Puerto Varas November 2010

We've now lived in Chile for two years, one month, and 18 days as I write this blog.  It has taken nearly that long for me to get that the approximately 3,000 miles of Chile (north to south), with an average of 112 miles wide, is divided into 15 regions.  We live in El Region de Antofagasta, Region II, in the northern part of Chile.  Puerto Varas is located in El Region de Los Lagos in Region X.  The regions are numbered using Roman numerals beginning in the north and continuing south.  Total flying time would be approximately three hours if we could fly nonstop from Calama; however, we had a short wait in Santiago before catching our plane to Puerto Montt and then took a 20 minute taxi ride to Puerto Varas leaving Calama around 7:30 a.m. arriving Puerto Varas around 12:30 p.m. leaving us an afternoon to being our vacation.

We previously flew into Puerto Montt early in 2009 on our way to Torres del Paine and knew we wanted to return after seeing a huge, perfectly cone-shaped, snow-covered volcano at the end of a beautiful sapphire blue lake.  We later learned the volcanoes name is Osorno and the lake's name is Llanquihue (sounds like: yankeyway).  There is also another volcano clearly visible from Puerto Varas called Calbuco.

Frommer's tells us that, "few destinations in the world rival the lush scenery of Chile's Lake District."  Upon landing in Puerto Montt and experiencing the clean air, seeing vibrant green plant life and flowering plants, I had to question myself as to whether it was as spectacular as it seemed or was it that we'd just left Calama in the Atacama Desert?  By the end of our four-night stay, I no longer wondered, I knew my thinking had become warped as a result of living in the Atacama and that this was truly a special location.

El Volcan Osorno



El Volcan Calbuco

We had read that Puerto Varas had a "European" feel to it.  Although I love traveling Chile, many of the cities we've visted aren't always clean (think dogs running at large and people not always recognizing the purpose of a garbage can) and therefore, Puerto Varas stands out regarding cleanliness as well as building architecture, which is attributed to the influence of the German population, which began arriving (by invitation from the Chilean government) in the mid 1800s.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Chilean

We began our 3 1/2 day stay in Puerto Varas upon arrival by renting a car and driving to the Parque Nacional Vicente Perez Rosales and the Saltos del Rio Petrohue, Todos los Santos Lake and a trip as far as the road would take us up the Osorno volcano -- where there is a ski area.  It is a steep road and the trip down made us glad we weren't doing this during the snowy season.  (I think you can click on each photo to see a larger view?)  The collage pictures are all from the Saltos del Rio Petrohue.

This is a picture of Todos los Santos Lake which feeds the Petrohue River.  The Todos los Santos Lake is the route you can take by boat to Argentina and ultimately Bariloche which we'd like to do ... someday.

This is a photo taken from the end of the road on the drive up Osorno with Lake LLanquihue and Calbuco in the background.

 The Osorno Ski Area

The reason for this particular vacation was in celebration of Larry's birthday -- November 13th.  We started the day with a walking tour of Puerto Varas to see homes constructed in the early 1900s.  The walking tour was marked with arrows on the sidewalks to guide us, and each home had a sign in front describing what type of wood was used to construct the home, when it was constructed and for what family.  The home in the photo below was the most grand and named Casa Kuschel, constructed in 1915.

Our walking tour included a visit to Iglesia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus (Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) which was built between 1915 and 1918.  The church is made entirely of oak and modeled after a church in the Black Forest.

Following our walking tour, we drove to the little village of Frutillar (founded in 1856) also located on Lake Llanquihue.  It is known for its unique German immigrant influenced architecture as well as views of Osorno and Calbuco.  Frutillar has a newly constructed huge concert hall and the influence of music in this little town is evident along the walkway adjacent to the lake.  On this day, there was a bit of cloud cover over the volcanos.  Osorno's top is barely visible on the other side of the lake in the middle of this picture.  We found a little restaurant here to enjoy our first kuchen and latte but only after I talked Larry into posing for this picture.



Cattle grazing in fields was seen on all of our drives and what a view they have -- that is Osorno on the horizon.



Upon return to Puerto Varas, our mission was to find a pub with a great view and, of course, good beer.  Mission accomplished!

The Birthday Boy

We had schedued a kayak tour of the Reconcavi Fjord on our second full day -- a 90 minute drive from Puerto Varas.  Juan, our guide, provided us with a thorough safety lesson on how to recover from a kayak that tips over only encouraging me to make sure that our kayak did not tip over.  Our trip began with smooth water and a siteing of a dolphin.  The trip was relaxing spent enjoying the scenery.  We stopped for lunch on a beach after a hour or so of paddling and while we lunched, the wind came up.  Juan talked a lot about not allowing the kayak to be parallel to the waves (which by this time were complete with white caps!) and the need to keep an oar in the water at all times (think constant paddling) to ensure stability.  It was around this time we saw a sea lion but my focus was on paddling -- keeping that oar in the water.  We made it without tipping.  Juan constantly reminded me that the most that would happen was that I'd get wet but it was his prior beach instructions regarding extracting myself from the skirted kayak while upside down that held my attention.  So, since we didn't tip, it was a great experience, but I find I prefer smooth water versus the surfing Juan said we were actually doing on the return trip.

Our third full day involved a road trip south to catch a ferry that would take us to the island of Chiloe. (Chiloe is seen on the horizon on the right.)   Chiloe showed us rolling green hills, coastal views and colorful wooden fishing skiffs.  The eastern part of the island faces the Gulf of Ancud and the western side of the island faces the Pacific.  Scattered across the island are antique wooden churches named as World Hertiage Monuments.

I threw in a picture of the church in Puerto Varas (bottom right) and one picture from a church in Frutillar (bottom left) but othewise, these pictures of churches are from Chiloe and the La Ruta De Las Iglesias (Church Route).  (Again, I think you can click on a picture to see a larger view of it?)

This was quite the trek to reach this little island where the tiny church in the top middle collage is located as well as one of the cemeteries (top left.)  It is called La Isla de Las Almas Navegantes (The Island of the Seafarers Souls.)

Puerto Varas was filled with flowers -- mostly roses but I found several Lilac bushes and enjoyed smelling each and every one. 

You may be able to tell that I had a very difficult time eliminating pictures from this blog which is where the collages come in so handy.  So, the day arrived requiring our return to Calamaland.  The trip went smoothly and I'll end this post with a picture I took after landing in Calama -- what a contrast!

Larry's Chilean Medical Experience, Despedida, Halloween and Misc.

I left my last blog with mention of how our Mendoza trip ended with Larry experiencing a healthcare issue.  We've now done expat in South America for more than six years counting the two years spent in Bolivia and the two years spent in Peru and the now two years, two months and 25 days here in Chile.  If we were going to have to deal with a healthcare issue while in S.A., I'm glad it was Chile. 

Larry said that when we left Argentina for the approximately one hour flight to Santiago, his stomach started bothering him.  While waiting for our flight from Santiago to Calama, he mentioned that his stomach was bothering him but we figured it was something he ate.  However, during the approximately two hour flight to Calama, the discomfort became progressively worse.  Upon arrival in Calama, he was very uncomfortable.  I do believe we were both a tad in denial because upon arrival to our home at 10:30 p.m., he immediately went to bed and I brought him a hot water bottle.  I then proceeded to Google, "severe stomach pain" at which time we determined that he was experiencing a gallbladder attack.  At 1:00 a.m., we bit the bullet and accepted that it was truly more than an upset stomach and headed off to the emergency room of the hospital we thought would be the best.  For any of you who have experienced a gallbladder attack, you must think we were totally in denial...we were.

He was given a small IV with pain meds and felt better quickly and we were home by 2:30 a.m. with instructions to return the following day if he didn't feel better.  He woke at 7 a.m. with severe discomfort again.  Following a long-distance telephone consultation with the international insurance provider nurse, we were advised to return to the emergency room and specifically request a blood test to test for infection and an ultrasound to confirm gall stones.  In the meantime, the El Abra Controller, another expat and friend, Julie, had made airline reservations for us to fly out that evening to Santiago.  The Chilean independence day celebration (September 18) was fast approaching and she was concerned we would not be able to fly out of Calama.  The ultrasound confirmed gall stones.  Larry had been given another IV with pain medication which allowed him to be able to fly to Santiago.  We arrived at 2:30 a.m. and went directly to the Clinica Las Condes emergency room and immediately felt like he was in good hands.  He was admitted at 5 a.m. and had surgery to remove the gallbladder at 4 p.m.  His surgeon is from Germany and spoke excellent English and once again, we felt that he was in very good hands.  His gallbladder attack was on a Monday, he had the surgery on Wednesday and was released from the hospital on Sat. a.m. (which was the Chilean independence day) -- and we went for a walk that afternoon which was so enjoyed because since it was the holiday, a lot of the Chileans had left Santiago for the countryside meaning -- no traffic. 

When we left for Santiago, I looked at my camera but decided that I didn't think I'd be taking a lot of pictures so when we saw the Wisteria and Iris blooming, we put Larry's cell phone camera to work --

The Sunday after Larry was released, we ventured out to Los Dominicos, built on the grounds of a Dominican monestary -- a shopping destination featuring Chilean artisanal products which is where we found the Iris blooming.

That evening we were invited to the home of a friend from our Yuma days -- Tim Miller and his wife Hannah to celebrate Chilean Independence Day.  We enjoyed getting to know Hannah and two of their daughters and catching up with Tim.

Larry did meet with his surgeon Tuesday -- was given a clean bill of health and we returned to Calama on Thursday with Larry returning to work on Monday and now, he is recovered and the experience is but a dim memory.

Mid-September brought Julie's despedida (going-away party.)  Julie was here when we arrived.  She was the first female controller for a Freeport South American mining property.  She had been here approximately three years when the company requested that she move to the other Freeport mining operation located in Copiapo.  Julie's been a great friend, has contributed greatly to a positive expat experience.  I'll miss her but we plan on venturing her way (about an 8 hour drive) in December.

Despedidas are interesting -- always involved lots of food, Chilean wine, entertainment, speeches and gifts for the person going away.

Julie is the blond standing behind the right shoulder of the guy -- he provided the entertainment -- a singer.

Halloween arrived to the Condominum with more little kids living here since we arrived.  But even then, we only had four trick-o-treaters.

Calama grocery stores carry lots of salt, lots of mayo, lots of rice, lots of pasta, lots of juice.  I recently was on an outing (really the only kind of outing in Calama) with a couple other of the expat wives at one of the grocery stores.  I happened to have my camera along so decided to document with a picture a couple of the rows with lots of a particular produce. 

Next post:  Puerto Varas! to celebrate Larry turning 55!