South America

The day after the San Fernando Vendimia was my dad’s last day with us.  We decided to have a final birdwatching expedition to try to get the number of species seen up – after all, we had a bet.  We headed back up north towards Santiago and went to the Rio Clarillo National Park to try our luck.  On our way we had to stop for one last reineta lunch, which was really tasty, but HUGE.

Up to this point I haven’t explained about the road signs in Chile.  Or the maps.  Navigating in this country is surprisingly difficult.  There is an unpleasant trend for stuff to be signposted once or twice and then the signs just disappear.  And then there is a T junction and you have to randomly pick a way to go.  And then when you finally realize you’re going the wrong way you turn around and realize that there are more signs to where you are going, but you couldn’t possibly have seen them from the direction you came in.  Many towns are not marked on the maps (we had a map in the guidebook and one we bought).  You pretty much need a combination of lucky guesses, a willingness to turn around several times, and a lot of extra time.  It can be hugely frustrating and very time consuming to get anywhere.  We managed ok, but on this trip to the park we spent over an hour lost if you count both coming in and going out.  We made it eventually though.

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We headed south from Los Vilos, past Santiago, to the city of San Fernando for the 2011 Fiesta de la Vendmia.  This was the second year this festival occurred and it showcases wines from the Colchagua Valley, which is considered one of the best wine regions in Chile.  We had a blast!

We stayed for two nights in the town at the Hotel España, which was a slightly bizarre place, but not in a bad way.  Half of the interior of the hotel was filled with giant plants and greek looking statues like a strange indoor mini-plaza.  It was a bit shabby, but a nice place to stay and an easy walk from the square with the wine festival.

The festival itself was really well put together and the wine was absolutely awesome.  There were booths all around the main square with the wineries in the middle and all kinds of delicious bbq and ceviche and other tasty foods around the outside.  There were even booths from a couple of local breweries.  The bbq was done over large piles of coals and whole animals were cooked at a time – pork and lamb.  The air smelled like delicious roasting meat, wood smoke and red wine!

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We arrived after dark, but quickly found a hotel and a very tasty meal.  Dad and Justin both tried the Pastel de Choclo (Corn Pie) which is basically a steaming hot bowl of cornmeal pudding/pie with all kinds of meat, egg, and other treats inside.  People often sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on the top.  It is really tasty, but didn’t turn out to be the light dinner they were hoping for!  We also discovered at our meal that there was a very local brewery in the area, and since we liked what we tasted we decided to head there the next day.

Guayacán brewery

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On the way we stopped off at a nature reserve for the first of many birdwatching expeditions.  My dad is an avid birdwatcher and we were determined to help him see as many of Chile’s birds as possible.  He was full of interesting information.  For example, there is less species variation in the southern hemisphere, so in all of Chile there are not many more species than on the small island near Seattle where he lives!  We took an informed bet as to how many species we would see in ten days.  I guessed 93, my dad guessed 115, and Justin was optimistic with a guess of 119.

This first stop was at the Reserva Nacional Lago Peñuelas and we had some good sightings.  There are additional bird photos if you click any of these for the link to the gallery.

Horses in the reserve

We’ve been really busy traveling for the past 2 weeks or so, but will gradually try and get things updated here!  When last I wrote we were in Buenos Aires, and from there we went on to Santiago, Chile.  It was a quick, pleasant flight and we had a few really nice days of exploring the city.

All of the photos link to our galleries which have more photos and I´ve started adding captions to explain them, so you can get even more about our trip if you click through to those!

Our first afternoon in Santiago we headed to the Museo de la Memoria, which is in memory of the incredibly difficult time that Chile has been through from the 1970s until the 1990s.  It was a very well put together museum and we learned so much about the recent history of Chile, despite not much of the text being in English.

Well it has been a long time since I talked about the various libations that Hazel and I have tried.  Having been to both Argentina and Chile since we left New Zealand, we’ve gained even more of a perspective on how people around the world consume their beer.   Turns out that the pacific coast of the US has a different opinion about beer than most other places in the world!  (Sorry East Coast, Yuengling just doesn’t cut it anymore :) )

In Argentina, we had the realization that there just isn’t much in the way of beer.  The two main players throughout the country were Quilmes, a very light lager whose primary characteristic was that a liter cost US$1.50.  The other choice was Brahma, which costs less than Quilmes.  Neither had much going for them other than that they are cheaper than water around there.  I did enjoy the occasional Brahma (my preferred of the two) but the most interesting beers were found while we travelled around Patagonia.  We went to three Patagonian towns: Ushuaia, El Calafate, and El Chaltén (We also traveled to Chile’s Puerto Natales, but I’m saving that for another post).

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Our front page was down for a while due to an errant WordPress plugin. Removed the plugin, made it work again! Unfortunately our slick map is out of commission for now. Enjoy!

Justin has been doing an awesome job filling you in on our “W” hike, but we’ve been really busy since then as well, so I’ll try to catch things up!  We had a day of recovery after all of the hiking and two awesome nights at our favorite hostel in Puerto Natales.

The next stop on our agenda was El Calafate, Argentina which is known almost exclusively for its glacier.  We took a bus to get there and had a very easy 6 hour ride, spending only an hour at the Chile-Argentina border crossing.  We weren’t quite prepared for what El Calafate would be like since it was pretty different from Ushuaia and Puerto Natales.  Firstly, it was EXPENSIVE.  Especially the food.  Secondly, it seemed to be built just for the tourists and while the other towns had shops for tourists and tours for tourists, this place had a kind of Disneyland overpricedness to it.  We were very lucky though because we stayed at a wonderful hostel (Hospedaje Lautaro) run by an incredibly welcoming family who did masses to ensure that we could make the most of the glacier and the town.  They also provided a very tasty breakfast each day.  We were also able to save a bit of money by using the kitchen instead of the overpriced restaurants.

The first night in town we cooked dinner and then went and did a little beer tasting at the local brewery, Sholken. The beer was interesting!  We agreed that their pale ale was the favorite, but the dark beer tasted EXACTLY like beef jerky.  They must use hickory or something in the process.  I have never had a beer that tastes like meat before!

Beer tasting!

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Camp

Check out Part 1 here!

Having awakened in camp fully rested, we had a nice breakfast of (you guessed it) oatmeal. However, we had a stroke of genius – prepare it using some of the apple flavored drink powder that’s left over from our water bottles! It was surprisingly good , given that we were just throwing apple sugar on top. Being equipped with our apple juices, we set off for the magnificent Valle Frances, the middle leg of the “W”. This is a day hike of about 3 hours each way, up from the valley floor to a mirador in the center of a circle of mountains.