Ferry to the South

After a nice trip to Chiloe and Puerto Varas, we boarded our ferry, Evangelista, for our travel southward toward Puerto Natales. (man they sure like to have lots of puertos in the city names). Our cabin was tiny...when I first saw it with our luggages in it, I didn't think we'd be able to fit in there at the same time. Once we put the luggages away in the nice little cubbies, we got room to groove. kind of. The bunk beds are nice, though you really got to watch your head. I hit the back of my head pretty hard getting back to bed one night. The sound of head connecting with wood was so loud that I woke my friends up. If I seem dumber in the rest of my blogs, thats the reason why.

The food on board was surprisingly decent and so was the bathroom facilities. The showering was interesting. There was this knob thing that you had to keep pushing in order to keep the water running. Part of the water conservation effort I think. Definitely makes showering an arm work out and an entertainment.

We pretty much lazed about the days playing cards with each other. Picked up a cute British boy traveling by himself who taught us the game, shithead. Pretty fun. Megan also taught me how to play spite and malice. We were also alerted to go on to the front of the boat deck occasionally to see the boat 'manuver' through a narrow channel. Usually pretty boring and cold. Though we did see some sea lions swimming around, clouds, mountains, and a ship that got stuck on a rock years ago. We stopped and got off the boat in Puerto Eden. Not much to see but good to stretch our legs. We also got to see Glacier Pio XI. It was HUGE!! and I was freezing. The weather had turned bad so the pictures didn't turn out well but you can still see the blue in the glacier. So amazing.

After the disasterous bingo night they hosted for us. Disasterous because I DID NOT win and I had to go dance in front of everyone with Paige and Megan (who had won). We arrived in Puerto Natales to a clear, beautiful day. Thanks to my motion sickness patch, I remained sea sick free! Can't say the same about half the boat though. HA!

Next up...Torres Del Paine.

Caudillo del Congrio

This is Pablo Neruda's favorite meal. After tasting it at El Reloj Restaurant, I completely understands why. It is delicious and wonderful on a cold day in Puerto Varas where we stopped off for a night before and after we visited Chiloe.

Doesn't this look great on a cold and rainy day? mmmm mmm good! :D

Rain Rain Go Away!

In the midst of rain, we arrived at the mystical island of Chiloe (off the coast of Chile, close to Puerto Montt where we are boarding our Navimag ferry a few days later). First time I have seen rain since I arrived in Chile, slightly disconcerting. On the way to Chiloe, I got to see a whole bus (i mean a big one) get loaded onto a boat among other cars. AND I got to see sea lions playing in the water, WAY COOL! We stayed at Castro, the capital city of Chiloe. The hostel we stayed at, Palafito, is more like a really nice bed and breakfast. It is definitely the nicest place we have stayed in thus far (and future as well...). Fantastic breakfast with a warm fire. Not to mention that it is right on a lake (inner bay?) that has its water recedes and rises with the tide. We would wake up and the entire area has been drained of water where you can totally walk across from one side to another. I wanted to put this hostel in my pocket and take it to go!

It wasn't all rain all the time. On the second day we got some decent weather, enough that we took a bunch of buses (collectivos) to different cities to see some really old churches. We went to Ancho and Dalcahue, cities on a small island to the northeast of Castro. The church in Dalcahue is really interesting with a painting of Jesus mixed with mythical local creatures. The intention is to encourage conversion to Catholicism by use of local myths. Pretty clever of them. Megan bought a book about the local myths and read some to us. Most of them have to do with witches and warlocks.

My favorite part about Chiloe is that it is the place where I was introduced to Maico. This delicious mash potato ball thing filled with shredded pork and fried. I mean DELICIOUS! Probably not the best thing for me but man...I could definitely go for one right now :)

Volcano: 1....Rita: 0

"Today," I thought to myself, "is the day I shall climb to the top of the Volcan Villarrica". Boy...was I overly optimistic! Volcan Villarrica is a live volcano standing at 2847 meters tall and covered in snow. Walking around the town in Pucon, I can see the volcano from almost anywhere I stood and it is just begging for me to climb it.

5:30am - the car comes to pick us up from our camp site after I had gotten grand total of 3 hours of sleep thanks to the partier who came back from the Hot Spring at 3am.
6:00am - the car came to a stop due to a pretty bad accident on the only way into Pucon. we almost had to walk the last 7km to town, luckily for me, they let us pass 30 min later.
7:00am - fitted for volcano climbing gear (ice pick, heavy duty hiking shoes, gaiters, crampons, water proof pants, windbreakers, and a backpack filled with snacks, water, camera, etc) and off we go in a van toward the volcano
8:00am - HORRAY for ski lifts!! Our other friends who had climbed the volcano in the last 2 weeks all had to walk up because the ski lift wasn't open to take them up the most slippery/steep part of the hike.
9:00am - The weight of the gear is starting to weigh on me and my legs are begining to feel like lead. I make it to the first stop.
10:00am - I am in between the first stop and the second stop, standing on a slippery slope of ice (slowly dying on the inside) and trying to figure out how in the world i am going to make it to the next stop since going back down is more difficult than going up.
11:00am - I made it to the 2nd stop (HORRAY!!!), the big one right before everyone leave on the trail to ascend to the top of the volcano where there really is no turning back. This is the point where I quit. I have NEVER had a more challenging climb in my life (I haven't climbed a whole lot...but man this was brutal).
11:30am - I slide...slide...and slide down the volcano. NOW this is the part that makes the whole climb worth it (on top of the amazing view). :D wheeeeeee!!! SO fun. I want to open a slide only slide park in the US.
12:30pm - Back down to the van. Heads back to Pucon.

Volcano: 1....Rita: 0

Camping...'nuff said

I kicked off my traveling adventure post MBA exchange program with 2 night camping trip with Paige, Molly and a bunch of couchsurfers at Carburga, about 30min outside of Pucon. For those of you who know me, I am sure you are re-reading the first sentence a couple of times right now. Rita, camping?!?!?!? how is that possible. I am here to tell you. It is possible and I did it. Will I do it again? Probably not for another 10 years ;)

However fun it was, meeting new people and sitting by the camp fire, I missed the following things: eating on time, sleeping in a bed, access to proper bathroom/shower facilities. I also learned that I am far too old to go camping with people who are going to party until the sun comes up...3 days in a row. Good thing I went rafting the first day I got there so I was super tired and assisted by Piscola and wine, passed out in no time. The next night I was not so lucky but at that point, I am so tired, I slept through the hard ground, the cold, and the party chants. Unlike the volcano, which I will go into in the next entry, the camp did not conquer me. Another day, it would have. Luckily, we had a room at the Tree House hostel in Pucon and I got to reset my memory of my traumatizing experience showering at the camp site. (It is too traumatizing to talk about still...the wound is still raw). Lets just say, I have never slept so soundly in a bed.