Clean Teeth in Argentina
Tuesday, Feb. 28, Merlo, Argentina
I went to the dentist this morning. It has been 6 months since I had my teeth cleaned in Thailand, and I didn´t want to a) pay high prices to get them cleaned in the U.S. and b) wait a whole year before I am back in Thailand. The dentist didn´t speak English, but I got him to understand. What he couldn´t understand, I think, was WHY I wanted them cleaned. He kept saying "muey poquito" (very little). Then he gave me an anesthetic. I have never had an anesthetic for having my teeth cleaned. I started wondering if he really understood what I wanted. But he took out a water pressure tool and proceeded to clean them. He was starting to get creative at communication. When I asked how much I owed him, he showed me by places the same amount in bills on his desk--25 pesos ($8.33 U.S.).
The weather remained bad yesterday, and I was tired anyway from lack of sleep on the bus trip. So I napped in my room from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Then I went to lunch at a popular place here in town. I had their special, since it looked so good at other tables. It started with an empanada. But the main dish was what looked so good--two large cannoloni. The wrappers were green and were filled with cheese and ham. The sauces were a cream sauce and a tomato sauce. Sprinkled on top were chunks of another cheese.
I went back to the room and slept from 2 p.m. until 5:30. I forced myself out of bed at 6:00, because I kept trying to fall back to sleep. I wandered around town some and stopped at 8:00 at a sandwich place. I had a lomito which was HUGE--about 10 cm (4 inches) by 30 cm (12 inches--and filled with cheese, ham, tomatoes, lettuce, and thin slices of very tender beef. On the side were fried potatoes. I went to bed stuffed.
I was worried about whether I would sleep the whole night. But at 10:30 I felt tired. I went to bed and actually slept until 8 a.m. I was so glad and felt so rested.
All I have done today so far is go to the dentist and do some walking. Some odds and ends:
I weighed myself yesterday. I wasn´t sure how much I weigh, but I know I have been this size for about 5 months now. I was 74 kg (163 lbs.). That was what I weighed through my 20s and 30s, but I haven´t weighed so little in a long time. I feel good at this level.
The San Antonio Spurs are popular here because of their two Argentinean players. Every Spurs game is shown on TV here. And shops sell Spurs caps and TV shirts all over the country. When anyone asks where I live, I always mention the Spurs and their star player from here.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
A "Souther" Blew In...Brrrrrr!
A "Souther" Blew In...Brrrrrr!
Monday, Feb. 27, Merlo, Argentina
Yesterday was a day for traveling starting in the mid-afternoon. Earlier, I just went to the park and read to pass time. I age back at the same Italian place that is so popular. Every place else in town was empty, and it was full. I just couldn´t convince myself to go elsewhere.
We went straight through the main Argentina wine areas on the bus trip from San Rafael to Mendoza. We passed the wineries I had visited in San Rafael, but we continued to pass more as we went the 150 miles between the cities. I saw names I knew from bottles I have bought at stores or from reading about them.
Essentially, the land is flat desert between the two cities. There are mountains just to the west which provide a beautiful view. It was cloudy yesterday, so rays of sunlight coming through the clouds enhanced the view. Every town along the route tends to have vineyards around it.
There was a huge dust storm that occurred just about an hour out of Mendoza. We were stopped at a small town when it blew in. The leaves were whirling around in the air, then the dust started blowing up. When we drove out into the countryside, the mountains could no longer be seen. The sky was just a dirty look to it and visibility was like there was a light fog.
That dust storm was caused by a "souther" coming through. The air got much cooler. We stayed ahead of it or just at it as I changed buses and continued to Merlo from Mendoza. About 10 minutes after arriving in Merlo, it hit here. The doors to the bus station blew open and the cold air came in. Brrrr. That was around 3:45 a.m. I stayed there in the station trying to sleep, but the doors kept opening and the cold air was blowing so hard that it was just too uncomfortable to rest much. There was also a lot of noise from kids playing pool and electronic games on a mezzanine above the waiting room. When the tourist desk opened at 7:00, I got a map and suggestions for where to stay and went looking for a room.
I had a nice seatmate last night on the bus to Merlo. He was a young student named Martín. He was going to another small village here in the Sierras west of Cordobá for a vacation before starting school in one week. He didn´t speak English, but we communicated some. He is still a high school student and his favorite subject is geography. I could tell he would have liked to visit more, but the language gap was just too great.
Merlo is right at the edge of the mountains. It is bigger than I expected. It´s more of a small town than a village. I am staying just a block from the main plaza. There are hiking trails that go along streams into the mountains. I plan to hike one of those tomorrow. Today, I will just stay in town and relax. I´m hoping the temperature will be better tomorrow, too. It´s not bad today, but there are occasional sprinkles and a strong wind that make it less comfortable to be out.
One interesting thing I noticed yesterday and had seen a few days ago and meant to comment about was the roadside shrines where there have been accidents that have killed people in the area around San Rafael. The shrines tend to have LOTS of empty bottles around them. Apparently, friends or relatives of those who have died there take drinks to the site and drink and "visit" with the departed. Then they leave the bottles as sort of a physical proof of how loved the person was and how much he/she is missed.
I´ll spend two nights here in Merlo. Then I will go to Mina Clavera, another place in the Sierras and spend one night. My time is running short, so from there I will have to go to Cordobá to try to arrange a bus to take me back to Iguazu. I am hoping there will be one bus for that whole distance (about 20 hours). If not, I will have to take a bus to Resistencia one night, and then take another bus from there to Iguazu. I must be in Iguazu on Mar. 6, because my flight to Mexico City is early in the morning on the 7th.
Monday, Feb. 27, Merlo, Argentina
Yesterday was a day for traveling starting in the mid-afternoon. Earlier, I just went to the park and read to pass time. I age back at the same Italian place that is so popular. Every place else in town was empty, and it was full. I just couldn´t convince myself to go elsewhere.
We went straight through the main Argentina wine areas on the bus trip from San Rafael to Mendoza. We passed the wineries I had visited in San Rafael, but we continued to pass more as we went the 150 miles between the cities. I saw names I knew from bottles I have bought at stores or from reading about them.
Essentially, the land is flat desert between the two cities. There are mountains just to the west which provide a beautiful view. It was cloudy yesterday, so rays of sunlight coming through the clouds enhanced the view. Every town along the route tends to have vineyards around it.
There was a huge dust storm that occurred just about an hour out of Mendoza. We were stopped at a small town when it blew in. The leaves were whirling around in the air, then the dust started blowing up. When we drove out into the countryside, the mountains could no longer be seen. The sky was just a dirty look to it and visibility was like there was a light fog.
That dust storm was caused by a "souther" coming through. The air got much cooler. We stayed ahead of it or just at it as I changed buses and continued to Merlo from Mendoza. About 10 minutes after arriving in Merlo, it hit here. The doors to the bus station blew open and the cold air came in. Brrrr. That was around 3:45 a.m. I stayed there in the station trying to sleep, but the doors kept opening and the cold air was blowing so hard that it was just too uncomfortable to rest much. There was also a lot of noise from kids playing pool and electronic games on a mezzanine above the waiting room. When the tourist desk opened at 7:00, I got a map and suggestions for where to stay and went looking for a room.
I had a nice seatmate last night on the bus to Merlo. He was a young student named Martín. He was going to another small village here in the Sierras west of Cordobá for a vacation before starting school in one week. He didn´t speak English, but we communicated some. He is still a high school student and his favorite subject is geography. I could tell he would have liked to visit more, but the language gap was just too great.
Merlo is right at the edge of the mountains. It is bigger than I expected. It´s more of a small town than a village. I am staying just a block from the main plaza. There are hiking trails that go along streams into the mountains. I plan to hike one of those tomorrow. Today, I will just stay in town and relax. I´m hoping the temperature will be better tomorrow, too. It´s not bad today, but there are occasional sprinkles and a strong wind that make it less comfortable to be out.
One interesting thing I noticed yesterday and had seen a few days ago and meant to comment about was the roadside shrines where there have been accidents that have killed people in the area around San Rafael. The shrines tend to have LOTS of empty bottles around them. Apparently, friends or relatives of those who have died there take drinks to the site and drink and "visit" with the departed. Then they leave the bottles as sort of a physical proof of how loved the person was and how much he/she is missed.
I´ll spend two nights here in Merlo. Then I will go to Mina Clavera, another place in the Sierras and spend one night. My time is running short, so from there I will have to go to Cordobá to try to arrange a bus to take me back to Iguazu. I am hoping there will be one bus for that whole distance (about 20 hours). If not, I will have to take a bus to Resistencia one night, and then take another bus from there to Iguazu. I must be in Iguazu on Mar. 6, because my flight to Mexico City is early in the morning on the 7th.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Walking, Walking, Walking...
Walking, Walking, Walking...
Saturday, Feb. 25, San Rafael, Argentina
For the past two days I have been doing lots of walking. Yesterday, I walked out into the west of town to where there were wineries. Then I angled toward the south were I went to Isla Diamonte outside the city limits going southwest. From there, I crossed further east to the main street coming out of downtown going due south and returned to town on it. I don´t know how far I walked, but just from town to Isla Diamonte is 6 km (3.5 miles), so I probably went 20 km (12 miles). Today, I walked due east until I was almost to the edge of town. Then I walked northward out of town and into the countryside. I passed vineyards, orchards, groves of olive trees (olives and olive oil are products from here, too), small barrios, etc. Eventually, I turned due west on a country road until I came to the highway that enters town from the north. I returned downtown on it. Then this afternoon, I have walked about 2/3 of the way back toward Isla Diamonte to use a cyber cafe that I used yesterday and will be returning back to town. Probably the distances today are 15-20 km (9-12 miles). It makes me feel good to know I am getting the exercise, though. And the time I was in the countryside both yesterday and today was nice.
There are two reasons why I wanted to return to the same cyber cafe. Cyber cafes here are cheap--cheaper than anywhere I have ever been except China. Almost all of them here charge 27 cents to 33 cents per hour. Yesterday, I went back to another cyber cafe near my hotel in the evening to spend more time, since the rates are so cheap. But I had an interesting experience. I was allowed to sign-in for my e-mail and to compose messages to send, but I was not allowed to retrieve my messages and read them. Each time I tried to do so, I got a message saying there was pornography on those pages and the screen would automatically be closed. And it was closed!! I don´t know why that computer thought there was pornography in my e-mail; now that I have opened it today I can see that there wasn´t. I resent the fact that the cyber cafe wanted to censor what I could see anyway. So, the two reasons I returned to this cyber cafe are (1) I knew I could see my e-mail because it had allowed me to do so yesterday, and (2) many other cyber cafes are closed due to it being late Saturday (and I remembered this was was big and nice and looked like it probably caters to all the area kids who would want it open on Saturday).
I returned to the Italian restaurant that is so popular today. I got the last table for 1-2, and the place had a waiting line within 2 minutes after I was seated. At the waiter´s suggestion, I had the spaghetti with the house sauce today. Because of the Italians who immigrated here, every place selling spaghetti uses fresh spaghetti they have either made or have bought that day from one of the many pasta factories selling to their neighborhoods, so the spaghetti was good. The sauce is one that is made with red bell peppers (pimiento) and was delicious. And the parmesan was freshly grated and served in a bowl for me to spoon onto the food. It was a great lunch.
Last night, I ate the last of my "picnic" supplies from the night before. I opened the bottle of wine from the Rivier Bodega I had bought earlier in the day. It was so good!! How nice it would be to be able to buy wine that good at home at such low prices!! Here´s the website for the winery:
http://www.jeanrivier.com
Their wines are available from an importer in California if anyone wants to investigate:
DCD Enterprises LLC (dba DCD Undiscovered Wines)
7963 E. 6th Street
Downey, CA 90241
869-9847
I´ll be leaving San Rafael tomorrow. It will be another bad travel experience, I am afraid. I want to go to Merlo in the mountains southwest of Cordobá. I can get there from Mendoza, but not from here. But there is a major bus company that sold me a joint ticket for going from here to Mendoza and then transferring an hour later to another bus going to Merlo. The problem is that the bus going to Merlo will arrive at 3:15 a.m.!! I can´t go to a hotel at that hour. I won´t even be able to search for one at that hour, since it will be dark and Merlo is a village with things spread out rather than a town with normal streets and blocks. I doubt if there will be an inside place to wait either. The bus station will probably not be a true station. I just hope there will be a bench or something where I can sit and wait (and maybe sleep) for about 4 hours. I also hope there will be a room available. I think there will be. School is starting next week here in Argentina. I´ve seen teachers leaving in-service sessions this week, and I´ve seen reports on returning to school on the news. So tourism should drop dramatically now, although high-season rates remain in effect through the middle of March everywhere. Anyway, the next time I post to the blog, I will be able to report on all of this.
Saturday, Feb. 25, San Rafael, Argentina
For the past two days I have been doing lots of walking. Yesterday, I walked out into the west of town to where there were wineries. Then I angled toward the south were I went to Isla Diamonte outside the city limits going southwest. From there, I crossed further east to the main street coming out of downtown going due south and returned to town on it. I don´t know how far I walked, but just from town to Isla Diamonte is 6 km (3.5 miles), so I probably went 20 km (12 miles). Today, I walked due east until I was almost to the edge of town. Then I walked northward out of town and into the countryside. I passed vineyards, orchards, groves of olive trees (olives and olive oil are products from here, too), small barrios, etc. Eventually, I turned due west on a country road until I came to the highway that enters town from the north. I returned downtown on it. Then this afternoon, I have walked about 2/3 of the way back toward Isla Diamonte to use a cyber cafe that I used yesterday and will be returning back to town. Probably the distances today are 15-20 km (9-12 miles). It makes me feel good to know I am getting the exercise, though. And the time I was in the countryside both yesterday and today was nice.
There are two reasons why I wanted to return to the same cyber cafe. Cyber cafes here are cheap--cheaper than anywhere I have ever been except China. Almost all of them here charge 27 cents to 33 cents per hour. Yesterday, I went back to another cyber cafe near my hotel in the evening to spend more time, since the rates are so cheap. But I had an interesting experience. I was allowed to sign-in for my e-mail and to compose messages to send, but I was not allowed to retrieve my messages and read them. Each time I tried to do so, I got a message saying there was pornography on those pages and the screen would automatically be closed. And it was closed!! I don´t know why that computer thought there was pornography in my e-mail; now that I have opened it today I can see that there wasn´t. I resent the fact that the cyber cafe wanted to censor what I could see anyway. So, the two reasons I returned to this cyber cafe are (1) I knew I could see my e-mail because it had allowed me to do so yesterday, and (2) many other cyber cafes are closed due to it being late Saturday (and I remembered this was was big and nice and looked like it probably caters to all the area kids who would want it open on Saturday).
I returned to the Italian restaurant that is so popular today. I got the last table for 1-2, and the place had a waiting line within 2 minutes after I was seated. At the waiter´s suggestion, I had the spaghetti with the house sauce today. Because of the Italians who immigrated here, every place selling spaghetti uses fresh spaghetti they have either made or have bought that day from one of the many pasta factories selling to their neighborhoods, so the spaghetti was good. The sauce is one that is made with red bell peppers (pimiento) and was delicious. And the parmesan was freshly grated and served in a bowl for me to spoon onto the food. It was a great lunch.
Last night, I ate the last of my "picnic" supplies from the night before. I opened the bottle of wine from the Rivier Bodega I had bought earlier in the day. It was so good!! How nice it would be to be able to buy wine that good at home at such low prices!! Here´s the website for the winery:
http://www.jeanrivier.com
Their wines are available from an importer in California if anyone wants to investigate:
DCD Enterprises LLC (dba DCD Undiscovered Wines)
7963 E. 6th Street
Downey, CA 90241
869-9847
I´ll be leaving San Rafael tomorrow. It will be another bad travel experience, I am afraid. I want to go to Merlo in the mountains southwest of Cordobá. I can get there from Mendoza, but not from here. But there is a major bus company that sold me a joint ticket for going from here to Mendoza and then transferring an hour later to another bus going to Merlo. The problem is that the bus going to Merlo will arrive at 3:15 a.m.!! I can´t go to a hotel at that hour. I won´t even be able to search for one at that hour, since it will be dark and Merlo is a village with things spread out rather than a town with normal streets and blocks. I doubt if there will be an inside place to wait either. The bus station will probably not be a true station. I just hope there will be a bench or something where I can sit and wait (and maybe sleep) for about 4 hours. I also hope there will be a room available. I think there will be. School is starting next week here in Argentina. I´ve seen teachers leaving in-service sessions this week, and I´ve seen reports on returning to school on the news. So tourism should drop dramatically now, although high-season rates remain in effect through the middle of March everywhere. Anyway, the next time I post to the blog, I will be able to report on all of this.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Exploring San Rafael
Exploring San Rafael
Friday, Feb. 24, San Rafael, Argentina
I did a lot of waiting on the way to here. I waited 8 hours in the bus station in Nuquén on Wednesday after arriving there by bus from Zavala. Then I arrived here in San Rafael at 4:30 a.m. after the long bus trip where I managed to sleep some, but not much. I went into a waiting room there and continued to wait until 7:30. I was able to sleep some by putting my backpack on top of my suitcase and then placing my arms and head on top of that. The tourist office still wasn´t scheduled to open until 8:00, so I thought I would explore the neighborhood within 2-3 blocks to see if I could find any of the streets with hotels I had listed. I found one hotel right across the street, but kept exploring. Two blocks away, I found another hotel that looked nice. When I inquired, they said they would have a room at 10:30. It was an awkward time there, because the only employee was just beginning to serve breakfast to their guests who were coming down. He asked me to wait. At one lull, I tried to ask if I could put my luggage in back and return at 10:30. He didn´t understand, so I ended up waiting again for another 2 1/2 hours!! I was so tired by the time I got into the room, but I was glad to have a room. If I had gone away without him understanding, I might have returned at 10:30 to find that others had come and rented all the rooms. (One family came while I was waiting and went away, maybe because nothing was available; I wasn´t quite sure whether it was that or if they didn´t want to pay the price.
While waiting in Nuquén, I finished reading Caesar by Colleen McCollough. It was given to me by Robert when I was in Copenhagen. It´s not the kind of book I would normally buy and read, but I enjoyed it. I would give it 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
There was a nice young lady who spoke English beside me on the bus. I gave her the book I had finished. She has just finished a degree in tourism and was going to Mendoza to seek a job. With her English, it shouldn´t be difficult, since so many here working in tourism positions speak no English at all and she spoke it well and spontaneously with no problems.
The waiting room at the bus station here in San Rafael was interesting during the early morning hours I was there. A homeless man was sleeping in the corner and was covered by a blanket. The other people seemed either like people waiting for buses. But another guy who seemed to be homeless came in and sat two seats down from me. He smelled terribly. My guess was that he had been wearing the same clothes for ages without washing them and without bathing. He hunched down and went to sleep. He left later, but the smell of his return woke me up again at one point. Later, when mobile phone started ringing, I was surprised to see he was the one to pull it out of his pocket and answer. I hadn´t thought about it, but I guess a mobile phone is an ideal way for a homeless person to remain a part of the world in general. Since you can buy prepaid cards for them, there is no worry about needing an address for billing purposes.
Yesterday, after cleaning up at the hotel, I went out exploring the center of San Rafael. It´s similar to Mendoza as my guidebook had said, but it lacks the modernity and sophistication of Mendoza. The shop signs and displays give me the impression of being far behind the times--maybe like going back 20-30 years, whereas in Mendoza everything was trendy. But San Rafael is a nice town. There are some very nice bakeries, good shops selling local wines and other products, a few stylish shops selling items to tourists, etc.
I went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. I picked it out, because it had far more people eating in it than anyplace else I had passed. I originally thought I would have a mixed salad and lasagna, but when I entered, I saw their flaming open wood fire and decided their pizzas would probably be best if cooked over it. I had a napolitano pizza with mozzarella, tomato sauce, black olives, ham, onions, and strips of pimiento. It was good, and the crust was nice and crunchy. I wanted to have a local wine with it, but the only half-bottles they had were expensive, and they didn´t sell wine by the glass. Instead, I had a beer.
When I returned to my room, turned on the TV but found myself nodding. I turned off the TV and fell into a deep sleep. I didn´t awaken until 5:30. I forced myself to get up then. I watched a movie on TV. Then I went out looking for someplace to get a sandwich. It was still too early; all the restaurants were empty. So I stopped at the supermarket and bought some supplies for eating in the room--a great package of sliced dry ham (very lean and with a slight garlic flavor), a package of green olives, a chunk of local cheese, some crackers, a bottle of Suter (local) wine, some nectarines, some plums, a couple of small packages of cookies, and a big bottle of water. I ate half of it last night and will have the other half tonight.
This morning, I went to explore wineries. The ones here tend to be rather small, but several have good reputations. There is one road going westward that has 4-5 wineries lined up along it. I walked out that way, knowing that it wasn´t far. (I had walked almost out to the first of them yesterday without knowing it. Later, when I stopped at the tourist office and got them to mark the locations on my map was when I realized how close I had been.) I passed the first one without noticing it, but it wasn{t one I was really aiming for. I had been told that Bodega Rivier was one of the best in the area, and it was the second in location down the road. I stopped there and saw their wines they offer. They don´t provide tastings, but what all wineries do here is offer their wines at a discount for tourists. I bought a bottle of their best Malbec Reserva to have in my hotel later. It normally sales for about $8.50 U.S., and I was able to buy it for $5. They export to the U.S., and my bet is that the same bottle sells for $15-20 in the U.S.
From there, I went to Suter, the next winery down the roadway and the one that produced the wine I had bought and drunk last night. It is a bigger operation making more kinds of wines (including sparkling wines which are known to be quite good from here). I was able to enter their sales/tasting room along with a group that was finishing a tour. I didn´t want to take a tour, since I know from other tours how wine is produced, and because I knew it would be in Spanish only. They gave us a taste of one of their white wines. I asked about exports to the U.S., and they export only to Italy and Spain.
I returned to town rather than visit any other wineries today. I am walking southward toward a river that leads to a canyon. I may not go as far as the canyon; I´ll see how far I go. It´s almost lunch time, and I stopped at this cyber cafe to pass the time so that I could then go to a restaurant before I leave town behind.
Friday, Feb. 24, San Rafael, Argentina
I did a lot of waiting on the way to here. I waited 8 hours in the bus station in Nuquén on Wednesday after arriving there by bus from Zavala. Then I arrived here in San Rafael at 4:30 a.m. after the long bus trip where I managed to sleep some, but not much. I went into a waiting room there and continued to wait until 7:30. I was able to sleep some by putting my backpack on top of my suitcase and then placing my arms and head on top of that. The tourist office still wasn´t scheduled to open until 8:00, so I thought I would explore the neighborhood within 2-3 blocks to see if I could find any of the streets with hotels I had listed. I found one hotel right across the street, but kept exploring. Two blocks away, I found another hotel that looked nice. When I inquired, they said they would have a room at 10:30. It was an awkward time there, because the only employee was just beginning to serve breakfast to their guests who were coming down. He asked me to wait. At one lull, I tried to ask if I could put my luggage in back and return at 10:30. He didn´t understand, so I ended up waiting again for another 2 1/2 hours!! I was so tired by the time I got into the room, but I was glad to have a room. If I had gone away without him understanding, I might have returned at 10:30 to find that others had come and rented all the rooms. (One family came while I was waiting and went away, maybe because nothing was available; I wasn´t quite sure whether it was that or if they didn´t want to pay the price.
While waiting in Nuquén, I finished reading Caesar by Colleen McCollough. It was given to me by Robert when I was in Copenhagen. It´s not the kind of book I would normally buy and read, but I enjoyed it. I would give it 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
There was a nice young lady who spoke English beside me on the bus. I gave her the book I had finished. She has just finished a degree in tourism and was going to Mendoza to seek a job. With her English, it shouldn´t be difficult, since so many here working in tourism positions speak no English at all and she spoke it well and spontaneously with no problems.
The waiting room at the bus station here in San Rafael was interesting during the early morning hours I was there. A homeless man was sleeping in the corner and was covered by a blanket. The other people seemed either like people waiting for buses. But another guy who seemed to be homeless came in and sat two seats down from me. He smelled terribly. My guess was that he had been wearing the same clothes for ages without washing them and without bathing. He hunched down and went to sleep. He left later, but the smell of his return woke me up again at one point. Later, when mobile phone started ringing, I was surprised to see he was the one to pull it out of his pocket and answer. I hadn´t thought about it, but I guess a mobile phone is an ideal way for a homeless person to remain a part of the world in general. Since you can buy prepaid cards for them, there is no worry about needing an address for billing purposes.
Yesterday, after cleaning up at the hotel, I went out exploring the center of San Rafael. It´s similar to Mendoza as my guidebook had said, but it lacks the modernity and sophistication of Mendoza. The shop signs and displays give me the impression of being far behind the times--maybe like going back 20-30 years, whereas in Mendoza everything was trendy. But San Rafael is a nice town. There are some very nice bakeries, good shops selling local wines and other products, a few stylish shops selling items to tourists, etc.
I went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. I picked it out, because it had far more people eating in it than anyplace else I had passed. I originally thought I would have a mixed salad and lasagna, but when I entered, I saw their flaming open wood fire and decided their pizzas would probably be best if cooked over it. I had a napolitano pizza with mozzarella, tomato sauce, black olives, ham, onions, and strips of pimiento. It was good, and the crust was nice and crunchy. I wanted to have a local wine with it, but the only half-bottles they had were expensive, and they didn´t sell wine by the glass. Instead, I had a beer.
When I returned to my room, turned on the TV but found myself nodding. I turned off the TV and fell into a deep sleep. I didn´t awaken until 5:30. I forced myself to get up then. I watched a movie on TV. Then I went out looking for someplace to get a sandwich. It was still too early; all the restaurants were empty. So I stopped at the supermarket and bought some supplies for eating in the room--a great package of sliced dry ham (very lean and with a slight garlic flavor), a package of green olives, a chunk of local cheese, some crackers, a bottle of Suter (local) wine, some nectarines, some plums, a couple of small packages of cookies, and a big bottle of water. I ate half of it last night and will have the other half tonight.
This morning, I went to explore wineries. The ones here tend to be rather small, but several have good reputations. There is one road going westward that has 4-5 wineries lined up along it. I walked out that way, knowing that it wasn´t far. (I had walked almost out to the first of them yesterday without knowing it. Later, when I stopped at the tourist office and got them to mark the locations on my map was when I realized how close I had been.) I passed the first one without noticing it, but it wasn{t one I was really aiming for. I had been told that Bodega Rivier was one of the best in the area, and it was the second in location down the road. I stopped there and saw their wines they offer. They don´t provide tastings, but what all wineries do here is offer their wines at a discount for tourists. I bought a bottle of their best Malbec Reserva to have in my hotel later. It normally sales for about $8.50 U.S., and I was able to buy it for $5. They export to the U.S., and my bet is that the same bottle sells for $15-20 in the U.S.
From there, I went to Suter, the next winery down the roadway and the one that produced the wine I had bought and drunk last night. It is a bigger operation making more kinds of wines (including sparkling wines which are known to be quite good from here). I was able to enter their sales/tasting room along with a group that was finishing a tour. I didn´t want to take a tour, since I know from other tours how wine is produced, and because I knew it would be in Spanish only. They gave us a taste of one of their white wines. I asked about exports to the U.S., and they export only to Italy and Spain.
I returned to town rather than visit any other wineries today. I am walking southward toward a river that leads to a canyon. I may not go as far as the canyon; I´ll see how far I go. It´s almost lunch time, and I stopped at this cyber cafe to pass the time so that I could then go to a restaurant before I leave town behind.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Escaped through the Window
Escaped through the Window
Wednesday, Feb. 22, Nuquén, Argentina
I went back to my room last night without eating. I didn´t want much, so I looked for a sandwich place. I couldn´t find anywhere except three downtown bars and a fancy restaurant near my hotel. I gave up and just ate some peanuts I was carrying in my bag for such occasions.
It was obvious that there would be a children´s parade as a part of the Carnival celebrations. Families were lining up along the streets. And I saw a couple of children´s groups in costumes. I had seem similar things last year and was tired. (It was 8:45, and I knew the parade wouldn´t be for another hour or so.) So I stayed in the room and watched TV. There was a movie called A Home of Our Own that I watched.
I was up at 7:45, since I had a bus to catch at 9:45 and didn´t want to miss it. But the electricity went off around 8:00 and didn´t come back on until I was leaving at 9:00. I opened the curtains and could see enough to shower, pack, and dress. There wasn´t enough light for shaving, so I just skipped it. When I exited my room, I found myself locked in a hallway. Although there were 3 other keys on my room key, I couldn´t get any of them to open either of the doors. I knocked on the inside door. I head some noise a couple of times, but no one opened it. I returned to my bedroom and opened the window. I lowered a chair out of the window to the sidewalk, since the window was about 5 feet high and I didn´t want to jump down that far onto concrete. I jumped down to the chair and stepped down from it. Then I carried the chair to the lobby. They were surprised to see me there with my key and the chair. When we walked back through the hallway, however, the inside door was unlocked. Apparently the noise I heard was someone unlocking it in response to my knock. Why didn´t they open it to tell me they had unlocked it? Strange.
This is the first rainy day since I have been in South America. It was misty until 10 a.m. one day a few weeks ago, but then it stopped and was clear for the rest of the day. Today, however, dark clouds continue appearing and some of the rain has been heavy. I got to the bus station while it was only a light mist. As the bus made its way from Zapala to hear, I started thinking about my plans. Originally, I intended to get a room and then return to the bus station to buy a ticket for San Rafael for tomorrow. But I noticed in my guidebook that it is an 8 hour bus trip from Nuquén to San Rafael. That meant that a night bus would be better. But I didn´t want to stay in Nuquén all day today, the night, and then ANOTHER day. So I decided I should see if I could catch a bus for tonight. When we arrived in Nuquén, I was convinced that was the right decision by the location of the bus station. It wasn´t in the center near the hotels the way the guidebook had said. Instead, there is a new, modern station with a terminal that looks like an airport. It even has a control tower and automatic luggage return carousels. And the tourist office told me it is 3 km (1.8 miles) to the center of town! I bought a ticket to San Rafael for tonight at 8:00 p.m., and I am spending the day at the bus station.
Since the station is large and modern like an airport, it has shops and a food court. I went to the food court and had the plate of the day at one of the small places. It proved to be a good choice. I got the closest I have eaten to home cooking in ages. It consisted of 3 large pieces of meat covered in mixed stewed vegetables (carrots, eggplant, pumpkin, onions, cucumber, etc.) and served with mashed potatoes. The meat had to be cut with a knife, but it was tender enough to be no problem when chewing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, I am here at the cyber cafe. There are still 6 hours to go until time for my departure, but I have books to read and can go to a cafe for a dessert later.
I am a little worried because my bus arrives in San Rafael at 4 a.m.! There was a bus leaving at 11:00 I would have preferred to take. It would have gotten me to San Rafael a little after 7 a.m., but all the seats had already been sold on that one. I hope their bus station will be one where I can stay and wait until a decent hour to go out looking for a hotel. And I hope that I won´t sleep through the stop at San Rafael. I asked the ticket people to write in Spanish on the back of my ticket that I needed the conductor to let me know when we arrived there. They thought it was funny that I needed that.
I should be quite miserable by tomorrow. That will mean two days without shaving. And it will mean having gone almost 2 days without brushing my teeth. When I get into a hotel tomorrow (HOPING there will be a place with a room available when I get there), I will probably sleep the rest of the morning and then greatly enjoy cleaning up!!
Wednesday, Feb. 22, Nuquén, Argentina
I went back to my room last night without eating. I didn´t want much, so I looked for a sandwich place. I couldn´t find anywhere except three downtown bars and a fancy restaurant near my hotel. I gave up and just ate some peanuts I was carrying in my bag for such occasions.
It was obvious that there would be a children´s parade as a part of the Carnival celebrations. Families were lining up along the streets. And I saw a couple of children´s groups in costumes. I had seem similar things last year and was tired. (It was 8:45, and I knew the parade wouldn´t be for another hour or so.) So I stayed in the room and watched TV. There was a movie called A Home of Our Own that I watched.
I was up at 7:45, since I had a bus to catch at 9:45 and didn´t want to miss it. But the electricity went off around 8:00 and didn´t come back on until I was leaving at 9:00. I opened the curtains and could see enough to shower, pack, and dress. There wasn´t enough light for shaving, so I just skipped it. When I exited my room, I found myself locked in a hallway. Although there were 3 other keys on my room key, I couldn´t get any of them to open either of the doors. I knocked on the inside door. I head some noise a couple of times, but no one opened it. I returned to my bedroom and opened the window. I lowered a chair out of the window to the sidewalk, since the window was about 5 feet high and I didn´t want to jump down that far onto concrete. I jumped down to the chair and stepped down from it. Then I carried the chair to the lobby. They were surprised to see me there with my key and the chair. When we walked back through the hallway, however, the inside door was unlocked. Apparently the noise I heard was someone unlocking it in response to my knock. Why didn´t they open it to tell me they had unlocked it? Strange.
This is the first rainy day since I have been in South America. It was misty until 10 a.m. one day a few weeks ago, but then it stopped and was clear for the rest of the day. Today, however, dark clouds continue appearing and some of the rain has been heavy. I got to the bus station while it was only a light mist. As the bus made its way from Zapala to hear, I started thinking about my plans. Originally, I intended to get a room and then return to the bus station to buy a ticket for San Rafael for tomorrow. But I noticed in my guidebook that it is an 8 hour bus trip from Nuquén to San Rafael. That meant that a night bus would be better. But I didn´t want to stay in Nuquén all day today, the night, and then ANOTHER day. So I decided I should see if I could catch a bus for tonight. When we arrived in Nuquén, I was convinced that was the right decision by the location of the bus station. It wasn´t in the center near the hotels the way the guidebook had said. Instead, there is a new, modern station with a terminal that looks like an airport. It even has a control tower and automatic luggage return carousels. And the tourist office told me it is 3 km (1.8 miles) to the center of town! I bought a ticket to San Rafael for tonight at 8:00 p.m., and I am spending the day at the bus station.
Since the station is large and modern like an airport, it has shops and a food court. I went to the food court and had the plate of the day at one of the small places. It proved to be a good choice. I got the closest I have eaten to home cooking in ages. It consisted of 3 large pieces of meat covered in mixed stewed vegetables (carrots, eggplant, pumpkin, onions, cucumber, etc.) and served with mashed potatoes. The meat had to be cut with a knife, but it was tender enough to be no problem when chewing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, I am here at the cyber cafe. There are still 6 hours to go until time for my departure, but I have books to read and can go to a cafe for a dessert later.
I am a little worried because my bus arrives in San Rafael at 4 a.m.! There was a bus leaving at 11:00 I would have preferred to take. It would have gotten me to San Rafael a little after 7 a.m., but all the seats had already been sold on that one. I hope their bus station will be one where I can stay and wait until a decent hour to go out looking for a hotel. And I hope that I won´t sleep through the stop at San Rafael. I asked the ticket people to write in Spanish on the back of my ticket that I needed the conductor to let me know when we arrived there. They thought it was funny that I needed that.
I should be quite miserable by tomorrow. That will mean two days without shaving. And it will mean having gone almost 2 days without brushing my teeth. When I get into a hotel tomorrow (HOPING there will be a place with a room available when I get there), I will probably sleep the rest of the morning and then greatly enjoy cleaning up!!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Lucky to Have a Place to Sleep!
Lucky to Have a Place to Sleep!
Tuesday, Feb. 21, Junin de los Andes & Zapala, Argentina
Well, it´s been an interesting day. I caught the bus to Junin de los Andes planning to stay there for 2 nights. As I left my hotel, the guy running it told me that Junin is a small town. That got me to thinking that maybe just one night would be enough there. I pulled out my guidebook and started reading to see what there is to do there. Trout fishing and going to a volcano far out of town were the two main things. Otherwise, it is a small town that can be explored quickly. I wasn´t planning to go trout fishing, and I didn´t care to go to the volcano. It was too far out, and I´ve been around volcanos for days. By the time I arrived at 10:15, I decided I wouldn´t spent any nights there. I figured I could see what I wanted to see and go ahead and leave. Doing so would get me to San Rafael later this week BEFORE the weekend, since I want to visit some wineries and they are often closed on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. I looked for a bus continuing to Zapala in the afternoon and found one leaving at 1:30. I bought a ticket for it and let them store my luggage while I took 3 hours to explore the town.
I really like the town. It has a totally different atmosphere from where I have been lately. The land had turned deserty on the way to there, and the people traveling there tended to be cowboys and their families. The town gave me a feeling of a city near the border to Mexico in Texas--a little jumbled up, some really nice buildings from 100-150 years ago, many unpaved streets, shops displaying some merchandise they must have had for 10 years, etc. The cowboys were fascinating. One got on the bus with his wife and sat across the aisle from me. He was a native with obvious Indian features. He had on medium-top, smooth leather brown boots. He wore black corduroy pants with the legs tucked into the tops of the boots. He had a blue chambray longsleeve shirt. Over it was a black vest with several motifs crochetted or sewn in silver and white threads. He wore a multi-colored woven sash around his waist and tied so that it hung down from one side. Around his neck (inside the open neck) was tied a short woven tie. He had a flat-brimmed black hat. The other cowboys in town and who were on horses as we passed on the bus were similarly dressed.
In town, I went to two museums. One was dedicated to the local Indian tribe--the same tribe that had been in southern Chile, too. It was small, but nice. It took all of 10 minutes to see it probably, but there were some ineresting things. The other museum was an old store. Many of the items from years ago were on display, and other historical items had been added. There were many weavings by the Indians on display there, too.
The other main sight I saw in Junin was their church. It´s a new sanctuary, but pains were taken to make sure the design was locally inspired. There were painted windows with scenes from the area--Indians playing games, typical farmhouse, etc. But the nicest feature, I think, is that they had wall panels of local weavings going the length of the sanctuary on both sides. Several traditional patterns were displayed, since each long panel actually consisted of several individual weavings about 4 feet by 6 feet.
Normally, one doesn´t eat lunch here until 1:30 or so. And at 12:15 there was only one restaurant that was open yet. It was a nice one, however. I decided since Junin is considered the trout fishing capital of Argentina, I should eat trout before skipping town. The restaurant was very stylish with bright walls and tasteful wall lamps. Tables had clothes and fabric napkins, candles, wine glasses, etc. I ordered grilled trout and got two nice filets. To keep it fast, I ordered fried potatoes as the vegetable to go with it. While I waited on the food, there was a very good bread with two nice spreads--a trout spread and a flavored whipped butter (I never could figure out the flavor). I left the restaurant at 1:00 and had no problem making my bus.
The land became all desert as we left Junin. It was covered in scrub brush, and there were broad vistas to observe toward the hills in the distance. It reminded me a little of the area around Marfa and Ft. Davis in Texas. I tried taking some photos, but they just didn´t do the scenery justice.
We arrived in Zapala at 4:30. There were two hotels a block from the station that had been recommended by my guidebook. Neither had a room. I started wandering. There was no tourist office at the bus station, and there wasn´t one in the center of town either. I was told about a residential, but I couldn´t find it. I asked someone else, they mentioned another hotel and the same residential. I went to the hotel and they were full. Then, with help, I found the residential. (I had walked right past it before when I was looking for it.) It´s a strange residential; it´s in the police department building. The only room they had available was a suite (which looks as if it may be used to house official guests who come to the city). Anyway, it is mine for the night. I have since found out why everything is booked. This town celebrates Carnival, and the celebration begins tonight! I´m just so glad I got a room. My only alternative was going to be to continue to the next town, getting there around 9 p.m. and wondering if a room would be available there or not!
Zapala isn´t much of a town. Even the one museum the guidebook said was so good is closed and looks as if it has been for a year or two. There´s nothing to do here. And the town is a jumble of buildings that are nothing special. I´ve already booked my ticket to move onward to Nuquén tomorrow morning. But I will see what is happening with Carnival tonight. And I will safely with all those policemen around!
Interesting observation: The Olympics are occurring now, but they aren´t being shown on TV here in Argentina. I have scanned 50 or more stations several nights and found nothing. I saw a short afternoon report one day, and that was it. Maybe the cost of buying the right to coverage is too expensive. Or maybe Argentina doesn´t have that many winter athletes (although they have always been known for their skiers). Anyway, I have not seen any of the Olympics this year. That´s not so bad, however. I´ve always been frustrated that instead of seeing general coverage, one is shown the top stars and the local entries. If in the U.S., you see all the U.S. entrants. If in Europe, you see all the European entrants. Etc.
Tuesday, Feb. 21, Junin de los Andes & Zapala, Argentina
Well, it´s been an interesting day. I caught the bus to Junin de los Andes planning to stay there for 2 nights. As I left my hotel, the guy running it told me that Junin is a small town. That got me to thinking that maybe just one night would be enough there. I pulled out my guidebook and started reading to see what there is to do there. Trout fishing and going to a volcano far out of town were the two main things. Otherwise, it is a small town that can be explored quickly. I wasn´t planning to go trout fishing, and I didn´t care to go to the volcano. It was too far out, and I´ve been around volcanos for days. By the time I arrived at 10:15, I decided I wouldn´t spent any nights there. I figured I could see what I wanted to see and go ahead and leave. Doing so would get me to San Rafael later this week BEFORE the weekend, since I want to visit some wineries and they are often closed on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. I looked for a bus continuing to Zapala in the afternoon and found one leaving at 1:30. I bought a ticket for it and let them store my luggage while I took 3 hours to explore the town.
I really like the town. It has a totally different atmosphere from where I have been lately. The land had turned deserty on the way to there, and the people traveling there tended to be cowboys and their families. The town gave me a feeling of a city near the border to Mexico in Texas--a little jumbled up, some really nice buildings from 100-150 years ago, many unpaved streets, shops displaying some merchandise they must have had for 10 years, etc. The cowboys were fascinating. One got on the bus with his wife and sat across the aisle from me. He was a native with obvious Indian features. He had on medium-top, smooth leather brown boots. He wore black corduroy pants with the legs tucked into the tops of the boots. He had a blue chambray longsleeve shirt. Over it was a black vest with several motifs crochetted or sewn in silver and white threads. He wore a multi-colored woven sash around his waist and tied so that it hung down from one side. Around his neck (inside the open neck) was tied a short woven tie. He had a flat-brimmed black hat. The other cowboys in town and who were on horses as we passed on the bus were similarly dressed.
In town, I went to two museums. One was dedicated to the local Indian tribe--the same tribe that had been in southern Chile, too. It was small, but nice. It took all of 10 minutes to see it probably, but there were some ineresting things. The other museum was an old store. Many of the items from years ago were on display, and other historical items had been added. There were many weavings by the Indians on display there, too.
The other main sight I saw in Junin was their church. It´s a new sanctuary, but pains were taken to make sure the design was locally inspired. There were painted windows with scenes from the area--Indians playing games, typical farmhouse, etc. But the nicest feature, I think, is that they had wall panels of local weavings going the length of the sanctuary on both sides. Several traditional patterns were displayed, since each long panel actually consisted of several individual weavings about 4 feet by 6 feet.
Normally, one doesn´t eat lunch here until 1:30 or so. And at 12:15 there was only one restaurant that was open yet. It was a nice one, however. I decided since Junin is considered the trout fishing capital of Argentina, I should eat trout before skipping town. The restaurant was very stylish with bright walls and tasteful wall lamps. Tables had clothes and fabric napkins, candles, wine glasses, etc. I ordered grilled trout and got two nice filets. To keep it fast, I ordered fried potatoes as the vegetable to go with it. While I waited on the food, there was a very good bread with two nice spreads--a trout spread and a flavored whipped butter (I never could figure out the flavor). I left the restaurant at 1:00 and had no problem making my bus.
The land became all desert as we left Junin. It was covered in scrub brush, and there were broad vistas to observe toward the hills in the distance. It reminded me a little of the area around Marfa and Ft. Davis in Texas. I tried taking some photos, but they just didn´t do the scenery justice.
We arrived in Zapala at 4:30. There were two hotels a block from the station that had been recommended by my guidebook. Neither had a room. I started wandering. There was no tourist office at the bus station, and there wasn´t one in the center of town either. I was told about a residential, but I couldn´t find it. I asked someone else, they mentioned another hotel and the same residential. I went to the hotel and they were full. Then, with help, I found the residential. (I had walked right past it before when I was looking for it.) It´s a strange residential; it´s in the police department building. The only room they had available was a suite (which looks as if it may be used to house official guests who come to the city). Anyway, it is mine for the night. I have since found out why everything is booked. This town celebrates Carnival, and the celebration begins tonight! I´m just so glad I got a room. My only alternative was going to be to continue to the next town, getting there around 9 p.m. and wondering if a room would be available there or not!
Zapala isn´t much of a town. Even the one museum the guidebook said was so good is closed and looks as if it has been for a year or two. There´s nothing to do here. And the town is a jumble of buildings that are nothing special. I´ve already booked my ticket to move onward to Nuquén tomorrow morning. But I will see what is happening with Carnival tonight. And I will safely with all those policemen around!
Interesting observation: The Olympics are occurring now, but they aren´t being shown on TV here in Argentina. I have scanned 50 or more stations several nights and found nothing. I saw a short afternoon report one day, and that was it. Maybe the cost of buying the right to coverage is too expensive. Or maybe Argentina doesn´t have that many winter athletes (although they have always been known for their skiers). Anyway, I have not seen any of the Olympics this year. That´s not so bad, however. I´ve always been frustrated that instead of seeing general coverage, one is shown the top stars and the local entries. If in the U.S., you see all the U.S. entrants. If in Europe, you see all the European entrants. Etc.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Great Time in Small Towns
Great Time in Small Towns
Monday, Feb. 20, San Martin de Andés, Lake District, Patagonia
I am spending several days just going from one small town to another in a row going up the Lake District. What is nice about this is that each town is small enough to explore easily on foot, yet it has plenty of shops, restraurants, etc. I can walk the streets exploring, I can go to the plazas to relax and read, and I can easily walk out of town into the natural areas which always involve forrests, lakes, and mountains in this area.
Yesterday, I took the Seven Lakes route to go from Villa La Angostura to San Martin de Andés. Both are wonderful towns. The Seven Lakes route is the more direct route between them, but it is the "back" route due to only about 40% of it being paved. I had bought a bus ticket, but there were only 3 of us going at that time. Instead of running a bus, the company hired a taxi and sent us that way. They would have told us we had to wait for the next bus, but the other two were connecting to an international bus and had to leave before the next bus. We lucked out. I got to sit in the front seat. The scenery was great, but the views weren´t as good as I had hoped to to all the DUST!! Everything is volcanic here, so unpaved roads are very dusty roads. Being a popular tourist route, this road was full of cars going both directions. We were in a dust cloud probably 60% of the time we were on the unpaved portion of the road. But we did see all 7 lakes, mountain streams, farms with split rail fences and log houses, and dramatic mountain views.
I had trouble finding a place to stay at first. I went to the tourist office, but it was overrun with people. I would have had to wait probably an hour to see someone and then would have felt rushed because of the people who would have been in line behind me. I grabbed and map I saw on a counter and went out looking for places I had marked in my guidebook. Unfortunately, I couldn´t find any of the streets on the map; it was for a small sister village about 8 km away from here! I didn´t see places to stay as I walked block after block until finally a 3-star hosteria was on a block. They had a very nice room with mini-fridge, private bath, cable tv, etc., for $55 per night. I knew I could afford, it but I also knew I could do much better. I explained to the lady that I was traveling for 7 months and, therefore, needed to pay less. I told her I had been paying $25-35 per night lately. She had a map of the city there, and I took one and told her I would come back if I didn´t find anything else. The first place I went from my list was only 3 blocks from there. They had a 2-room suite with cable tv, balcony, private bath, and breakfast for $27, so I took it.
It was already 2:15 p.m., so I went looking for a restaurant and gave myself a good treat. I found a local place, but a nice one. I had their most expensive meal. It opened with a plate of Patagonian appetizers--pickled pimiento, pickled eggplant, dried venison, 2 kinds of dried ham, boiled ham, a piece of roast beef, a dab of trout paté, a slice of cheese, and two pieces of seasoned toast. The main course was beeftips with a dark red sauce served with seasoned boiled potatoes. Dessert was a dish of homemade ice cream (vanilla and chocolate). I got half a bottle of red wine to go with the meal. The entire meal, including tip, came to less than $13. The appetizer plate would have cost that much in a similar restaurant in the U.S.!
My hips were sore from all the walking I had done on Saturday. So I didn´t feel like doing much. I went to one of the plazas and sat and read for about 1 1/2 hours. Then I returned to my room around 6 p.m. and stayed inside and watched TV the rest of the night.
I´m still a little sore today. I have slowly explored the town this morning. It´s now 12:20, so it will soon be time to find a restaurant for lunch. I´ll do that after I leave here, then I will go walking around the lake to a viewpoint and to a beach. I´ll take my book and relax and just enjoy this wonderful place which is pictured on this website:
http://www.guiaverde.net/sanmartindelosandes/
Monday, Feb. 20, San Martin de Andés, Lake District, Patagonia
I am spending several days just going from one small town to another in a row going up the Lake District. What is nice about this is that each town is small enough to explore easily on foot, yet it has plenty of shops, restraurants, etc. I can walk the streets exploring, I can go to the plazas to relax and read, and I can easily walk out of town into the natural areas which always involve forrests, lakes, and mountains in this area.
Yesterday, I took the Seven Lakes route to go from Villa La Angostura to San Martin de Andés. Both are wonderful towns. The Seven Lakes route is the more direct route between them, but it is the "back" route due to only about 40% of it being paved. I had bought a bus ticket, but there were only 3 of us going at that time. Instead of running a bus, the company hired a taxi and sent us that way. They would have told us we had to wait for the next bus, but the other two were connecting to an international bus and had to leave before the next bus. We lucked out. I got to sit in the front seat. The scenery was great, but the views weren´t as good as I had hoped to to all the DUST!! Everything is volcanic here, so unpaved roads are very dusty roads. Being a popular tourist route, this road was full of cars going both directions. We were in a dust cloud probably 60% of the time we were on the unpaved portion of the road. But we did see all 7 lakes, mountain streams, farms with split rail fences and log houses, and dramatic mountain views.
I had trouble finding a place to stay at first. I went to the tourist office, but it was overrun with people. I would have had to wait probably an hour to see someone and then would have felt rushed because of the people who would have been in line behind me. I grabbed and map I saw on a counter and went out looking for places I had marked in my guidebook. Unfortunately, I couldn´t find any of the streets on the map; it was for a small sister village about 8 km away from here! I didn´t see places to stay as I walked block after block until finally a 3-star hosteria was on a block. They had a very nice room with mini-fridge, private bath, cable tv, etc., for $55 per night. I knew I could afford, it but I also knew I could do much better. I explained to the lady that I was traveling for 7 months and, therefore, needed to pay less. I told her I had been paying $25-35 per night lately. She had a map of the city there, and I took one and told her I would come back if I didn´t find anything else. The first place I went from my list was only 3 blocks from there. They had a 2-room suite with cable tv, balcony, private bath, and breakfast for $27, so I took it.
It was already 2:15 p.m., so I went looking for a restaurant and gave myself a good treat. I found a local place, but a nice one. I had their most expensive meal. It opened with a plate of Patagonian appetizers--pickled pimiento, pickled eggplant, dried venison, 2 kinds of dried ham, boiled ham, a piece of roast beef, a dab of trout paté, a slice of cheese, and two pieces of seasoned toast. The main course was beeftips with a dark red sauce served with seasoned boiled potatoes. Dessert was a dish of homemade ice cream (vanilla and chocolate). I got half a bottle of red wine to go with the meal. The entire meal, including tip, came to less than $13. The appetizer plate would have cost that much in a similar restaurant in the U.S.!
My hips were sore from all the walking I had done on Saturday. So I didn´t feel like doing much. I went to one of the plazas and sat and read for about 1 1/2 hours. Then I returned to my room around 6 p.m. and stayed inside and watched TV the rest of the night.
I´m still a little sore today. I have slowly explored the town this morning. It´s now 12:20, so it will soon be time to find a restaurant for lunch. I´ll do that after I leave here, then I will go walking around the lake to a viewpoint and to a beach. I´ll take my book and relax and just enjoy this wonderful place which is pictured on this website:
http://www.guiaverde.net/sanmartindelosandes/
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Walked 30 km (18 miles) Today
Walked 30 km (18 miles) Today
Saturday, Feb. 18, Villa De Angostura, Lake District, Patagonia, Argentina
I posted yesterday, but I don´t see my post at the website. Something must have gone wrong. Mostly, I wrote about my days in Bariloche and the fact I had taken a bus to here and would be here for two days.
This is a wonderful village--much more fun to be in than Bariloche. I have been out and about a lot during my two days here. One of the main reasons for coming here is to see a national park that has a stand of arrayanes trees (the largest native grove of them in the world)--a reddish, barkless tree that I had seen in the mountains crossing the Andes also. The problem is that the grove of trees is at the end of a penninsula. I had to walk 12 km to get to that point, then I had to walk 12 km back again to get out. There are boats that take you there, but one of the pleasures is to be there alone. And I managed to do that. No boats were there when I was. I didn´t see another person as I walked through the stand of arrayanes. I did pass people on the trail, although at my speed of walking no one passed me! And I met many people going the opposite direction. The trail was interesting with very tall trees, interesting bird calls, pretty blue dragonflies, wild flowers in various colors, etc. It was a bit dangerous at times, however, because of being steep with loose dirt. Several times, my feet slipped. There really should have been more steps to replace such steep inclines, but many people bike the trail. I was a good way to spend the day. It took me 2 hours each way to hike the trail, and I spent about 20 minutes inside the grove of arrayanes.
It was 4:10 when I got back to town. I tried to eat where I did yesterday, but they had just closed until dinner time. I went down the street to a pizza place that was open. It wasn´t very good pizza, but it filled me up.
I walked another 3 km out of town after that to get to an outdoor concert I had seen advertized on posters. It was in a clearing that was the front lawn of the summer house of the governor of this province. A large outdoor stage was set up with professional sound and lighting. There were three performers. The first was a Mexican singer/guitar player who wasn´t named in the program. Then came a latin group--Roberto y Cuti Carabajal. That was followed by a female tango singer named Adriana Varela. The latin group was great, although their leader talked too much between songs. The tango singer had a smokey-throated sound and was okay, but it was getting cold and I didn´t care that much for her. I left and walked back into town to the cyber cafe. It was interesting watching the crowd there. It was much like a crowd in Texas for an outdoor concert except that many people had their matte cups with them. That´s a drink that is popular here--a leaf that is placed in a cup with hot water poured over it. When finished, one pours more hot water and drinks again. Therefore, everyone carries both a cup with a metal straw and a flask of hot water for refilling the cup.
Tomorrow, I will take a bus to the next town up the (unpaved) road here in the Lake District--San Martin de Andes. I plan to be there two nights, also.
Spending Update for Chile: I spent $856.32 over 22 days for a daily average of $38.92--not bad, but more expensive than any of the other countries I have visited on this trip except for South Korea.
Saturday, Feb. 18, Villa De Angostura, Lake District, Patagonia, Argentina
I posted yesterday, but I don´t see my post at the website. Something must have gone wrong. Mostly, I wrote about my days in Bariloche and the fact I had taken a bus to here and would be here for two days.
This is a wonderful village--much more fun to be in than Bariloche. I have been out and about a lot during my two days here. One of the main reasons for coming here is to see a national park that has a stand of arrayanes trees (the largest native grove of them in the world)--a reddish, barkless tree that I had seen in the mountains crossing the Andes also. The problem is that the grove of trees is at the end of a penninsula. I had to walk 12 km to get to that point, then I had to walk 12 km back again to get out. There are boats that take you there, but one of the pleasures is to be there alone. And I managed to do that. No boats were there when I was. I didn´t see another person as I walked through the stand of arrayanes. I did pass people on the trail, although at my speed of walking no one passed me! And I met many people going the opposite direction. The trail was interesting with very tall trees, interesting bird calls, pretty blue dragonflies, wild flowers in various colors, etc. It was a bit dangerous at times, however, because of being steep with loose dirt. Several times, my feet slipped. There really should have been more steps to replace such steep inclines, but many people bike the trail. I was a good way to spend the day. It took me 2 hours each way to hike the trail, and I spent about 20 minutes inside the grove of arrayanes.
It was 4:10 when I got back to town. I tried to eat where I did yesterday, but they had just closed until dinner time. I went down the street to a pizza place that was open. It wasn´t very good pizza, but it filled me up.
I walked another 3 km out of town after that to get to an outdoor concert I had seen advertized on posters. It was in a clearing that was the front lawn of the summer house of the governor of this province. A large outdoor stage was set up with professional sound and lighting. There were three performers. The first was a Mexican singer/guitar player who wasn´t named in the program. Then came a latin group--Roberto y Cuti Carabajal. That was followed by a female tango singer named Adriana Varela. The latin group was great, although their leader talked too much between songs. The tango singer had a smokey-throated sound and was okay, but it was getting cold and I didn´t care that much for her. I left and walked back into town to the cyber cafe. It was interesting watching the crowd there. It was much like a crowd in Texas for an outdoor concert except that many people had their matte cups with them. That´s a drink that is popular here--a leaf that is placed in a cup with hot water poured over it. When finished, one pours more hot water and drinks again. Therefore, everyone carries both a cup with a metal straw and a flask of hot water for refilling the cup.
Tomorrow, I will take a bus to the next town up the (unpaved) road here in the Lake District--San Martin de Andes. I plan to be there two nights, also.
Spending Update for Chile: I spent $856.32 over 22 days for a daily average of $38.92--not bad, but more expensive than any of the other countries I have visited on this trip except for South Korea.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Three Boats and Four Buses over the Andes
Three Boats and Four Buses over the Andes
Wednesday, Feb. 15, Bariloche, The Lake District, Argentina
Well, I made the long, but dramatic crossing over the Andes between the Lake Districts of Chile and Argentina yesterday. It was 14 hours involving 4 buses and 3 boats. We were lucky with the weather. The guide explained that it rains 250 days a year on this route, is cloudy another 50 days, and that there are only about 50 clear, sunny days like we were having. The trip was beautiful and exciting, but it was also a tedious, boring trip. Beauty first....
The mountains and the lakes were fantastic. The first segment was a bus trip along the edge of the lake from Puerto Varas (where I had been staying) to Petrohué. I had made that part of the trip earlier when I went to Ensenada, but it is wonderful with the view of two snowcapped volcanoes beyond the lake. We stopped at the national park where I had hiked and spent 1 hour at a place where the running water of a river had cut channels through the lava bed that caused the water to rush through at high, dramatic speed. I also hiked a couple of trails there.
The first boat was a catamaran going from Petrohué to Peulla. This is on a lake called the Emerald Lake. It is truly green and beautiful. We were told it is caused by minerals that wash down from the mountains that are so light that they stay suspended for long periods of time in the water before finally settling to the bottom. It is supposed to be the most beautiful of the lakes in the Chilean Lake District, and I believe it. We could see volcanoes and snow-capped mountains all along the route with the lower levels covered in fir and other types of trees.
Peulla is a truly special place. It is so remote that few people get there. It has a large old hotel (and a new modern one being built) and 120 people. Essentially, it is like going to a national park that has a wonderful hotel, but none of the crowds are there! It would be a great getaway for someone who wanted peace and quiet for a few days. It also has trails. I had spent my Chilean pesos to buy picnic supplies to eat, so I went up a trail while all the others went into the expensive hotel restaurant or the fairly expensive self-service cafeteria beside the hotel. I found a bench where there were flowers blooming and with a view in the distance of a tall waterfall. I got out my crackers, salami, wine, fruits and cookies and just enjoyed myself without anyone coming around.
There was some excitement while I was there having my picnic. I heard some voices and saw people arrive at the waterfall which was on another trail that branched off from mine. After a moment, I saw a woman strip to a bikini. She took off the top of that, too. Then she placed her thumbs in the waist of the bottoms and slipped them down. After a moment, I realized it was a photo shoot. Another woman also undressed. I was thinking about friends like Bob Maroney who would have been so excited to have been there at that moment watching what was happening. I tried to get a photo, but it was so far away that my zoom really couldn´t pick it up. I could see much better with my eyes than with the camera, unfortunately. Some guys on an adventure trip who were gliding through the forest top hooked to wires saw what was happening. Instead of being smart and just watching, they had to start whooping it up. The girls immediately started covering up.
We took a bus from Peulla to Lago Frias. This was the crossing of the continental divide and was on a one-lane, unpaved road--just volcano ash and small lava stones. We checked out of Chile at Peulla and into Argentina at Lago Frias. In between was beautiful scenery with one stop to observe the glacier at a volcano on the border. The mountains here were more rocky than those at the crossing between Mendoza and Santiago and, therefore, were more beautiful. It seems so special to be crossing on such a road, too, which the guide called a "true mountain road."
There was a short ferry ride from Lago Frias to a place near Puerto Blest, then we took a short bus trip to get us the rest of the way to Puerto Blest which is another beauty site with a national-park style hotel. On the boat trip, we could see the Argentinean side of the same volcano with the glacier that we had stopped to see earlier in Chile.
The lake from Puerto Blest to Puerto Pañuelos was another emerald colored one--a long one with layers of mountains to be seen in the distance on each side. Puerto Panñuelos was another place with a fantastic hotel setting up on the mounside--a hotel resort with facilities such as a golf course. From there, we took a final bus which dropped us off at our hotels in Bariloche.
Now the tedious and boring...
The trip was 14 hours long! Of course, the traveling part was only about 60% of this time. Another 10-15% of the time was at nice stops. But the rest of the time was spent waiting, and waiting, and waiting. It was mostly OLD people on this trip. (Most young people pay to take the bus for about $16 rather than the $160 for the boat/bus crossing.) People took forever to get on and off the buses. People didn´t come back when they were supposed to come back. People didn´t follow directions about where to go and what to do and had to be re-told. By the time the trip was over, I had renewed my belief that I am not a tour package person. I am glad to have had the experience of seeing what I saw, but I don´t know if I would want to go through it knowing what I know now. It´s possible to do most of this on each side of the border independently. It´s just not possible to connect the two in a crossing without taking this tour which covers a route that is the monopoly of one company. In the future, I will try to remember to do what I can on my own and just give up on what cannot be done without going with a tour group, I think.
Well, I am back in Argentina now. I stayed at a hotel that was $33 last night, but I don´t think it was a good value at that price. I left it this morning and found another place for $20. I probably could have gotten an even better place, but I didn´t have a lot of time to look around, since check-out at the hotel where I was staying was at 10 a.m.
I spent the morning seeing the doctor. For the past 3 days I have been in pain with my thumb. One of the needles was bent so that the end of the part coming out of my thumb was pressing against the skin. That caused pain, and it caused swelling. The swelling caused even more pressure and pain. I had trouble sleeping the last night in Chile and last night here in Bariloche, so I decided it was time to get the needles removed. I found a clinic with a very nice doctor who spoke English well. He insisted on more x-rays even though the ones 10 days ago showed that the bone had healed. Then he removed the pins. The first one came out on the first pull. It was the one that had always stuck out well and also the one that had been causing me so much pain. The second one had never stuck out right. It could be seen, but not the tip end of it (which was under the skin). It was also the needle that went further inside the bone than the other (which only went almost directly across the bone). He had been being very sterile and using proper tools, but the needle didn´t budge about about 4 tries. So he got out a pair of pliers that looked like they came straight from the garage and tried them about 3 times. Again the needle wouldn´t budge. He decided he needed to give me a local anesthetic, because all this effort was creating pain. Following the anesthetic, he gave one big pull with the pliers, and the needle came out. It´s amazing how much nicer it is without the needles inside. Much of the stiffness and the pain I had been having were due to the needles. Immediately, I could move my thumb quite well. Thepopping that had occurred sometimes no longer did. I could write better and easier. It was obvious that I will be as good as new, although I will need to exercise it to get some remaining stiffness out of the way. The skin was torn some in getting the last needle out, so there was some bleeding. He put a bandage on and wrapped the hand/thumb in gauze. I am supposed to clean it daily, replace the bandage, and wrap it up again for 4 days. Then I can take it off and be myself again.
I ate lunch at a northern Argentinean restaurant today having locro, a soup with hominy, large white beans, pumpkin, bits of bacon, small chunks of beef, small chunks of sausage, etc., in it. Bariloche is full of chocolate shops that are supposed to be great, so I think I will celebrate getting my thumb back to almost normal by treating myself to some chocolate this afternoon.
Wednesday, Feb. 15, Bariloche, The Lake District, Argentina
Well, I made the long, but dramatic crossing over the Andes between the Lake Districts of Chile and Argentina yesterday. It was 14 hours involving 4 buses and 3 boats. We were lucky with the weather. The guide explained that it rains 250 days a year on this route, is cloudy another 50 days, and that there are only about 50 clear, sunny days like we were having. The trip was beautiful and exciting, but it was also a tedious, boring trip. Beauty first....
The mountains and the lakes were fantastic. The first segment was a bus trip along the edge of the lake from Puerto Varas (where I had been staying) to Petrohué. I had made that part of the trip earlier when I went to Ensenada, but it is wonderful with the view of two snowcapped volcanoes beyond the lake. We stopped at the national park where I had hiked and spent 1 hour at a place where the running water of a river had cut channels through the lava bed that caused the water to rush through at high, dramatic speed. I also hiked a couple of trails there.
The first boat was a catamaran going from Petrohué to Peulla. This is on a lake called the Emerald Lake. It is truly green and beautiful. We were told it is caused by minerals that wash down from the mountains that are so light that they stay suspended for long periods of time in the water before finally settling to the bottom. It is supposed to be the most beautiful of the lakes in the Chilean Lake District, and I believe it. We could see volcanoes and snow-capped mountains all along the route with the lower levels covered in fir and other types of trees.
Peulla is a truly special place. It is so remote that few people get there. It has a large old hotel (and a new modern one being built) and 120 people. Essentially, it is like going to a national park that has a wonderful hotel, but none of the crowds are there! It would be a great getaway for someone who wanted peace and quiet for a few days. It also has trails. I had spent my Chilean pesos to buy picnic supplies to eat, so I went up a trail while all the others went into the expensive hotel restaurant or the fairly expensive self-service cafeteria beside the hotel. I found a bench where there were flowers blooming and with a view in the distance of a tall waterfall. I got out my crackers, salami, wine, fruits and cookies and just enjoyed myself without anyone coming around.
There was some excitement while I was there having my picnic. I heard some voices and saw people arrive at the waterfall which was on another trail that branched off from mine. After a moment, I saw a woman strip to a bikini. She took off the top of that, too. Then she placed her thumbs in the waist of the bottoms and slipped them down. After a moment, I realized it was a photo shoot. Another woman also undressed. I was thinking about friends like Bob Maroney who would have been so excited to have been there at that moment watching what was happening. I tried to get a photo, but it was so far away that my zoom really couldn´t pick it up. I could see much better with my eyes than with the camera, unfortunately. Some guys on an adventure trip who were gliding through the forest top hooked to wires saw what was happening. Instead of being smart and just watching, they had to start whooping it up. The girls immediately started covering up.
We took a bus from Peulla to Lago Frias. This was the crossing of the continental divide and was on a one-lane, unpaved road--just volcano ash and small lava stones. We checked out of Chile at Peulla and into Argentina at Lago Frias. In between was beautiful scenery with one stop to observe the glacier at a volcano on the border. The mountains here were more rocky than those at the crossing between Mendoza and Santiago and, therefore, were more beautiful. It seems so special to be crossing on such a road, too, which the guide called a "true mountain road."
There was a short ferry ride from Lago Frias to a place near Puerto Blest, then we took a short bus trip to get us the rest of the way to Puerto Blest which is another beauty site with a national-park style hotel. On the boat trip, we could see the Argentinean side of the same volcano with the glacier that we had stopped to see earlier in Chile.
The lake from Puerto Blest to Puerto Pañuelos was another emerald colored one--a long one with layers of mountains to be seen in the distance on each side. Puerto Panñuelos was another place with a fantastic hotel setting up on the mounside--a hotel resort with facilities such as a golf course. From there, we took a final bus which dropped us off at our hotels in Bariloche.
Now the tedious and boring...
The trip was 14 hours long! Of course, the traveling part was only about 60% of this time. Another 10-15% of the time was at nice stops. But the rest of the time was spent waiting, and waiting, and waiting. It was mostly OLD people on this trip. (Most young people pay to take the bus for about $16 rather than the $160 for the boat/bus crossing.) People took forever to get on and off the buses. People didn´t come back when they were supposed to come back. People didn´t follow directions about where to go and what to do and had to be re-told. By the time the trip was over, I had renewed my belief that I am not a tour package person. I am glad to have had the experience of seeing what I saw, but I don´t know if I would want to go through it knowing what I know now. It´s possible to do most of this on each side of the border independently. It´s just not possible to connect the two in a crossing without taking this tour which covers a route that is the monopoly of one company. In the future, I will try to remember to do what I can on my own and just give up on what cannot be done without going with a tour group, I think.
Well, I am back in Argentina now. I stayed at a hotel that was $33 last night, but I don´t think it was a good value at that price. I left it this morning and found another place for $20. I probably could have gotten an even better place, but I didn´t have a lot of time to look around, since check-out at the hotel where I was staying was at 10 a.m.
I spent the morning seeing the doctor. For the past 3 days I have been in pain with my thumb. One of the needles was bent so that the end of the part coming out of my thumb was pressing against the skin. That caused pain, and it caused swelling. The swelling caused even more pressure and pain. I had trouble sleeping the last night in Chile and last night here in Bariloche, so I decided it was time to get the needles removed. I found a clinic with a very nice doctor who spoke English well. He insisted on more x-rays even though the ones 10 days ago showed that the bone had healed. Then he removed the pins. The first one came out on the first pull. It was the one that had always stuck out well and also the one that had been causing me so much pain. The second one had never stuck out right. It could be seen, but not the tip end of it (which was under the skin). It was also the needle that went further inside the bone than the other (which only went almost directly across the bone). He had been being very sterile and using proper tools, but the needle didn´t budge about about 4 tries. So he got out a pair of pliers that looked like they came straight from the garage and tried them about 3 times. Again the needle wouldn´t budge. He decided he needed to give me a local anesthetic, because all this effort was creating pain. Following the anesthetic, he gave one big pull with the pliers, and the needle came out. It´s amazing how much nicer it is without the needles inside. Much of the stiffness and the pain I had been having were due to the needles. Immediately, I could move my thumb quite well. Thepopping that had occurred sometimes no longer did. I could write better and easier. It was obvious that I will be as good as new, although I will need to exercise it to get some remaining stiffness out of the way. The skin was torn some in getting the last needle out, so there was some bleeding. He put a bandage on and wrapped the hand/thumb in gauze. I am supposed to clean it daily, replace the bandage, and wrap it up again for 4 days. Then I can take it off and be myself again.
I ate lunch at a northern Argentinean restaurant today having locro, a soup with hominy, large white beans, pumpkin, bits of bacon, small chunks of beef, small chunks of sausage, etc., in it. Bariloche is full of chocolate shops that are supposed to be great, so I think I will celebrate getting my thumb back to almost normal by treating myself to some chocolate this afternoon.
Monday, February 13, 2006
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.
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.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Hiking in the Lake District
Hiking in the Lake District
Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006, Puerto Varas, Chile
When I left the cyber cafe in Castro, I walked to the plaza where there was a live latin jazz concert being performed. A big crowd was there, so I joined them. It was quite good music. All the towns in this area are having regular entertainment since it is the main part of the tourist season here. This one as good as a professional concert.
I finished reading The Bone People by Keri Holmes before leaving Castro the next day. I gave it 3 stars out of 4. It was an interesting book from New Zealand with an unusual format. One of the turnoffs for me was all the drinking that took place in it; I think the main characters must have had about 20 alcoholic drinks per day.
I took the bus from Castro to Puerto Varas on Friday. It was about a 4-hour trip with a 30-minute ferry ride from the island to the mainland as a part of it. The ferries on this route about not much bigger than the ones at Port Aransas; they are probably smaller than the ones on the Bolivar ferry at Galveston. Anyway, my bus company owns most of the ferries, so the buses get to pass the long line of waiting vehicles and go to the head of the line. The crossing is nice with lots of sightings of pods of seals playing around and fresh sea air. We passed through Puerto Montt on the way here; it´s an alternative place (and bigger city) for using as a center for exploring the Lake District. I´m glad I chose Puerto Varas. Puerto Montt was crowded with people and didn´t look very nice. Puerto Varas, instead is a wonderful small city. It is clean and nice and more upscale. There are lots of galleries and higher class souvenir shops. Of course all the restraunts and shops are more expensive here because of it.
It took me a while to settle on a room. When I did, it was at the first place I went which was about 2 blocks from the bus station. When I went there, the room seemed small, and it was obvious that it was the son´s room with his clothes in the closet. I said I would look around. Well, I went to several other places, stopped at the tourist office, went to another side of town, etc. Either there were no singles available (meaning I would have to pay double price and stay in a double) or they were very expensive (almost $30 for a room that didn´t even have a TV). I returned and took the first room and am glad I did. I got the impression that the boy is getting the money from the room. He´s a nice young man. He asked me to sit downstairs while they prepared the room. They vacuumed, changed the sheets, he moved most of his stuff out, etc. He has been in charge of seeing after me. He had my breakfast ready the next morning. He has let me in and out when I have gone. He´s probably 16 or 17, and he has medals for playing volleyball. I hope I am right and that he will get the money for the room. I´d like to know what he will spend it on. It sould be about $50 by the time I leave.
This lake is surrounded by volcanoes. There are at least 3-4 for that can be seen from various points with at least 3 often visable at the same time. One is a perfect cone and snow-topped. Another has a dip int he top like a giant took a bite out of it. Another has an irregular top that must have blown off at some time and has quite a bit of snow on it, too. Anyway, it is fun to be near the water and look out and see these spectacular mountains.
People use Puerto Varas as a place to explore the district. I have done the same. Yesterday, I took a bus to Fruitillar. It is a town up the western side of the lake from here. It has German influences, but it isn`t kitschy. Everything is rather tasteful. It is probably the richest and the most expensive city in the Lake District. I heard lots of American English there--probably people on expensive tours to here. I wandered the waterfront, sat and read for a while, and eventually went hiking in a preserve operated by the Astral University de Chile. I walked from there to another small town where I ate lunch at a place more reasonably priced. I had caszuela de vacuña. It´s a dish on most menus and is a form of beef stew. It had flat noodles, two chunks of beef, an ear of corn, peas, a whole boiled potato, pieces of pumpkin, etc., in the broth. It was really delicious.
Today, I took a bus to Ensanada. It is more of a village than a town and is across the southern end of the lake from here. But it is the beginning of a national park. I walked into the park and hiked a trail in it. It passed beautiful green lagoons and offered very nice close-up views of the cone-shaped volcano. Some of the trail was difficult to hike, since it consisted for chunks of lava. The trail circled a hill with a dip in the middle, so maybe it had once been a small volcano itself.
Tomorrow, I will go a different direction. I may also make a stop in Puerto Montt just to say I have seen the town (and to try to find a cheaper lunch than I can get here). It will probably be my last day here. I plan to make a reservation to take the boat/bus trip that crosses 3 lakes and the mountains to Argentina on Tuesday if all goes well. One aspect of it is that the trip takes all day and I will not arrive in Bariloche until 8:30 or so in the evening. I´m trying to get a reservation there so I won´t arrive and have a problem with housing. It is so difficult, however, to get quick responses to queries about rooms. I have a feeling I will end up making the crossing with no guaranteed place to stay. Will see.
I´m hoping it will be warmer in Argentina. I´m tired of being cold each morning and night. The afternoons are fine, but otherwise it is rather cool. And the wind is blowing fairly hard out of the south right now, meaning that it is cool air at a fast speed.
I´ve removed the gauze wrapping from my hand/thumb. The doctor had said to do so after about 3 days. I was glad to get it off. He wrapped it so tight that it was cutting off the circulation. Now, I have just a patch over the two spots where the needles protrude through my skin. I take the patch off and clean the area and sleep with nothing on it each night. The next morning, after another cleaning, I put a new patch on the area. One more week, and I can have the needles removed. At least the soreness from my exercises went away rather fast. I´ve started to exercise again, but not as much as I did that day that caused all the soreness.
Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006, Puerto Varas, Chile
When I left the cyber cafe in Castro, I walked to the plaza where there was a live latin jazz concert being performed. A big crowd was there, so I joined them. It was quite good music. All the towns in this area are having regular entertainment since it is the main part of the tourist season here. This one as good as a professional concert.
I finished reading The Bone People by Keri Holmes before leaving Castro the next day. I gave it 3 stars out of 4. It was an interesting book from New Zealand with an unusual format. One of the turnoffs for me was all the drinking that took place in it; I think the main characters must have had about 20 alcoholic drinks per day.
I took the bus from Castro to Puerto Varas on Friday. It was about a 4-hour trip with a 30-minute ferry ride from the island to the mainland as a part of it. The ferries on this route about not much bigger than the ones at Port Aransas; they are probably smaller than the ones on the Bolivar ferry at Galveston. Anyway, my bus company owns most of the ferries, so the buses get to pass the long line of waiting vehicles and go to the head of the line. The crossing is nice with lots of sightings of pods of seals playing around and fresh sea air. We passed through Puerto Montt on the way here; it´s an alternative place (and bigger city) for using as a center for exploring the Lake District. I´m glad I chose Puerto Varas. Puerto Montt was crowded with people and didn´t look very nice. Puerto Varas, instead is a wonderful small city. It is clean and nice and more upscale. There are lots of galleries and higher class souvenir shops. Of course all the restraunts and shops are more expensive here because of it.
It took me a while to settle on a room. When I did, it was at the first place I went which was about 2 blocks from the bus station. When I went there, the room seemed small, and it was obvious that it was the son´s room with his clothes in the closet. I said I would look around. Well, I went to several other places, stopped at the tourist office, went to another side of town, etc. Either there were no singles available (meaning I would have to pay double price and stay in a double) or they were very expensive (almost $30 for a room that didn´t even have a TV). I returned and took the first room and am glad I did. I got the impression that the boy is getting the money from the room. He´s a nice young man. He asked me to sit downstairs while they prepared the room. They vacuumed, changed the sheets, he moved most of his stuff out, etc. He has been in charge of seeing after me. He had my breakfast ready the next morning. He has let me in and out when I have gone. He´s probably 16 or 17, and he has medals for playing volleyball. I hope I am right and that he will get the money for the room. I´d like to know what he will spend it on. It sould be about $50 by the time I leave.
This lake is surrounded by volcanoes. There are at least 3-4 for that can be seen from various points with at least 3 often visable at the same time. One is a perfect cone and snow-topped. Another has a dip int he top like a giant took a bite out of it. Another has an irregular top that must have blown off at some time and has quite a bit of snow on it, too. Anyway, it is fun to be near the water and look out and see these spectacular mountains.
People use Puerto Varas as a place to explore the district. I have done the same. Yesterday, I took a bus to Fruitillar. It is a town up the western side of the lake from here. It has German influences, but it isn`t kitschy. Everything is rather tasteful. It is probably the richest and the most expensive city in the Lake District. I heard lots of American English there--probably people on expensive tours to here. I wandered the waterfront, sat and read for a while, and eventually went hiking in a preserve operated by the Astral University de Chile. I walked from there to another small town where I ate lunch at a place more reasonably priced. I had caszuela de vacuña. It´s a dish on most menus and is a form of beef stew. It had flat noodles, two chunks of beef, an ear of corn, peas, a whole boiled potato, pieces of pumpkin, etc., in the broth. It was really delicious.
Today, I took a bus to Ensanada. It is more of a village than a town and is across the southern end of the lake from here. But it is the beginning of a national park. I walked into the park and hiked a trail in it. It passed beautiful green lagoons and offered very nice close-up views of the cone-shaped volcano. Some of the trail was difficult to hike, since it consisted for chunks of lava. The trail circled a hill with a dip in the middle, so maybe it had once been a small volcano itself.
Tomorrow, I will go a different direction. I may also make a stop in Puerto Montt just to say I have seen the town (and to try to find a cheaper lunch than I can get here). It will probably be my last day here. I plan to make a reservation to take the boat/bus trip that crosses 3 lakes and the mountains to Argentina on Tuesday if all goes well. One aspect of it is that the trip takes all day and I will not arrive in Bariloche until 8:30 or so in the evening. I´m trying to get a reservation there so I won´t arrive and have a problem with housing. It is so difficult, however, to get quick responses to queries about rooms. I have a feeling I will end up making the crossing with no guaranteed place to stay. Will see.
I´m hoping it will be warmer in Argentina. I´m tired of being cold each morning and night. The afternoons are fine, but otherwise it is rather cool. And the wind is blowing fairly hard out of the south right now, meaning that it is cool air at a fast speed.
I´ve removed the gauze wrapping from my hand/thumb. The doctor had said to do so after about 3 days. I was glad to get it off. He wrapped it so tight that it was cutting off the circulation. Now, I have just a patch over the two spots where the needles protrude through my skin. I take the patch off and clean the area and sleep with nothing on it each night. The next morning, after another cleaning, I put a new patch on the area. One more week, and I can have the needles removed. At least the soreness from my exercises went away rather fast. I´ve started to exercise again, but not as much as I did that day that caused all the soreness.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
On the Island of Chiloè
On the Island of Chiloè
Thursday, Feb. 9, Castro, Chile
The full day I spent in Valdivia, I took the bus upriver to a town called Niebla. It´s a small village where a ferry travels back and forth to another place, Corral, across the river. In Niebla, I wandered the area and eventually found a restaurant filled with local people. I sat at a table on the porch outside and ordered their special--fried fish. It was a big hunk of fish apparently cut from one of the big, long fish I have seen in the markets, since the bones in it were about 3 inches (7.5 cm) long! That made it easy not to swallow a bone. It was served with rice and a salad. There was a wonderful orange colored salsa that I ate with it all. Unfortunately, the place was too busy, and I was mostly ignored by the waiter. He forgot to bring my drink, and he never brought utensils. I used the plastic spoon from the bowl of salsa to eat my food. But the lunch was delicious. I just left the money on the table and walked away rather than wait forever for him to me again.
We stopped at a small island on the way to Corral. It looked like a very nice, secluded place with expensive homes. Corral itself was far more interesting than Niebla. There is an old fortress there. And the streets are very steep going uphill from the waterfront. I walked looking into the small wooden buildings housing shops that look as if they may not have changed in 80 years (except for the merchandise inside them). After about 1 1/2 hours, I took a ferry back across and caught the next bus back to Valdivia.
In Valdivia, the bus took us by Austral Universidad de Chile (University of Southern Chile). It was a nice looking campus. It´s a big school and is what gives the city life. It´s summer now, so all the students are gone home and the town is rather quiet.
My room in Valdivia was the best I have had in a while and is the best value place during all my visit to Chile. I just found it on my own as I walked toward a place the tourist office had recommended. It is in a modern, private home. I had a nice room with carpeting and lots of light through a window. There was cable TV in the room, and the bath was just beside the room on the hall. The woman who owns the home is always smiling and is very likeable. She takes pride in the breakfasts she serves. We had cheese, two kinds of breads, butter, 3 kinds of jams, teas, coffee, and a fresh piece of cake (different kind each day) for breakfast. The cakes were both especially nice. The only way to make the place better would be to have a private bath that didn´t have to be shared. But the room only cost me about $11.50 per night.
Yesterday (Wednesday), I took a 7 hour bus trip from Valdivia to Castro on the island of Chiloè. On the way, we passed an area with lots of snowcapped volcanos. This the southermost point I will reach in Chile. When I leave here, I will go 3 1/2 hours back northward near the volcanos for a few days and then cross back over to Argentina. The conductor on the bus was a very nice young man who took an interest in me. He checked on me every time he came back into the bus to check tickets and do other duties. And he visited with me on the 30 minute ferry ride to get to the island. Unfortunately, he didn´t speak English, so we were limited to the little Spanish I speak and to sign language.
Chiloè is famous for its wooden churches. Castro has a fantastic one on its main plaza. The entire inside of the church is in pine with vaulted ceilings, a dome, etc. It is just fascinating to see. Each town and village has its own version of such a church. Some are less ornate, some have painted wood, but each one is built entirely of wood. All the houses are also built of wood. Most are covered in wooden shakes on the outside--various shapes of cuts--and painted often in very bright colors. It´s a bright, cheerful place.
There are many backpackers here in Castro. It´s the first place I have visited this year where I see them sitting and walking around everywhere. It´s much like the places I went in northwestern Argentina last year. Mostly, they seem to be university students traveling on VERY low budgets. My guess is that they are camping out or paying $2 each to sleep 8 to a room in places! Most of them look like they could use a good shower! I´m glad I am paying more for where I stay so that I didn´t have to compete with them to find a place to sleep.
I´m staying in another nice place. I have a very small room with one single bed, but it is furnished nicely and has cable TV. Also, it has a good breakfast. The man of the couple who runs it was wearing an apron when I arrived yesterday. This morning, I could see why. His kitchen is filled with professional equipment, and the breakfast was great. We had a bowl of homemade yogurt to begin. Then he cooked a big omelette filled with local white cheese and herbs that were running when he served it. There was bread, coffee, and tea, too.
Today, I took a bus to Chonchi, another town about 30 minutes from here. It is much more atmospheric than Castro. It runs down a steep slope toward the waterfront. Again, all the buildings are wooden, but the ones there seem to be much older than the ones in Castro. Almost all are occupied, but there are several huge old wooden buildings that seem to be abandoned. Maybe they were warehouses at one time. There was a small fish market that even included locally smoked fish. There were several bakeries, but one was especially nice; I took a photo of some of their bread and bought two pastries to eat by the waterfront.
I returned to Castro for lunch at 2 p.m. I went to a local place I found last night and ate what everyone else was getting--a bowl of soup. It was a huge bowl that had chunks of pumpkin, potatoes, peas, tube-shaped noodles, etc. It looked like there were chunks of roast beef, but then it didn´t taste like beef. I didn´t really like the taste or the texture. Maybe it was heart. Or maybe it was horse, since that is eaten here. Anyway, I forced myself to eat half the meat, then I finished the rest of the soup without meat. The soup itself was good.
Two updates:
I finally got through to Mexicana. Although their site said I needed to complete the payment method form before making a restervation, it continued to reject me as I tried. So I made my reservation and then went to the payment procedure from there. Finally, it accepted that my credit card was from the U.S. even thought the computer recognized me as being in Chile at the present time. Therefore, I am flying into San Antonio from Mexico City on Friday, Mar. 10.
I exercised my thumb some on Wednesday. At first, I couldn´t get my thumb to even touch my index finger. But I eventually got it touching two fingers. Yesterday, since I had 7 hours on the bus, I did the exercises a lot. I got to the point where I could touch the tips of all my fingers except the little finger, and I could barely touch the side of it. I also did the exercise where I twirled my thumb in a circle clockwise and then counter-clockwise. I also was able to hold my pen and write again. Well, I must have overdone it. During the night, my hand began aching. Today, my thumb was so stiff I could only touch the tip of the index finger, and that was with pain. I´ve worked at it some today, but it has hurt. I guess I stretched tendons and muscles that I haven´t used for a while and they have reacted by being sore.
Tomorrow, I will catch a bus to Puerto Varas back in the Lake District. That´s my last stop in Chile, although I will make serveral outings from there. I figure I will be there 3-4 nights before crossing back to Argentina.
Thursday, Feb. 9, Castro, Chile
The full day I spent in Valdivia, I took the bus upriver to a town called Niebla. It´s a small village where a ferry travels back and forth to another place, Corral, across the river. In Niebla, I wandered the area and eventually found a restaurant filled with local people. I sat at a table on the porch outside and ordered their special--fried fish. It was a big hunk of fish apparently cut from one of the big, long fish I have seen in the markets, since the bones in it were about 3 inches (7.5 cm) long! That made it easy not to swallow a bone. It was served with rice and a salad. There was a wonderful orange colored salsa that I ate with it all. Unfortunately, the place was too busy, and I was mostly ignored by the waiter. He forgot to bring my drink, and he never brought utensils. I used the plastic spoon from the bowl of salsa to eat my food. But the lunch was delicious. I just left the money on the table and walked away rather than wait forever for him to me again.
We stopped at a small island on the way to Corral. It looked like a very nice, secluded place with expensive homes. Corral itself was far more interesting than Niebla. There is an old fortress there. And the streets are very steep going uphill from the waterfront. I walked looking into the small wooden buildings housing shops that look as if they may not have changed in 80 years (except for the merchandise inside them). After about 1 1/2 hours, I took a ferry back across and caught the next bus back to Valdivia.
In Valdivia, the bus took us by Austral Universidad de Chile (University of Southern Chile). It was a nice looking campus. It´s a big school and is what gives the city life. It´s summer now, so all the students are gone home and the town is rather quiet.
My room in Valdivia was the best I have had in a while and is the best value place during all my visit to Chile. I just found it on my own as I walked toward a place the tourist office had recommended. It is in a modern, private home. I had a nice room with carpeting and lots of light through a window. There was cable TV in the room, and the bath was just beside the room on the hall. The woman who owns the home is always smiling and is very likeable. She takes pride in the breakfasts she serves. We had cheese, two kinds of breads, butter, 3 kinds of jams, teas, coffee, and a fresh piece of cake (different kind each day) for breakfast. The cakes were both especially nice. The only way to make the place better would be to have a private bath that didn´t have to be shared. But the room only cost me about $11.50 per night.
Yesterday (Wednesday), I took a 7 hour bus trip from Valdivia to Castro on the island of Chiloè. On the way, we passed an area with lots of snowcapped volcanos. This the southermost point I will reach in Chile. When I leave here, I will go 3 1/2 hours back northward near the volcanos for a few days and then cross back over to Argentina. The conductor on the bus was a very nice young man who took an interest in me. He checked on me every time he came back into the bus to check tickets and do other duties. And he visited with me on the 30 minute ferry ride to get to the island. Unfortunately, he didn´t speak English, so we were limited to the little Spanish I speak and to sign language.
Chiloè is famous for its wooden churches. Castro has a fantastic one on its main plaza. The entire inside of the church is in pine with vaulted ceilings, a dome, etc. It is just fascinating to see. Each town and village has its own version of such a church. Some are less ornate, some have painted wood, but each one is built entirely of wood. All the houses are also built of wood. Most are covered in wooden shakes on the outside--various shapes of cuts--and painted often in very bright colors. It´s a bright, cheerful place.
There are many backpackers here in Castro. It´s the first place I have visited this year where I see them sitting and walking around everywhere. It´s much like the places I went in northwestern Argentina last year. Mostly, they seem to be university students traveling on VERY low budgets. My guess is that they are camping out or paying $2 each to sleep 8 to a room in places! Most of them look like they could use a good shower! I´m glad I am paying more for where I stay so that I didn´t have to compete with them to find a place to sleep.
I´m staying in another nice place. I have a very small room with one single bed, but it is furnished nicely and has cable TV. Also, it has a good breakfast. The man of the couple who runs it was wearing an apron when I arrived yesterday. This morning, I could see why. His kitchen is filled with professional equipment, and the breakfast was great. We had a bowl of homemade yogurt to begin. Then he cooked a big omelette filled with local white cheese and herbs that were running when he served it. There was bread, coffee, and tea, too.
Today, I took a bus to Chonchi, another town about 30 minutes from here. It is much more atmospheric than Castro. It runs down a steep slope toward the waterfront. Again, all the buildings are wooden, but the ones there seem to be much older than the ones in Castro. Almost all are occupied, but there are several huge old wooden buildings that seem to be abandoned. Maybe they were warehouses at one time. There was a small fish market that even included locally smoked fish. There were several bakeries, but one was especially nice; I took a photo of some of their bread and bought two pastries to eat by the waterfront.
I returned to Castro for lunch at 2 p.m. I went to a local place I found last night and ate what everyone else was getting--a bowl of soup. It was a huge bowl that had chunks of pumpkin, potatoes, peas, tube-shaped noodles, etc. It looked like there were chunks of roast beef, but then it didn´t taste like beef. I didn´t really like the taste or the texture. Maybe it was heart. Or maybe it was horse, since that is eaten here. Anyway, I forced myself to eat half the meat, then I finished the rest of the soup without meat. The soup itself was good.
Two updates:
I finally got through to Mexicana. Although their site said I needed to complete the payment method form before making a restervation, it continued to reject me as I tried. So I made my reservation and then went to the payment procedure from there. Finally, it accepted that my credit card was from the U.S. even thought the computer recognized me as being in Chile at the present time. Therefore, I am flying into San Antonio from Mexico City on Friday, Mar. 10.
I exercised my thumb some on Wednesday. At first, I couldn´t get my thumb to even touch my index finger. But I eventually got it touching two fingers. Yesterday, since I had 7 hours on the bus, I did the exercises a lot. I got to the point where I could touch the tips of all my fingers except the little finger, and I could barely touch the side of it. I also did the exercise where I twirled my thumb in a circle clockwise and then counter-clockwise. I also was able to hold my pen and write again. Well, I must have overdone it. During the night, my hand began aching. Today, my thumb was so stiff I could only touch the tip of the index finger, and that was with pain. I´ve worked at it some today, but it has hurt. I guess I stretched tendons and muscles that I haven´t used for a while and they have reacted by being sore.
Tomorrow, I will catch a bus to Puerto Varas back in the Lake District. That´s my last stop in Chile, although I will make serveral outings from there. I figure I will be there 3-4 nights before crossing back to Argentina.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Free Thumb, But Not Very Opposable
Free Thumb, But Not Very Opposable
Tuesday, Feb. 7, Villarica and Valdivia, Chile
I managed to pass the day on Saturday waiting for my 1:00 a.m. bus from Curico to Villarica. I spent the last 3 hours on a park bench (9:30-12:30) across from the bus station. There was an overhead light, so I read from the novel I´m reading now to pass the time faster and shivered as the night got cooler. Around 1:00, bus after bus came, but mine wasn´t one of them. The bus station wasn´t open, so I had to stand outside. Everyone else waiting took one of the buses that arrived. A guy who was cleaning up inside the station finally invited me inside to wait. He turned on the computer to check on my bus and told me it was on its way. It didn´t arrive until 2:00! Then it was rather uncomfortable. The seats were not nearly as nice as the buses I have ridden before. So I twisted and turned as the hours passed. Finally, we arrived in Villarica around 9:00.
I walked directly to the tourist office, and the two people there spoke enough English to help me find a room. Actually, what I got is a cabin. Almost every house in the town has 4-5 cabins built in the backyard to rent out. They aren´t complete cabins with kitchens--just bedrooms with an attached bath. Mine was quite cozy. There were two beds with a rug between them. A window let in plenty of light during the daytime. One bed was firm and another was sagging. Maybe a sagging bed is a preference for many Chileans, since I have now run across them in several places. Whatever the situation, I took the firm bed and slept well.
The area around Villarica is wonderful and the town is very nice, too. The area has the feel of Colorado, or of Danish summer with mountains. The air is fresh, everything is green, there are wildflowers in many fields, there are wonderful forests, etc. The town itself is quite nice, too. The houses have a European look to them. The downtown buildings are more like in Colorado--much pine in their construction with most of it being rather contemporary in appearance. It´s a very clean city, too. The streets are well paved, and there are designated bicycle lanes on them. The main attraction is the lake with a huge snowcapped volcano in the shape of a perfect cone behind it. Almost all activity is around the lake. There are boats that can be hired for tours on the lake. There are grassy picnic areas along the shore. There are several beaches, including one on the end designated as a nudist beach (although everyone there was clothed).
Chile is the most modern and most advanced of all the Latin American countries I have visited. I am impressed everywhere I go. It is more like Canada or Europe than like the U.S. If you dropped anyone here, only the signs and the spoken language would cause them to have a second thought in terms of it being either northern North America or northern Europe. They seem to have adopted all the little things that we think represent an advanced society. For instance, even the man picking up the garbage in an office yesterday was wearing plastic gloves to do so.
I found a local place in Villarica for lunch. It was full of people, and I was the only tourist. I particularly chose it because one of their specials was ravioli with meat sauce. I am tired of the usual Chilean dishes, so Italian sounded good. The meat sauce was obviously homemade. The food was tasty. And the bread wasn´t the usual Chilean hard bun, it was freshly cooked sopapillas--much like the Mexican kind, but served plain as a bread rather than with honey or sugar-cinnamon as a dessert.
I spent the afternoon walking around the edge of the lake there in town. I watched for opportunities to get a good photo of the volcano, since, like it is with most volcanos, the clouds tended to cluster around the top of it. I watched the people swimming. I sat and read from my book. I visited briefly with a man who approached me while his son was having a lesson at a tennis club across the road. For some reason he knew I was a tourist. He has lived in Vancouver and was here visiting his wife´s family. I got the impression he is a go-getter who changes jobs often trying to get ahead; he has also worked in Banff, and he is returning to Miami, another place where he has worked. I wonder if he does all this illegally? He said he had been though San Antonio driving. Why would he have done that other than to enter the U.S. in an easy way (before 9/11)?
I wish I had a car here. I would see so much more of Chile with one. An independent traveler likes me seeing the cities and the main sites near them, but this area is filled with national parks that cannot be explored via public transportation and are too far away to hike to them. If I ever return, it will need to be with someone else so we can rent a car and explore on our own.
Yesterday morning, I checked out of the cabin to head to Valdivia. I was surprised to see that the woman with the cabins had a wood burning cookstove in her kitchen. It was all fired up. She said that is how she provides the hot water to the cabins. I mentioned it would be good for baking, too.
Valdivia is on a river bend and is also where two rivers come together. It´s a very old city, and there is a tower remaining from the walls that once surrounded it. This area had natives the Spanish were not able to bring under their control. Valdivia was a lone Spanish outpost among this large area the natives controlled. Today, it is a city that has lots of old wooden buildings that are not very attractive. But the riverfront is nice. And there is a nice plaza. There is an outstanding chocolate shop where you can see the chocolates being made. Apparently many people come here just to buy their chocolates!
But I didn´t arrive until 1:30 p.m. Then I had to get a room. I was lucky to find a house with a room for rent upstairs with cable TV and the bath next to it. And it includes a great breakfast which today consisted of rolls, cheese, butter, jams, and a slice of cake! The cake was like a lemon pie with a thin cake on the bottom rather than a crust. I think I might trying making one when I get home--layer of cake (about 3/4 inch thick), layer of lemon pie filling (about 1/4 inch thick), and layer of merringue and baked until the merringue is lightly golden.
After getting the room, I went to see a doctor. The x-rays showed that my thumb is probably healed enough. The doctor took an intermediary step. He removed the splint and cleaned the wounds around the pin endings. Then he wrapped me up again only in a flexible gauze bandage. He told me to start exercising the thumb to get my movement back while waiting 2 more weeks to have the pins removed. The thumb doesn´t move much right now, but I am making progress. I can touch the tips of my index finger and the one next to it. It´s taken lots of work to get that far in the past 1/2 days. And it goes stiff again as soon as I don´t do that moment after moment. Hope I can get it back to normal. I can´t write with it yet, for instance.
It was already 4 p.m. by then, so I headed out to eat my first and only meal of the day. I found a small place with a roasted pork special. It was two pieces of pork about 1 1/4 inches thick. It was so good. And it came with a yellow rice that had mixed vegetables within it and with a salad. I was so full, I knew I wouldn´t need to eat again. Therefore, I went to the grocery store on my way back to my room and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate having my thumb back. It is Missiones del Reino and is a Reserva Carmenére 2003 from the Valle de Rapel. I had half of it last night, and it is quite good.
Today, it is drizzly. I will go to the bus station to try to make plans for traveling tomorrow. And if all goes well, I will make a trip up river this afternoon and report on it on my next entry.
Tuesday, Feb. 7, Villarica and Valdivia, Chile
I managed to pass the day on Saturday waiting for my 1:00 a.m. bus from Curico to Villarica. I spent the last 3 hours on a park bench (9:30-12:30) across from the bus station. There was an overhead light, so I read from the novel I´m reading now to pass the time faster and shivered as the night got cooler. Around 1:00, bus after bus came, but mine wasn´t one of them. The bus station wasn´t open, so I had to stand outside. Everyone else waiting took one of the buses that arrived. A guy who was cleaning up inside the station finally invited me inside to wait. He turned on the computer to check on my bus and told me it was on its way. It didn´t arrive until 2:00! Then it was rather uncomfortable. The seats were not nearly as nice as the buses I have ridden before. So I twisted and turned as the hours passed. Finally, we arrived in Villarica around 9:00.
I walked directly to the tourist office, and the two people there spoke enough English to help me find a room. Actually, what I got is a cabin. Almost every house in the town has 4-5 cabins built in the backyard to rent out. They aren´t complete cabins with kitchens--just bedrooms with an attached bath. Mine was quite cozy. There were two beds with a rug between them. A window let in plenty of light during the daytime. One bed was firm and another was sagging. Maybe a sagging bed is a preference for many Chileans, since I have now run across them in several places. Whatever the situation, I took the firm bed and slept well.
The area around Villarica is wonderful and the town is very nice, too. The area has the feel of Colorado, or of Danish summer with mountains. The air is fresh, everything is green, there are wildflowers in many fields, there are wonderful forests, etc. The town itself is quite nice, too. The houses have a European look to them. The downtown buildings are more like in Colorado--much pine in their construction with most of it being rather contemporary in appearance. It´s a very clean city, too. The streets are well paved, and there are designated bicycle lanes on them. The main attraction is the lake with a huge snowcapped volcano in the shape of a perfect cone behind it. Almost all activity is around the lake. There are boats that can be hired for tours on the lake. There are grassy picnic areas along the shore. There are several beaches, including one on the end designated as a nudist beach (although everyone there was clothed).
Chile is the most modern and most advanced of all the Latin American countries I have visited. I am impressed everywhere I go. It is more like Canada or Europe than like the U.S. If you dropped anyone here, only the signs and the spoken language would cause them to have a second thought in terms of it being either northern North America or northern Europe. They seem to have adopted all the little things that we think represent an advanced society. For instance, even the man picking up the garbage in an office yesterday was wearing plastic gloves to do so.
I found a local place in Villarica for lunch. It was full of people, and I was the only tourist. I particularly chose it because one of their specials was ravioli with meat sauce. I am tired of the usual Chilean dishes, so Italian sounded good. The meat sauce was obviously homemade. The food was tasty. And the bread wasn´t the usual Chilean hard bun, it was freshly cooked sopapillas--much like the Mexican kind, but served plain as a bread rather than with honey or sugar-cinnamon as a dessert.
I spent the afternoon walking around the edge of the lake there in town. I watched for opportunities to get a good photo of the volcano, since, like it is with most volcanos, the clouds tended to cluster around the top of it. I watched the people swimming. I sat and read from my book. I visited briefly with a man who approached me while his son was having a lesson at a tennis club across the road. For some reason he knew I was a tourist. He has lived in Vancouver and was here visiting his wife´s family. I got the impression he is a go-getter who changes jobs often trying to get ahead; he has also worked in Banff, and he is returning to Miami, another place where he has worked. I wonder if he does all this illegally? He said he had been though San Antonio driving. Why would he have done that other than to enter the U.S. in an easy way (before 9/11)?
I wish I had a car here. I would see so much more of Chile with one. An independent traveler likes me seeing the cities and the main sites near them, but this area is filled with national parks that cannot be explored via public transportation and are too far away to hike to them. If I ever return, it will need to be with someone else so we can rent a car and explore on our own.
Yesterday morning, I checked out of the cabin to head to Valdivia. I was surprised to see that the woman with the cabins had a wood burning cookstove in her kitchen. It was all fired up. She said that is how she provides the hot water to the cabins. I mentioned it would be good for baking, too.
Valdivia is on a river bend and is also where two rivers come together. It´s a very old city, and there is a tower remaining from the walls that once surrounded it. This area had natives the Spanish were not able to bring under their control. Valdivia was a lone Spanish outpost among this large area the natives controlled. Today, it is a city that has lots of old wooden buildings that are not very attractive. But the riverfront is nice. And there is a nice plaza. There is an outstanding chocolate shop where you can see the chocolates being made. Apparently many people come here just to buy their chocolates!
But I didn´t arrive until 1:30 p.m. Then I had to get a room. I was lucky to find a house with a room for rent upstairs with cable TV and the bath next to it. And it includes a great breakfast which today consisted of rolls, cheese, butter, jams, and a slice of cake! The cake was like a lemon pie with a thin cake on the bottom rather than a crust. I think I might trying making one when I get home--layer of cake (about 3/4 inch thick), layer of lemon pie filling (about 1/4 inch thick), and layer of merringue and baked until the merringue is lightly golden.
After getting the room, I went to see a doctor. The x-rays showed that my thumb is probably healed enough. The doctor took an intermediary step. He removed the splint and cleaned the wounds around the pin endings. Then he wrapped me up again only in a flexible gauze bandage. He told me to start exercising the thumb to get my movement back while waiting 2 more weeks to have the pins removed. The thumb doesn´t move much right now, but I am making progress. I can touch the tips of my index finger and the one next to it. It´s taken lots of work to get that far in the past 1/2 days. And it goes stiff again as soon as I don´t do that moment after moment. Hope I can get it back to normal. I can´t write with it yet, for instance.
It was already 4 p.m. by then, so I headed out to eat my first and only meal of the day. I found a small place with a roasted pork special. It was two pieces of pork about 1 1/4 inches thick. It was so good. And it came with a yellow rice that had mixed vegetables within it and with a salad. I was so full, I knew I wouldn´t need to eat again. Therefore, I went to the grocery store on my way back to my room and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate having my thumb back. It is Missiones del Reino and is a Reserva Carmenére 2003 from the Valle de Rapel. I had half of it last night, and it is quite good.
Today, it is drizzly. I will go to the bus station to try to make plans for traveling tomorrow. And if all goes well, I will make a trip up river this afternoon and report on it on my next entry.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Frustration with Mexicana
Frustration with Mexicana
Satruday, Jan. 4, Curico, Chile
I´ve been trying to join the Mexicana online membership so I can buy a ticket to get from Mexico City to San Antonio. It doesn´t look as if it will work. I joined, but I also have to fill out the payment method. Well, computers are smart enough today that the Mexicana site knows I am in Argentina, and it won´t accept the idea that my credit card is a U.S. card if I am in Argentina!! Isn´t that rediculous!! I´ll probably have to take an all-night bus because of this hangup. What a mess!!!!!
I´ve been in Curico for two days. It´s a city of 150,000 people that is 2 1/2 hours south of Santiago. It´s a center for the fruit and wine industry in Chile. Coming here, we passed lots of vineyards and orchards. There were also lots of big fruit warehouses and packing plants. Some of the names were American--Dole and Del Monte, for two. Just outside of Curico is the Torres Winery. I went by there today, but it wasn´t open for some reason. It is one of the best known of all the wineries in Chile, and their wines are exported both to the U.S. and to Chile. It´s a nice complex that even includes a restaurant.
When I arrived yesterday, I went to the tourist office where a very nice young student spoke English well. She said he father and her brother are doctors if I need any help with my thumb while here! She suggested restaurants and places to stay and gave me maps.
I had a strange experience with the first place I went for a room. The woman opened the door and quoted a price of 6000 pesos when I asked for a room for one person. I asked if I could see the room, and she didn´t understand. I tried motioning by pointing to my eyes. She got upset. I think she thought I was trying to talk her down in price or something. How she could help but understand that I wanted to look at the room, I don´t know; everyone else everywhere has understood that pointing to the eyes and then pointing into the building means that I want to see the room. Anyway, then she had a sour look on her face and announced she had only a double room that was grand in size and would be 10,000 pesos. As I walked away, I thought two things: 1. I didn´t like her personality, so I am glad that I didn´t stay there. 2. She really was a bitch.
I found another place down the street, but there were strange things about it, too. I got a nice room upstairs with a window overlooking the back yard. In the evening when I had returned to the room, I realized that one bed was better than the other because it was more firm whereas the other sagged. I got on top of the bed to read for a while. After I while, I felt a bite and looked. I found a flea. I searched and found one other. Well, I looked at the other bed and pulled the covers back. It had light colored sheets, so I could see that it was fine. I went to bed in it, but then I couldn´t sleep because the sag was so really bad. After about 2 hours, I realized that I needed to deal with the problem. I moved my luggage to the side, lifted a chair onto the top of the bed with the fleas, and took my mattress off the sagging bed and placed it on the floor. After that, I slept well all night. Then this morning, I asked one of the two women (sisters?) running the place for a towel. As she went to get one, the other must have asked what I wanted. Then she started yelling. It must have been because she didn´t think they should have to provide me with a towel. Anyway, this town seems to have a problem with women with problems!
I had a late lunch because of the time it took to get here and to get a room yesterday. Most places had quit serving lunch by then. I found a pizza place and had a small pizza and a glass of pineapple juice. The pizza was good with a thin, crispy crust and covered with tomato sauce, cheese, ham and mushrooms. It was nice to have a pizza (and a good one, too) for a change.
The tourist office told me that Tur Bus has buses to Villarica. That´s the company that showed nothing on their computers when we checked in Santiago. So I went back to the Tur Bus office after eating. Sure enough, there were about 5 buses to choose from. They all begin in Santiago, so the night buses are LATE NIGHT buses from here. I took the earliest one. It will pick me up here tonight at 1 a.m.
It was too late to do anything else after all that but explore the town. I saw an old church from the 1700s, an ornate bandstand on the square, a modern church built inside the ruins of an old church, the shopping streets, etc. I spent quite a bit of time in the plaza on a bench watching people and reading. I bought two empanadas (ground meat, onion, gravy, olive, and boiled egg inside the crust) and ate them and went to my room around 8:30.
Today, I took a bus to Molina planning to stop at the Torres Winery. When I saw that it was closed, I just went on to Molina on the bus. We passed apple orchards with apples hanging on the trees, tomato fields where they were picking the tomatoes and then cutting down the stalks, more vinyards, more fruit packing plants, etc. Molina is a small old town. The houses are all adobe with super thick walls and old, old tile roofs. I wandered the streets, bought a pastry and ate it, sat on the square for a while, and then caught the bus back to Curico.
I ate lunch at a nice small place run by a mother and son. There were only two choices--two things I´ve had too frequently lately--but I chose one anyway. I had the sweet corn casserole with chicken, beef, boiled egg, etc. I had tomato salad first, drank melon juice, and had a big slice of watermelon as dessert. It was all good quality. I may go back and have a sandwich there for dinner tonight with a banana milk shake.
Most of the afternoon, I have been sitting in the plaza here reading. I´m just passing the time and trying to stay comfortable. It´s now 6:30, so I have about 6 hours more to go before the bus will be arriving. I may hike up a hill. I have to go back to my hotel around 9:00 and pick up my luggage that I stored there.
Tomorrow I will arrive in Villarica. That is on the northern edge of the Lake District. I´m keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a room when I get there.
Satruday, Jan. 4, Curico, Chile
I´ve been trying to join the Mexicana online membership so I can buy a ticket to get from Mexico City to San Antonio. It doesn´t look as if it will work. I joined, but I also have to fill out the payment method. Well, computers are smart enough today that the Mexicana site knows I am in Argentina, and it won´t accept the idea that my credit card is a U.S. card if I am in Argentina!! Isn´t that rediculous!! I´ll probably have to take an all-night bus because of this hangup. What a mess!!!!!
I´ve been in Curico for two days. It´s a city of 150,000 people that is 2 1/2 hours south of Santiago. It´s a center for the fruit and wine industry in Chile. Coming here, we passed lots of vineyards and orchards. There were also lots of big fruit warehouses and packing plants. Some of the names were American--Dole and Del Monte, for two. Just outside of Curico is the Torres Winery. I went by there today, but it wasn´t open for some reason. It is one of the best known of all the wineries in Chile, and their wines are exported both to the U.S. and to Chile. It´s a nice complex that even includes a restaurant.
When I arrived yesterday, I went to the tourist office where a very nice young student spoke English well. She said he father and her brother are doctors if I need any help with my thumb while here! She suggested restaurants and places to stay and gave me maps.
I had a strange experience with the first place I went for a room. The woman opened the door and quoted a price of 6000 pesos when I asked for a room for one person. I asked if I could see the room, and she didn´t understand. I tried motioning by pointing to my eyes. She got upset. I think she thought I was trying to talk her down in price or something. How she could help but understand that I wanted to look at the room, I don´t know; everyone else everywhere has understood that pointing to the eyes and then pointing into the building means that I want to see the room. Anyway, then she had a sour look on her face and announced she had only a double room that was grand in size and would be 10,000 pesos. As I walked away, I thought two things: 1. I didn´t like her personality, so I am glad that I didn´t stay there. 2. She really was a bitch.
I found another place down the street, but there were strange things about it, too. I got a nice room upstairs with a window overlooking the back yard. In the evening when I had returned to the room, I realized that one bed was better than the other because it was more firm whereas the other sagged. I got on top of the bed to read for a while. After I while, I felt a bite and looked. I found a flea. I searched and found one other. Well, I looked at the other bed and pulled the covers back. It had light colored sheets, so I could see that it was fine. I went to bed in it, but then I couldn´t sleep because the sag was so really bad. After about 2 hours, I realized that I needed to deal with the problem. I moved my luggage to the side, lifted a chair onto the top of the bed with the fleas, and took my mattress off the sagging bed and placed it on the floor. After that, I slept well all night. Then this morning, I asked one of the two women (sisters?) running the place for a towel. As she went to get one, the other must have asked what I wanted. Then she started yelling. It must have been because she didn´t think they should have to provide me with a towel. Anyway, this town seems to have a problem with women with problems!
I had a late lunch because of the time it took to get here and to get a room yesterday. Most places had quit serving lunch by then. I found a pizza place and had a small pizza and a glass of pineapple juice. The pizza was good with a thin, crispy crust and covered with tomato sauce, cheese, ham and mushrooms. It was nice to have a pizza (and a good one, too) for a change.
The tourist office told me that Tur Bus has buses to Villarica. That´s the company that showed nothing on their computers when we checked in Santiago. So I went back to the Tur Bus office after eating. Sure enough, there were about 5 buses to choose from. They all begin in Santiago, so the night buses are LATE NIGHT buses from here. I took the earliest one. It will pick me up here tonight at 1 a.m.
It was too late to do anything else after all that but explore the town. I saw an old church from the 1700s, an ornate bandstand on the square, a modern church built inside the ruins of an old church, the shopping streets, etc. I spent quite a bit of time in the plaza on a bench watching people and reading. I bought two empanadas (ground meat, onion, gravy, olive, and boiled egg inside the crust) and ate them and went to my room around 8:30.
Today, I took a bus to Molina planning to stop at the Torres Winery. When I saw that it was closed, I just went on to Molina on the bus. We passed apple orchards with apples hanging on the trees, tomato fields where they were picking the tomatoes and then cutting down the stalks, more vinyards, more fruit packing plants, etc. Molina is a small old town. The houses are all adobe with super thick walls and old, old tile roofs. I wandered the streets, bought a pastry and ate it, sat on the square for a while, and then caught the bus back to Curico.
I ate lunch at a nice small place run by a mother and son. There were only two choices--two things I´ve had too frequently lately--but I chose one anyway. I had the sweet corn casserole with chicken, beef, boiled egg, etc. I had tomato salad first, drank melon juice, and had a big slice of watermelon as dessert. It was all good quality. I may go back and have a sandwich there for dinner tonight with a banana milk shake.
Most of the afternoon, I have been sitting in the plaza here reading. I´m just passing the time and trying to stay comfortable. It´s now 6:30, so I have about 6 hours more to go before the bus will be arriving. I may hike up a hill. I have to go back to my hotel around 9:00 and pick up my luggage that I stored there.
Tomorrow I will arrive in Villarica. That is on the northern edge of the Lake District. I´m keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a room when I get there.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Last Day in Santiago
| Last Day in Santiago Thursday, Feb. 1, Santiago, Chile Well, today is my last day here in Santiago. I´ve done most of what I think I would like to do. I didn´t go up on top of the big hill in town for the view, because the days have been cloudy until 2 p.m. and then have been rather hazy. But I did climb to the top of Santa Lucia (smaller hill near my hotel) and saw the view from there. Last night, I stayed in my hotel room and watched movies--BAD movies. The movie channels show only the horrible films that are popular with teenagers except for one channel which specializes in independent films. Unfortunately, all their films were foreign, meaning that I could not understand the spoken language or read the Spanish subtitles. Anyway, it was nice just to relax after all the walking I had done earlier in the day. Today, I walked a lot, too. I started by heading for Providencia. It´s an upper-class neighborhood just east of the center of town. The shops are elegant, and the homes are fancy. But that´s about all there is to see there. It´s a clean, pretty neighborhood, but.... I did see a photography exhibit from one of the Chilean polynesian islands at the tourist office there, however. It was quite interesting. I returned to my hotel area and had lunch at the same place where I ate two days ago. I had planned to eat at a neighboring place, but their menu didn´t sound good today. I had chicken consome, salad plate (tomatoes, beans, broccoli, and another green vegetable I didn´t know but that the owner wanted me to try--it was good), roast pork in gravy with rice, flan, and Sprite. All that cost about $5 including the tip. I went to the bus station to plan my travels out of here. I had planned to go from here to Curico for 1-2 nights and then go from there to Villarica. Unfortunately, there are no buses operated by the two main bus companies between Curico and Villarica. But I decided it would be bad to try to go by night bus all the way to Villarica tomorrow night. First, they are probably already booked up. Second, what would I do all day here tomorrow? And third, I didn´t want to arrive in Villarica (a resort in the Lake District) on Saturday of the first weekend of the Chilean tourist month. February is the MAIN month for traveling by Chileans. So I am worried anyway about heading to the Lake District. To arrive there on a Saturday just doesn´t sound like a good idea. So I bought a ticket to Curico and will decide when I get there what to do. I will check immediately to see if there are bus companies that provide service between there and Villarica and, if so, whether they have tickets for Saturday night. If not, then I will figure out where to go toward the south that I can get to. Complicating all of this is that I also have to keep in mind that I need to be somewhere on Monday or Tuesday that is big enough someone will speak English to help me get an x-ray of my thumb. If it is healed, I am supposed to get the splint and the pins removed. So.... We´ll see what happens about heading southward and I will report it in the blog. Of course, there is also the unaswered question of whether I can get housing once I get to Curico tomorrow. It doesn´t seem to be a big tourist site, so I am hoping there will be a place for me. Again, stay tuned to this blog for the answer. I´m going out wandering tonight since it is my last night here. I have no particular plans for where to go. I just feel the need to see some of the city by night. Of course, I won´t be seeing the NIGHT LIFE. Dinner time isn´t until 10:30 or 11:00, and night life beyond that doesn´t get going until about 1 a.m.!! I´ll be long asleep by either of those two times. |
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Cold in Santiago
Cold in Santiago
Wednesday, Feb. 1, Santiago, Chile
Everywhere I have been in Chile so far has been cold at night and until about 1:00 p.m. This is summer here, so I am surprised about that. I guess it´s the winds coming off the Pacific Ocean. I can´t put on my windbreaker or my jacket because of my hand being too big with the splint. So every day I have to just be cold until the sun comes out and it warms up in the afternoon.
It was a long bus trip from Vicuna to Santiago. Next to me was a young man who was mostly still, but it was still difficult to sleep for long. I really didn´t rest.
We arrived here at 6:30 a.m. I took the metro to the area of the Hotel Paris which both my guidebooks recommended (but which they said there could be a problem during the summer months getting a room). I lucked out. All they had was a double, but the man let me have it at a bit of a discount. I am paying a little more than for a single room, but I have a big bed to stretch out on. So I´m happy. It´s a central location making it easy for me to come and go and to get to anywhere I want to go in town.
I was so tired that I went to bed immediately. I slept about two hours. Then I forced myself to get up and explore. I stayed outdoors, though. I knew I was too tired to concentrate on exhibits at a museum. I returned to the hotel area at 2:00 for lunch, took another 2-hour nap, and then went out to explore another area. Lunch was great--the menu executivo at a place full of people. It included the salad bar (one trip only), the main course (I had roast beef with mashed potatoes which is what 90% of everyone there was having), juice, and a choice of desserts (I had flan).
Santiago is a nice city. It´s clean and modern. It could be in Europe or the U.S. There is a problem with too many people in the center, however. It has pedestrian-only shopping streets, a nice old market, wonderful buildings from the late 1800s, various styles of neighborhoods, etc. It is difficult to walk down the sidewalks with so many people on them even though the walks are very wide. It´s a case of constantly trying to avoid bumping into people. Tuesday, I wandered the downtown area and the Belavista area (the more bohemian area with narrow streets and lots of nightlife but nothing much happening in the daytime).
I took a pile of laundry to a place near my hotel. I´ll pick it up this afternoon and have a nice clean wardrobe to begin wearing. I almost bought some new clothes in La Serena the other day. Two big department stores were having sales with nice polo shirts for $3-8 and with shorts, swimsuits, etc., also on sale. But I would have had to throw away something, and everything I am wearing is still quite nice.
Being so tired last night, I just ate hotdogs (bun, hot dog, chopped tomato, mashed avocado, dashes of hot sauce) near the hotel and went to bed early. And even with that, I am still feeling tired today.
I spent this morning doing two things. I watched the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace. Like all such ceremonies I´ve seen, I found it to be too slow and boring. Even the band that was playing played as if it were half dead! Then I walked nearby to the Museum of Pre-Colombian Artifacts. It´s fantastic. Every item is of high quality, and they have items representing what seems to be all civilizations from Mexico to the tip of South America. I spent about 3 hours there wishing I could do it in parts returning daily for several days.
I had a big lunch today. It started with a tomato and onion salad. Tomatoes are so tasty here, since it is summer. Then I had pastel de choclo again. Unfortunatly, it wasn´t as good as the one I had the other day. I had a glass of juice and fruit salad for dessert.
Now, I plan to return to my hotel room to rest. I am tired.
Wednesday, Feb. 1, Santiago, Chile
Everywhere I have been in Chile so far has been cold at night and until about 1:00 p.m. This is summer here, so I am surprised about that. I guess it´s the winds coming off the Pacific Ocean. I can´t put on my windbreaker or my jacket because of my hand being too big with the splint. So every day I have to just be cold until the sun comes out and it warms up in the afternoon.
It was a long bus trip from Vicuna to Santiago. Next to me was a young man who was mostly still, but it was still difficult to sleep for long. I really didn´t rest.
We arrived here at 6:30 a.m. I took the metro to the area of the Hotel Paris which both my guidebooks recommended (but which they said there could be a problem during the summer months getting a room). I lucked out. All they had was a double, but the man let me have it at a bit of a discount. I am paying a little more than for a single room, but I have a big bed to stretch out on. So I´m happy. It´s a central location making it easy for me to come and go and to get to anywhere I want to go in town.
I was so tired that I went to bed immediately. I slept about two hours. Then I forced myself to get up and explore. I stayed outdoors, though. I knew I was too tired to concentrate on exhibits at a museum. I returned to the hotel area at 2:00 for lunch, took another 2-hour nap, and then went out to explore another area. Lunch was great--the menu executivo at a place full of people. It included the salad bar (one trip only), the main course (I had roast beef with mashed potatoes which is what 90% of everyone there was having), juice, and a choice of desserts (I had flan).
Santiago is a nice city. It´s clean and modern. It could be in Europe or the U.S. There is a problem with too many people in the center, however. It has pedestrian-only shopping streets, a nice old market, wonderful buildings from the late 1800s, various styles of neighborhoods, etc. It is difficult to walk down the sidewalks with so many people on them even though the walks are very wide. It´s a case of constantly trying to avoid bumping into people. Tuesday, I wandered the downtown area and the Belavista area (the more bohemian area with narrow streets and lots of nightlife but nothing much happening in the daytime).
I took a pile of laundry to a place near my hotel. I´ll pick it up this afternoon and have a nice clean wardrobe to begin wearing. I almost bought some new clothes in La Serena the other day. Two big department stores were having sales with nice polo shirts for $3-8 and with shorts, swimsuits, etc., also on sale. But I would have had to throw away something, and everything I am wearing is still quite nice.
Being so tired last night, I just ate hotdogs (bun, hot dog, chopped tomato, mashed avocado, dashes of hot sauce) near the hotel and went to bed early. And even with that, I am still feeling tired today.
I spent this morning doing two things. I watched the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace. Like all such ceremonies I´ve seen, I found it to be too slow and boring. Even the band that was playing played as if it were half dead! Then I walked nearby to the Museum of Pre-Colombian Artifacts. It´s fantastic. Every item is of high quality, and they have items representing what seems to be all civilizations from Mexico to the tip of South America. I spent about 3 hours there wishing I could do it in parts returning daily for several days.
I had a big lunch today. It started with a tomato and onion salad. Tomatoes are so tasty here, since it is summer. Then I had pastel de choclo again. Unfortunatly, it wasn´t as good as the one I had the other day. I had a glass of juice and fruit salad for dessert.
Now, I plan to return to my hotel room to rest. I am tired.
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