Licor de Oro

I bought a bottle of Licor de Oro at the handicraft fair in Puerto Montt yesterday. Nobody could translate for me what it actually was, but I asked the seller what his favorite flavor was. Para Mujeres o hombres? he asked. Mujeres, I responded, and he poured me a cup of thick, white liquid.

It was amazing. Like eggnog on christmas day. I bought a bottle for 2500 pesos.

Later, I found out it comes from cow´s milk. Leche de Vaca. Gross! But some how soooooo delicious.

I wish I could ship you all a bottle. Perhaps I will try.

it ain´t easy getting to coyhaique

Gonzalo, bless his peaceful yoga warrior heart, spent an hour helping me figure out how to get to Coyhaique by the end of the week, where Paula has reserved me a night in a hostal.

None of the websites are in english. Some sites claim a service will take you there, but when you call they deny it, or the online reviews are so terrible that you think you may never arrive there even if you do get a ticket.

Finally, this morning, Gonzalo made a phone call that ended my searh. Quielen Bus service will take you from Puerto Montto to Coyhaique for 50 dollars. Beats flying for 200. It is a 22 hour ride, leaving tomorrow (Wednesday 11-04) at noon and arrives in Coyhaique Thursday at 10 a.m. He says they provide snacks and stop for dinner. PHEW!!!! I´m off to Puerto Montt to get my ticket.

I will get to spend another night here in Puerto Varas, and climb with Paolo, and then tomorrow morning I am off to Coyhaique! Chao amigos!

Bouldering Cave in the basement!

The only thing that could make this place better is a climbing gym, I thought, as Gonzalo gave me the hostal tour. While discussing favorite activities, and Gonzalo inviting me to take a yoga class while I´m here, I mentioned my passion for climbing.

Come downstairs, he motioned, and we descended a dusty, crumbling stone staircase. I first noticed climbing shoes and chalk bags, hanging from nails on the wall and nearly lost it. We turned a corner to arrive at a small bouldering cave with marked routes. All my friends here are climbers, he said. Paolo built this wall. It is yours to play on!

Later that night, Paolo showed up for his climbing session (every morning and night for one hour, he says) and invited me to climb with him. We bouldered for an hour, and he was impressed that I could do all the problems (even one he couldn´t do). Strong for a girl! he said, and shook my hand when I finished a route he fell on.

Paolo speaks italian, spanish, portuguese and english, and is a bike and hike guide here in Puerto Varas. I love my country! He always says, and told me about a secret climbing place. A place I immediately went online to see pictures of. He made me promise to keep it a secret, so those friends who are loyal enough to read my blog, you will ask me about it and instead of telling you I will tell you we should all go there together on our next trip. Perhaps January of 2011. (I have attached a picture from online to wet your appetite). Start planning.

I don´t think I´ll have time to go to this secret amazing incredible climbing place this trip, but it is on my to do list.

My heart floats when I walk on these streets

11-03
930 AM

I made it Puerto Varas yesterday.

I was asleep when we arrived from Puerto Montt, where we had lunch at the local fish market, where I made my 3rd offense agaisnt my vegetarianism with a plate of salmon, covered in cheese, as usual, and riddled with bones. Walker ordered a plate of the sea - literally everything that lives beneath the waves was dead on his plate. He was surprised that the abalone was cooked. Turns out restaurants must cook all the seafood they serve so people do not catch the red sea disease. I bought some alpaca socks and scarf at the handicraft fair and took some fantastic pictures of boats, sea lions, pelicans, and dogs.

We pulled into ¨Sweet Home Puerto Varas¨, our hostal for the night, and when I stepped off the bus I almost fell into a large OM sign which had been dug into the ground. A large rose bush of the most lilac purple sat by the wooden archway. The house is a yoga studio and hostal in one, and the place has been decorated with attention to every square inch. The green bedspreads and the soft yellow walls, the large brightly colored paintings in every room, the hand carved wooden table in the kitchen...spectacular.

I dropped my pack and hit the street, noticing the lake just a few hundred feet fromt he door, and a large ship sleeping at the port. The german architecture and chocolate shops lined the street as I descended the hill into the plaza de armas. Unlike most ciudades before this, I could anticipate the streets, as everything was in a grid format, and I found my way around easily.

Gonzalo, the hostal owner, insists this place has an energy (not surprising coming from a yoga instructor) but you know, he´s right. I am truly at home in Puerto Varas. I could live here all my life despite the constant rain. Luckily, I don´t have to leave today, but when a do, a part of me will long for this place forever.

red neck hippie

Walker is a red neck hippie, my guess is the only one in the world?

He´s owned a bar in cambodia. He´s been cornered by 20 stray dogs in Samoa after a hurricane (saved by a local who beat the dogs with a stick). He grew pot on a hippie commune in California in the 70´s. He taught english in jails for several years. He almost lost a leg from a spider bite in India. Thankfully there are no poisonous spiders in Chile, or snakes.

Walker went to a hospital near Nepal a couple days after he was bitten, and it started to spread and get infected. The hospital was littered with dirty bandages and stray dogs. None of the doctors spoke english. They just motioned with a straight hand in chopping motion over his leg, just below the knee. Walker lost it and called the British embassy.

They rushed a doctor over who said ¨Yep. this is bad. they cut legs off that look like that in this country. But let me try to cut it out and load you with more antibiotics than is legal anywhere in the world.¨

It worked, and walker got to keep his leg, but he had to return to America promptly, for proper medical care.

Walker alternate girlfriends and travel every six months. ¨My last one was a librarian. She gave me the best documentaries. I miss those. Not her.¨ He drinks beer all day instead of water because he knows it´s safe to drink. ¨I never claimed to be a healthy guy¨ Walker chuckles, as he throws back his 10th escudo, a popular (and quite tasty) beer in Chile.

Wakler the red neck hippie. At 65, My most unlikely favorite person on this trip so far.

Please remember me

Instead of saying please remind me, our guide Nicole said Please remember me, in such a serious voice I was forced to laugh out loud. Then, commenting on Walker´s beard, she said ¨Walker I like your barf!¨ Walker, a better person than I, said ¨thanks, I like my beard too.¨

Puzones Hot Springs

On Halloween we ventured away from Pucon to Puzones Hot Springs, a series of pools with temps between 95 and 105 F right along a class IV river. Thankfully there are no nudists howling at the moon with axe in hand here.

In the hottest of pools I met Jerry Laker, an ecologist who moved to Pucon from Scottland to do conservation work, in particular to work with the farmers to curb the puma shootings. The real problem, Jerry says, is the stray dogs. ¨I´d shoot the lot of them.¨

Turns out Jerry worked in Cochrane, where I´ll be working, with the same crew at Conservacion Patagonica. In fact, he knows the very people I have been emailing to set my volunteer project up. He met his wife Piaa there as well, who has since started a school in Pucon. ¨It´s the most beautiful land you will ever know,¨ says Jerry. The animals don´t see humans as a threat like they do everywhere else, and will let you get close, even touch them at times (pic of huemel above).

Jerry instructed me to have Christian show me the huemel. ¨He´s got a special spot. Tell him to take you there.¨ And so I will.