Los Palafitos

Want to avoid paying land-based taxes? Don´t want to take out flood insurance? Need an way to receive deliveries from the mainland? Want to fish off your deck? Build a palafito, a house built on stilts that sits over the water! 

Tuesday appears to be
wood delivery day.

My question is how they repair the stilts that may have rotted from being in the water, or how they treat the wood to prevent rot. The stilts must be secured deep in the ground some how -- are they easy to remove?

Street art in Castro

Street art is everywhere in Castro, and it really adds to the color of the town.

Torres del Paine: the eighth wonder of the world

Entrance to Torres del Paine. Not a painting.

Towers of blue. Grandeur. Beauty. Herds of llamas. Glaciers. Mountains. Lakes. Waterfalls.

During our first day of hiking, I was drawn to the beauty of this mountain with light and dark gray colors, and curious about how it was formed. We stopped to talk with a man who was photographing the mountains, talked about the light, etc., and he mentioned that he was here for work, but came down a few days early to take some pictures.

Granite-filled mud donut

"What do you do?"
"I´m a geologist."

What are the chances?

He explained the process in a nutshell: the dark gray stuff is sedimentary rock/mud that formed in an arc basin in the earth. Along the way, granite (the light gray stuff) sort of sandwiched itself in with the mud. When it pushed up into mountain formation, the granite stayed sandwiched between the layers of sediment. Also, the granite wears better than the sedimentary rock, which affects the way it looks.

Note: Normally, I would look this stuff up to try to understand what I`m writing about. Feel free to correct me!

Ninjas disapprove of forest fires.

Geologists are hired for oil-drilling purposes, among other things. In this case, the interest is in drilling for oil along the west coast of Africa. The rocks aren't as visible in Africa the way they are in South America, so the research is done in here to make the most well-informed best guess when placing drills in Africa.

He also told us about a forest fire that had happened in 2012. It was started by a tourist (accidentally, I believe), and that person ended up in prison in Chile for a year until his home country was able to work out a deal where he could serve out his sentence in a prison at home.

I have a new way to remember
the word for wind.

The fire consumed so much of the park. With such strong, fast winds, the fire spread quickly and rapidly, leaving ghostly white trees in its wake.

Seriously, the winds were so strong. It carried my 25lb backpack for me with no problems at all. (On the return trip, that is). 

We stayed at a hostel in the park, but met several backpackers who were camping. We met several who had done or were currently hiking "the W." We met several hikers who had come from El Calafate in Argentina.

On the second day in the park, I realized that most of my stuff is in Minnesota. Of the stuff I brought with me to Chile, half of it was in Viña del Mar, a quarter of it was in Puerto Natales, and an eighth of it was in Paine Grande. And I was sitting at a glacier with my passport, tourist card, iPhone, some lunch and a water bottle - trusting that my stuff will be there when I get back.

 

Glacier Grey. Tough light for photographing it.
Especially with an iPhone.

The most beautiful blue lake I´ve seen.
The camera doesn´t do it justice.

Well-deserved glass of wine, post hike.

Typing slowly, for once

One or two of the hostels have had computers for use.

The Spanish keyboard uses the QWERTY layout, but the punctuation marks and function keys are in different locations. I forget what hunting and pecking on a keyboard feels like!

At one point I thought we should get some Spanish keyboards to have on hand for library staff writing in Spanish...for those few times a year when I want signage in Spanish, or when I draft something in Spanish and send it to my community partners to do final edits. (Who wants to spend their mental energy recalling the keystrokes to get the tilda over the ñ, anyway?) It was never a necessity, but now I realize it was a bad idea.

Puerto Hambre and Fuerte Bulnes

The first attempt Spain made at fortifying their hold in the Strait of Magellan was a settlement in the 1500s, which was named after Rey Don Felipe. Some 300 people settled in the area, and all but one froze or starved to death. The name was changed later to Puerto Hambre (for "hunger" or "famine"). The remains of the settlement are currently being restored. 

For weeks, I thought we were going to be visiting Puerto Hombre ("man port") and was embarrassed when I realized that I had misread a word I have known for a very long time. But! When we got there, we discovered that there was a sole survivor, who took his chances at maintaining the settlement by populating with the indigineous people. Maybe "man port" wasn´t that far off... 

Fuerte Bulnes

Fuerte Bulnes (only a few miles from Puerto Hambre) was Chile´s first attempt at claiming territory in the Strait. The fort was active for only a few years (1843-1846 or so), due to exposure to the elements, lack of potable water, and rocky terrain to difficult for farming.

  

Sod Houses

Jail and Scaffold, right next to the kitchen

Church

A bell with a view

Cannons. For defending against Antarctic invasion.

View from the kitchen window. Not to shabby.

Quiet on the set, please.

Vamos a la tienda

Never would have thought
to look for milk in
the dry goods aisle

We´ve primarily been shopping in grocery stores and picking out a few things for meals and snacks. I walked the periphery of the store for quite some time looking for some eggs to scramble and boil (don´t they sell eggs in Chile?) only to discover that the eggs and milk are not refrigerated. I also discovered (the hard way) that fruits and veggies are weighed in the store, not at the register. 

Grocery lists now include:

Prickly Pears (tip: don´t eat the seeds, and don´t be alarmed if your skin gets a bit irritated by the peel), Aji Cheleno sauce (tip: a little goes a long way) and vino (cheaper than pringles).

 

Prickly pears.
Scoop out the center,
like a melon.

Los perros

There are dogs everywhere (at least in Southern Chile) on the streets, in the parks, at the bus stations, wandering in and out of the little food shops. 

It's hard to tell how many of them are strays, and how many of them are pets with a LOT of freedom. In our entire time, we've seen two leashes/collars and hundreds of dogs.

Their coats don't look bad, and they aren't terribly skinny. They don't really "talk" to people, and for the most part ignore cars (but not traffic lights. They obey traffic lights). And for all the dogs we've seen, we haven't seen dog poo in the streets or grassy areas. 

One exception: this little guy followed us (escorted us?) to the rodovario in Puerto Natales. He didn't really talk to us, or beg, just walked with us for about a mile. He did his business along the way, and...well...let's just say it was clear that this dog eats garbage all day. 

The dogs do seem to look out for each other, particularly in Chiloé. We've seen more gangs, and more group efforts to...get food? This pack seemed to be doing a public shaming of one of the dogs. It was a fascinating dynamic to watch, as it was clear who the leader of the pack was. 

And it wasn't the one doing all the barking.