Day 18 - 254 KMs, Entre Lago, Chile, (Vista Hermosa Camping) (08:00) to Ensenada, Chile (Cabanas Barlovento)

Back to Reality (errr sort of) & wishes of rain!

I woke up around 8am to hear the sounds of wind and light rain beating the van up.  I had dreams of sailing on the ocean so maybe that’s what it was all about?  LOL!  As soon as I got my lazy arse moving around and opened the van door, the cute black cat was waiting for me and she jumped in. WOW!  After sitting there some more, the owner of the backpacker came out and was going to be put a note my van asking me to ‘please close the gate once I leave’.  At that moment I saw that Shane’s van was still there at 9am or so.  I guess he never got enough motivation to get up and go?   I hear you loud and clear, as it was pretty bad weather to want to wake up to.

Anyway, I said good bye and thanks to the hostel owner. He was a nice guy.  Twenty minutes later, Shane and his girlfriend got up and sorted. We took a photo together with my DSLR camera and tripod. They  left for Bariloche to follow my footsteps backwards to Punta Arenas.  The black cat was in the photo too.. 

I was in no rush as I was tired. As I was packisng up, the black cat was sitting in the driver’s seat of the van.  I drove out of the camper van park and the cat followed the van. I opened the door and said, “no catty you cannot come with me…sorry” and she jumped into the van and onto my lap.  How adorable, but this cannot happen. I got out, kissed the catty on the head and said, be well my cute furry friend.   I left. Poor little thing just wants some attention.

So I drove West on Rte 215 towards Osorno (Chile).  There was intermitted construction so I had to stop every 15 Kms.   No worries, it was sort of a “bla” day anyway.  I got to the Hwy 5 and Rte 215 interchange and I got onto Hwy 5 South  This was straight-as long highway with a 120 KM/h speed limit.  I have never seen a speed limit that high except for when I drove from Atlanta to Seattle and I was on I-70 West in Eastern Colorado.   That speed limit was 70 MPH I think.  Anyway, I digress sorry about that.  I went straight towards Puerto Montt. This is a big city about 1150 Kms from Santiago on Hwy 5.  On the way, I was taken by surprise because I saw tolls to pay.  These were for every exit.  I thought I was in the clear because I was not exciting at all.. (just dumping into the Puerto Montt).   I was wrong because the toll part of the highway ended in the MIDDLE of the road.  I had to pay like 3000 CLP to keep going. WTF?  Anyway, I did that and kept going.

I made a wish for rain 2 weeks ago, and I finally got it
and enjoyed my rain as I drove down Ruta 5 South towards
Puerto Montt.

Oh did I mention that it was downpouring during this entire drive on Ruta 5 South? Normally this is a bad thing, but it was good for me and the van because I had not seen, smelled or felt rain for a long time.  I got within 20 KMs of Puerto Montt and stopped at a Shell petrol station to fill up the tank.  I just figure it’s easier to do this OUTSIDE of the big city.  I eventually arrived into the metro area of Puerto Montt.  Traffic was light, but highly unorganised (the roads that is).  I eventually meandered myself down to the waterfront where I saw a huge local mall with a parking garage.  I parked there only because I could NOT see any open spots on the streets.  And it was still raining hard and dark outside for the day.  Not very pretty even if the city was nice actually..

So I went into the mall and walked around.  It was crowded with families, mums/kids, and teenagers.  Typical mall, but I could not understand what anyone was saying at all.   I could tell that I had a “backpacker smell” on me because of the van camping as of late and bathing in cold lakes.  I had a few things I wanted to do however before I left the mall.   I wanted to:

a) top up my prepaid  sim card
b) get a haircut
c) eat some hot food

I was abe to do (a) and (c),but there were no haircut places in the mall. Bummers!  The girl behind the counter for the top up place understood NO ENGLISH at all, luckily though a customer behind me did so he helped translate my needs to her. That helped a lot.  I was tired, but grately for his help.  I meandered my way to the top level of the mall and found a massive & busy food court.  All sorts of food were here.  I ended up getting Chinese food. Well at least it was called Chinese food there.  LOL.  It was warm and filled my belly, but tasted bland.  I don’t hold it against Chileans for making bad Chinese food because I never expected to find it here anyway.   As soon as I left food court, I made a beeline to the parking deck. I left the mall and got back onto Hwy 5 North towards Puerto Varas.

Once I got to Puerto Varas I found my way to Rte 225 to Ensenada and Petrohue. These 2 places were more my style. They are towns situated near many volvanoes and lagos.  I got to Ensenada first but passed through it to go the end.  When I got to Petrohue, it was raining cats and dogs. Really bad stuff. The road I passed over a while back (sealed) was getting overflowed with mud from the volcano’s snow melting  in the rain.  I could have camped for free on the volcanic black sand beach near Lago Todos Los Santos.  It was supposed to be a beautiful place, but in that sort of weather nothing is beautiful.  I decided to go back to Ensenda.

On the quick drive back to Ensenda, the weather was looking a little better.  I eventually found a campsite called “Cabanas Barlovento”.  It was a nice place. The weather was also clearing faster than expected, but I was not going back to that muddy place near the lake quite yet.   I parked, paid 3000 CLP for van camping which is cheap as chips.   I asked if I could park on the beach outside of the marked van spots.  After a while of getting someone to ask the owner in Spanish, he said yes sure.  I wanted to this as I’d have the best view of the lake.

Driving on volcanic sandy beach is not such a good idea
with a RWD (rear wheel drive) van.. 

So I moved the van out there nose first. I decided the move the van back first so I could have an easier time getting out. The sand was volcanic black and pretty hard.  However, my manoeuvre got my stuck!  Oh shit! The more I tried to move (drive) the van, the more the right rear wheel dug itself into the sand.  So I walked to the office and spoke to the wife of the owner. She speaks English some. She asked 4 guys to help me. So after 10 minutes, they pulled a truck out to the beach and tied a rope from their truck to the frame of my van. (The front side). I placed the van in nuetral with the e-brake off.   I and another guy pushed while the guy in the truck pulled the front of the van until it was freed!  Yeah! But I was feeling like a total jackass for that.

Friendly locals helping my tow my van out of the
volcanic sand. 

So as a result, I was tired and just wanted to rest.   I was pissed off at the van and myseld so I hired an entire cabin to myself for a total of 30,000 CLP ($65 NZD).  The place was nice and slept 6 people!  They happily took my money.. LOL!    I got in the cabana (cabin) and realised the lights did not work.  Oops. I went out and asked what was wrong. They said the wind/rain storm from earlier killed the power to the entire town..  I was not too worried really.   I did not have to cook because I was not hungry really.   As it got dark, I heard a knock on my door. I answered with “si?”.  The host had a candle for me for light.  How nice of them..    ☺

After all the rain, getting stuck in the sand and etc, the sunset from this place was truly amazing!

Anyway, I spend ther next hour or so working on my blog from 6/3 by candle light in a wooden cabin.  It was very nice actually.  The heaters were electric so there was no heat in the cabin, but I grabbed my hoodie and I was fine.  I finished up my blog from 6/3 and closed down my laptop.  I then went into the bathroom to brush my teeth with my headtorch on.  How cool is this?   Yes!    I made sure my van doors were locked and then I went back inside for the night.  I hopped into the queen sized bed and pulled the 3 medium thickness blankets over me and felt at home…less Rebecca and Latte with me.  It was nice to be in a REAL bed like this vs. the van. 

Blogging under candlelight and using a solar battery near Volcan Osorno.  Pretty amazing experience actually and
I am grateful the power was out all night all over the local town as it mystified me in countless ways.

I plugged my cel phone into my solar battery to charge it up and I dozed off to sleep soon enough.  I have to say even when you have a shitty day in a country far from home where you don’t speak the local language, it’s amazing how friendly locals like them really make your day end well.  These locals are truly friendly and for that, I really appreciated their kindness to a strange from a far away land.

PS. I forgot to mention the sunset!  It was amazing.  I got some photos of it and the volcano with the lake.  Nice indeed. I am looking forward to tomorrow to explore the local region with good SUNNY weather!  I am happy camper staying in a cabin with no power. This is like the stone age, but with high tech gadgets …     8-)

zzzzzzzz

Daily Summary

Today was a slap in the face of reality. The nice goodbye from the cat was sweet, but afterwards reality was not too fun. Between the driving rains on Ruta 5 and endless tolls I had to pay to the nasty mall food to getting lost in Puerto Varas, today was not impressive except for the end of the day near Volcan Osorno where I ended up camping. I knew the next day would be memorable beyond words...