Puerto Varas turned out to be a great city, small, more like a large town, and quite enjoyable all in all. I spent my first day there just wandering around the picturesque streets filled with German influenced arquitecture. I stopped in at one museum, which the artist himself had founded and was crammed full of his drawings of the buildings of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt (another town about 20km south of Puerto Varas, on a bay of the Pacific Ocean). The second day I spent in P. Varas I woke up nice and earl (think 6AM) and took a bus that was supposedly coming at 7AM and every 45 minutes after that and rode about 1.5 hours out to the Vincente Perez Rosales National Park. I went into the park office in an attempt to obtain a map of the trails and the park ranger was intially helpful but then insulting when he blatantly insinuate that I did NOT want to do the longest trail in the park that was readil accesible. An 8 hour hike (4 hours in, 4 hours out) called ´desolacion´ which translates to ´desolation´. Little did he know I actually DID want to do that hike, and so did it, thinking I´ll show him when I get back in less than 8 hours! The hike ended up taking me 4 hours to get to the end, which I was under the impression that ended at a river, but it just ended at a little picnic area where you can drive up, how disappointing for the end of a 4 hour hike. Upon arrival I made myself two little pita bread sandwiches with TURKEY that I found at the grocery store (NOT HAM) as well as tomatoe slices and some mild cheese. Delicious after all that hiking. I literally did not see 1 other soul the whole way out and for over 2 hours of the way back, which was a little scary but also quite nice.
The hike started out rather flat trekking through volcanic sands and over dry river beds and then through lava tunnels. Pretty cool. After an hour there was a section of volcanic sand dunes that were surprisingly steep and challenging to climb up that lasted for about an hour, and then another hour of relatively flat and sandy terrain. The view was gorgeous the whole time, as I was hiking alongside a snow capped volcano. The last hour, however, of the way there was stupid. There is no other way to say it. You walk downhill for 1 hour (horrible for your joints) and the views available are minimal because you are walking down a small road and there are trees on both sides and as soon as you make it to the bottom, there is nothing cool. Just a picnic table and a parking lot. What a waste of the hour climbing back UP. I really enjoyed the hike but my feet were full of HUGE blisters by the time I got back to the starting point due to all of the small grains of volcanic sand that had weasled their ways into my socks. Still blistery but just ignoring it.
After the hike I thought I wouldn´t be in much shape to hike a lot the next day, blisters and all, so I went back to the park (not quite so early, I slept in until 8AM) and went to the waterfalls/rapids that the park is famous for. The water flow wasnt very high so they werent spectacular but rapids and waterfalls can never really be boring. And my last day in Puerto Varas I headed to Frutillar, another beautiful little German town along the same lake where I went to an awesome museum that is a recreation of the home, barn, water mill, and second home of some original German settlers. Then it was time for the beach and swimming in crystal clear water that wasnt as frigid as expected (you could see the same snow capped volcano that I hiked around out over the water). And that night it was time to head to the airport by taking a public bus to Puerto Montt and then a private bus transfer from the bus station to the airport. Randomly I was sitting next to the two Americans that I had met at the hot springs in Pucon over a week before and I hung out with them during the over hour long delay in the airport, and we split a taxi from the airport to our respective hostels. Quite a nice coincidence. I will be seeing them again when they come through Buenos Aires for 3 or 4 days in mid March.
Yesterday I spent in Punta Arenas (Sandy Point), the southernmost town of the continental Americas. I know Ive said that about ten times, but its just fun to claim. The sky looks different, the clouds are different, its hard to explain, but you know you are far south. I walked around town all morning and in the afternoon took a two hour boat ride to Isla Magdalena where there were 120,000 penguins on a tiny little island, and I have some AWESOME pictures. I met some nice Americans doing a study abroad in Santiago, who also happened to be staying in my hostel, while riding the boat there and back. As well as some nice ladies from Israel and some Irish guys who were pretty cool. This morning I got up bright and early again (Ive been getting 6 or 7 hours of sleep per night) and took a bus north from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales, the jumping off zone for the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, famous for its 4 and 7 day hiking circuits. This afternoon I will talk to the owner of my hostel about getting set up to either rent a tent and sleeping bag and do two nights in the park or make reservations for the little cabins that they have at every campsite (which ends up not being more expensive than renting a tent). I am super excited and have been having an amazing trip. Really looking forward to making it to the park in the morning (Ive already bought chocolate, fruit, bread, peanut butter and cream cheese to feed myself). The pictures are sure to turn you all sour with jealously, although its being a bit rainy, cloudly and drizzly in the area at the moment.
Until I get back to Buenos Aires on Saturady!
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