It rained and rained for hours and hours (and then we had occasional showers)

When we left Chiloe on Wednesday 14^th March we thought the weather would improve.  It didn’t.

We spent the next couple of days at Puerto Varas, a very nice town on the southern shores of an immense lake, Lago Llanquihue, with views across to Volcan Osorno (although we never saw it). On Thursday gale force winds whipped the trees around and turned the lake into a raging sea so kayaking was out and on Friday the gods opened the taps, so birdwatching was out and so was any chance of seeing the apparently spectacular volcano. 

That being the case we decided to get on the road again and drive in an anti-clockwise direction around the lake towards some waterfalls, hopeful that it might stop raining at some stage .

We arrived at the Saltos Petrohue where there was a series of impressive rapids and waterfalls created by a huge downfall of volcanic stuff which had caused a log jam on the river between two lakes. However, getting to the waterfalls involved walking along a trail and, guess what, it was p…..g it down with rain.

Saltos Petrohue

Saltos Petrohue

We then drove further up the road and found a very pleasant restaurant to have lunch and dry out and it continued to rain.

A little further along the road there was a very loud noise which turned out to be coming from a smoking tyre and the tyre was undeniably flat and still it was p…..g it down with rain.  So, the next job was to change the wheel and Alan spent the best part of the next hour doing so, much of the time lying down in an ever deepening puddle because, let’s not forget, it was p…...g it down with rain.  Don’t let anyone tell you that travelling is all fun.

Meanwhile Sue was for once doing as asked which was to please stay in the vehicle and think of England.  This she did but she later admitted that she didn’t think very much about England as about how nice and dry she was and how horrible and soggy wet Alan was.

Said soggy wet person then got back into the truck and we continued on our way to the town of Osorno where we found a decent B & B.  By the way, it was still raining when we turned in for the night.

Saturday was a much better day.  We managed to get two new tyres fitted, the B & B washed all Alan’s wet and muddy clothes, the sun came out and we took advantage of the improved weather to go and visit yet more waterfalls in the Puyehue national park some fifty miles away.

Puyehue National Park

Walking in Puyehue National Park

Waterfall, Puyehue National Park

Tree ferns in the national park

This being the Chilean Lake District we set off on Sunday in a northerly direction to another lake, Lago Villarrica, with yet another volcano sitting behind it.

There were lots of agencies advertising all sorts of outdoor activities in the area and Alan, who was feeling the lack of an adrenalin-rush, arranged to do what they call Hydro Speeding. This is basically where they give you a large polystyrene body board and chuck you into a set of rapids for an hour.  He turned up at the appointed time only to be told that because he was the only one who wanted to do it they weren’t going.  Just as well, what on earth was he thinking off at his age?

He settled instead for something gentler and so we went to have a look at the Volcan Villarrica which was everything that a volcano should be.  We drove to the foot of the volcano and it loomed out of the surrounding forest in the classic volcanic manner with its pyramidal cone half covered in snow and with an ominous wisp of sulphur smoke coming out of the top. 

Volcan Villarrica

Lucy at the foot of the volcano

As we got closer we could see the route that the molten lava had taken during the last eruption which was in 2015.  Much of the time we were walking over fine black volcanic ash, but it was surprising just how readily plants had colonised this apparently inhospitable growing medium and started to flourish.

Path of lava flow from the volcano

Having seen all we wanted to of Villarrica, we headed off to the city of Temuco where we arrived on Thursday afternoon. We normally try to avoid cities, but Temuco is apparently a city with a strong Mapuche heritage and we thought it worth a visit.

The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in southern South America and their name means ‘the people’s land’ taken from the words ‘mapu’ (land) and ‘che' (people).  They were never subdued by the Incas and successfully resisted the Spanish for over two hundred years.  Nevertheless, their original homeland has been reduced from over 100,000 square kilometres to just 5,000, most of this in the area between Temuco and the Pacific coast.

Temuco is a city much like any other city although there are undercurrents of discord between the large Mapuche population, who consider themselves dispossessed, and the police. We noticed that there was some difficulty close to the Plaza de Armas where there were riot vehicles parked apparently in readiness for some form of confrontation although we never saw the confrontation if indeed there was one. There were however a lot of carabineros around including female carabineras with very tight fitting hats and determined expressions, oh and pistols.

In the main square there was a bronze depicting various figures from the city’s past including a conquistador that had been graffiti covered, a soldier with a rifle who had been graffiti covered and a Mapuche warrior who was scrupulously not covered in graffiti.  We mentioned this to Martin, the son of the hostel owner where we were staying, who confirmed that this was one of the manifestations of anger that the Mapuche people feel for the expropriation of their lands.

Wooden sculpture of Mapuche Warrior - wonderful expression of sadness mingled with noble resignation

We much enjoyed visiting the very large and colourful outdoor market which was full of mounds of fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices, meat, fish, flowers, wooden implements and leather goods. The stall holders were lively and friendly and some of them were very happy to be photographed. There were sacks full of spices, smoked chilli, paprika, red hot chilli, not so red hot chilli, chilli with herbs and we bought three bags, Alan having sampled them all and nearly burnt out the roof of his mouth in the process.

Ox cart outside Temuco market

Leading the oxen

Stall holder selling Pinones (Aracuaria tree nuts)

Market stall

Spices for sale

Stall holders selling spices

We also sampled Cazuela, the local dish, at one of the eateries in the market.  It was basically a huge lump of meat, half a corn cob, a potato and some vegetables and rice in a thin soup.  Once eaten, best forgotten.

On Thursday 22^nd March we left Temuco (in the pouring rain) and drove West to the small town of Puerto Saavedra on the Pacific coast where it was still pouring with rain for much of the time.  In between rain storms we went to have a look at the ocean. It did not disappoint.  The combers came crashing in with spindrift whizzing off the tops of the waves as they charged shoreside and pounded on the black sandy beach. 

Back with the ocean

Pacific combers and lagoon at Puerto Saavedra

However, the high point of our stay was when we drove south of the town through some remote countryside and isolated Mapuche communities to Lago Budi, the only inland saltwater lake in Chile and apparently visited by over 130 species of water bird.  We saw upwards of two hundred black neck swans, also some white tufted grebes, quite a lot of ducks and some egrets but the swans en masse took the prize.

Black neck swans, Lago Budi

White tufted grebe

When the sun finally came out we opened the tent up and found that everything was soaking wet which did not make either of us particularly happy.  We took the mattress and the duvet and the sheet out and first of all laid them out in the sun and then next to the stove in our cabana.  Mercifully, everything was dry by next morning.

The next morning, Saturday, we left Puerto Saavedra, got on a little cable ferry that took us across the mouth of the river, and then continued our merry way north along the Pacific coast.

Waiting for the chain ferry

Disembarking from the ferry

To our delight we found the most wonderful wild camping site on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Pacific. We reached it by driving up a very steep and very rocky track which had not been recently navigated by anybody else as far as we could see, and then by means of asking Lucy to do some acrobatics in the way of leaping over a bit of a ski jump with a boulder strewn area beyond.  However, all was well, we deployed the tent and Alan got a very creditable camp fire going and the Carabineros didn’t come along and spoil this one.

Climbing the cliffs above the Pacific at Tirua

Cliff-top campsite overlooking the Pacific at Tirua

It was a very cold night but we were tucked up in our warm and thankfully dry tent.  It was still exceedingly cold the next morning, but we were rewarded by the bay itself in full sunshine and low mist hurrying across the dunes and out to sea to meet the advancing phalanxes of Pacific combers coming in to the land.  Shortly after, the sun came over the mountain top to the east and first of all touched the top of the rocky outcrop where we were camped and then moved down to illuminate the tent and the vehicle, and we could feel our fingers once more.

Having packed the tent up we had the interesting exercise of getting Lucy down from her perch.  This involved reversing over the boulder strewn area and then down a slope of about 45 degrees without turning Lucy over.  This was achieved without incident.

Interesting access to campsite

The track back down from the cliff

After that little bit of excitement we had a very boring day on busy main roads in order to circumnavigate Concepcion which is Chile’s second largest city and we ultimately found ourselves in Florida.  In case you are wondering, we hadn’t taken a plane and flown a few thousand miles north, it’s actually the name of a small town in the central valley of Chile.

Roadside lilies

The central valley is the main wine growing area of Chile and we started to see neat vineyards.  And for the first time since we started travelling in January it was hot, a very welcome change.

Monday was an interesting day. The first part of the day was okay, we packed up from our cabana and travelled back to the Pacific coast. Then we came to a place which had a wide black sandy bay and Alan said “Oh, this is lovely, let’s go out on there and find somewhere marvellous to camp”.  What a stupid idea!

It was a wide sandy bay and plenty of vehicles had been across it, BUT they were lighter vehicles than Lucy who weighs in at a canny three tons.  Alan let plenty of air out of the tyres but the sand was very soft and after about half an hour he had to admit that we had dug ourselves rather a deep hole from which it was not going to be possible to extract ourselves unaided.

Stuck

We found a guy in a red pickup and having flagged him down he said that he was indeed happy to help.  He therefore took us back to where Lucy was woefully up to the axles in deep sand and after digging out some sand we hitched Lucy up to his Nissan and he pulled us out until we were on slightly firmer sand.  The ignominy of it, a Land Rover having to be rescued by a Nissan! He will probably be dining out on that story for a while to come but we were very grateful all the same.

We are now in the town of Santa Cruz which is in the heart of the wine growing area.  It is an unremarkable place and we are only here to catch up on the usual domestic tasks and admin.  Thankfully, we seem to have left the cold and rain behind us, at least for the time being, and we are enjoying the hot sunny days.

From here we plan to step up the pace as we continue north to Santiago and then across the Andes into Argentina.