San Rafael Glacier, Chile

A travel "lemon" surprised us about three days before we were to embark on a cruise through the Patagonian channels and fjords from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. The ship blew an engine and would be out of commission for at least two weeks. This is when travel agents really earn their commission.

Paola Furniss, Comapa Turismo, www.comapa.com had arranged our tour from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, and side trips to Lago Grey and the Moreno Glacier. She contacted us via an SOS e-mail that I fortunately read the following day. She had an alternative trip tentatively scheduled for us, just needed our approval.

How fortunate we were; four people in our party, four spaces left on the plane. The cost was $180/pp more than the cruise down the Patagonian channels, but we were so glad we made lemonade and took this trip. It was one of the highlights of our five weeks in Argentina and Chile.

We flew LAN Chile from Puerto Montt to Balmaceda, then onto a mini-bus for one hour on a good, but winding road, to Cohiaique where we changed to a larger bus for the one-and-a-half hour ride to the Skorpios that was docked at Puerto Chacabuco. The scenery was beautiful, Andes on both sides, cows, some desert, very small farm houses.


























We got onto a small boat and took a ride around a small lagoon, stopping on an island for lunch.

























































The most amazing thing on the island was the giant rhubarb. We've
seen rhubarb in many countries, but never like this! Three feet across, eight feet high, stalks three inches thick and three feet long. One stalk would make a lot of pies. We had several rhubarb desserts, but none as good as an old-fashioned rhubarb, custard pie.

















Salmon hatcheries along the way.




























We were disappointed when the day dawned foggy and drizzling rain. We brightened up when our captain told us that this was the perfect weather for seeing the glaciers and icebergs. The color would be more spectacular. He was right on. Feast your eyes on these pictures. We were surrounded by icebergs, each one more beautiful than the last. The dining room and only area outside the sleeping cabins. We spent time here reading and playing cards. Meals were at 9am, 1pm and 9pm. Entertainment and dancing started at 10:30pm. We had red and white wine at both lunch and dinner. Other liquor available at all times. Every meal, including breakfast, had at least ten cakes. All looked and tasted the same; one-layer, round desserts that tasted like whipped desserts. Only thing different was the frosting and decorations. The last night we had an "American" dinner. It consisted of two hot plates-roast turkey and octopus. The food was excellent.




































































































































Vodka on glacier ice at the San Rafael Glacier.












































This was an unbelievable day, one of the most breathtakingly beautiful acts of nature we have ever seen.

A boat ride back to Cohiaique where we stayed at a very nice hotel. The next day a return bus trip to Balmaceda and a flight to Punta Arenas.

Next up, penquins and a zodiac ride to Lago Grey Glacier in the Torres del Paine (Piney) National Park.

Chloe Island, Chile

The drive from Pucon, Chile to Chiloe (Chill-long o, long e) Island was beautiful. The road runs along a long series of seven or eight snow-capped volcanoes, including the large Osorno Volcano.

There is no bridge to the island so we drove the car onto the ferry and were on our way.

Chiloe Island is famous for its 150+ churches and kelp harvesting. It is a beautiful island, a step back in time. The kelp harvesting is done by hand in small boats. The kelp is spread out over wooden frames to dry. Then it is piled along-side the road for pick-up.















We saw the type of farming we remember from our childhood in the 1940s. Milk cans sitting beside the main road waiting for the milk truck. One of those Kodak moments we failed to take.







We had decided to spend the night in the town of Ancun. We hoped to find the hotel that the tours companies advertise in their brochures. We couldn't find it. The town looked like a western movie town in the 1930s.

We parked the car near the plaza and walked around looking for a hotel. Traveling on your own can be exciting, funny, scary, all at the same time. We walked through a large, heavy wrought iron gate with a large lock dangling from it. We entered into a small covered area that contained a shoe shine box, an Internet place, two empty store fronts, and a hotel.

View from our room.





The lobby was smaller than a small bedroom. Two young women behind the desk spoke only Spanish but we figured out a room was $20 per night including breakfast. The room was perfect, as was the breakfast.




The ladies in the plaza.





















We spent two nights here driving the back dirt roads. It's a beautiful area with few American tourists.














After two days we drove to Puerto Montt. This was just a stop over before starting our journey to San Rafael Glacier. Before leaving home we booked a cruise down the Patagonian Channels and fjords to Puerto Natales. An SOS e-mail from our agent told us the ship's engine had blown and that portion of our vacation was canceled. Our agent, Paola Furniss, Comapa Turismo, www.comapa.com or pfurniss@nisa.cl was the best. She offered a couple of suggestions. After discussing both options we decided on the San Rafael Glacier tour. We highly recommend this company. The three-day cruise starts at $370/pp. Our San Rafael Glacier tour was higher, but we felt it was worth the extra money.

We stayed at the Hotel Rascon in downtown Puerto Montt for $21/night. Our hotel needs are simple: friendly staff, comfortable beds, clean bathroom.

View from our hotel window.



What do you do when you discover a flat tire just before heading to the airport? No English by our hotel staff; no Spanish by any of us. I went back into the hotel, said, "Auto", made a circle with my hand, clapped my hands, pursed my lips and hissed. The young men immediately locked the door and rushed down to the garage. They changed the tire, wanted no tip but did take 2000 pesos ($3). They were a Godsend because both our men were limping and using canes from various back problems.

Next stop, airport for flight to Cohiaique and another adventure.

Pucon, Chile

We were in Chile in October 2002, a beautiful time to visit. October is springtime, so you see lilacs, tulips, baby lambs, apple blossoms.

We spent a week at a timeshare in Pucon, Chile about 475 miles south of Santiago. We got there by flying from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Bariloche, Argentina. We had read that it was a beautiful, mountainous area with Swiss influence in the buildings, food and attitude. It’s a friendly town, wonderful German-Swiss food, and lots and lots of chocolate.

As for the scenery, it rained the two days we were there. In fact, there were major rain storms both days.

We picked up a rental car in Bariloche to be returned to Porto Montt, Chile. We had no problems with the car, except getting across the border.

What a morning with the Argentine border patrol. We were hysterical, rolling in the muddy road, looking like keystone cops racing in and out of buildings, in and out of our auto, sign language, everyone speaking loudly and slowly (why can’t they understand us? Why can’t we understand them?) papers flying in and out of pockets, back and forth, forty people, all trying to help at once-Argentinans, Chileans, a couple of Americans, Brits, border patrol. A traffic jam was forming because no one wanted to leave until they found out how the story ended.

After nearly two hours (light bulb) we deciphered they wanted the auto papers saying it was OK to take the car into Chile. We didn’t believe we had anything. Turned out the border patrol man knew the Hertz man who had rented the us the car. He called him up, Hertz man said the papers were above visor.

Thirty seconds later we were on our way, only to be stopped after five miles by the Chile border patrol. We had the drill now and offered our auto papers. They couldn’t have cared less that we had papers to bring the car into Chile. It was only Argentine people who wanted to make sure we were allowed to take the car OUT of Argentina.

Absolutely gorgeous scenery along the way. A little problem going onto the Pan Am Highway. It is a toll road. The collector absolutely refused with loud language to take any Argentine money. He also refused USD. We ended up charging the 55 cent fee.

Pucon is a beautiful, rural small town with an active volcano. They were suffering from too much rain and much flooding. The village residents soon found out about the crazy Americans. Many roads were impassable. Bridges were out. It didn’t take much rain because the roads were dirt and the bridges ancient. We were continuously turning around and backing up.

One scene I remember vividly was an elderly farmer walking on the road beside his wood cart with wood wheels. Two cows were pulling the cart and a dead (drowned) cow was on the cart. That picture said it all. A poor area hit by a devastating act of nature.

We tried to drive to the monkey puzzle tree forest but had to turn around. Then we drove several miles on a volcanic rock/muddy, rutted road trying to get to the mineral springs. We finally turned around, afraid we’d slip into the ditch. Everyone was surprised we turned around, said the roads were always like that, all over Chile.

Bridges are board planks over wood framework going over rapids and rushing streams. They were the good ones; others were just dirt banks with boards across the water, one or two planks for each tire.

This is a rope and bucket for people to cross the river when the bridge is out.

Roads finally dried out so we drove to the “posh” mineral spa. Not noticing the posh spa, we drove past for a couple of miles. Turned around and decided the
little shack in the middle of nowhere was the posh spa. We paid at the shack, then
drove to the end of a cow path and parked

on top of a high hill. We looked down and down to a little rock-lined hot tub and shanty alongside a rushing brook.

To get there we walked down hundreds of worn, eroded steps, some wood, some stone, some gone.

Landslides, grass, rocks everywhere. Going down was bad enough, but we had to go back up the same way It was strange to see a couple with two kids there when we arrived and another three people came along while we were lounging.

After several days of rain, the sun came out. We saw the volcano for the first time. It was spewing smoke.

We took a tour through one of the volcanic tubes.

Never get your hair cut in a small town
in a foreign country unless you can
handle surprises. Through a slight
miscommunication, my head was shaved
shorter than a buzz. Interesting! I could
wash my hair with hand soap and forget
about conditioner. There was nothing
to condition.

Pucon is one of the highest tourist destinations in Chile. Few Americans visit. They should; it is an interesting area, but we were ready to move on. Next stop...Chloe Island with its many small, old churches.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW? NO, IT'S SAND, WHITE SANDS!

White Sands National
Monument is located
off Hwy 70 between
Los Cruces and
Alamogordo, New
Mexico, in the
Tularosa Basin.

It is 275 square
miles of gypsum
sand dunes. The
brilliant dunes
are ever changing:
growing, cresting,
slumping, always
advancing. There are
only a few species
of plants, but
several types of
small animals have
evolved a white
coloration that
camouflages them in
sand.














Most animals live
underground in burrows

during the heat of
the day and emerge
at night. Tracks of
rodents, rabbits,
foxes, coyotes,


porcupines and other
nocturnal animals
have been seen. We
saw many tracks but
no animals. There
were a few flowering
plants.


There is an entrance fee, but admission is free to Golden Age Passport members.

We grew up in Minnesota where sliding or sledding in the snow was and still is common. Here we saw children sledding in the sand. Same round saucers kids use everywhere. Their smiling faces and gleeful laughter made it clear that sand is as much fun as snow...and so much warmer.