Middle Chile

beach, beer and mountains

By Heather & Pravin

April 9^th, 2017

Ensenada

After spending one (overpriced) night camping in the backyard of a hostel in Puerto Varas, we were ready to head away from the busy, over-touristed side of Lago Llanquihue and towards the hamlet of Ensenada. We stocked up on some groceries and then caught a local minibus for the hour-long ride along the lake. We hopped off and headed to check out the first campsite on our list, Camping Barlovento. We decided to stay immediately after seeing how beautiful the campsite was, and spent the next 3 nights relaxing on the lakeshore. Initially, we had plans to spend a night or two there before continuing on to do some hiking in the Valle de Cochamó, but the weather forecast for the valley looked quite terrible and so we were happy to continue lakeside in the sun (and in the shadow of a volcano)!

Interestingly enough, the hamlet of Ensenada is actually located between two active volcanoes. In fact, there are two-sided evacuation route signs posted along the main road that follows the lake - head south if Volcán Osorno erupts, and head north if Volcán Calbuco erupts!

We stayed in Ensenada over Pravin's 29th birthday, so to celebrate the occasion we bought charcoal and plenty of treats and Pravin got to grill our dinner lakeside each night. In return, I made sure he always had a drink in hand!

Although the water was pretty chilly and there was usually a wind, we enjoyed an early morning swim on Pravin's birthday to ward off some of the fog from the previous night's boxed wine ;)

Valdivia

After Ensenada, we caught the local bus back to Puerto Varas and hopped on a connecting bus to Valdivia, which had been recommended to us by a number of Chileans. It was a nice city, not too big, and full of students, which meant lots of reasonably-priced places to eat and even more places to drink! Valdivia is also famous for being the home of many breweries, and while we didn't end up actually visiting any of them, we made sure to sample quite a few. Thanks to my parents, we also had a nice night out to belatedly celebrate Pravin's birthday in style. We started at a cool outdoor bar near the university, then progressed to a quiet riverside patio before heading to the bustling La Última Frontera for dinner. It was a great restaurant in a restored mansion with jazz musicians playing on the patio outside, and the food was served in massive quantities; we couldn't even finish our leftovers for dinner the following evening!

Valdivia was quite a pleasant place to wander around, and we spent some time exploring the gardens at the university and having lunch in a university cafeteria. We also checked out the local fish market, which is famous for giant sea lions that hang out behind the fish stalls on the river, begging loudly for scraps!

Pucon

After Valdivia, our next stop was Pucón. It's renowned for being an adventure capital, but unfortunately we had nothing but pouring rain while we were there. It rained so much Pravin never even took his camera out! The one activity we did enjoy was a trip to some hot springs way out of town near some indigenous villages, but the facilities were quite barebones with no lockers so we didn't chance taking our phones or cameras along on the day trip to capture the scenery. The hostel we stayed at was one of the nicest either of us have ever encountered, in terms of facilities, but the crowd at the time left us less than impressed and so after two nights, we made our way to our next destination, the Nevados de Chillán.

Nevados de Chillán

We didn't do much research before heading towards Chillán - we only knew that there was some great trekking in the surrounding mountainous area and that there were some accommodations on the road leading up to the ski/mountain bike resort. After getting off the bus to Chillán, we weren't really sure of how to get to the bus that would take us up to the mountains, but we asked a Chilean backpacker couple and they happened to be heading the same way. In fact, they had already called an Uber to take them to the regional bus station, and invited us to get in with them. With some help from them, we all got on the right bus and headed towards the ski area. We took a chance on having our bus driver pick out a place for us to stay, and it ended up being perfect! It was a cozy ski-lodge style hostel that was quite quiet in the summer, but apparently bustling in the winter. The dorm bed prices were actually cheaper than most of the camping that we had done to date, and since it wasn't very busy, we had a whole dorm room to ourselves. We had plans to do an epic-sounding trek to the Valle de Aguas Calientes, where a volcanically-heated river cascades through a lush valley and creates a series of natural hot springs, however it didn't end up working out for us.

The first clue towards this end was locals telling us not to go, as a 25 year old hiker had died the previous week after getting caught unprepared in a snowstorm. We did some careful research, but ended up deciding to move forward anyways as we were more than adequately prepared for inclement weather, and furthermore, the weather report for the mountains predicted nothing but sun for at least the next week. We did take the precaution of registering with the local police and filing a trip plan, with strict instructions to stop by the office on our return to report that we had arrived safely - otherwise, they would initiate search and rescue activity! Bus service up the valley to the trailhead was sporadic, and after trying unsuccessfully to hitch a ride, we were lucky enough to get picked up by a bus. However, the bus didn't go all the way, so we had an incredibly hot, steep couple of kilometres on mountain roads to conquer before we reached the trailhead. This was the most intense heat we had felt since Buenos Aires, and it got to me immediately. I was feeling so lousy that we stopped to rest and refuel at the trailhead, and then once we got started, it took me over half an hour to get past the first kilometre. My legs felt leaden and for some reason, I just couldn't continue.

To be on the safe side, we decided to head back to our hostel, rather than take any risks, especially in an area that was notorious for accidents. Once we got to the trailhead, we still had quite a distance of road walking in the brutal sun to complete before we would get to an area where either a bus might pass or a car might pick us up. Luckily, after only a few minutes of trying to hitch a ride, a couple of Chileans that we had chatted with at the hostel the night before stopped on their way back from a day of biking to give us a ride! Both the police and the hostel were confused to see us again so soon, but in the end I think we made the right decision. After resting and drinking lots of fluids, I felt much better and chalked it up to simple heat exhaustion.

The next day, we picked a much easier hike to complete. We headed for the Ex-Refugio Shangri-La, which is the remains of an old mountain refuge located in an interesting area next to a heap of volcanic debris. The refuge had been built in the 1940s, and then gradually fell into disrepair. In the 1970s, a Chilean military patrol dealt the refuge its final blow when it destroyed it in the hopes of keeping it out of the hands of "alleged terrorists".

refugio del Tricahue

While exploring Google Maps to figure out our next destination, I came across an interesting-sounding resort just north of the Nevados de Chillán. The mountainous topography of the area meant that we had to backtrack west in bus to Chillán, take another bus up the highway to Talca, and then hop on a third bus east to the tiny settlement of El Armerillo. In Talca we stocked up on groceries and waited a short while before jamming ourselves onto a small local bus made very crowded by the rush of children heading back to their rural homes after a day of school in Talca.

Refugio del Tricahue ended up being a great find, with a beautiful cozy kitchen alongside several guest rooms, although we opted to camp to save money. The area was hot, dry and beautiful - the only downside was coming across a couple of tarantulas that happen to be common in this area!

Our second day at the refugio was spent doing a short, easy hike through a private nature reserve that passed a number of beautiful lookouts over the valley, a 500-year old tree, and lots of colourful lizards! However, the refugio was a gorgeous place in itself to relax, so we spent the rest of the afternoon lazing in the shade before taking advantage of the kitchen to prepare a good meal.

The next morning found us waking up early to do a hike up to the top of a nearby mountain, Cerro La Campana. The first part of the hike was on an incredibly steep gravel road that had been built to access a couple of microwave towers halfway up the mountain. It was hard to believe that any vehicle would make it up there however, given that it was incredibly steep even to walk up! The rest of the hike was on a rough trail and involved some bushwhacking in order to get to the top of the mountain, where we had a beautiful view of the river valley to the south and the volcanic mountain range to the north.

Coming back to the refugio, we found that another couple had arrived while we were out. We instantly recognized them from the bus terminal in Talca a couple of days before, and when we started chatting, they actually let us know that they had been seeing us all over Chile! They even knew that we were from Vancouver and travelling all over South America after overhearing some of our conversation in one of the refugios in Torres del Paine - after that, we had apparently been on the same flight to Puerto Montt and on the same bus from Puerto Natales in Patagonia! We had a nice evening chatting with them and also spent some time at night taking some star photos. They had just come from a national park a few hours north, and after hearing about how beautiful the hiking was, they convinced us to make it our next destination as well.

reserva nacional altos de lircay

After the German/Austrian couple's advice, we aimed to make our way towards the tiny village of Alto Vilches, in order to do a big day hike in the nearby Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay. Because there were no buses passing by the Refugio del Tricahue until later in the day, we walked a couple of kilometres south to a major roadway, and stuck out our thumbs for a ride. Five seconds later, a cargo truck pulled up and offered to take us as far as the road fork where we knew we could eventually catch a bus up the mountain to Alto Vilches. The driver was incredibly friendly and kind, and we spent the whole ride chatting. He picks up hitchhikers all the time, as he has to drive around the country for work and would rather have some company. He also loves to hear about other parts of the world, as he hasn't had the chance to travel outside of Chile and enjoys finding out about where other travellers home countries. Interestingly enough, he once had the chance to obtain work in Canada, but was unable to at the time due to family circumstances. His company builds and installs power lines in remote regions by helicopter, so it's easy to imagine that there would be much demand for that kind of expertise in Canada.

Eventually we parted ways with Jorge and we were lucky to arrive at the fork just in time to catch a bus going up towards Alto Vilches. There wasn't much of a village - it was more a tiny collection of houses and a couple of cabañas clustered towards the National Reserve entrance. The place that had been recommended to us to stay was too expensive for our tastes, so we asked around about camping. The bus assistant gave us the name of a place a couple of hundred metres down the road, and we reluctantly set up our tent in the backyard of a house and kiosco. It had apparently once been a campground, but was now reduced to fine, powdery, ankle-deep dust and old furniture strewn around. It was by far the cheapest place we had stayed to date, and we were glad to not pay a penny more. We were tired from the heat and from a long day of travel, and quickly found a spot to set up the tent without too much examination of the surrounding area. We were worried that we wouldn't have enough food to get us through the next day's 30km hike, so I set out to see what I could find. Unfortunately, since it was Friday (not a weekend), after walking up and down the dusty road in the heat, all I could find was 6 eggs and a lukewarm 1.5L bottle of Coca-Cola. When I arrived back at our tent, Pravin unhappily informed me that we had set up the tent about 2m away from a giant pile of horse manure. How we missed this upon our arrival, I couldn't tell you, but we really didn't have the energy to move and decided to put up with it for the short while we would be camping there. The owner of the house informed us that there was a series of pools in the river for swimming, and that it was only a 10-minute walk away. We followed his vague directions and after a steep 30-minute descent, we eventually came to a sluggish, shallow creek overwhelmed with algae. We walked up and down in either direction hoping to find the promised pools as we were in desperate need of a swim, but didn't come across anything appealing - it was much too late in the summer and it seems that the river and pools had all but dried up in the heat.

The next day, after a hearty breakfast of the eggs that were procured the night before, we woke up bright and early and set off on the 2km walk to the park gates. We registered with the park ranger and he kindly lent us each a pair of hiking poles for the day. The first half of the hike was rolling and pleasant and mostly shady, and we took a quick break at a campground that was closed due to fire risk before heading up the second part of the hike. Here we started gaining elevation and the tree cover quickly disappeared. I diligently re-applied sunscreen and we stayed hydrated and eventually arrived at the stunning El Enladrillado. It's a bizarre-looking plateau on top of a mountain, named for the brickwork it almost resembles. There are various theories floating around that it's actually a UFO landing site, but it's much more likely just a strange geological formation. We spent quite a bit of time at the top enjoying the view of many volcanoes across the valley before eventually heading back down. My hiking boots had finally reached the end of their useful life, and with the tread reduced to literally a flat surface, I wiped out many a time on the dusty descent and we were both covered in dust, sweat and sunscreen by the time we finished the 30km round trip and found ourselves back at the tent.

We were hoping for a hot shower, given that the heat of the day goes away quickly in the mountains, but were forced to make do with a quick ice-cold shower from the town's glacial water supply. After a quick dinner, we fell fast asleep and were eager to pack up the next morning in anticipation of heading to the comforts of the big city of Santiago.