Hiking Around Puerto Varas

Imagine Rotorua. The town is on a lovely lake. Would you call Rotorua a port? I wouldn´t, but in Chile it seems that any settlement by the water can be called Puerto something.

I did walk along the lakefront, but I mainly stayed in Puerto Varas and explored from there.

On Thursday I took a guided trip to Parque Nacional Alerces Andino. The organisation of the tour was a farce of non-communication and mismatched expectations. I was under the clear impression that I was to be picked up from the hostel at 9:00am and returned at 5:00pm. The minibus actually showed up at 9:30. Not because it had been going round hotels and hostels collecting other tourists, though. I was the only one. That explained the steep price tag at 40,000 pesos (US$80).

A rather fat woman collected the cash from me and the van set off with the driver, the lady with the cash and me. The route to the park went through Puerto Montt (a proper port on the sea), where we paused for diesel. 15,000 of the pesos went into the fuel tank and some more into a cubby hole in the dash board. There was then a protracted argument between Senora Fatty and the driver, Enrique, until the lady was delivered to her premises in Pto Montt.

Next, Enrique insisted that the tourists had to pay for the guide´s lunch. It wasn´t expensive, he bought rolls, ham and a bottle of mineral water at a small store, but it was quite unexpected. And when we got to the park I had to pay admission charges for both of us. It was only $2 per person, and admissions are customarily "not included", but previously the guide has been admitted free (or paid out of the trip price). These little extras were beginning to mount up.

Then, on our return, Enrique drove to Pto Montt and refused to go further without an extra 10,000 pesos. This was absurd, since the fare on the local buses is only 700 pesos. He explained that he had only been paid 30,000 pesos (half of which went on fuel), which was his normal fee for starting and finishing in Pto Montt. He was already out of pocket on the morning pickup and refused to do another round trip to Pto Varas gratis. I could see his point of view and, equally, Enrique could understand that I had been promised more than he was prepared to provide.

Eventually he dropped me at the Pto Montt bus terminal and I got one of the micros that leave every 5 minutes for Pto Varas for 700 pesos. At this stage I suspected that Senora Fatty had promised more than was reasonable to secure the booking and her massive 25% commission.

Back at the hostel I related as much of this as my Spanish would allow. Oh yes, was the reply. You paid the Pto Montt fare. From Pto Varas it is 50,000 pesos. And yes, he knew the pickup was at 9:30, not 9:00. Aaargh. If only someone had used some wits, I could have cought a micro to Pto Montt in the morning for 700 pesos and no-one would be feeling aggrieved.

However, Enrique was pushing the boundaries on the lunch. Tourists sometimes chip in for the guide´s lunch, but it is not obligatory.

Aside from all this drama, the visit to the park was delightful. Enrique knew the park well. Whilst the trails were easy to follow, they were ofetn steep and frequently treacherous. Much of the way we were walking on planks or half logs covered in moss or decayed leaves, making them very slippery. I skidded a few times, including one keystone cops routine when both feet slipped, I thrashed wildly and miraculously finished up still on my feet beside the track. Even the guide stumbled and once ended up hugging a tree to stay upright. Enrique related that many gringos get lost on the park when they go tramping by themselves. I´m not averse to a solo hike on easy trails, but on these paths that´s just stupidity.

For a nature guide, Enrique was unreliable about birds. When I asked him which bird we could hear singing he replied that it was a swallow (unlikely) or a thrush (definitely not). And he pointed to a group of birds flying across our field of view as woodpeckers. If those weren´t pigeons I´m a Dutchman. He retrieved some prestige when he motioned me to be quiet and a chucao was ahead of us on the trail. This is a small brown bird with a red chest, not entirely unlike a european robin. It regarded us with a bright eye and hopped down the path to get a better look before disappearing into the undergrowth. He also told me that there were hummingbirds in the forest, which I later confirmed through my binoculars.

But we had really come to see trees and here Enrique seemed to know his stuff. The park is named for Chile´s tallest tree, the alerce. Like NZ´s kauri, it provides wonderful timber. There are houses with alerce shingles over 100 years old and still in excellent condition. Again like the kauri, it was logged aggressively until finally receiving state protection. Unlike the kauri it grows extremely slowly and is not regenerating well.

Fitzroya cupressoides is a relative of the giant sequoia, with similar soft bark and distinctly reddish timber. It grows very straight and rather skinny. Enrique led the way to a very nice stand of these trees and I took lots of photos from various angles.

My guide seemd to know most of the other trees almost as well. He had a great enthusiasm for taking my picture when we reached points of interest. It´s a shame it wasn´t matched by skill in composing a photo. Never mind, when I get back to NZ I can crop them to just the important bits.

On the return journey he demonstrated the edibility of a plant something like a hairy rhubarb. Peeling away the outer layer reveals a stem less crunchy and more refreshing than celery. I´m sure we shouldn´t have eaten one growing in a national park, but it is a herb that grows abundantly in the region.

I was also surprised that the park ranger had a cat, a young and lively animal that smooched readily when stroked. I´m sure thay are forbidden from NZ´s protected areas.

Friday was organised quite differently. I took a local bus to Petrohue. It dropped me at Los Saltos de Petrohue, i.e. the local waterfalls. They were very watchable waterfalls, with the river splitting into many channels that funneled back into two main falls, with many chutes in the arrangement, lots of white water and plenty of noise. Bridges and fenced paths allow good views of most of the turbulent water and encourage the visitor to take large numbers of photographs. I really wanted to get a picture of the whole network, but that would require a helicopter. There isn´t even a postcard.

There are some other tracks through very picturesque bush. They are safe and easy to follow, so I wandered happily for a couple of hours. Since I was in roughly the same latitude as NZ´s South Island and there is plenty of rain from the prevailing westerlies, the Chilean temperate rainforest is very similar to ours. The Chileans don´t have tree ferns, though. I described them to Enrique on the Thursday and he had never come across a fern with a trunk.

After the waterfalls I had a 6 km hike to downtown Petrohue, which comprises a hotel, a general store, a souvenir stall and a dock where fleets of boats take tourists out on the lake. It is part of a very scenic route into Argentina. You are eventually delivered into Bariloche, where I was about a month ago.

The lake shore here is black sand, no doubt due to the past activity of Osorno Volcano, which dominates one part of the skyline. The morning ten tenths cloud had departed by the time I got to the lake so I was treated to the rare and beautiful sight of the whole of Osorno. It is a perfect volcanic cone, like Mt Fuji or Mt Ngaruhoe, two thirds clothed in dazzlingly white snow. Gorgeous.

There were campsites and plenty of paths through the bush where I ambled, binoculars at the ready. No new species, but I had excellent sightings of several birds, including the tufted tit-tyrant. Truly, I did not make that name up. It is very common, but it is small and active and I generally found it hard to get in focus. When you do see it clearly it has two thin, forward-curling crests.

The bush thins very quickly as you climb up from the lake. Whether this is due to sudden exposure to colder temperatures, fiercer winds or some property of the volcano I cannot guess.

And so back to Pto Varas to download my camera´s memory card for security purposes. I like to have a spare in case of some disaster with the camera. There was just enough time to check email and have a meal before shouldering my big pack and boarding the overnight bus for Valparaiso.

Which is where I am now. I fly to Easter Island tomorrow. Maybe I will have a chance to post from there, maybe not. Keep checking for new posts and keep leaving comments! :-)