. Most of them clearly show that they have been battered by the elements (one even lost its steeple to a severe storm a year or two ago). As a side note, although the Catholic church clearly dominates, we have been surprised to see a number of other denominations making serious inroads --- particularly the Evangelicals and Mormons. No sign of any synagogues or mosques yet, however. One of the best things about Chiloe was the seafood. Seafood restaurants, in ramshackle structures on stilts in harbors overlooking the sea, serving enormous piles of crab meat, or filet of salmon, or multiple types of mussels and clams for next to nothing. They are completely unaware that these same restaurants in the U.S. would be the most desirable locations imaginable, charging outrageous prices. Oddly, Erich always seemed to receive entrees of unexplainable and unidentifiable ¨seafood,¨ including what we think were baby eels and who knows what else. Sara, however, always seemed to get food that was both recognizable and usually quite good. Perhaps this was a language/ordering issue for Erich. In both Puerto Montt and Chiloe, we were struck by the variety of seafood available in both raw and smoked form --- completely different from what we see in the U.S. We enjoyed our time in a small town called Castro, which was the largest town on Chiloe. The woolen markets were amazing. The women were knitting sweaters, socks, hats, etc. while they minded their stalls. It was much more genuine than the markets we had seen in Puerto Montt. Clearly, this was a tradition passed on from generation to generation, in part, because it was necessary to survive the harsh winters on this island. In retrospect, we regret not stocking up on more of their handiwork! Chiloe also seemed to be the place where Chilean kids go to backpack during summer break. We saw hitch-hikers every few kilometers and they all seemed to congregate in the Castro Plaza de Armas at night --- making it a very lively town, if only for a few weeks in the summer. Castro was also a convenient launching point for a trek in the Parque Nacional Chiloe. We took a four and a half hour trek along the beach (miles of wide sandy, undeveloped beach and thundering surf) and through the adjacent Tepual forest. Very scenic and beautiful. Sara's bird watching wasn't quite as good as we had hoped, but we did see humming birds, songbirds, and some oyster catchers. We were also astounded by the tree growth and density of the forest. A real highlight from our time in Chiloe was our visit to the Otway Pinguino refuge in Punihuil. It was the first time Erich had ever seen penguins in the wild and it was a very memorable experience for him. Turns out a German biologist is responsible for creating the Otway Foundation and keeping it going. He was particularly concerned about protecting the Humboldt penguin, which is projected to be extinct in the next several decades. We offered him our help in drawing attention to his work, but we're not sure he'll take us up on it. Suffice it to say, Chiloe is a land just waiting to be ruined by development --- cheap beachfront property abounds! For now, thankfully, Chiloe feels remarkably "authentic" and detached (no Starbucks, no McDonalds, no Walmart). Not quaint. Not preserved. Simply working villages that are focused on day-to-day living and that are separate (both physically and psychologically) from the more Americanized Chilean mainland. We were glad we took the time to visit and five days was an adequate amount of time to get a feel for life on this pleasant island. That's our report for now. Love, Erich and Sara |
Bariloche,
Argentina and Parque Nacional Nahue l Huapi Torres del Paine Top Ten Ways We Know We Are No Longer in the U.S. Hola from the Chilean Lake District Erich and Sara's report from Puerto Montt and Chiloe
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