Dec. 29 - Good bye Bariloche! Off to Puerto Octay...

Our numbers have diminished. Carrie´s parents have gone back to Chicago after a couple nights in Buenos Aires, and our friend Sally is back on her own. So it´s down to Betsy, Rich, Bryce, Carrie, and Dave. Today we packed up our things and bid good-bye to our lovely house in Bariloche. We had a great time there and it was sad to say bye to our "home", but we were looking forward to moving on.

The plan today was to drive back over the Andes to Chile to a town called Puerto Octay which sits on the same lake as Puerto Varas, where we were 10 days ago. We had hoped for better weather in which to enjoy views of the Andes as we passed through over the border, but to no avail. However, we did manage to stop in charming Villa La Angostura, the Apen-esque resort village we first saw on our way to Bariloche.

There we quickly walked the streets and had a marvelous meal at La Macarena, a meal that both Betsy and Carrie hailed as the best of the entire voyage so far. Dave and Rich were less willing to commit, but it regardless it was the best trout that Dave has ever eaten. For some reason the trout down here taste much more like salmon, and this little bugger was perfectly done.

All good things must come to an end, though, and we still have two border crossings and lots of driving ahead of us. After several hours and little trouble with the authorities, we were back in Chile. Dave had been doing all of the navigating for the team (and it had been spotless so far), and he approached the drivers with a plan, as the map displayed two choices; 90 kilometers of easily-discerned paved roads vs. 30 kilometers of gravel road uncertainty.

The crew was up for the challenge, and after conferring with a passing bicyclist, off we went. Unfortunately, after 12 kilometers of charming rural Chile, we ran smack dab into the lake we wanted to skirt. We turned around, and after a kilometer ran into a local Chilean teenager walking along the road. As we pulled up to ask her directions, she stuck out her thumb. Since we couldn't really ask for directions and then leave her in the dust, we picked her up only to find she not only didn't speak English but had never heard of the road we were looking for.

Back to town we kick her to the curb and proceed another kilometer down the paved road to find a much larger gravel road with a big sign next to it reading "Puerto Octay, 50 kilometers." We sighed, and speed off towards our destination.

After a very relaxing drive through the countryside, we arrive in quaint little Puerto Octay, a sleepy little town further north from Puerto Varas on the same lake. We checked into our cabana and enjoyed some dinner in the main lodge before heading back for some well deserved rest.

Dec. 26th to Dec. 29th

The last few days in Bariloche were pretty similar to the first few days. We did more trips to town, swam in the pool, sat in the hot tub, made dinner some nights, and went out for dinner other nights. We discovered some fun family things to do like the Giant Toboggan Slide and the Teleferica to Cerro Otto. Some of the highlights can be illustrated from the pics below.

Hanging out in downtown Bariloche.

Another view of downtown.

Hanging out in the hottub at the house with Mimosas. Byrce makes a great poolside bartender.

The chairlift to the Gigantic Toboggan.

The view from the chairlift to the Giant Tobaggan.

Carrie and Dave loading up on the Giant Tobaggan slides.

Betsy and Byrce coming in fast on the Giant Tobaggan. Carrie, Betsy, and Bryce made three trips to the tobaggon in two days...

Dad and Dave loading up into the Teleferico Cerro Otto. A gondola ride to the top of Cerro Otto, the tallest peak near Bariloche.

View from the top of Cerro Otto.

Carrie hanging out with one of the adorable giant St. Bernards that live at the top of Cerro Otto.

The boys enjoying a meatfest at a popular retaurant in Bariloche. Dave claims it was one of the best steaks of his life and it cost $7.00.

Dec. 25th - Feliz Navidad!

(Hi all, check older blogs for updated pictures...)

Merry Christmas, everyone! We are amazed that we got to sleep until 9:00 with a 5 year old in the house, but it probably had something to do with the fact we didn't get back from dinner until after midnight the night before. Regardless, we get into our p.j.s and join the family downstairs around the tree to begin opening presents.

Bryce of course has 3 times more than everyone else combined, but that works out well since he is also the elf chosen to select the order in which presents are opened (and he can know recognize his name).

We take a short break in the action to enjoy a nice brunch spread complete with mimosas, and then back to the action. By noon we are done, and its time to retire to the pool for a big group swim with all of Bryce's new pool toys (rafts, flippers, beach ball, water cannons, etc.) We finish with a rousing game of marco polo, and then everyone retires to their respective rooms to rest up before dinner preparations begin in earnest.

It turns out that the oven in our house is quite small, but the kitchen is equipped with a wood oven as well, so Rich and Dave get a nice fire going in the wood stove to cook the delicious Roast that Jule had picked out for Christmas dinner. Betsy and Carrie also prepare the famous Ward twice-baked potatoes, a cheesy-broccoli casserole, corn, rolls, and Betsy's famous Squash soup (that girl certainly knows her way around soups). Finally, the table is set and we all sit down to a Delicious meal.

After dinner we enjoy a rousing game of pictionary, followed by the long-awaited desert of raspberry and apples pies. After dinner, John and Jule retire while us kids enjoy a rousing game of Presidents (known by some by a much less flattering title), a card game where the order of finish from each round dictates the chain of command of bossing people around (and making fun of them, including the lowest person on the totem pole being forced to wear a silly hat) during the next round. At long last, we have had enough laughs, and we retire with visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads.

We hope everyone back home had a Merry Christmas, and we miss everyone terribly! Hopefully we can all be together in 2007!

Dec. 23rd & 24th - Pre-Chistmas Preparations

This entry will be our first combined entry, as these two days followed a very similar pattern: get up, eat breakfast, get in the hot tub, go swimming, eat lunch, and then go into town, shop for Chirstmas presents and food, come back home, maybe some more swimming or hottubbing, maybe some reading or playing games, then get ready for dinner.

A rough life, I know, but somehow we made it work. One notable event concerns Christmas Eve dinner, where we went into town to enjoy Fondue at a very homey Swiss Chalet. It was run by a very nice family (they had two little girls running around who ended up playing with Bryce), and an elderly man pulled out an accordian and sereneded us with Christmas songs with with enjoyed a cheese course (with bread, cooked potatoes, and sausage), then a beef course (with 6 sauces), and finally a chocolate course (with apples, bananas, and oranges).

It was all quite delicious, and the entire meal took about 3 hours from start to finish. We get home after midnight, and of course Santas little elves still have to perform their magic to get ready for Christmas morning, so after some frantic wrapping, we enjoy a Bailey's nightcap and hit the hay for the big day to follow.

Dec. 22nd - On to Bariloche!

As a brief customer service announcement for those of you that might be slightly less computer savvy, you can click on any of the pictures you see in this blog to pull up a full-size version.

Also, we forgot to mention in the previous post that we had received good news from John and Jule the day before; it turns out they had no troubles at the Embassy, and in fact after getting their paperwork taken care of, they enjoyed several wine tours and great meals at their fancy hotel, so alls well that ends well. With that news in hand, it was time to drive to Puerto Montt to pick them up at the airport so that we could all travel to Bariloche, Argentina for Christmas. We had rented what appeared to be (according to pics on the internet) a beautiful house outside of what is generally regarded as "the Switzerland of South America."

We arrive in Puerto Montt in the pouring rain and proceed to juggle our way through the boondoggle of trading in one car, getting names changed on the official paperwork for the border crossing (mucho bureaucracy in the norm in Chile), finding the Hertz office to drop of the other car (the office they tried to send us too had closed), and the finally picking up John and Jule at the Airport (again, all in the pouring rain).

The family is finally together again, and we take off for Bariloche, which will turn out to be a very long but beautiful drive across the Andes into Argentina. Everything we see along the way is extremely pretty, but with the weather the way it is, we can´t see any of the massive mountains that we can only assume are looming on both sides.

After several hours, we come to the Chilean border crossing. We spend about 30 minutes inside shuttling from line to line until we are finally cleared to leave the country. Of course, we still have to travel 15 more minutes to arrive at the Argentinean border control, where we had to go through the exact same process. Luckily, budget had done a good job of preparing the 5 pages of notarized paperwork necessary to take a car across the border, so soon thereafter we are finally street legal in Argentina and we drive the remaining two hours to arrive in Bariloche just before dark. It appears to be an extremely charming town, but we are so focused on getting to our house that we barely notice. We meet up with the booking agent, and she leads us up into the hills, where we finally see the house where we are to spend the next 6 days. I will let the house speak for itself for now:

Dec. 21st - Rafting Extravaganza!

Carrie wakes up this morning in the best mood she's had this trip, as today is the day she finally gets to go rafting! We enjoy some eggs and toast in our cabin, and then Carrie, Rich, and I take off for our rafting trip booked through a local adventure company. We would be going through some big class 3+ rapids, so Betsy stayed behind to go swimming with Bryce in the pool.

We met up with our guides Pepe and Andres (who was

the most Irish looking Norwegian any of us had ever

seen, and two 20-year old Belgium girls who were the our fellow passengers. On the way there, we finally managed to see our first full-fledged volcano, as the rain finally let up and left us alone for the rest of the day.

After a very pretty drive through the mountains, we arrive at the put-in. They guides hooked us up with a wet suit, splash jacket, helmet, and life jacket. Here we are looking ready and eager for the river. The river itself looked quite big, and after a long safety talk, we walked a quarter mile along the bank to a landing with a nice eddy. After a brief introduction to how to paddle, we take off into the first rapid entitled "Terminator." This was a very long class 3 with huge waves, that segued into "Terminator 2" and then "Terminator 3." Not very imaginatively named, but all in all it was essentially a 2 mile wave train with massive waves but not very many rocks or holes. In other words, it was about 10 minutes of the most fun rafting Carrie or I have had. No real worries, just big waves over and over.

After that couple of miles, Carrie and I switch out of the front of the boat (the front of the boat is like the front of the roller coaster; it is always more fun) to let the other passengers have their turn. We continue to go through very similar class IIIs for another hour or so, and then we finish off with 20 minutes of floating and simply enjoying the view. We finish off with a tasty lunch prepared by our guides, and the head back into town weary but extremely satisfied. In fact, Carrie has proclaimed this "the best day of the trip so far." Dave is uncertain about that, but is definitely in agreement that the rafting is the most fun we`ve had.

Luckily for us, Betsy has dinner waiting for us, so we enjoy another home cooked meal of Mediterranean salad and pasta, and we soon thereafter pass out at the unseemly hour of 10:00 (a record for the trip).

Dec. 20th – On to Puerto Varas

As green and verdant as Chiloe is, we are ready to get back to where the action is since we are no longer locked into spending 3 days on the sleepy archipelago. We take our nephew Bryce over to play on the old train engines in one of the parks in town, and then bust a move back to the mainland to visit Puerto Varas, which our Lonely Planet describes as the “next Pucon” owing to its happenin´ character and easy access to lots of outdoor activities.

We arrive after driving in the rain for 3 hours to find a charming little town on the banks of an extremely large lake that is chock full of Swiss chalets and other European style architecture. The 5 of us check into a fully-equipped cabin associated with the fanciest hotel in town, which meant that we could enjoy the views, swimming pool, and internet for half of the price of the hotel rooms in addition to having the first home cooked meals since Betsy’s soup in La Serena. Here is the view from our cabin:

After getting situated, we head into town to see the sights and arrange a raft trip for the following day. Of course it rains on us continually, but we manage to book the trip and buy groceries for the next two days before returning to our snug little cabin for the a quick dip in the pool before dinner. We introduced Bryce to "Marco Polo" and we all laughed and laughed while having a surprising amount of fun participating in something I´ve always considered a kids game.

After swimming, Betsy whipped up a delicious corn chowder, and as a special bonus for Rich and I the girls had bought a huge bowl of fresh mussels for $2 (that easily would have cost over $20 at a restaurant in the states). We ate and ate, and only barely managed to finish all of the mussels.

After dinner we played a game of Hearts while Bryce watched the Empire Strikes Back for the 4th time in 2 days. After several bottles of Vino, we are ready to call it a day.

Dec. 19th - Disaster Strikes

The 19th starts up like most every other day on the trip, get dressed and packed, and enjoy the traditional Chilean breakfast of Nescafe (instant coffee), with toast/rolls and butter and jelly. We all split up to take care of various tasks, with Jule being in charge of taking care of Bryce. In the course of the task, she takes him down to the McDonalds down the street to play in the playground and have some lunch. Evidently they got into a small argument while waiting in line, which provided some local thief a prime opportunity to bump into her and grab her wallet out of her purse in the process. Please keep in mind that today was John and Jule's 42nd wedding anniversary.

We find this out when everyone comes back from their various tasks, and everything becomes chaotic as we realize that her wallet contained her passport, the copy of her passport, her glasses, her money, and all of her credit cards. John begins calling to cancel of their credit cards, as the stolen cards all duplicates of the ones in his wallet. Carrie gets the front desk to call the American Embassy for her and learns that the only way to get a new passport will be to go apply for one in Santiago and that Jule will not be able to leave the country until a passport is obtained. Since we all rented a house in Argentina for Chirstmas, a new passport ASAP is required. So, Carrie begins booking flights to Santiago and Santiago hotel rooms for John and Jule, while Betsy goes to get money and clear a credit card for her parents to travel with. Rich goes to take care of something else, and Dave plays with Byrce away from the nerve center so that everyone else can concentrate at the work at hand. Eventually, we get everything done and pile in the cars for the drive to the airport in the hopes that John and Jule can catch the 3:00 flight to Santiago.

At the airport, we all are treated to some bureaucracy that astonishes even the most cynical among us. It turns out that one of the airlines has two $78 tickets for the 3:30 flight (the other airline was $500), but they didn´t have lunches for them. We said, no problem, they can do without. The dude behind the counter, replied that, "no, that is a big problem, as they have a strict rule that each person must be served a meal." Despite much pleading on the girls part (and they are both quite adept at getting their way) about how we had an emergency, and that her parents had to make this flight, and that it was their anniversary, the best the dude could say that was we had to wait until they began boarding the flight to ask the stewardess if they could find two more meals. We all anxiously waited 20 more minutes until they said they could accommodate us. Thankfully, we loaded John and Jule on the plane with $800 cash from our ATM cards and Betsy's credit card and said "good luck, and happy anniversary!"

The five of us then headed down south for the island of Chiloe (pronounced Chill-away), which is generally described as a misty, verdant, sleepy land that was allowed to develop independently of the rest of Chile due to its island nature. We arrived in the southern port of Pargua and drove onto a ferry that almost immediately disembarked (as we hoped we had got on the right ferry). We had, and we got out and enjoyed the 30 minute ride over to Chiloe.

We unloaded on the other side and took off for our cabin in Ancud, which we had booked only because we couldn´t get a room booked in Castro from the U.S. (the town our guide book raved about). Upon arriving in Ancud, however, the operator of the "cabin" told us that our nicer cabin wouldn´t be available for another day, but that he had a crappier cabin to offer us for tonight. We respectfully declined, and bid a hasty retreat for Castro.

The drive to Castro was a bit long, considering we left Puerto Montt about 5 hours later than we intended, but it was extremely beautiful, with lush and verdant hills stretching in every direction. We finally made it to town only to find our first four choices booked solid (on a Tuesday , no less). We eventually found lodging at the Hostal Casita Espanola, a small but cute hostel a couple of blocks from the action. We gratefully unloaded our stuff and walked into the center of town to a pizzeria. After dinner, we had several drinks at the Anos Luz, and very cool pub that featured a bar made out of an old fishing boat. After several cervazas, we walked back to our hotel and called it a night.

Dec. 18th - Goodbye Pucon, Hello Family

Written from Dave´s point of view:

"What time is it, and why is my alarm going off? Oh right, I agreed to go fishing with Rich this morning. Is is still raining? Of course it is. "

I get extra bundled and go join Rich in the front room of Ecole! to wait for our river guide. Rich had brought his fly-fishing gear all of the way from Boston to fish the waters of South America, and therefore I felt somewhat obligated to go with him to see what the waters of Chile had in store. Our guide Pedro picked us up in a newer Toyota Tacoma towing a (very much) older wooden dory with no motor. Off we go in search of adventure!

The first river we stopped at was raging, so our guide took us to his plan B, which was just as beautiful but much calmer. We load up in the tiny dory, with Rich fishing off the right with a fly rod, and me perched beside him with a spinning road. The boat was small enough that we had to take turns, with Rich hitting the slow spots on the banks with his fly road, and me hitting the the faster sections by trolling my line down river ahead of us and then reeling it back in. We each catch a couple of little 1/3 pound trout (Rich calls them saltine fish, as in "well, you could always throw them on a saltine." Once, I couldn't even tell I has something on my line until I had reeled most of my line in.

All of a sudden, though, everything changed. Something much bigger had hit my line, and was giving me quite a struggle. What I´m sure was only 1 minute of fighting seemed like 5 minutes, with my rod bent over almost sideways for much of it. Finally, I got him beside the boat and saw how big he actually was. Rich and the guide both started hoopin´and hollering, and Rich actually said it was the biggest trout he's seen (of course he mostly fishes saltwater, but still). It was a brown trout, and the guide estimated it at 3 to 3 1/2 lbs. Certainly the biggest fish I´ve ever caught, and quite a inducement for me to continue the sport.




After that, everything pretty much had to be downhill, despite the fact I caught one more decent 1 lb. rainbow trout. Rich ended up catching about 7-8 trout with his fly rod, but none of them more than a pound. Regardless, he too had a blast, and we both continually marveled at the beautiful surroundings as we floated down the river. All good things must come to an end, though, so after 3 or so miles in 3 hours, we pulled out just before the rapids started and headed back to town to pack up.

Back in Pucon, Betsy was raring to get on the road to Puerto Montt, where her son, Bryce, was waiting for her and Rich after being on a two-week cruise around the bottom of South America with his grandparents. Betsy and Rich had been doing okay without their son on their trip with us, but in the previous couple of days it was becoming quite obvious that they were missing him terribly. Unfortunately, Carrie had just discovered that she had left her ATM card in the ATM machine the day before, and when we explained our predicament to the security guard, he told us that we had to wait 2 more hours for the end of the siesta before the could check to see if they had the card. Well, 2 hours here can easily often be 3-4 hours, and since we had no guarantee that they actually had it (and a anxious mother dying to see her baby), we decided to just call and cancel the card and deal with it later so that we could get on the road to Puerto Montt.

The drive turned out to be a quick 3 1/2 hours; we had heard that it might take as long as 6 hours, so that was a relief. We had planned to meet Carrie and Betsy´s parents and Bryce at a hotel, so we drove straight there. The streets of Puerto Montt were busy, dirty, and cowded with pedestrians. We found the hotel, and Betsy jumped out of the car (she couldn´t wait one more minute to see Bryce) while we went in search of parking. Luckily we went around the block and got (DeJager) lucky with parking right in front of the hotel. We arrived as Betsy walked out the door with Byrce and Carrie´s dad, big smiles all around. Bryce slammed himself into Rich wrapping around him tightly, then there were big hugs for Uncle Davey and Aunt Carrie, too. Happy reunion for all.

We all got settled into our rooms at the Hotel O´Grimm. The name pretty much says it all, but we only had to be there for one night. After Carrie´s mom woke up from a nap, we all set out to find a pre-dinner snack. It was only 6:30pm after all, and no one was serving dinner even though we were all hungry. It was quite a different thing now as our group had expanded from 2 couples, to 6 adults and a child. We couldn´t exactly blend into the crowd very well and got a lot of stares on the streets. We found a nearby bar called "Sherlock" and had a couple drinks and french fries. Carrie and Dave went for a quick walk after dinner to explore Puerto Montt. We really all that impressed. There wasn´t much that was cute about the town. It just seemed like a busy, dirty working town.

Later we all went out in serach of a nice dinner. Unfortunately, the two "good"restaurants listed in Lonley Planet and Frommers had disappeared (construction sites where they were supposed to be), so we settled for another bar that was serving food. It was SUPER smokey - I can´t remember the last time I actually ate a meal in a smoke filled room, and I certainly don´t miss it. Finally we went back to the hotel and planned to leave for Chiloe early the next morning.