It's been a while since I've posted a real update, and I'm sorry about that. I've been trying to get caught up on all the stuff that's happened in the past, and get my photos ready, and actually travel.. and I haven't had time for all of it. :)
So, first the physical stuff. I'm still in Puerto Montt. I've spent the past few days exploring both Alerce Andino and Petrohue national parks near here -- what a tremendous difference from the north of Chile.
Puerto Montt is a funny place to be. By rights, I don't really think I should like the city, but I really do. It's a port city -- lots of ferries, lots of cruise ships, and so on. It's really the transit hub of the south of Chile. It´s nice, but not exceptionally pretty. Not too dirty, but not particularly clean either. Downtown´s prominent features are the plaza de armas and two shopping malls. The night life here doesn't look too enticing; I haven't actually gone out late so I can't really say. So, I don't know why I like the city, but I do. Maybe it's because it´s simple, and it's easy to find what you want here.
I got into Puerto Montt on the 4th, in the evening, and didn't do a whole lot other than find a hostel. I didn't really like the place, but it was a warm bed and a roof over my head, so I wasn't going to complain too much. The first night here was the first real rain I've gotten on this trip -- the sky opened up for most of the evening and on into the night. It was actually nice to wander around the city in the rain for a little while, then head home and crawl into bed. I spent the next day wandering around the city, trying to get a feel for it and trying to find information about Alerce Andino national park.
Alerce Andino is a park that's about 45km from Puerto Montt, though it doesn't seem to get a lot of visitors. There was, at one point, about 30-45km of trail forming a loop around the park, which looked like an attractive camping/hiking option. My first stop on the information quest was the CONAF office (roughly, the equivalent of the forest service in the states.) The people in the CONAF office really didn't have a whole lot of information, and they told me that I should skip Alerce Andino and go to a different park instead. So, I did with that advice what generally seems to be the best thing to do with CONAF advise -- ignored it.
I took the bus as close to the park as it would take me. It dropped me and a Chilean couple off at an intersection of two dirt roads at the end of the small town of Correntoso. There were no signs here, and I had no idea in which direction the park even was. The two from Chile had only a slightly better idea than I did, so we all took our best guess and started to walk. Half an hour later, we came to the park border.
The road to the park was spectacular -- green all around, and lots of small, very cute houses with just enough land to raise a few animals and grow a bit of food. Ahead of us was the northern part of the park -- a tree-covered hill rising about 1000m from the ground we were standing on. Just before the entrance of the park, the road crosses a canyon that a small creek has carved out of stone, which makes for a beautiful welcome mat.
There was no one in the first ranger hut, and the first sections of trail were closed, so I took leave of the Chilean couple (who were going to wait for the ranger) and started walking down the road paralleling the park to the next ranger hut 10-12km away. After a little bit, I ran into the CONAF ranger on his bike heading back from lunch. He confirmed that the first sections of trail were closed, as well as a mid-section of the loop, so that the only option was an out-and-back hike of around 8km in the park. Short, but sufficient.
When I got to the second park entrance, and started on the actual trail the 4km that I had left to a decent camping spot started to seem like a longer distance than they looked. The park is a rain forest, and that implies large quantities of mud, and dense but stunning vegetation. The trail delivered on both counts. It was steep, and rough going, but well worth it.
It was easy to imagine that I was in a Tolken world -- the overwhelming lushness of the forest recalled the Elven world. And, and times, the thick, overgrown vegetation, copious spiderwebs, and muddy trail brought to mind the dark forest that Bilbo had to brave on his journey toward Smog.
The park was quite lonely -- I saw only one other couple on the trail, and that was in the middle of my second day. I was wonderful to be out there, and to have some time to myself to reflect on the trip and just to get away from the city. At the same time, I really did start to feel a bit lonely by the end of the third day. Camping alone like that is quite a different experience than traveling alone.
I made it back into Puerto Montt on Thursday evening, after thumbing a ride from a dutch family. They said they were staying in a hostel that was nice, so I joined them there.
I spent Friday in the city, doing errands and finishing up all needed to finish for my Berkeley application. It's done now -- YAY!
Today, I went to a park that the Chilean couple in Alerce Andino recommended to me -- Petrohue. It's a park at the base of Volcan Osorno, another snow-covered, beautiful volcano. The park itself was really pretty -- a river flowing through narrow basalt channels created during one of the eruptions of the volcano. It's also quite accessible, and therefore, quite crowded. The typical rules still applied, though -- go a little ways off, and hide from the trail, and you're all alone.
Probably the highlight of today, though, was walking away from the crowded area, up the road a ways. After a little bit, I found a gate -- went through it and followed tire tracks through the woods. They ended at a wash that had carved out a channel several feet deep in volcanic ash. It was interesting and beautiful just to walk up the channel, looking at all the goop that pours out of the volcano.
I start my mountaineering course in just a few days now. I'm taking a flight to Coyhaique tomorrow. I'll have two days there, give or take, and then I'll be off to the ice for a month. I'm getting really psyched for it -- the trips that I've done out to the wilderness here have been incredible, and I'm sure that this trip will be no different.
I need to end this now, as the net cafe that I'm in is about to close, but I have other updates from Villirica mostly written, so expect more soon.
Congrats on finishing up the applications :)
Posted by: jackson at January 11, 2004 09:45 AM