We awoke to unexpectedly sunny skies and beautiful views in Peulla, Chile. However, the brightest part of our day was the news we received during breakfast: we finally had the missing bar code! We could finally cross the border!
Waterfall on the road between the Chilean and Argentinian border posts
The day got better and better. Shortly after passing Chilean customs (located at the edge of Peulla, rather than at the border itself), we saw a pair of condors! At first I only saw the female but then I also saw the male a short distance away. These birds are huge! The wingspan can be more than 3 metres (10 feet) and the male looked to be that size when he eventually flew away. It is difficult to describe how thrilling it is to see such a large, wild creature in its natural habitat.
Condors! The female is in the centre of the picture
While it was hard to top our condor sighting, we still saw plenty of vertiginous waterfalls and snow-capped mountains as we continued our lonely journey in the no-man’s-land between the Chilean and Argentinian border posts. We didn’t see any pumas, but you can’t have it all!
Mount Tronador, as seen from just a few km inside the Chilean border
The bus climbed higher and higher to the Argentinian border: high enough, in fact, that there was a significant amount of snow at the point where Chile becomes Argentina. We had found snow in July! Even if there was an unexpected snag at the upcoming border control at Puerto Frias, at least we could say that we had set foot in Argentina.
Looking back to where we had just been – right on the Chilean/Argentinian border
Thankfully, the only hassle at Puerto Frias was the glare of the sun on the pristine mountain lake (see photo at the top of this post). While it was challenging for photography, it was a blissful to bask in the sun and to finally leave our border crossing problems behind us. A short, refreshing boat ride to Puerto Alegre and then an even shorter bus ride to Puerto Blest followed.
We finally made it to the Argentinian border!
Stay tuned for a refreshing excursion from Puerto Blest and the reunion with our group in Bariloche!
The plan was clearly laid out: using 4 different buses and 3 different boats, we would travel from Puerto Varas, Chile to Bariloche, Argentina. The various modes of transportation are required for a good reason: in addition to crossing various lakes, we would also be crossing the Andes.
The mellow end of the waterfalls at Petrohue, Chile
There was one small problem, however. If you are travelling on a Canadian passport, you must pay a “reciprocity fee” to enter Argentina because Canada charges Argentinians a visa fee to enter Canada. My wife duly paid the fee online in advance, as required, and obtained an invoice proving payment. However, the border officials also apparently required all of this in a bar code format, which my wife did not have. In addition, her e-mail account was locked because her e-mail provider was apparently not used to her accessing the account from South America.
A huge waterfall hidden in the rainforest above Peulla, Chile
To make a long story short, we could not progress beyond the Chilean border town of Peulla until she had that magic bar code. We reluctantly said goodbye to our tour group and booked a room at the Hotel Natura Patagonia in Peulla. It was situated nicely (I took the photo at the top of this post from our room), near the shore of Lago dos Todos Santos and in the shadow of the Andes. However, there was nothing else in the “town” and it was very definitely out of season. How long would it take until this was straightened out? Would it *ever* be straightened out?
Bar made out of a tree, at the Hotel Natura Patagonia in Peulla, Chile
We did not know the answers to our questions. Our group had moved on to Bariloche, Argentina and would then be flying on to Buenos Aires. The rain was pouring in Peulla and, to be honest, we were getting quite frustrated with our situation. We wouldn’t know anything else until the next morning, when the Argentinian immigration office in Buenos Aires opened again.
The Hotel Natura Patagonia in Peulla, Chile
I went for a hike to the only accessible local attraction: a huge waterfall hidden in the rainforest. I got soaked, even with an umbrella, but it was awe-inspiring to see the waterfall suddenly appear at the end of an overgrown trail. The picture above shows part of it; the waterfall went on and on.
Condor sign at the national park in Peulla, Chile. Could it mean something?
Near the dock in Peulla, I saw a signs with information about condors, pumas and pudús. The pudú is the world’s smallest deer and I thought I might see one while we were in the area. I held out no hope for the others.
Darkness arrived early. We had a very quiet dinner in the oversized hotel dining room. There were perhaps 6 other occupied rooms in the hotel; there would ordinarily be hundreds of guests. Being in immigration limbo in a nearly deserted hamlet in the middle of the dark, cold and wet Andean winter…it doesn’t get much more desolate than that!
While there is more than one volcano visible from Puerto Varas, Volcán Osorno is the most dominant. Right now, it is reminiscent of Mount Fuji as only the top half of the volcano is covered in snow. When the opportunity arose to hike here, we took full advantage of it…despite the high risk of rain. The lake district receives an exceptionally high amount of rain and very slippery hiking conditions were a real possibility.
The start of our hike at Volcan Osorno
After driving by numerous roadside businesses selling Kuchen, we finally arrived at Petrohue and the departure point for our hike. We would be walking for about 4 hours: a gradual ascent on the side of Volcán Osorno followed by a descent to the shores of Lago Todos los Santos (see photo at the top of this post) and then hopefully a boatride back to our mid-afternoon lunch in a Petrohue fisherman’s house.
On the shore of Lago Todos los Santos, Chile
We spent most of the first half of the walk looking up at Volcán Osorno. It is not even 3000m high but it looks much taller because there are no peaks nearby and the base is essentially at sea level. Once again, I took a lot of photographs. This was a good thing: the light was tricky and the glare made it hard to see the volcano in most of the pictures. It felt good to be walking in the clean air and we weren’t slowed by the sand-like trail that felt a bit like walking in snow.
Crossing a somewhat incomplete bridge in the rainforest near Petrohue, Chile
The last part of our walk was through a rainforest close to the lake. This was reminiscent of Costa Rica, but without tarantulas and large mammals. There is little that can harm you in Chilean rainforests! We were also very happy that it did not actually rain during our hike: it is rare to have consecutive days without rain at this time of year.
The challenges of boarding a boat without a dock
When we finally arrived at the beach, there was a boat waiting for us. While boarding was made very difficult by the lack of a dock, we eventually made it on and travelled a short distance down Lago Todos los Santos to our captain’s house: as a reward for our long trek, we were being treated to a home-made lunch. We each had the choice of freshly caught lake trout or wild boar. We both went for the trout and it was very good.
The bus ride back to Puerto Varas was very quiet. I think people were both tired from the hike and aware that we would be attending a traditional Chilean barbeque that evening.
A Chilean dog helping out with the raking (Petrohue, Chile)
It was a real adventure to reach Marcelo’s house on spooky gravel roads and through almost total darkness. However, once we arrived, it felt like having a big family dinner in Swiss alpine hut. My favourite part was the “choripan“: this consists of a sausage (chorizo) on a bun (pan), topped with a honey mustard sauce and huge bean sprouts. I had more than one: when it came time for the main course of barbequed pork and grilled vegetables, I stuck mainly to the vegetables.
Marcelo at the grill, preparing a Chilean barbeque
While we’re loving the natural beauty of the Puerto Varas area, our time in Chile is limited and we’ll soon be moving on to another country…or will we?
After a couple of days in the Santiago area, we flew down to Puerto Montt, the “capital” of the Chilean lake district. Our first stop was the market in the Angelmó district: while originally a fish market, it has grown to include cheese, meat, vegetables, and various other edible sea products such as barnacles and seaweed. Now that cruise ships occasionally call at Puerto Montt, it also has more tourist-oriented items such as wood carvings, ponchos, and wool gloves, socks and toques.
We bought cheese from this vendor at the Angelmo Market in Puerto Montt
While Puerto Montt is one of the fastest-growing cities in South America, nature is still very prominent here. We were entertained by sea lions in the harbour; we suspect that they were asking for food. They seemed quite playful until one suddenly lunged forward and barked at us: it was quite loud and we all took a few steps back from the shore. We also saw lots of pelicans: if you haven’t seen one fly before, it is very odd to see an airborne bird with such a large beak.
Sea lions at the harbour in Puerto Montt
From Puerto Montt, we drove to our home for the next two nights: the resort town of Puerto Varas, on the shores of Lago Llanquihue (pronounced somewhat like “Yon-Kee-Way”). This town has a rich German-speaking history that is reflected in the family names, the architecture, and the “Kuchen” (cakes) for sale everywhere. Most of the original European settlers here were from Germany, Switzerland or Austria: they were attracted here in the 1800s by offers of free land. Our Spanish-speaking bus driver was named Helmut.
One of the outdoor stalls at the Angelmó market in Puerto Montt, Chile
While the Andean lakeside setting is beautiful, Puerto Varas is probably best known for its (weather-permitting) stunning views of Volcán Osorno…the Osorno volcano that last erupted in 1869. It is seen from the Puerto Varas harbour, in the photo at the top of this post. I’ll be writing more about this volcano later!
Our curanto!
For lunch, we went to a private home for a very typical dinner from this part of Chile: curanto. While it was originally cooked underground, it is now more frequently prepared in a large conventional pot. It is a collection of many ingredients, most notably a huge amount of mussels and clams. However, it also contains potato dumplings and regular (albeit colourful) potatoes. While it also used to contain sea lion and seagull, these are now generally replaced by pork and chicken.
The harbour in Puerto Varas, Chile
After taking so many photos of Volcán Osorno, it would be a shame not to pay it a closer visit. Stay tuned for the details!
We travelled to the nearby Maipo Valley today in order to visit a local winery. We went to the Pérez Cruz winery: I was not previously familiar with it…but it turns out that Canada is its second biggest export market, after the U.K.
We stopped at this roadside cafe on the way to the winery
This was a very modern facility: all wood and curving walls. We went into the cellars to taste some not-yet-aged wine (French oak barrels are generally preferred) before seeing some of the production facilities and finally doing a taste test. I was very curious about this, as I am not much of a red wine drinker and Pérez Cruz only makes red wine.
The Perez Cruz Winery, in Chile’s Maipo Valley
We were given samples of three limited-edition/premium red wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah (Shiraz) and Carménère. We were also given a plate of various cheeses and crackers. The idea is that you have a small piece of cheese with each wine. If either the cheese or the wine is overpowered by the other, it is not a good pairing. However, if they both retain their flavour, they are complementary. It was fascinating to eat a strong cheese but not taste it at all because it was overpowered by the wine. Similarly, some of the cheeses made an objectively bold-tasting wine taste like water.
Tasting new wine directly from the barrel
Much to my surprise, the taste testing confirmed that I enjoyed the Shiraz the most. It was a little sweeter than the others; we found out later that Shiraz is often chosen by those who actually prefer white wine. We are learning a lot of unexpected things here in Chile!
Time for the taste test!
After returning to Santiago, we were on our own for the rest of the day. We decided to find our own lunch at the Mercado Central (“Central Market”). While this was a little touristy and focused on seafood (see photo at the top of this post), we found another market a few blocks north that catered slightly more to locals. However, if we wanted to eat, we would have to speak Spanish! We kept it simple and had a couple of very cheesy empanadas (one with shrimp, one without). Success!
A local market in Santiago
We then explored Bellavista: this is known as the “Bohemian and cultural barrio” of Santiago It was probably more Bohemian than cultural, as our local guide had indeed suggested earlier. Santiago is much like Toronto in some respects: although it is a very large city, it is also a collection of neighbourhoods that have their own very strong identities.
This was where we had some Mexican-style empanadas in downtown Santiago
While we have enjoyed acclimatizing to Chile in Santiago, the real reasons for our trip to this part of the world still lie ahead. Our language training continues and we are ready for some exciting outdoor adventures!
For many, many years, I have wanted to visit Chile. After a few false starts, including a 2014 trip to Patagonia that *nearly* happened (I went to Costa Rica instead), it has finally become a reality. It’s winter here – quite a shock as Kingston temperatures have been hovering around 30’C for the past couple of weeks. Fortunately, the daytime temperatures in Santiago still get up to about 15’C. It will get much colder later in our trip!
A collection of food trucks on Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins in Santiago, Chile
As English-speaking tourists are not as common here as they are in Costa Rica, it really was essential for us to learn some Spanish before we got here…hence, the Duolingo crash course that my wife and I have been taking over the past week. In fact, we are still working on it, even though we have already arrived!
Avenida Londres, near our hotel in Santiago,Chile
After a long overnight flight from Canada, we just wandered around downtown Santiago today. Nothing too adventurous yet. We climbed to the top of Cerro Santa Lucía, a huge downtown park that is only a few blocks from our hotel and offers views (see photo at the top of this post) of the entire city. This is where the city was first founded. They really try to provide a safe family atmosphere: even though the park is free, they still ask people to sign in and indicate where there are from.
View from our hotel of Avenida Paris (Santiago, Chile)
We also did some grocery shopping – this is always a fun way to immerse yourself in a new place. Our main mission today was to buy some bottled water: the local water is drinkable but heavily mineralized and can be troublesome if you are not used to it. We also picked up some interesting local snacks.
Near the bottom of Serro Santa Lucia (Santiago, Chile)
Finally, we wandered through the Plaza de Armas: this is the “heart of the city” and is festooned with palm trees. It was especially busy as this was a religious festival day; we took the opportunity to visit the huge Santiago Cathedral and explore the pedestrianized Paseo Ahumada before returning to our hotel. Our hotel is in the Barrio Paris/Londres: a very small and elegant cobblestoned neighbourhood that, as the name suggests, looks like it has been transplanted from northern Europe.
Plaza de Armas – the heart of downtown Santiago
We’re joining a small tour group for the next little while before striking out on our own at the end of our trip. We met our group for the first time tonight and it seems like a good combination of people with diverse backgrounds yet shared interests. We enjoyed dinner together outside on a rooftop in the Barrio Lastarria and will be heading out for our first group expedition in the morning. Stay tuned for our South American adventure!
Yes, I said that the next post would be from “on the road”. While I am on the road already, I actually wrote this at home. One of the best parts about running my own blog is that I can change my mind!
As I do not speak the language of the two countries I’m visiting on this trip, I decided to try an experiment. Could I learn the language in less than a week, using only online tools?
More Cuban Crocodiles in Stockholm, Sweden
I decided to try my experiment using the “Duolingo” app/website. You can use it to learn multiple languages…simultaneously, if you want! There are two ways to start working on your foreign language skills: as an absolute beginner, or using a five minute placement test that will send you directly to your approximate level of fluency. Just for fun, I decided to do the placement tests for French and German. I was curious to see how my fluency in each of those languages would be assessed. I figured that my German grammar and pronunciation would be better but I thought that I had better French vocabulary.
Swedish primates grooming each other.
The placement test gives you a percentage score that represents your fluency in that language. It also adapts to your performance: if it is clear from the start that you don’t know very much, the remaining questions will focus on the basic components of the language to more accurately determine where you need work. My scores confirmed that my French skills were not measuring up to my German ones. Even so, it was encouraging to see that I was not too far from fluency. I was tempted to work on those languages…but, alas, that would have to wait. I had another language to learn.
Check out the grin on the reptile, at the bottom right!
My progress with my new mystery language is erratic but very tangible. While I am nowhere near fluency yet (I just passed the 6% fluency checkpoint!), I have learned an incredible amount in only a few days. With no books and no charts to memorize, I am learning more organically…almost like a child learns a new language. It’s scary, because I usually learn by note-taking and then studying what I’ve written. Somehow, much of what I’m seeing and hearing is actually sticking with me, even though I am not writing it down. This forces you to learn intuitively and invent your own rules for the language: it’s very hard at first but eventually you remember those rules better because they belong to you!
These are the globes that travel to the top of the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm
The cool part of using a program like Duolingo is that you can proceed at your own pace. You can use it anywhere that you have Internet access. It’s better to use it privately, so that you can hear the language (and speak it back into your computer), but you can still skip over those parts if you need to work silently.
Approaching the top of the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm
Studies have shown that learning a completely new language is an excellent way to keep one’s brain from deteriorating with age. I’m excited to report that it can also be fun. Over the next couple of weeks, I will find out if it can be useful too!
I promise that my next post will really be from my mystery destination. In the meantime, here are some more pictures from our 2012 visit to Stockholm, Sweden.
Another day, another blitz of the various attractions covered by the Stockholm Card!
We started off by visiting the Vasa ship. The Vasa was a huge, overly ornamental and excessively armed ship that was launched in Stockholm with much fanfare in 1628. Alas, with all of the bells and whistles, the engineers failed to take certain things into consideration. Foremost among those considerations: would it float? Sadly, it did not even make it out of the harbour and sunk ingloriously after a mere 20 minutes.
The Vasa ship
However, the ship was magically preserved over the centuries at the bottom of the harbour until it was rediscovered in 1956 and finally exhumed in 1961. Some restoration was obviously required but the ship now stands proudly in its own museum in downtown Stockholm. While the environment is strictly controlled and does not lend itself well to photography, it was still fascinating to see the 17th century version of the Titanic. It’s much more impressive, and perplexing, when you see it in person.
A couple of lemurs at Stockholm’s Skansen open-air museum
Our next stop was Skansen – the “original” open-air folk museum after which many others are modelled (and sometimes even named). Alas, we were starting to grow a little weary of museums by this time and we decided to focus on Skansen’s small zoo rather than the other elements.
This lemur crossed the line and was subsequently sprayed
We spent a fair bit of time “walking among the lemurs”: there is a large area that you can walk through with about 20 of these odd creatures also wandering around. They don’t harm humans but aren’t supposed to jump on your back because it could easily become a habit for them. If they do jump on your back, a staff member will come running out and spray them with water: the lemurs don’t like that! It was strange to be hanging out with these creatures from Madagascar; we didn’t quite trust them but they also didn’t seem to be very dangerous.
Some of Skansen’s primates
After observing the primates for a while (they all seemed to have those nasty-looking red behinds), we visited some of the indoor enclosures. We saw rare Cuban crocodiles there, accompanied by this text: “Since there is an embargo from American authorities regarding Cuban goods, crocodiles born in Cuba are not allowed into the U.S.A. They are regarded as communistic crocodiles, in the eyes of American authorities. On the other hand, if they are born in Sweden, they are allowed [and this is] the only way for American zoos to acquire this rare crocodile.” I wonder if this still applies, given the recent thawing in relations between Havana and Washington? You can read more about these crocodiles here: I certainly didn’t realize that they were kept in a Russian cosmonaut’s apartment for a while!
Is this crocodile a communist?
As this was our last full day in Stockholm, I pressed onward and visited the Ericsson Globe Arena. This is a famous globe-shaped sports arena towering 130 metres above Stockholm. I mention the height because I did not go inside the arena: I rode a globe-shaped “elevator” on an external track to the top! This is definitely not recommended if you are prone to vertigo but it was a nifty way to see Stockholm from a completely different perspective. Once again, the Stockholm Card covered the admission cost.
The Skyview ride to the top of the world’s largest spherical building: the Ericsson Globe Arena
While I’ve got more pictures from Stockholm to share, I’m going to keep them in reserve for now. The next blog post you see will be from our 2016 journey to the Southern Hemisphere. Stay tuned to find out what I’ve been hinting about for the past couple of months!
On our first day in Stockholm, we had an unforgettable experience at an international soccer game between Sweden and Brazil. However, we also found a lot of other things to like about Sweden’s capital city. Today’s post is about our second day in Stockholm.
The National Museum in Stockholm (as seen on our boat tour)
Stockholm offers a multi-day combination tourist pass called the Stockholm Card that includes all public transit, museums and a host of other attractions. We easily made it pay for itself, although we raced around at a blistering pace. We began with a tour of the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet), the Postmuseum and a boat tour of the downtown area. The Palace was appropriately huge and opulent; the Postmuseum included oddities such as a realistic portrait of a Swedish postal director from the early 1900s that was made entirely from postage stamps! It was one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen: kind of like a mosaic but using stamps instead of stones or pieces of glass.
The streets are very narrow in Gamla Stan (the old town) area of Stockholm
The boat tour turned out to be rather brief (it was free, after all) but it was still nice to see Stockholm from another perspective. It is built on 14 islands and, as you’ll see from my next blog post, has quite a fascinating naval history.
Mårten Trotzigs gränd – the narrowest street in Sweden
We worked up quite an appetite navigating the narrow streets of Gamla stan (the oldest part of Stockholm) and had a fun outdoor lunch at one of the local restaurants. Downtown restaurants generally have a lunch special (called “Dagens rätt“) with a price corresponding to the local “lunch allowance”, so we took the opportunity to have some Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce. In the afternoon, we went to the Nobel Museum [“Nobelmuseet“]. This was important for us to see but the last “site” of the day was, to our surprise, even more impressive.
One of the sculptures at Millesgården in Stockholm
Carl Milles was a sculptor who created most of his enduring works in the first half of the 20th century. His home overlooked downtown Stockholm and was turned into a museum after his death. The home/museum is interesting (it looks as it did during Milles’ lifetime), but almost all of his major works are outside. The complex is called Millesgården.
Another one of the ethereal sculptures at Millesgården
While he created all kinds of sculptures, Milles is best known for those that appear to defy gravity and even take flight. You can see a few of them here, as well as a very small portion of the extensively landscaped grounds overlooking Stockholm.
More of Millesgården, with some of downtown Stockholm in the background
Millesgården is relatively difficult to find, if you are based in the downtown area, but it is well worth the effort if you would like to have an unconventional art experience. While I did my best to capture them in my photographs, the sculptures are even more impressive when observed in situ. It turned out to be one of our favourite stops on our whirlwind cultural tour of Stockholm.
Stay tuned for the highly unusual next day in Stockholm: who would have thought there would be an element of Madagascar to our visit?
My visit to Morocco involved quite a road trip. After visiting Casablanca, Safi, Marrakech and the Oukaïmeden ski resort, we drove through the sparsely settled interior to my friends’ place in Ifrane. Ifrane is an atypical Moroccan town: it was developed as a winter sports resort and is home to a proportionately very large expatriate population. One of the reasons is the modern Al-Akhawayn University: you can see it in the picture at the top of this post.
Wow! It’s Oued Ouaoumana!
The long journey from Oukaïmeden to Ifrane contained two of my most vivid memories of Morocco: the discovery of a watercourse called “Oued Ouaoumana” and my very first encounter with “kefta”. The watercourse’s name highlights the fact that “W” is not a letter that occurs very often in French (the colonial language of Morocco). As for kefta…
Before the kefta caper, we had to deal with this unexplained detour…
We had been on the road for quite a while and we were all getting quite hungry. However, as we were definitely off the tourist trail, dining options were extremely limited. Near the town of Beni Mellal, we found a roadside stall (not even a shack) that appeared to be patronized by truck drivers. My friend told me that they served kefta – something I had never heard of before. He ordered some for me, explaining that they take ground raw meat and serve it in a kind of pita.
The gas station district in Ifrane, Morocco
I felt myself go very pale. I was starving but I had never been much of a red meat eater. The prospect of eating it raw from this remote, ramshackle and unrefrigerated roadside stall made me very uneasy. We were still several hours from Ifrane – wasn’t this asking for trouble? This is precisely the kind of thing that all the travel books tell you not to do! Upon receiving my order of kefta, I found out that my friend had neglected to tell me one very important fact: they do in fact cook the meat before putting it in the pita. I don’t think I have ever felt so relieved. It tasted good, too.
A view of downtown Casablanca, Morocco, with the Hassan II Mosque in the background
My trip to Morocco reinforced just how much variation (from palm trees to ski resorts!) there can be within a country, even one that is relatively small by Canadian standards. And Morocco, of course, is only one small part of a very large and diverse continent that straddles both the northern and southern hemispheres. Speaking of the southern hemisphere...it’s almost time to go! Did I mention that I might do some skiing this summer?
