Leaving Chile for the Lake District of Argentina

Leaving Chile for the Lake District of Argentina

Monday, Feb. 13, Puerto Montt, Argentina

I came to Puerto Montt today. It´s the bigger city near Puerto Varas where I am staying. Puerto Varas is a much nicer city in terms of atmosphere. But I felt I should see this city, too. I´ve walked the streets and explored the better areas of town.

There is a cruise ship here. All of them traveling this area stop here for a day. Then the bus tours can take them to the more attractive sights in the area if they don´t want to stay here in town for the day. Many are here, though. It meant that everywhere I have gone today, there have been beggars assuming I´m off the ship. I had never thought about how cruse passengers would have to deal with that problem when stopping at ports in 3rd world countries. The only cruise I ever took was in Europe, so there weren´t any beggars.

I walked south of the port area to a village called Angelmo. It is quite quaint and nice. Most of the cruise ship passengers not on bus tours were there. It has long lines of stalls selling handicrafts. And it is a small fishing port with a very nice fish market and many fish restaurants. I wish I had waited to have lunch there, but I had already eaten in town.

I had bife ala pobre (poor man´s beef). It´s a popular dish here, and I hadn´t had it yet. It was part of a luncheon special that started with a big bowl of cream of lentil soup. The main dish is a steak filet covered with a fried egg and served with fried potatoes and grilled onions on the side. It´s exactly like a dish Arne used to make all the time, so I thoroughly enjoyed having it. This version, however, was a little too greasy. For dessert, it came with a slice of watermelon.

I have spent a LOT of money today. First, I went shopping at Paris Almacenes, the fancy department store here in Chile. They had a final clearance on summer items, since it is time for them to start stocking winter items here. I bought two polo shirts that were originally $30 each. I got them for $8 each. One is medium-width brown and beige stripes with a white collar. The other is the same except that the stripes are lime green and dark green. It´s going to be nice to have new shirts to wear for a change.

The BIG expense, however, was buying my ticket for the trip to Argentina. It involves taking 4 buses and 3 boats that will take me across the most atmospheric of the lakes and through the most dramatic of the land scenery. I could have taken a bus only for about $20. Instead, this boat/bus trip costs $160! All the guidebooks admit it is over-priced, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do. If I am ever back here again, I´ll take the bus! I delayed my departure from here by a day to make sure there would be good weather for the trip. Saturday and Sunday, it was cloudy until about 2:00 p.m. each day and was cold with the breeze. But today, it was sunny from the beginning and the air is better. Tomorrow will be the same I hope.

The trip across to Bariloche in Argentina will take 12 hours. That means I won´t arrive there until 9:00 p.m. tomorrow night. So I also delayed my departure while trying to make sure I had a place to stay once I get there. I have made a reservation at a splurge place (for me) which is $33 per night. But I am guaranteed a place to stay. After a night or two, I will have found a cheaper place and moved, I´m sure. What a relief it is, however, to know that I have a place to stay when I arrive there tomorrow night!

It´s late afternoon now. I will catch a bus back to Puerto Varas and will do some grocery shopping for snacks to eat in my room tonight and to have on the trip with me tomorrow. I want to spend the rest of my Chilean pesos, since I probably won´t be back in this country for some time.

Tonight I should also finish reading my present book. It´s The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst. It hasn´t been very good. I give it 2 stars out of 4. It was short-listed for the Booker Prize. I don´t understand that unless they short-listed half of all books printed that year that qualified for their prize or unless it was a token listing because of it´s theme. It´s obvious that it didn´t deserve a nomination, so I am glad it didn´t get one.