Vacations - more or less relaxing

Enjoying the first holiday lunch with Inés

Our vacations brought us to Valparaiso, the only really interesting and fascinating city in Chile. It is located around a big bay on the shores of the Pacific Ocean west of Santiago. It has a very unique flair being a mixture of almost everything you can imagine. It is a port town and the headquarter of the Chilean navy and that for crowded by marines in their nice uniforms as well as sailors, whores, drinkers and all that kind of people related to any big harbour of the world. As well it is inhabited by lots of artists and students who give it a bohemian touch. And of course it is full of tourists. The town consists of two totally different parts. There is the flat bay itself, containing the Chilean parliament, office buildings, huge colonial houses, the port, bars, restaurants, cinemas and all the urban infrastructure. With the centuries the city spread over the surrounding hills, climbing them with weirdly meandering steep roads and even steeper, adventerous elevators – so called ‘ascensores’. Up on the hills there exists another town. Constructed following the natural shape not two houses are alike. They are painted in any imaginable colour and you find huge mansions next to dangerously looking barracks. On the hills you find lots of art cafés, international restaurants, art shops, galleries, lovely hostels and various museums. Artists are offering their work and handicrafts on any corner and time does not seem to exist there. The whole town itself, especially up on the hills is a huge piece of art. On every single house, in every back alley or staircase you find paintings and graffitis. Some of them pure scribblings others great pieces of art.

Valparaiso is not truely a beatiful town. It is shabby, dirty and stinks but the flair it gets for its wide range of inhabitants and its unique landscape makes it really fascinating. According to that it reminds me a little of Venice. You just have the hills in spite of the channels.

We arrived and took a room in a central hostel in the plane which I knew from my first visit here. We walked around the city and the hills, eating and drinking in fine cafés and restaurants, watching arts and handicrafts, climbing the hills with some of the ‘ascensores’ or by steep labyrinthine staircases, just soaking up the spirit of the town. In the night we hardly found sleep because the alarm of a car just outside our window rang every 30 minutes and one floor above us anyone walked around and moved chairs loudly half of the night. Meanwhile on the other end of the Pacific Ocean the major earthquake in Japan took place. Soon after we had woken up we realised that there was a tsunami warning for the whole Chilean coast. Inés got really nervous and hardly could enjoy the day but nevertheless we discovered the city another time. We followed the medias during the day and when they informed that the tsunami had hit the Easter Island (belonging to Chile) with waves of about 1 ½ m we decided to return to our hostel to prepare ourselves to leave. When we came there, the owner informed us that there is an evacuation going on and until early night everybody has to leave the bay. So we packed our things and searched for a hostel up on the hills which was not that easy because those are the classic tourist places and due to the tsunami alert everybody who did not leave town was searching shelter there as well. Finally we found a nice hostel where we even spent a quiet night this time. To relax from the stress of the evacuation we had an awesome dinner in a French restaurant just next door (ostrich tenderloin with couscous and cremé brulée as dessert).

During the night the tsunami went by without causing any problems (although in other regions of the coast a few minor destructions had been reported). On the next day we went to Isla Negra a small village where you can visit the house of Pablo Neruda, Chile’s most famous poet and Nobel Prize winner which nowadays is a museum dedicated to him and his collecting passion. When we came there, they told us you just can visit the house with previous registration (which was not mentioned on the homepage that I had watched before) but finally after some discussion they let us join an English tour. That was a little disappointing because we had been guided through like cattle in a market and you did not feel that much of of Pablo Neruda's extravagance nor got any deeper insight in his interesting life.

Our plan had been to spend the next days on some beach but unfortunately a chilly strong wind had come up and did not seem to leave soon, so we changed plans. The next day we went to a small town called Curíco where we hoped to relax from the tsunami evacuation and all the rest and to visit a nearby national park in the Andean foothills and one of the numerous vineries in the region. We got there and did not find any proper hostel. They all had been either horribly dirty and run-down or damned expensive despite the town itself does not has to offer anything. Finally we took the best room we had found to spend the night although it was still very basic and anything else than inviting. The next day we went to the closeby village of Molina where there should leave buses to the national park. Unfortunately this service had already been suspended due to the end of the summer season. Very frustrated, because nothing seemed to happen well these days we did not try to go to a vinery anymore but took the next bus back to Pucon because we said that we are having chaos in our own house there as well, but at least no costs when we stay there. On the way back to Pucón it started raining heavily.....

So far the story of our only more or less relaxing and a little disappointing holidays. At least Inés and I have had a few days away from Pucón where we had stuck the last months due to the high season and some hours together only the two of us, which let us make some decisions and plans for the future. More about that the next time.

High Season

Being happy at work

Right in time to help to cure my January depression there opened up a German restaurant in the center of Pucón called 'Biergarten' (Beer garden). It is run by a very nice German couple and because Elke, the owner, is working in the kitchen herself, you can get real authentic German food over there like 'Schnitzel', 'Leberkaese', 'faschierte Leibchen' or 'Bratwuerstl'. Because they of course have very good beer as well and Uli, Elkes husband, is an enthusiastic motorcyclist it became something like my second living room and I washed down my frustration there with some nice draft 'Weizen' more than once.

Fortunately February had been much better than January and I had to work a lot which saved me from drinking too much beers at 'Biergarten'. That for I drank them at lots of asados with colleagues like someone uses to do it here during the summer. So I finally earned some money, had fun on the river, a lot of sun and no time to be annoyed with troublesome Chileans. Apart high season has to offer numerous events in Pucón. Apart from the asados there took place various concerts, the annual triathlon, a rodeo, numerous exhibitions and so on. Inés and I had been to the life performance of Chile's most famous theatre group who has a weekly sitcom. They had a cooperation with Inés' restaurant so we got free tickets. It was a typical funny and easily understandable slapstick comedy about relationship problems so even I could laugh a lot.

So February passed by quite fast and amusing and meanwhile high season already had come to an end a few days ago. Now Inés, who had been working heavily as well these weeks, and I will go on a small holiday for about a week to relax from all the tourist crazyness. We will go north from Pucón but to know whereto exactly you will have to have a look in here again because so far we do not exactly know it ourselves.

Festive Season

Asado

I am back again after all these weeks of apparently endless celebrations. Although it had not even been celebrations that fierce this year. Christmas we spent in the house with the kids, having a lovely game stew I had cooked for the whole family. After everybody got his presents (which takes some time with so many kids) Inès soon fell asleep because she had worked a lot these days preparing for all the special menus they had served on the holidays. I followed her a little later also still tired from all the activities with Bernd the weeks before. So before midnight we had been sleeping already. On New Years Eve it was me who did not resist that long because I had got a bad cold just the day before. I went to an asado in a friends house and to watch the big fireworks at midnight I went to the restaurant where Inès was working. All the kids had been there as well and we drank sparkling wine and a few drinks but at 2 o'clock I already had to give up and we went home. For my birthday I felt better and killed the last germs inside my body quite succesfully with lots of alcohol. At least on that day I just had to party. I had been the last one for some time. The following week we had real summer with temperatures above 30 degrees C but unfortunately no tourists in town. At least those who had been here did not do rafting. The following week it rained constantly and temperature dropped almost 20 degrees. Tourists decided to do rafting now despite the bad weather conditions but unfortunately I had got a bad influenza that forced me to stay in bed with fever of more than 38 degrees for four days.

For some reasons once more Chilean people turned out to be totally irresponsible and not trustworthy which gets on my nerves and apart from that costed me some money as well which I do not really have at the moment. So right now I am quite depressed and frustrated and do not really know how to go on after the season.

Well at least I am finally totally healthy again, summer came back and as it seems people are willing to do outdoor activities as well. So I hope for some busy weeks to come that I will not find time to annoy myself to much and earn some money as well.

Hopefully my next comments will be a little more positive than this one......

Happy New Year!!!

I wish everybody a Happy New Year!!! May it be a succesful, prosperous, healthy and funny one!!!

I am going to dive deep into the big party wave that overcomes Pucon every New Years Eve and hope that it spits me out again somewhen after my birthday although I have no idea when it will be. So don't be scared when you do not hear or read of me the next days. I will be very fine anyway......

Good luck and keep on dreaming and laughing!!!

Visit from Home

With Bernd on the Top of Volcano Villarica

Soon after we had come back from San Martìn de los Andes, Bernd, a friend of mine which I know from my studies at Leoben university, came to spend his holidays in Chile and stayed in Pucòn for about ten days. It was a great pleasure for me to meet a friend from home, speaking Austrian dialect and warming up old stories of student times. Weather had been unsettled the first days but then it changed to sunny, warm summer weather so we could do some nice things together. Of course we had been on the river doing rafting as well as hydrospeed. (This is to swim down the river in a thick neoprene suit, with fins and a kind of bodyboard.) Doing the hydrospeed Bernd had to serve me as a guinea pig because I was practicing for the exam to become a hydrospeedguide which took place a few days later. We made a tour of the region trying to visit a classical open air concert organized by an Austrian tenor living close to Pucòn. Unfortunately we just could leave Pucòn in the later afternoon and when we arrived there the concert had already been over. Obviously they had given us the wrong time of its beginning. Nevertheless we had a nice trip through the lovely landscape and were recompensed with an amazing sunset over 'Calafquèn Lake'. One evening we had a delicious asado at our house and highlight of the visit for sure was climbing active volcano 'Villarica' (2847m above sea level) just out of Pucòn. The first day we tried it we already could see the top from the starting point of the tour but could not ascend because wind was blowing all the smoke of the crater right into the ascending route. So we had to turn back to Pucòn and that for did canyoning that day. The next day we had been lucky and could make it up to the top. Over there we made a turn around the whole crater with its diameter of 200m so we had an amazing 360 degrees panoramic view over all the surrounding landscape with its numerous volcanoes, lakes, mountains and glaciers. Like the first time when I climbed that mountain again it was quite an impressive experience to stand on the top of an active volcano looking into the crater and thus inside the Earth. The funniest thing about the whole event is going down what you are doing sliding on your bottom through the snow.  So we spent some really relaxing and amusing days and to be true I got a little sentimental when I left Bernd at the bus station the morning he went back to Santiago.

Anyway their had been things for me to do. I had to practice more for the hydrospeed exam. Which I did but unfortunately without success. On monday I loused it up quite badly. It had been a day on which literally anything went wrong that could go wrong. So far I do not have the official results but if they let me pass I strongly had to doubt the competence of the examiners. Well, so I just will keep going down the river in my rubber boat which isn't that bad neither.

Inès meanwhile opened up the restaurant and I already had some delicious meals over there. So far they do not have cuisine a la càrte but only one or two daily set meals. Their speciality is grilled lamb and they serve a very interesting and unique to Pucòn mix of Chilean, Mapuche and Mediterranean kitchen. Frequency of guests already had been okay and they have quite some reservations for Christmas and New Years Eve. So we are hoping that one works well and with it our shop inside.

So far the latest news from the end of the world. I wish everybody of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Take care, take your time and keep on laughing!!!

Short Holiday in Argentina

Argentinian Pampa with Volcano Lanin

A long time you have not read of me because I was quite busy with lots of things. First of all I (almost) finished our bathroom tiling, installing a bath tub and the wash basin and terminating the floor. As well I renovated the children´s bathroom where from I removed our bathtub. The children now have to be content with a shower only. What for I had planned about two weeks took me more than one month. When living in Chile with Inés and nine children European mind based timetables do not work. Now there are just some details like a towel rail missing and I can´t see tiles anymore. At least those not installed yet.

Because Inés is also quite busy with the restaurant and season is coming soon - which means we hardly won´t have any time together - we decided to take some holidays of house, kids and work. Only the two of us together a few days without any things to do. We had planned and postponed the trip for almost a months. One time Inés had to work, another time someone got ill (actually first Inés´oldest son Pablo then Inés and finally myself had been caught by an influenza virus) or there accured any other problems. Finally we managed to travel to San Martín de los Andes in Argentina right across the Andes range for two days.

San Martín is the Argentinian equivalent to Pucón situated right in between the Andes on a scenic lake. We started the trip with a delay of almost three hours because that day there had been a simulation of an eruption of the volcano in Pucón what for all public travel in the morning had been postponed. We went to the 'Mamuil Malal' pass on the food of volcano 'Lanin' which marks the border to Argentina. The road up there leads through the 'Villarica National Park' where it is just a gravel road meandering through dense native forest coming around scenic lakes and waterfalls. Suddenly in the middle of nowhere you come to the border stations where you have to do all the bureaucratic routines first to leave Chile and then to enter Argentina. Waiting in the line you can enjoy a tremendous view of nearby volcano 'Lanin' (although from the height of the pass there are still more than 2500 metres of altitude to the peak missing). When you passed the border controls and crossed the Andes range the landscape changes drastically. The Andes work like a meteorological divide and while on the Chilean side rain fronts coming in from the Pacific Ocean are caught and rain down creating that evergreen dense forests on the Argentinian side there is the 'Pampa' a dry grassland with only few low vegetation. You keep going down a nevertheless awe inspiring valley on a soon again well paved national highway that is only interrupted by adventurous weak looking bridges now and then. Finally we arrived at San Martín found a nice room and went to discover the town. We had our first Argentinian steak accompanied by ´Malbec´ the most typical Argentinian red wine.

The next two days were really relaxing. We slept as long as we wanted to in the morning and did just typical tourist program as we had been in the mood to do. We made a boat trip on 'Lácar' Lake to a small deserted beach area called 'Quila Quina', where you can find a restaurant, a Mapuche settlement and a scenic waterfall. After a walk over there we went back with the boat going for dinner, having venison this time another delicacy of the region again accompanied by a rich 'Malbec'. The next day we made a city tour with an original old London double decker bus some young guys are running over there. We had not been sure what it will be like, boarding the bus with just couples of rich Argentinian retirees but where positively surprised. That guys really showed you the town in an interesting, amusing way reviving town's early days and history as well as introducing you to the surrounding giving you a lot of interesting facts about the region and its history, geography and biology. Once again we ended the day with a delicious dinner of meat.

We came back to Pucón really relaxed and a little sad that it just had been two days of vacations, starting a vegetarian diet after that enormous amounts of meet we have had these days. Now we are awaiting the season and what it will bring to us. Let's hope nothing bad!

New Blood

Kittens about one week old

It is spring. Spring is the time for animals to reproduce. So all our cats got pregnant - even the one of which we thought it is a male one. First 'Diavola' my crazy cat got four kittens. She tried to bear them on the sofa in our living which we fortunately spotted early enough to prepare her a basket. So she gave birth to the kittens in our room and we were watching the astonishing although a litlle disgusting event. An amazing thing to see a new life being born. Her kitties meanwhile have more than one month and are very funny, curious, clumsy and playful. Passing the terrace you really have to take care these days not to scrunch them because they seem to be everywhere at the same moment.

The two other cats got their kittens about two weeks later within only a few days. Interestingly while they seem to be irritated by Diavolas' kitties they bread their own in the same basket and made a kind of kindergarten over their, alternating in breastfeeding and caring for them. Sometimes they even did it at the same time which led to an unclear ball of cats. So right at the moment we have all together 13 cats around the house. When the kittens grow old enough we are going to give them away. Two of them are supposed to hunt mice in the restaurant where Inés is working. The grown up cats we are going to sterilize that we do not open a factory of kittens.

Apart from having young cats Inés one day came home from work with five chicks. Three females and two young cocks. A new try to bread our own chickens and making our hens more happy. Unfortunately these days have been quite cold and so three of them died in the second night of hypothermia. So we had to save the remaining ones, one of which was a young cock fortunately, by bringing them into the house where it was warm enough. I constructed them a small cage in the corner of our living under the oven where they lived the last month. It was quite funny to wake up everyday with their neverending beep-beep-beep. Last week I finally moved them into the cage together with the other hens where I installed them their own small, isolated hut that they will survive any cold snap to come. Let's hope they will grow up well and the cock soon is going to make the hens luckier.

Apart from taking care of lots of young animals Inés and I went to the '1st Pucón Chili Cook Off' two weeks ago. It was a competition of who cooks the best Chili in town. Organized by our favourite pub twelve pubs, restaurants and companies participated. Each of them with their own chili creation from classic ones, over vegetarian chili up to chocolate chili. You had to pay an entrance fee and that for could try as much as you could of all the chilies. They even served sweets and side dishes and offered cheap beer. Each participant had his own decorated stall, music played and in between recurrent rain showers everybody had a lot of fun and laughter and ate until he was totally feeling sated with chili. Visitors could elect their favourite chili and for sure when the winner was awarded party went on in its restaurant until late evening. Well, out of season when their are not that much tourists in town you have to be creative to make business and to amuse yourself. This time it worked quite well.