Fun with Art and Pat (part 2) - and without

We continue with our stories of our adventures during Mike's parents' visit - and a short trip of our own on our way home.


On the shore of Lago Todos los Santos. No one was interested in the long boat ride to the other side, so we'll save that for our old age. Mike Lisa and Berto had taken a boat ride partway across the lake when Lisa's mother was visiting. That day was clear blue skies. We got a good enough idea of what the middle of the lake is all about. Berto took Gma & Gpa for a walk down the shore of the lake and then Berto and Gabi dug in the sand.



The forecast for Wednesday was for quite a bit of rain, so we decided to try our luck and drove south (through torrential rain) to the town of Ralún, at the head of the Estuario de Relocaví, east of Puerto Montt. We had seen it advertised as the northernmost of the Patagonian fiords; we were more attracted by the possibility of visiting Valle Cochamó, which we'd seen advertised as the "Yosemite of Chile". Fortunately (by now you're seeing a trend - we got amazingly lucky with the weather), the sun came out as we arrived, so after a sandwich lunch sitting on the front porch of the local Armada de Chile station (in a converted shipping container) in the small town of Cochamó and the barest glimpse of Volcán Yates at the elbow of Estuario de Relocaví, we pressed on to the valley.












As we were eating our lunch, we observed a man rowing a small boat that seemed to have a motor on the back. It also had what looked like a brightly colored hose coming from it into the water, and another man on the boat was paying attention to the hose. It finally struck us that there was a shellfish diver under the boat, and what we thought was the motor was actually an air compressor. We have heard that a lot of shellfishing is done this way. In the olden days the compressor was operated by a hand crank…

On our way along the edge of the Estero de Reloncaví we got some good views of Cochamó and across the estuary.

Valle de Cochamó, what a beautiful place! Here's a view from the bridge on the road - we could only imagine what was behind the clouds.










We didn't get very far up the valley - we first encountered enough mud to make the road impassible, so that's where we started hiking. Lisa was ready to test the SUV's 4WD capabilities but wiser heads prevailed. We parked the car and started hiking.

As befits a trail in the south of Chile, there were enough stream crossings to make Lewis and Clark proud. After about 45 minutes we entered into a close rain forest and the real mud began.















In short order we encountered enough mud on the trail to make us turn back and retrace our steps. While we retraced our steps we were reminded of the two hikers we encountered as we had hiked in. They were coming out, covered in mud to their knees but assuring us that another half-hour's hike would have brought us to a great view. Oh well - next time.









Thursday, our last hiking day, had a more favorable forecast; so we headed out on a loop on the slope of Volcan Osorno above Lago Todos los Santos. Of course, it rained! But not too much.











We also enjoyed picking murtas (small berries kind of like lingonberries) from the bushes along the way. We had tasted them in jam last spring, and it was fun to find where they grow!


We enjoyed the mix of temperate rain forest and deep riverbeds gouged into the light volcanic ash and gravel.



















































We couldn't help noticing that the town of Petrohué seemed to be in the sun the whole time, and after lunch and completing the loop along the shore, we stopped by the Petrohué Lodge for onces.

The Petrohué Lodge is a grand old hotel built in 1913, with a big stone fireplace and dining room with great views of the lake and surrounding mountains. Since it was off-season, it was practically empty, but still staffed enough to deliver bread and cookies, beer and hot chocolate, and lemon pie.

The big hotel provided an amusing contrast to the place where we had our farewell dinner, down the road from the cabañas: a big cavernous place with a cement floor and rough tree trunks and branches for posts and beams (in the style of our friend Margot's campo on Lago Huillinco, or a ski lodge in the Rockies), and chainsaw wood carvings and kitsch all over, but good food off-season - and they were open early for the kids! We were able to introduce Pat to real Chilean cordero asado (roasted lamb), and the cook actually gave thought to presentation! It was a good way to wrap up the trip.

We dropped Pat and Art off at the Puerto Montt airport without incident (they flew to Santiago for the next stage of their trip: an 8-day Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) bike trip around La Serena) and headed for the open road to satisfy one of Lisa's dreams: to drive on at least part of the Carretera Austral, the road to the south that is one of the positive legacies of the Pinochet era. (We walked on part of the Carretera Austral in Chaitén when we visited in January. It continues 1240 km (according to Wikipedia) south to the settlement of Villa O'Higgins, in the middle of nowhere.)










We headed south down the eastern shore of the Sena Reloncavi south of Puerto Montt and stayed on pavement for quite a while! down to Lenca and the turnoff to Parque Alerce Andino.






At that point the road turned to gravel - much more authentic! - and we drove another half hour to…








the town of La Arena, where a ferry carries traffic across Estero Reloncavi to proceed further south. We stopped for empenadas and a beer on the beach and headed back to Puerto Montt to turn in the rental car and hop on the bus back to Castro.



























On the way to La Arena we passed a construction site where they were apparently building a small hydroelectric plant. Bravo!