“And as he drove on, the rain clouds dragged down the sky after him for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him and water him.” Rain. I always think of Rob McKenna and the …
Chile Archive
Chaiten y la Carretera Austral
< a couple of caveats before I get on with the narrative.. it’s quite a long one so I hope you’re sitting comfortably.. and one or two of the photos might not appeal to the squeamish or those of a vegetarian disposition… > Post-apocalyptic Chaiten, 2 1/2 years ago a town of around 4000 people in the shadow of a volcano thought to be dead, its last eruption happened some 9000 years ago. In May …
Quellon
I’ll post this little bit now as once I leave Chiloe on the boat tonight I suspect it will be a while before I see wifi or internet again… While wandering around Quellon yesterday evening I wondered if I would feel the same about the place if my host in Chonchi hadn’t mentioned that, in his opinion, it was not a place to hang about, bodies found in the harbour and all that. Would all …
somewhat damp in Castro & Chonchi
Just 87km down the road from Ancud, Castro had a noticeably different character.. lacking Ancuds outgoing charm I suppose it is no more than you would expect from a renovated administrative capital. The palafitos on the waterfront are pretty but beyond that the weathered old wood and corrugated buildings have been replaced with concrete and the busy streets laid out in a basic grid lacked interest. After another late night I felt a little weary …
Arturo Prat…
Arturo Prat, possibly known as Archie or Arty to his friends, was a Chilean Navy Officer who become a national hero after his death at the Battle of Iquique in 1879. I only mention him because most Chilean towns, at least down here, have a street or a plaza named after him.. appropriately always an important street, and I thought it would put some context to this photo.. Wikipedia has a whole page on him …
Ancud etc…
If I was asked to summarise Ancud in one photograph I might use this one… or possibly this one might be more useful.. But I don’t so instead I can just throw a few at you :-) Ancud has a terrific vibe to it, aside from the colour all the folk here seem generally happy.. lots of smiling faces and always some music drifting out from somewhere. I like. I spent a couple of hours …
una botella de ron barato en Ancud… hurrah!
In the end I needed 3 nights in Puerto Varas to get all the inflammation under control and my head back in the right place :-) Time well spent eating cake, watching movies, reading and generally chilling out. The only downside to the time spent in Pto Varas was that some miserable bugger stole my MSR fuel bottle. My bike was parked in the covered interior courtyard of the hostal, pretty much out of sight …
Puerto Varas
Puerto Varas, I have a room in a rambling old hospedaje.. a veritable rabbit warren of dark wooden corridors and alcoves illuminated by little rectangular skylights. There are redundant bakelite fittings on the walls from an earlier electrical age and I can enjoy such curious innovations as the light switch for my room being situated on the outside of the door, or an old enamel sink, complete with pot-plants, plumbed into the stairwell. I am …
No hay agua caliente…
In Osorno, for a few quid, I stayed in a gloriously delapidated pension where the old blankets lay an inch thick on the beds, lino was peeling off the bathroom walls and the friendly but slightly eccentric landlady in her pale blue dressing gown kept the ignition for the hot water boiler under lock and key. Still, that weird mix of programming called the BBC World service was available on cable so I was able …
Los Lagos log house…
One of my favourite things about travel by bike, other than the freedom, is that one is never fully in control of ones destiny, unexpected things happen that invariably add to the richness of the journey, even if it is a dog running away with your shoe… On Friday morning I rode the 60km from Panguipulli to Los Lagos along mellow spring time roads, arriving in time for a fully loaded hotdog for lunch from …
Lican Ray & other odd place names..
Lican Ray felt like a place that was holding its breath.. in late November the new seasons tourists have not yet arrived and the previous season is just a distant memory amongst the footprints in the black sand beach. Just 30km south from Villarrica this was my way of testing my legs and dealing with the frustration of being sick. Lican Ray turned out to be a very pretty little one-street lakeside pueblo boasting an …
Monday. Sunshine
Monday, sunshine.. the faded, melancholic town of yesterday springs to life with a colour and vibrancy that could not have been guessed at a day earlier. Wish I could say the same of me, about as much vibrancy as a bread roll dropped in a puddle… still not strong enough to ride.. Still, mustn’t grumble, hehe.. could be worse, could be at work.. or something :-)
Beerography..?
Villarricas faded Sunday evening streets, out on the hunt for food I note that Funerales Corona is open, always good to know that one can pop one’s clogs on a sunday evening without having to worry about one’s corpse kicking around until 9am on Monday. Finding something to eat on the other hand…. I do eventually find a bar happy to put a lomito sandwich together but I can’t help laughing to myself about the …
Villarrica…
Despite my words of a couple of days ago I do have reason to remember Santiago… not because I have come down with a dose of bronchitis, no doubt contracted courtesy of Iberia recycled cabin air but rather because of the fantastic hospitality shown me by my hosts yesterday as I was invited to share in a lazy afternoon of fried fish and beer before giving me a ride to the bus station with my …
Santiago de Chile…
Some cities have a character that I pick up on instantly, other cities have a character that takes a day or two to become apparent… and some just fail to make an impression. Mendoza was in that latter category and so it seems is Santiago. That is not to say they are not nice places they just failed to strike a chord within me. Santiago is pleasant enough but really is just a big city …