February 24th
Today was a lazy day, but still full of fun! We opted to stay in Puerto Montt today because the beer festival was on. It was early afternoon when we walked around town and took random photo's.
We walked along the boardwalk and saw all these birds resting under a pier. We didn’t think they were birds at first, because of the pattern that was formed.
While taking some photo’s of the birds, these two young ladies started to laugh and were looking above my head. I turned around to see a small dingy (boat) attached to a light glider plane” … I forget what they are called. What an unusual site. I looked at the two young ladies and we all started to laugh.
After walking quite a distance down the boardwalk, we turned around and went to the Holiday Inn. You go into an elevator lobby where you are greeted by security. When we explained we wanted to have a view of the harbor from the top floor, he mentioned for us to go in the elevator to the lobby and we could see the view. We were not aware that the lobby was on the top floor until we got into the elevator. What a view!
We then headed around the corner to the mall for a quick lunch.
Being the beer fest, we decided to seek out some entertainment and we were certainly not disappointed. There was entertainment of different sorts playing around the area. The most amazing talent was listening to Hermanos Vargas playing the guitar. Could he ever make his guitar sing! We were so impressed that we bought 3 cd’s. I videotaped four songs, but cannot place them on the blog.
After listening to different talent we visited the Information Center. The gentlemen that served us could not speak English and went in back to bring out a co-worker. While talking to this love lady, she shared with us some places that we should go visit. During our conversation she noticed my tattoo and asked if I was in Thailand. She then showed me her tattoo which was also from Thailand. I informed her that my daughter and I both got this tattoo and she said that her and her daughter also got tattoos. We must have talked for about an hour. We asked about the beer festival activities to find out that we would have to take a bus out to another part of town and it was basically just a drinking event. We thought we could do the drinking event well enough in this area. LOL
We then headed to get some groceries for our drive tomorrow. While at the Unimark (Grocery Store), we were waiting in the line to pay for our items. Just in front of us was a lady with her mother. She turned around and I said, “Hola”. She had asked where we were from and I told her Canada. Well, she took off her sunglasses and her eyes got big. She started to talk to us in English and said that her dream is to go to Canada. The more we talked about Canada the more excited she got. As her mother paid for the groceries and they were about to leave, she leaned over and gave us a Chilean kiss goodbye. She was so excited … what a lovely lady … such wonderful people.
After returning back to the home we did a little more work on the computers. It was around 6:30pm and we thought we would go back downtown to check out more entertainment and have supper. After walking around for about half an hour there was only one small group playing on the boardwalk and we had just missed listening to a Church choir singing. We were looking for a restaurant to eat and stopped by one that we ate at the other day. The host was there and asked if we wanted to eat. We asked if there was any specials now and he indicated only what was in the menu. The sign we saw was all they had on special, but we believe it was over.
After chatting a little while we said we would be back another day when they have specials. We ended up going to a restaurant next to his and we sat outside around the corner. A few minutes later he walked by and said, “Oh, so this is where you decided to eat and not at our place!
He smiled and we laughed, saying, “You caught us!”
We order a sandwich which was hamburger with all the vegetable fixings. It was absolutely huge! Thank goodness we only ordered one. LOL
We had just finished eating when this guy in a leather jacket came up to us. He had been sitting outside on the side close to the other restaurant. The host from the other restaurant must have seen him get up because he came over and talked to the guy in Spanish. The guy in the leather jacket ignored him and continued to attempt to talk to us. I should mention he was leaning over me, holding a beer can and drooling … he obviously had a few beers too many. The host from the other restaurant went inside the restaurant we were in and came out with a waiter. The waiter stepped in between me and the guy with the leather jacket and spoke firmly to the guy in the leather jacket. The guy in the leather jacket left. We started to thank the host of the other restaurant for his thoughtfulness and he said, “See! If you ate at my restaurant you have no problems, here you have trouble.” We all laughed … what a character. I am still laughing.
February 25th
We got up early this morning to drive about two and a half hours north of Puerto Montt to visit an area loaded with waterfalls (as was recommended by the lovely lady at the information center yesterday). We took Route 5 up to Orsono and then turned east making our way to Antucura in Parque Nacional Puyehue. We didn’t realize we had driven passed Antucura as we thought it was a small town, but it turned out to be a resort. We ended up a short distance passed it at the Argentina border. We turned around as we don’t have insurance for the car to take out of country.
We turned around and made our first stop at a waterfall that was near the highway, Saltos Los Novios.
While here I noticed some stuff floating in the river. I saw a lot of it on the shore, but thought it may be different. I picked up a handful of the rocks, they were very light, and threw them in the water. They floated! It was pumice.
We then drove to Antucura about 1 kilometer back and parked the car. The first waterfall, Salto Rio Anticura, was very close to where we parked the car.
We then hiked about 3km to another waterfall, Salto Pudu.
As we were hiking back out from this waterfall we came across a monster of a "slug". We will call it that as we are not sure what it is, because of it's length. When you look at the photo, I strategically placed my foot on top of photo to give an indication of size. Special note, my sneaker is size 11!
We drove across the highway and visited the resort. It turned out that we had to pay 1,000 pesos ($2.00CDN) to visit all the waterfalls. We did the 7km hike around to see the remaining 3 waterfalls on this side. Absolutely amazing!
As we started the hike in, we were informed to look for a tree that 15 people can stand on the inside of the tree. We found the tree and it was quite huge. I went inside and took a few photo's, some photo's shooting straight up to the little opening near the top of the tree, to the opening I used as a door. I must say it was a little creepy. I guess I watched too many scary movies that involved trees. LOL
Not too far from this tree was the first waterfall, Salto Del Indio. Up to this point, this was certainly my favorite waterfall. If you look closely in the second photo of this same waterfall you will see how the branches formed the shape of a heart, no photoediting for this effect. Awwww!
We then proceeded to the next waterfall, Salto de la Princesa. Another gorgeous waterfall.
Our last waterfall on this hike was Saltos Repucura. Another wonderfull waterfall.
I decided to do a little side hike for a better angle of this waterfall. I stopped to take a photo of a neat patterned spider web and lossed my balance. I ended up falling into the bushes. I came out with branches, leaves, mud on me. Hoping that I didn't pick up any little creatures. LOL
On our way out of the park we stopped at an old wooden church. I just love unique architectures.
Where it was still early enough, we headed on a back road back towards Las Cascadas where we had driven through a couple days ago.
On the way, I was able to take a few other photo's of the Volcano that we hiked around only from a different perspective. Every angle of this volcano was magnificent and so different.
The other day, when we drove around the lake we had driven by Las Cascadas and it wasn’t until we got back to Puerto Montt that we realized we didn’t stop here even though we had it marked. When talking to the lady yesterday at the information centre she said we must go there to see these waterfalls, La Cascadas, as they were absolutely amazing. She was absolutely right. You would think that after visiting 6 waterfalls already, what is the big deal about seeing another waterfall. Well, let me just say, it was great that we saved this one for the last one.
When we got to a gate, there was a sign that indicated that they close the gate at 6:30pm. It was already 5:50pm so we parked outside of this gate. We walked in about 1.5km to the area where you park … what a nightmare with cars lined up trying to get a parking spot and cars trying to leave. The dirt road going in was narrow in many places and you can’t pass … someone has to pull over. We were very glad we walked in. You then have to register at a desk, leaving your name, passport number and number in your party. There is no fee, but they ask for a voluntary donation. A Chilean told us that 1,000.00 pesos for the both of us was good enough.
We started our hike to the falls. This waterfall had a great number of visitors. When we got to the falls there is a narrow path that takes you down to the falls … wow! So impressive! In the first photo below you see some guys in the bottom corner. This gives a clear indication of the size of this waterfall.
We enjoyed all the waterfalls, but this was certainly a great one to end the day.
