CAUTIOUS CARGO ↑ This way up ↑: March 2014

Saturday, 22 March 2014

Camping and Hiking in La Junta Valley, Cochamo, north Patagonia. March 2014.

Our bank cards finally arrived in Pichelemu, so we fast-tracked it to Puerto Varas at the northern tip of Patagonia. After an overnight stop in German-influenced Puerto Varas, we caught the bus to Cochamo which circled Llanquihue Lake and Osorno Volcano en route. Five hours later we camped next to Rio Cochamo at US Mike´s Riverside Lodge. Had a short walk to the ice blue river, ate blackberries, picked leaves that smelt like both lime and cumin, saw matching trees and cows. Drank rum for warmth and met Canadian JP, chopped firewood in the dark and heard galloping horses in the night.

La Junta Valley was spectacular. We set off early the next morning and befriended older American, Kevin, at the beginning of the trailhead. He was a really nice guy who we hung with our whole time in the valley. Including breaks we hiked with all our gear/possessions for five hours to the campspot deep in the valley. We trekked the Circa de Cascadas and Amphitheatre routes, saw red Mars-like blooms in the trees, stopped for tea in the forest with German Karen who we found reading next to a waterfall. When we first arrived, the campground was practically empty but we did meet some Americans, mostly climbers like charismatic and funny Cooper, and then some Germans and a couple of Chilenos.

After three days we left La Junta on a day which was meant to be dry (at least according to the lady at the refugio who fed us the best pizza I´ve ever had) but luckily for us the heavens opened just as we reached the beginning (or the end, for us) of the trailhead and it did not stop during the night nor the following day. Poor Cooper had just returned one huge bag of climbing gear to the ´registrarse´and had to make the several hours back to camp wearing only flimsy but clingy long johns and a pair of wellies. Unable to hitch in the downpour, we spent the night in our first cabana (a very rudimentary self-contained bungalow held together with plyboard) with a woodstove already burning when we moved in. Perfect.

South American raw fish dish, my first home made ceviche!

Osorno Volcano, Puerto Varas

Matching trees and cows!

Rio Cochamo

Working the pulley over the Rio Cochamo!

View from the refugio, La Junta valley

View form the refugio, La Junta valley

Hiking in the La Junta valley

Matt and Kevin in the La Junta valley

Hiking in the La Junta valley

The Amphitheatre, La Junta valley

Holly but with flowers instead of berries, La Junta valley

The Amphitheatre, La Junta valley

Monday, 17 March 2014

Working at the farm, Pelequin, Chile. February/March 2014.

Next WWOOFing stop, which I miss, was a great farm near Pelequin; goats, horses, cows, geese, hens, two Alsatian-rockweiler crosses, rabbits, cats, kittens and a giant monstrous pig which would periodically escape and slip and slide on concrete which was too slippery for its gigantic trotters. Harvested garlic, watered wood, fed the animals, made choclo, cleared out campground and dug water trenches full of human excrement courtesy of the neighbours. Manuel, Rafael, Ximena, Saskia (other WWOOFer, from Germany), Paula and Alicia. Played cards, drank wine, many laughs, en suite room. Found dead tarantula one day when clearing out the barn. Grapes and pomegranate trees.

One day, Matt, Saskia and I took a day trip to Siete Tazas National Park; seven ice-cold basalt pools ending in a 50 metre waterfall. The journey there and back consisted of ten separate legs and the last one looked for a time as though we´d end up sleeping by the highway until a trucker who played deafeningly loud dance music rescued us as Saskia and I bounced around on his bed at the back. Another night Manuel invited us to stay overnight at his house with his all-female family. We sat around a Chilean-style barbecue, eating pork off forks lollypop-style and drinking a LOT of wine. Again. After a week and a half of work and fantastic Chilean meals, we returned to Pichelemu to wait for our respective bank cards to arrive. Met up with ´Matt´s mates and Matt´s mate´s mates´.

Dead tarantula at the farm, Pelequin

Manuel making us laugh as usual, Pelequin

Harvesting garlic with Ximena and Saskia

Playing cards at the farm, Pelequin

Walks at sunset, Pelequin

Pomegranate at the farm, Pelequin

Goats at the farm, Pelequin

The giant pig! At the farm, Pelequin

Managed to get all the animals looking at the camera at the farm, Pelequin

Thor and me at the farm, Pelequin

Matta nd Thor at the farm, Pelequin

Siete Tazas National Park

Dirty legs, Siete Tazas National Park

Siete Tazas National Park

Iquique to Pichelemu, Chile. February 2014.

So a glorious reunion in Iquique with American Matt where we drank red wine and talked for three days on a swing chair,chilled at the beach and made salami samwiches. We headed south to Caldera to stay with Matt´s friend from home, Patti, and her husband, Philippe (uno). One night we drank Chileno cocktails and ate two types of raw sea urchin, one of which tasted like paint stripper. I digested mine with gusto though may have been a different story for Matt. Alsatian and labrador at the house. Chilled at beautifully-still Bahia Inglesia where English pirates once hid. Philippe (dos) and Rose from Santiago offered us a lift all the way to their flat in Providencia, Santiago which, as we were travelling south, was too good an offer to refuse. Had ´Chile´s best empanadas´ en route but I beg to differ. After giving us an excellent night-time tour of Santiago where we viewed the entire city from way up high, we left for WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms - work in exchange for board) in Pichelemu the next morning.

We arrived at American ex-pat Este´s house where we worked for about two weeks. Sanded, painted, cleaned, swept, pruned, picked and Matt even fumegated. He would surf when he could and as it was Chile´s holiday month of February there were amazing drummers in town. The best live performance I´ve ever seen. Ate anticuchos, barbecue pork on sticks. One day we three, with Este´s three dogs, walked the beach for two hours in search of a waterfall that we never found. Pine forest. Drank a lot of wine over dinner where we learnt of Este´s colourful past.