Hello, buenos dias, achtung!
Tim here, making use of some downtime waiting for our flight in the shiny new airport at Puerto Montt to write my first 'On holiday' entry on 'our' blog. We are waiting for an internal flight taking us down to Punta Arenas and deeper into Chilean Patagonia. Whenever we tell someone where we are heading (where have you come from and where are you heading next are they two standard questions that all travellers here are required to ask at every meeting) they make a 'brrrrrrr' sound and tell us to wrap up warm. The other phrase that tends to come out is 'four seasons in one day' - a reference to the famously changeable climate of the region.
It's the sort of talk that people from the cold and rainy parts of the world like us tend to take with a pinch of salt. The only types of weather we've seen since we arrived have been 'Caliente', 'Muchas Calor' and 'Scorchio', so when we were told to prepare for the worst on our walk around the Orsono volcano yesterday we dismissed it as more hyperbole. How wrong we were...
We set off from the hotel (in yet another minibus) in rain and mist. The snow covered cone of the volcano, which was the main feature of the horizon yesterday, was completely hidden by thick white fog. As our trip was to walk up to one of the craters somewhere under that mist, we should have guessed that it might not work out as planned. As the van climbed higher up the narrow mountain roads the visibility grew steadily worse until everyone on board stopped talking and we craned our necks to look out through the windscreen, trying to work out how the driver knew where to go when all we could see was a curtain of soggy mist. Eventually we stopped outside a small cafe and set off into the void towards the crater. By this point we could only see a few feet ahead and the wind was starting to pick up - in a way we were pleased to get some use out of the heavy duty UK spec** walking gear we had brought with us - but then the wind became a gale and the rain turned to hail. This was the final straw as far as Maria our tour guide was concerned, strong winds can be deadly in the high places of the world and we were forced to turn back.
After another short journey back in our beloved minibus we set off for a longer walk lower down on the volcano - and what do you know, the sun came out, the wind dropped down and everyone stripped off their layers and reached for their sun hats. We walked through a temperate rain forest which, as our guide helpfully explained, is the same as a tropical rain forest but with a temperate climate, over a lava tongue, though some non-rain forest (which is like a rain forest but with less rain) and across a wide plain of pumice and black sand which we were told spent the other half of the year being a river bed. As we walked, the mist gradually cleared from the mountains and we were once again walking beneath the green slopes of the Andes.
In the afternoon we went white water rafting in the cleanest river I have ever seen, I think it was fed by glacial melt water which would explain it - although that doesn't explain why the water was so wonderfully warm. So warm in fact that we swam the final rapid. Well I say swam, we jumped in the water in our wetsuits and lifejackets and let the current carry us along. The rafting guy assured us that the last rapid was very gentle and perfect for swimming, but that didn't stop me from drinking so much river water that I started burping. I heard Kate squealing whenever the water crashed over her and although she has made a point of not drinking the tap water here in Chile, I think she may have swallowed a few pints directly from the stream.
So we had the four seasons in one day and that night we ate at least a month's supply of pizza (sadly neither the four seasons nor the four quesos were on the menu) as we celebrated the birthday of one of our group.
We both really liked Puerto Baras and it seems a shame to leave after only two nights but that's the nature of a tour like this where you fit in as much as possible in a short time. I've just heard that it's currently 8 deg.C and raining in Punta Arenas so hopefully we might see some of the other seasons while we're there.
*'quatro fromages en una dias' for the linguists out there
**walking in the UK you also get four seasons in one day, but all of them include rain.
Tim here, making use of some downtime waiting for our flight in the shiny new airport at Puerto Montt to write my first 'On holiday' entry on 'our' blog. We are waiting for an internal flight taking us down to Punta Arenas and deeper into Chilean Patagonia. Whenever we tell someone where we are heading (where have you come from and where are you heading next are they two standard questions that all travellers here are required to ask at every meeting) they make a 'brrrrrrr' sound and tell us to wrap up warm. The other phrase that tends to come out is 'four seasons in one day' - a reference to the famously changeable climate of the region.
Say good bye to the minibus
It's the sort of talk that people from the cold and rainy parts of the world like us tend to take with a pinch of salt. The only types of weather we've seen since we arrived have been 'Caliente', 'Muchas Calor' and 'Scorchio', so when we were told to prepare for the worst on our walk around the Orsono volcano yesterday we dismissed it as more hyperbole. How wrong we were...
Kate in the mist
We set off from the hotel (in yet another minibus) in rain and mist. The snow covered cone of the volcano, which was the main feature of the horizon yesterday, was completely hidden by thick white fog. As our trip was to walk up to one of the craters somewhere under that mist, we should have guessed that it might not work out as planned. As the van climbed higher up the narrow mountain roads the visibility grew steadily worse until everyone on board stopped talking and we craned our necks to look out through the windscreen, trying to work out how the driver knew where to go when all we could see was a curtain of soggy mist. Eventually we stopped outside a small cafe and set off into the void towards the crater. By this point we could only see a few feet ahead and the wind was starting to pick up - in a way we were pleased to get some use out of the heavy duty UK spec** walking gear we had brought with us - but then the wind became a gale and the rain turned to hail. This was the final straw as far as Maria our tour guide was concerned, strong winds can be deadly in the high places of the world and we were forced to turn back.
Starting to lift
After another short journey back in our beloved minibus we set off for a longer walk lower down on the volcano - and what do you know, the sun came out, the wind dropped down and everyone stripped off their layers and reached for their sun hats. We walked through a temperate rain forest which, as our guide helpfully explained, is the same as a tropical rain forest but with a temperate climate, over a lava tongue, though some non-rain forest (which is like a rain forest but with less rain) and across a wide plain of pumice and black sand which we were told spent the other half of the year being a river bed. As we walked, the mist gradually cleared from the mountains and we were once again walking beneath the green slopes of the Andes.
Also available as a river
In the afternoon we went white water rafting in the cleanest river I have ever seen, I think it was fed by glacial melt water which would explain it - although that doesn't explain why the water was so wonderfully warm. So warm in fact that we swam the final rapid. Well I say swam, we jumped in the water in our wetsuits and lifejackets and let the current carry us along. The rafting guy assured us that the last rapid was very gentle and perfect for swimming, but that didn't stop me from drinking so much river water that I started burping. I heard Kate squealing whenever the water crashed over her and although she has made a point of not drinking the tap water here in Chile, I think she may have swallowed a few pints directly from the stream.
Maracas at the rapids
So we had the four seasons in one day and that night we ate at least a month's supply of pizza (sadly neither the four seasons nor the four quesos were on the menu) as we celebrated the birthday of one of our group.
Everything back to normal at the rafting centre
We both really liked Puerto Baras and it seems a shame to leave after only two nights but that's the nature of a tour like this where you fit in as much as possible in a short time. I've just heard that it's currently 8 deg.C and raining in Punta Arenas so hopefully we might see some of the other seasons while we're there.
*'quatro fromages en una dias' for the linguists out there
**walking in the UK you also get four seasons in one day, but all of them include rain.
