A three-day escapade into coastal Chile

One of the tricky things with going to Ushuaia is figuring out which road to take. The easy choice is the Ruta 40 which goes all the way down in Argentina. Since we had not been in Chile yet, we were looking for a road on the other side of the border that would take us through this country far enough south from where the earthquake had happened. No such thing though or you can take the Carratera Austral combined with a long ferry journey. When we had talked to Ignacio, the concierge from our beautiful Relais et Chateaux about what we could do, he recommended we just go for a short trip into Chile and come back to Argentina to then go south through the Ruta 40. We were after all only 40 Kms from the border... Thinking about it, it sounded great, even if it meant doing a loop and coming back the same way. The attractions on the other side of the border seemed worth it. Chile, here we come!

Would you like another piece of Kuchen?
The border crossing was a little strange: you go through the Argentinian side first, where you get your passport checked out and they take the motorcycle entry form (which took all of 5 minutes) and then you drive 20 Kms to the actual border. There are signs there that let you know that you are now in Chile. You drive 20 Kms more through the beautiful Parque Nacional Puhueye before reaching the Chilean immigration and customs. The park you drive through is completely amazing, with dense dark green forest, tall jagged peaks and deep blue lakes. We got so distracted by the wild beauty of the landscape that we almost forget we still had to go through the Chilean formalities. We had been warned multiple times before: they are very strict about not taking any meat or vegetables product into the country so we had been through all our luggage the day before to make sure we had nothing. The dogs still found the eucalyptus scented motion sickness medication and vegetable based soap that Chad had. They gave us the green light to keep both; we were surprised they had found them. Formalities were very straight forward as they even numbered the windows you had to go through and they were all in Spanish and English: first the immigration, then the customs and finally the agricultural products if you had anything to declare. Our passport stamped and motorcycle entry form filled in, we continued our journey into Chile.

After the woods of the national park, we went through green pasture with many cows. On the side of the road, there were many stands selling local cheese and honey. Too bad we would only stay in Chile for a few days and would not be able to take these back to Argentina. We stopped at the first big town, Osorno, to get some local currency and stop at a supermarket to buy our picnic lunch. Once done, we headed south and took the highway towards the lake town of Puerto Varas. Cruising on the highway, we suddenly noticed the picture perfect Orsono Volcano on our left, tall and dark with just the top covered with a dash of whipped cream. A little further down the road, we finally reached our destination, a little town on the lake founded a long time ago by German settlers. We decided to stay in a B&B right next to the big white and red catholic church, a very German influenced building. That would not be the only German influence we would still find in town: there were a lot of old houses build with wood and covered with shingles, white lace curtains, German beer sold in the restaurants and best of all, the Kuchen which means cake in German. That night, when we had dinner, we had a huge slice of walnut and white chocolate Kuchen. And that was right after going to a bakery where they had tons of different Kuchen or other pastry. We, of course, could not resist the dark chocolate filled with raspberry marmalade cookie. Oh, and by the way, the next day for breakfast, we also had a Dulce de Leche Kuchen (a sort of caramel cream very typical in Argentina and Chile). Oddly enough, we could not get enough of them.

Life is definitively different on the island of Chiloe

After we talked to the lady of the B&B, she agreed that we could leave one bike at her place for a couple of days which would make it easier (and cheaper) for us to take a ferry to the Island of Chileo. It was a short boat ride, only 30 minutes, but as soon as we drove on the other side, we were in a different world. The houses and churches had this unique architecture, all in wood and painted in bright colors. We drove to the city of Ancud where a little further, we where hoping to see penguins. It took Chad quite some effort as we drove on a mean dirt road to finally make it to the beach. But once there, no penguins and when we talked to the park ranger, he told us they left in March. Last he checked, he found two that were a little behind but good luck if we wanted to find them. Disappointed, we left the beach and went back to town. Since it was time for lunch, we enjoyed a seafood Cazuela, a hearty soup with fish, vegetables, crab and mussels. Warm and yummy, just what we needed to drive to Castro, the capital of the island.

On the way to the “big” town, we had a good glimpse of what the life on the island was. There were lots of cattle, sheep and cows, feeding in the pasture and we saw a lot of little farm houses along the road, with people carrying around the big metal milk jars. The island seemed like it was self sufficient from a meat and dairy standpoint. We stopped in the little fishing village of Dalcahue where we saw a lot of fishing boats in the pier. This island had it all, land and sea products. The sun had finally come out in the late afternoon and we were enjoying the walk in the small town. We drove the final kilometers to Castro in the warm sun and smiled in front of the most unique building of the town: the metal purple and yellow painted church. Quite a sight! As the sun was setting and we started feeling the cold of the night, we really appreciated the warmth of the fire in our hotel salon. We found the strength however to walk down to the pier in the cold to a seafood restaurant in order to try the local specialty, the Curanto. It is a quite interesting mix of everything that tastes good on the island: mussels, clams, sausage, smoked pork, potato, potato bread. Sounds quite strange all together but it surprisingly works. We had an amazing dinner.

As we drove the next day back towards the continent, we took many pictures of the typical island buildings, all in wood, including these nice and colorful houses on stilts. We were glad we made the detour to Chile, even if it was only a quick glimpse. We found the time however before leaving to have one more Kuchen and buy a couple of bottles of Chilean wine. We could come back for sure, more in the southern part of the country when we will descend the Ruta 40. We stopped in Puerto Varas and picked up Caroline's bike. We were able to drive all the way back to the border and we finished the drive back to Villa La Angostura by night, back to the hostel where we had been a couple of days ago. It was good to be back in Argentina but we were also looking forward to our next visit to Chile.