Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas - wet but wonderful

Flying over the Andes

JP arrived and I was really excited to see someone from home after so many months of travelling! Someone who knew me for longer than 3 days, could understand all the South Africanisms I use in my speaking , could help me navigate foreign lands and someone I could experience places with so that you have “remember when” memories. Cos talking to myself about “remember when you” is only so much fun. 

Our friendly seagull

Travelling with another person is obviously very different to travelling alone. It takes away much of the stress of getting completely lost cos at least you can figure it out together and it’s a little safer when there are 2 of you, especially when one is a guy. There is also a little more verbal decision making rather than spontaneous in your head.  You always have someone around that has to talk to you because you are friends. This is very different to constantly having to make friends and find people to tour the more dangerous parts of South America with you. You can appreciate how lost you are around a foreign language together while speaking in a language you can understand.

Lunch with the best salmon ever

Ferries are a common sight

But language wise… I was still way ahead with my emergency Spanish (and that’s not saying much). JP knew less than I did when I first arrived in South America. But Google translate was a huge friend (when there was WIFI).  Hence to say, menus were still mostly a mystery. My little Spanish phrase book was only so useful. But I was truly surprised at the variety of places that JP managed to source WIFI.

The restaurant

Chile with JP was a lightning speed trip of as much as we could fit in as possible. Absolutely spectacular scenery, a lot of driving and good fun and good food! I love road trips. And this was a really interesting one having hired a manual vehicle, driving on the wrong side of the road and hiring a temperamental GPS with a sadistic personality disorder. The GPS kept trying to take us up one way roads in the wrong direction, tell us that we should turn around because we were driving into a field where no road existed (where, per eyesight, it stretched before us) or to turn now when the road was blocked off. 

Puerto Varas

The GPS became a complete personality as we were driving and although she never fully acquired a name she often got us into trouble. We were hooted at least once or twice a day on a good day. It was all down to the GPS I promise! Per Miss GPS we were driving through rivers and in the middle of nothing for most of our trip. We changed the view on the GPS to the 4x4 buggy instead of a nice little car cos we were obviously off-roading. Our little golf hire was also a 4x4 at heart handling all the dirt back roads that Chile had to offer. We decided that the perfect job would be to drive for Garmin and re-map Chile! It’s desperately needed. 

The view of Puerto Varas

So… the trip itself. From Santiago, we flew down to Puerto Montt, a small town in the South of Chile, just above Patagonia. We were a little silly and had window seats on the plane for the view. But alas it was on the wrong side and we got to look at flat farmland full of clouds all trip instead of the massive snowy Andes which I could peek at through the opposite window between all the sleeping Chileans that didn’t care about the view! At least we got a little of the view as we took off though.

The Puerto Montt area is rather famous for its forests, lakes and snow -capped volcanoes. But before we explored all this area had to offer, we picked up our hired car quickly toured Puerto Montt itself and ended up having lunch there and fighting with a local cellphone provider for access to their 3G network. Alas we discovered that most people didn’t really have a clue and the lack of Spanish didn’t really help our cause. In the end the phone never worked with the Chilean network... rather frustrating for JP as he felt he had been lobotomised without internet access permanently.

Going to explore!

Having travelled for a while with possibly no internet access for a while I found this amusing – sorry JP. Although I have to admit that internet would have been useful, it would have taken away my joy at struggling through a menu and eventually pointing at something you hoped you would like. I was surprised at how much infrastructure South America had. JP was frustrated with how much it didn’t have.

The Chilean version of those loud ibis's in SA -
these also wake you up!

It’s amazing how travelling lowered my expectations and I was getting excited about small things like there being toilet paper in the bathrooms or in pure luxuary they may have soap for you to wash your hands. You get used to travelling with a back-up toilet roll and hand sanitiser. I had come to accept the fact that travelling takes time and communication can be an interesting miming contortion practice. JP wasn’t used to this at all and if Google translate had not existed I’m not too sure what we would have done.

Lunch in Puerto Montt was amazing. Really nice and relaxing with a seagull appreciating himself in the reflective window while we were eating, much to our amusement. I have to say, I had the BEST grilled salmon I have ever had there. It was really tasty and served with a sauce made with small shrimps. This dish was so amazing that I have been dreaming about it ever since and never found it quite as good again. Chilean wine is also well known and JP and I both enjoyed getting to know a new wine area in the world.

German named beer in Chile!

From Puerto Montt we drove through to Puerto Varas, a little further North. Puerto Varas is set on a stunning lake with a snow-capped volcano visible from across the water on a clear day. It is a tiny picturesque town. It also has a bit of a German influence as a number of Germans came across to Chile and settled, bringing with them one of their most famous traditions, that of beer making. Hence we found a Chilean beer with a German name that was really good. The spitting rainy weather unfortunately blocked the volcano from sight. But the weather didn’t stop us hiking down to town in the wet weather (parking would have been a problem) for food and beer.