My ideal choice would’ve been to sit/sleep on an overnight bus heading south towards the Patagonia region. Unfortunately, overnight buses didn’t operate on New Year’s Eve. Darn. So, I had to hop on a night bus a day earlier.
I had initially purchased a ticket to the city of Puerto Montt. But Gina and Tucker recommended a smaller town called Puerto Varas, about 30 minutes north of Montt. Luckily, all buses headed towards Puerto Montt make a short stop at Varas so there was no need to change my ticket. I even managed to convey my change of plans to the bus driver in my rough Spanish!
This was my first long distance bus travel in South America. The choice was between semi-cama and cama. Basically reclining vs. flat beds. Being old and on the relatively higher end of a backpacker budget, I opted for the cama chairs even though it cost twice the semi-cama rates. Hey, I’d rather be comfortable and get a good night’s sleep. Which I did. The seats were really comfortable (think cheap quality business class seats)!!!
I arrived in Puerto Varas on the morning of the 31st, and checked into a great hostel (also recommended by the Coloradoans... I never realized that this was an actual word!). The small city on the edge of a lake had a European mountain resort feel to it. Very cute. Very comfortable.
At the hostel, I met a friendly 2nd generation Japanese girl from Brazil named Lucia. She was taking a tour to Volcan Osorno later this morning and asked if I wanted to join. Since I had made no plans for my stay here, I immediately agreed. I would’ve liked to have taken a shower and rested a bit, but no time for that; we had a van to catch.
Volcan Osorno is what makes Puerto Varas a beautiful, picturesque town. You can see it directly across, on the other side of the lake.
The van ride took about 1.5 hours. For some reason, I was the only non-Brazilian on the tour...Anyways, you can either climb up the volcano (maybe a whole day hike), or take the ski lifts up. Guess which one we chose?! Yup, the lifts! No brainer. From the top of the lifts, we walked a few meters towards the glaciers. Well, they call it the "glaciers" but it was more like "some unmelted, dirty ice patches".
The view was absolutely fantastic – sit and admire:
We returned to Puerto Varas late in the afternoon, walked around a bit, and had pizza at one of the few restaurants open on New Year's Eve with our other dorm-mate.
After a brief down-time, we all went out again around midnight.
I wasn't expecting much to happen here to celebrate the New Year. It is, after all, a very small, rural city. But with the whole town gathered by the shores of the lake, they managed to put up a nice fireworks show!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1….Happy New Year!!!(Yes, I realize that it is actually now September that I am uploading this blog entry. Don’t mind my laziness.)
With that done, I returned to my hostel and fell asleep.
And what did Waru do on New Year's Day??? White water rafting!!!
I've never had such an adrenaline-filled new year's day. Usually, it's filled with carbs thanks to the piles of Japanese mochi (rice cakes) that my mom makes every year.
But this year, I put on a wetsuit and went down some class 4/5 rapids. FUN FUN FUN!
By the way, the wetsuit was a life saver! During this time of the year, the area is swarming with these huuuuuge flies. I'm not kidding, They're bigger than a quarter and fat. Everywhere. And they bite, me thinks. The wetsuit covered my body, even my hands because they were too long, and the helmet covered my head & ears. Thank goodness. I don't think I would've been able to handle the rafting otherwise...
Sorry - no pictures of the flies or me looking ridiculous in the wetsuit or of the beautiful scenery we rafted by. I didn't have a waterproof camera, and the photos taken by the rafting operator were beyond my budget.
Before Lucia left that night she gave me a to-do/see list of places in Brasil. A rather long list. I need to figure out how I'm going to fit everything in before my trip ends. Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment