Fun with Art and Pat (part 1)

Our latest visitors arrived in Puerto Montt last Thursday: Mike's parents from California! We met them at the airport, in a big rent-a-SUV this time (though "big" is relative: it was a far cry from a Lincoln Navigator) and whisked them off to our favorite hostel in Pto. Varas. Grandma and Grandpa remarked on how much Berto and Gabi have grown. Berto is 2-3 inches taller since Gma & Gpa bid us farewell in Cambridge. And Gabi is talking and running, not just pointing and toddling. In Puerto Varas we went for a jetlag stagger around the waterfront (with spectacular views of Volcanes Osorno, Calbuco, and Puntiagudo). After a big dinner with a glass of Chilean wine and a good night's sleep, the Northern hemisphere Raviczs were as good as new.

So we piled them into the car and drove back to Castro for a few non-rainy days. We made sure Pat & Art met all the key folks in our life: Sandra, our favorite waitress at Sacho, Lisa's friendly fish lady in the market, and of course our Chilean family for Sunday onces (and aguardiente).

No trip to Chiloe is complete without a sampling of the local cuisine. Saturday afternoon Roberto took Grandma & Grandpa into Castro for empanadas. Unfortunately the empanada ladies had only one empanada left. The intrepid threesome let themselves get talked into buying milcaos to round out the snacks. Suffice it to say that a large brick of mashed potato, lard and pork cracklings is not quite California light cuisine. Saturday night we steamed cholgas and choritos (the local mussels) and baked congrio (the local eel) stuffed with jaiba (stone crab), followed by a fresh blackberry crumble. Our version of Chilote cuisine went over a little better than milcaos. Dinner was helped as well by a bottle of wine that a local restaurant owner and father of Lisa's students, dropped off Saturday afternoon.

On the down side, the penguins on the northwest shore of Chiloe were missing in action when we went by. Who knew penguins have an off season? We tried to make the 10 mile drive on dirt roads worthwhile with lunch at a spot overlooking the ocean where we could see some spectacular surf crashing on the rocks. As for wildlife, we saw several lizards, which we photographed for Mike's lizard researcher friend. Gabi made sure that we recognized every cow and sheep we passed by excitedly shouting Cow! Sheepie! Moooo! Baaah! Having gone 0 for 1 on the bird sightings and concerned what noises Gabi would shout if we put "flamingo" in her vocabulary, we did not search for the flamingos near Castro.

Sunday morning in Castro, we took advantage of having a car to take a short excursion to Fuerte Tauco, an old Spanish-era fort overlooking the entrance to Estero de Castro. We had had the site pointed out to us (by one of our neighbors) as we were returning up the channel at the end of our Laguna San Rafael trip. Due to bends in the Panamerican highway and the Estero de Castro, the fort is about 2 miles away from the main road in the midst of a tangle of dirt roads and sheep paths. We had not been able to find the fort on earlier mountain bike rides. And we couldn't find it by car, either! Luckily, we found a farmer who was looking for a ride to the soccer cancha for the weekly neighborhood match. He offered to direct us to the fort, climbed in the front seat and gave us a short history of the fort and that corner of the island. Some of the original cannons are still there, and they have a commanding view over the estero. We were informed that the cannonballs from that site are in the Plaza de Armas in Castro. Our farmer neighbor told us that signs directing tourists to the fort have a way of disappearing. Being semi-local came in handy once again.

Art and Pat were on a tight schedule, so Monday we piled in the car again and, after a quick side trip down the hill to see Colegio Carpe Diem and lunch in the forgotten main square of Chacao, headed back onto the ferry and over to "the continent". Lisa drove to keep from being carsick, and Mike toughed it out wedged in the third seat between the luggage. Grandma and Grandpa had an anxious moment when we passed the spot of Lisa's earlier meeting with the national police force speed trap. Fortunately no need to play the stupid Gringa card again.

We checked in to our cabaña at Brisas del Mar in Ensenada, at the foot of Volcan Osorno, around 4:30 and enjoyed a spectacular view of Volcán Osorno and the lake while the kids played on the beach. (We found out later that not one but two sets of our friends who have traveled in Chile have stayed there - and we could see why!)

















The next morning we drove up the slope of Volcán Osorno to the ski area 1270 m up the side.














We came to hike, so that's what we did!
After getting suggestions from the local ranger, we took a short hike around the side past some spectacularly barren scenery, up a ridge to a couple of craters.






























Some plants had started to grow, but the evidence of recent volcanic activity was still vivid.

We eventually arrived at the top of the lower lift and the base of the upper lift. Needless to say, the entire area is above treeline. Nothing like this at Sugarloaf! ;- For the record, the base lodge is above 4,300 feet and the upper chair goes to 5,900 feet. Of course if you feel adventurous, you can just hike to the top of the volcano and ski down from 8,000+ feet.

We discovered a pair of skis abandoned by the mid station lift. Lisa joked that it gave new meaning to the term "rock skis". We both got in a couple of turns. Note who is doing the tele turns :)























Fortunately, the sun came out briefly while we ate lunch in a sheltered spot; and fortunately, the rain started before we entertained any thoughts of trying to hike more up there. So we showed Pat and Art the waterfalls at Petrohue and Lago Todos los Santos. The sun came out, and it was a beautiful afternoon! Later in the evening we were able to experience an authentic Chilean power outage, but fortunately it came back on by 8:00 and we were able to catch a basic off-season dinner at the restaurant at the cabañas. We retired to our cozy cabaña and fired up the wood stove.