The Davebrand Monthly Visitor

Hola from the Tres Reyes Hotel (motto: Now with 50% more Reyes!) in Bariloches, Argentina. I made it across the border with all of my smuggled goods, my goofy grin, and my personal dignity intact.

The trip from Puerto Varas that I took is called the Cruces de Lago, or Crossing the Lake, trip. If the weather is nice, like it was today, then the trip is worth it, but I would argue that the hassle of crossing the border and waiting around a friggin’ lot is a pain in the ass in the rain.

The trip passes four lakes via three different boats and four different busses. That’s a lot of getting off and getting on, and while waiting around, I was forced to interact with people. Which is fine, people I can take or leave. But I have discovered that my alone time is precious. Nothing refreshes me like being by myself, reading a book, walking through the woods, drinking a cappaccino.

In fact, last night, in Puerto Varas, I had the whole restaurant to myself. Some would argue that eating at a restaurant with no other customers is a bad idea, but I really enjoyed being alone, reading, eating good food. It’s good to be the king! Sirocco is an excellent hotel and restaurant in an old building that’s been completely refurbished, and I can’t recommend it enough.

And that’s enough.

Ciao!

I have found new love — her name is chupa de loco. It’s translated to a cake of abalone, but it’s closer to a dense soufleé with egg, cheese, and little bit of shellfish, fresh from the ocean.

Which is a problem for the penguins, who are rather fond of the stuff. They live out of the coast in four colonies, both Magellinic and the other kind. The fishermen will take you out on a boat for $5 to show you the penguins and seaweed and sea otters (nutria) which all compete for the precious shellfish.

And it doesn’t hurt that you can get five pounds of the stuff for four dollars in a huge curanto in Ancud. Ancud and the capital of Chiloë, Castro, are big towns, but the quintessential Chiloay town might be Chonchi. I regret not staying there, but I was running late and ended up staying at El Galeón Azul in Ancud, overlooking the bay and eating chupa.

I was in Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt for a few days, which is a lovely little resort German town/dirty port city. I stayed at a hotel/restaurant, Sirocco, whcih was pretty cool. It’s this really old home with a restaurant on the second floor and rooms on the third. The people were really nice, and I tried the food, and was pleasantly suprised how good it was. Not just good, because most of the food here is good and let’s face it, I’m not picky, but inventive. The chef has this dish called Cappucchino de Camarones, and I thought, hey, that’s got to be some sort of joke, and it turns out to be a shimp broth with a creamy froth that looks exactly like Cappucchino! On the downside, it tasted like a shrimp broth with a creamy froth that looks exactly like Cappucchino.

The local abalone, the ‘loco’, is great and fresh. They have this souffle style dish, with cheese, eggs, and abalone, and its awesome. I had it in Puerto Varas and here in Ancud, and it’s even better here. They catch/pull them, whatever it is they do to abalone, just around the beach here.

Yesterday, I rented a car and went to the Parque Nacional Alerce Andiano, which is a huge reserve for Alerce trees, the redwoods of the south. They are these hugh, 40-70 feet tall trees that smell like cedar. I drove down the Ruta 5, the Panamerican highway, until I turned off to the Carretta Austral - the Southern Road - further and further south, until there were fewer and fewer cars and busses and houses, and the road narrows, and then you see cows and goats on the street, and folks on horseback. I turned off that road down an unpaved road for a few miles, and picked up a hitchhiker, until we got the park.

It was a perfect day, warm but not hot, few bugs, a little wind. The trail follows the Rio Chiaca, and all around you hear birds and frogs. I recorded the sound because it was so cool. Then, after a few km, you see the alerce trees, and as a treat, there’s a huge waterfall.

But back to food. Since I’m in Chiloë, I will be eating nothing but seafood until I get to Argentina. In fact, my pee already smells like fish.

Achtung!

I’m in Puerto Varas, the home of the slightly less well known Chilean poet Wolfgang Pablo “The Nuda”. It’s a Chilean town with heavy German influences. For example, the hotel I’m staying at is called the “Schlafus Haus de Mortir.” It’s a restaurant/hotel/mortuary, which is a good buisness to be in. As the fellow I met in Temuco said, “people are always dying to shop here!” Of course, he ran a poison supply store.

Yesterday, in a fit of craziness, I took a taxi from Pucon to Loncoche. There’s no train in Pucon, but there is in Loncoche, which brought me very very slowly to Puerto Varas. The taxi ride cost 30000 peso, about 55 dollars, while the train ride cost a whole 3000 pesos. Call me penny-wise, pound-foolish, if you want, but I couldn’t resist taking the Old Patagonian Express.

Onward Edward.

Things are good. I’m finally leaving my spa-resort-gilded cage today to go further south. the weather looks good - warm, long summer days. This hotel is quite interesting - it was built in 1950s, in the Bauhaus style. Very modern for the time, it still has a quality about it.

The manager here is my own personal Basil Fawlty. His name is Erwin, and he follows me around and makes suggestions: “I recommend to you this wine from Chile. I recommend to you the Class III rapids. I recommend to you to stay longer at the hotel. I recommend to you not to take the train, as you will never get off.”

The best was when he saw me reading Borges: “Ah, Borges. He grew up in Argentina, but had a British nanny in Switzerland! His parents were rich. He would take walnuts to crack with his ass cheeks. And… uh, Argentinan!”

This morning I had a massage to the tune of the 1812 overture, complete with cannon percussion on my nose. Still, it was only the second worst massage I’ve had. The masseuse looked a lot like Sybil Fawlty, actually. Hmmm…