Addendum to yesterday´s post

I forgot to mention something about the city of Valdivia, Chile, in yesterday´s post.  The city sits a little bit inland from the Pacific coast on a river.  In the river swim seals.  On the bank of the river sits an open air fish market.  This has created the perfect storm for tourist appeal – seals that just hang out all day waiting to have fish scraps tossed to them.  Must be a nice life.  The city has even set up a pontoon platform for the seals to chillout on.

Here´s a photo.  The market is on the left underneath the multicoloured awning.  You can see the pontoon in the water, surrounded by some orange, spherical buoys.

And here´s a closer look at the pontoon.

And here´s a close up of one of the handsome fellows.  He was a little shy.

And here are some birds who were hanging out, watching the festivities, and probably looking for a scrap or two themselves.

Up to date

Ok.  I am VERY behind schedule with this blog.  Actually, I´ve been behind schedule from the beginning.  Trying to keep things chronological meant that I´ve been posting about stuff anywhere from one to five weeks after the fact.  Well, I´m sort of tired of that.  So today we are going to go on a whirlwind trip from Chiloe (my most recent posts) all the way to Buenos Aires, where I´m writing this now.  I know you´re excited.

From Chiloe I made my way a little north to the Lakes District.  Here you will find many…umm, lakes.  And volcanoes.  And mountains.  And Germans.  What?  Yeah, Germans.  And I´m not talking about tourists (although there are a lot of those too, from all over).  I´m talking about people named Schultz who have blonde hair, speak Spanish, and were born in Chile, as were their parents, and their parents´ parents.  You see, in the late nineteenth century Chile needed this area settled, but didn´t seem to have the population to do it.  Enter the Germans.  So that´s why when I was in Puerto Varas – a small resort town – I not only ate some excellent empanadas, but I also had the best apple strudel I´ve ever had.

Puerto Varas sits on Lake Llanquihue, and I set off along it´s southern shore towards the base of Volcan Osorno.  It´s a beautiful ride along the lake shore with the volcano looming in the distance.

But as the pedals cranked away it became increasingly clear that my body was suffering and had not fully recovered from being sick in Santiago.  Once I started getting the heart rate up and breathing a bit heavier I would cough incessantly, spitting up phlegm.  Energy was hard to come by as well.  And after pedalling for only 20 kms and not being able to go any further for the day, I came to the conclusion that the bike trip was just not working out.  This wasn´t supposed to be an extreme sport.  I didn´t have anything to prove to anyone.  I decided that I would pedal back to Puerto Varas, store my bike at the hostel, and continue on by bus.  The decision made me feel incredibly free.

After spending a couple of days in the college town of Valdivia I decided to cross the mountains and head into Argentina.  I spent a few days in the Argentinian Lakes District.  First in the small resort town of Villa La Angostura, a small town popular with Argentines, and then in Bariloche, a more famous resort city known for it´s scenery and chocolate (the chocolate wasn´t that great, but I had some amazing ice cream there).

Here´s a photo of Lake Nahuel Huapi, near Villa La Angostura (that´s a sailboat in the water).

After the lakes I headed north for about 1200 kms and ended up in Mendoza, in the heart of wine country.  It was a nice picturesque city with lots of trees.  The whole place would be a desert if not for the use of an ancient irrigation system that lines the streets with little canals.

After the wine I moved another 1000kms, east this time, to Buenos Aires, a vast metropolis that feels part European and part South American.

In the middle of my BA stay I zipped up to Iguazu Falls (well, zipped as much as you can when you travel 1300 kms).  The falls are huge, covering an area greater than Victoria Falls in South Africa (although Victoria Falls has more water flowing over it).  They span the border between Argentina and Brazil.  The Brazil side is ok, but the Argentine side is spectacular, with access to many points of the falls, both at the base and at the top.  Pictures don´t really do it justice, but here are a couple.

This is a shot of the Devil´s Throat section of the falls.  It was taken from the Brazilian side.  The weather wasn´t too great that day.

And this is of another section of the falls, taken from the Argentine side.

To put the size of the falls into perspective, the surface area of Niagara falls is 600, 000 square feet.  When Iguazu is at peak flow it´s surface area is 1.3 million square feet.

The Bike

As mentioned earlier, the bike I’m riding down here is a Swift Folder.  This is not your typical, hipster, ’70s-era folder that weighs a tonne.  It’s quite a nice bike.

First let’s take a look at some photos of the naked version, so to speak (I mean no luggage, not myself!).

It’s a little unorthodox.  To begin with, the bike folds in half and sports 20″/BMX wheels.  I´ve also got some swept-back North Road style bars with brake levers attached to the ends.  The bars connect to a SoftRide suspension stem.  They don´t make these anymore.  They were around just before suspension forks became the standard front bicycle suspension.  It gives me a bit of cushion without the weight of a full suspension fork (and I don´t think they make suspension forks for 20″ wheels anyway).  The rear wheel is built around an internally geared hub.  That means that all the gear changing mechanisms are actually inside the hub, so a wire just runs from the shifter at the handlebars right into the hub.  Normally this means that you don´t need a derailleur mechanism hanging down at the back.  I do have one, though, because I have two chainrings at the front, so, presto,  my 8-speed hub becomes a 16-speed hub.  The gear shifter for the hub normally goes on the ends of your handlebars, but because I have that space occupied with brake levers I had to jerry-rig something else.  You can see it below in the “cockpit view”.  The bike also sports some homemade coroplast fenders, a la Kent Peterson.

And here are some photos of the fully loaded version.

I probably shouldn´t have taken the picture against a yellow background when one of my bike bags is yellow.

I have noticed a few drawbacks with my set-up.  First, instead of having bars that sweep back towards me, I should have some bars that point away.  I feel a little too hunched.  Different bars would stretch me out a bit, which I think would be a good thing.  Second, I think the 20″ wheels, while being pretty bulletproof, don´t roll over the rocks on the unpaved roads as well as a larger diameter wheel would.  My speed slows right down on the rough stuff.  And finally, because the bike is not specifically designed for touring, attaching all my gear onto the bike is a challenge and is never done in an optimal way.  Everything is a compromise.  Normally you would have two regular racks, one front and one rear, that you could affix some panniers onto.  No problem, easy.  With the Swift it´s not so straight forward.

Nevertheless, we ride.

Ancud (again)

Returned back to Ancud for a couple of days.  I took in another 35 km ride, this time to a quiet beachfront restaurant renowned for its oysters.

Now, to be honest, I’m not a big fan of oysters.  The first time I ever ate them I was at an office party where, combined with copious amounts of wine, the contents of my stomach wanted to get up close and personal with the party and decided to join the festivities…at the table.  A little embarrassing.  It was years before I decided to take another go at them.  Round two was ok – no food was regurgitated.  But nothing special either.  I think I’m just not a fan.  So I was going to this restaurant more out of duty than with giddy anticipation.

I bet a fan of oysters would have found them delightful.  I merely found them sort of interesting.  My conversion to the cult of the oyster must wait for another time.

Here’s a look at my platter.

The restaurant was on a beautiful calm beach, where some people were digging for shellfish.  At other times of the year you can see flamingos here.

And the 35 kms on the bike just about killed me again.

Welcome to Chilanada…or is that Canloe?

I seem to stumble upon an inordinate number of weird Canadian references while on this island of Chiloe.  In addition to the plentiful helping of Bryan Adams on the radio, I heard Black Velvet by Allanah Myles the other day.  I didn’t think I’d ever hear that song again!  (And I wish I never did – the damn thing was stuck in my head the rest of the day).  I also saw a guy wearing a t-shirt commemorating the Erie County (NY) Special Olympics from some time in the ’80s (hey, Erie County is close enough to Canada).  Then there was the shop window that had a bunch of insignia patches for sale.  Amid the selection was a facsimile of the NWT license plate.  And then to top it all off, as I’m sitting in a waterfront seafood restaurant, I look up to see an official photo of then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul.  I was starting to get a little freaked out.

And now that I think of it, I remember seeing a baseball hat in a used clothing shop in Santiago that had a patch on it advertising some flight operation named after Billy Bishop.  Is there some sort of secret Canadian underground here?

Castro

After staying in Ancud I moved on to Castro, the capital of the island.  It’s a bigger town and it’s obvious there’s a bit more money flowing here.  The plaza is new and nicely landscaped.  There’s a bit more hustle and bustle.  But something left me rather cold, and I did not find the place as endearing as Ancud.

I’m beginning to realize that corrugated metal is a major building material for the island.  Even important buildings are clad in metal, sometimes with designs pressed into it.  But in an environment where it rains most of the time, metal begins to look a little worn and tatty.  Case in point: the cathedral in Castro.  It looks horrible (granted it’s not getting much help by the colour scheme of the paint job).

Inside, however, it’s got a beautiful varnished wood interior.  If I ignore the crazy bleeding crucifixes it’s quite peaceful.

Mar Brava

While in Ancud I hopped on the bike and followed a route the hostel recommended to check out the rugged west coast of the island.  The destination was a beach called Mar Brava.  The trip was about 35 km, and it just about killed me.  It became painfully clear that I was really out of shape.

About half the distance was on unpaved road.  Unpaved roads down here are nothing like the gravel roads of Southern Ontario.  Instead of being covered in gravel they are covered in rocks that range in size between golf balls and baseballs.  This type of surface really likes to shift around under bicycle tires.  It sort of feels like you´re riding on a bunch of large marbles.

Oh, and to add to my lack of fitness and the challenging road conditions, I forgot to bring any money with me.  I departed with about 500 ml of water and a package of cookies.  That was all the nourishment for the day.  I think I was a little delerious by the end.

But there was a payoff for all this hard work.  Mar Brava was absolutely stunning. 

First there was the beautiful rolling farmland that I had to travel through to get to the coast.

 

Milk jugs were all along the side of the road waiting to be picked up.

I eventually crested a hill and saw before me a wide sandy beach with Pacific waves rolling in.

When I got to the bottom of the hill there was a narrow road which ran to the right, hugging the coast.

And then, around the corner, a rocky point that you could scamper onto to get close to the waves crashing in.  There was also another beach further along, but I was wearing Birkenstock sandals and the loose pebble surface was too difficult to walk too far on.

And the best thing: after spending over an hour exploring about 3 km of coastline I met only four people.  Most of the time I had the whole place to myself.

Lesson Learned #1956

A diet consisting solely of shellfish does not provide the body with enough fibre.

Ancud

Ancud is on the north coast of Chiloe. It´s one of the two major cities on the island (Castro´s the other – we´ll get there later). About 27,000 people live here. Buildings are clad either in traditional wooden shingles (sometimes painted bright colours) or sheets of corrugated metal (often painted as well). Rain is usually a constant feature of life here (except this year, there´s a drought) and this seems to wear considerably on the exteriors. Copious amounts of rusting sheet metal sometimes made me feel like I was in a shanty town.

That being said, the place really grows on you. Especially when you´ve got a nice place to lay your head at the end of the day. The Hostal Mundo Nuevo is a really nice hostel with a beautiful view of the ocean.  I spent a few days here doing not much of anything.

Being an island in the Pacific, fish and shellfish are ubiquitous. Veggies, not so much (except for the potato, which some scholars believe originated here). It was a struggle to find any vegetables on a menu, and when I visited the many supermarkets and produce stands, the quality of what was on offer was horrible. It was not uncommon to see produce on display that was mouldy or rotten. A fellow traveller at the hostel who works in agriculture in Germany thought it was because they probably did not have any refrigerated transportation for the crops. Either way, I have no idea how Chilotes get their vitamins.

And El Trauco? Well, I only found him rocking out on the flyer for a local metal show.

 

I love the totally amateur presentation. And Leprosy is one of the best names for a metal band ever.  I also think it´s pretty funny that a band named themselves after Homer´s favourite brew.

Lesson Learned #1342

Do not try to ride a bicycle (or anything mildly strenuous, for that matter) when you feel a migraine coming on.  Unless you want to puke and feel like shit.

I’ve got a backload of posts waiting, so there’ll be more activity on the blog in the coming days.

Cheers.