Awaiting Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere

Speaking of summer time (December 21 is the Summer Solstice here), let me admit right up front that I was wrong about Chile abandoning Daylight Time.  In fact, Chile decided to STAY ON Daylight Time year round.  Wikipedia: Time in Chile  What a good idea, right?  Some of you have already heard Richard quote one of his native American heroes:  "Why would you think you can cut the bottom off a blanket, sew it to the top, and get a longer blanket?" 

Okay, so much for corrections.  What a good time we have had these last weeks with our visiting buddy from Detroit, Larry Zilioli.  He sailed with Richard for a week.  A lot of rain ... but Larry says he prefers that to the heat of the sun.  See AbrazobyBaila.BlogSpot.com for a glimpse of their voyage.  The night before arriving home, they picked up a mooring buoy off the beach at Huelmo on Thursday, November 19, revisiting an ECO-farm

run by a young attorney Richard had met at the marina recently.  Mario, who wants to sail his own boat around Cape Horn, gave the sailors a ride to the wine store and hosted them for dinner.  He posts on a website called WorkAway, where you can sign up to work on his farm in exchange for room and board.  Hey, maybe when we get back to our own little farmette in Bellingham, we'll recruit some Workaway help for the summer.  WorkAway Website 

After the sailors made Abrazo fast to the dock again at the marina on Friday, they took the bus and colectivo up to Valle de Volcanes to our apartment.  But the captain had left his keys on the boat ... and I was in Puerto Varas for my book club meeting.  The grocery store near our apartment has a warm café where the guys patiently awaited my return.  I do love my Book Club here.  We share book talk, good food, and amiable conversation, mostly in English.  Sonia P., a muy amable Chilena
who lived in California and Texas for many years while her US husband was alive, dropped me off at the Santa Isabella.  Larry had just purchased a bag full of lemons there, plus confectioners' sugar so he could make Pisco Sours.  I remember when we encountered Pisco sours on our first trip to Chile.  We, too, searched for the recipe and ran many a liter of the mix through our blender.  Larry had to make do without proper measuring devices in our kitchen, but his first batch was delicious.  He's made steady improvements ever since.  If you are a Detroiter, you're maybe going to be invited to a Pisco party soon.

A day trip to Frutillar by bus ... a pizza feast at D'Allesandro's there ... and by Monday we waved goodbye as Larry marched off to get the plane to Puntas Arenas in the far south of Chile.  He'd booked himself a trekking expedition to the Torres del Paine National Park.  What an ordeal!  Hike for 8 to 10 hours a day on "The W Trail", where you stop for dinner and a tent at hostal-like stations along the way.  Larry is a trooper.  Torres del Paine is a place I am happy to visit virtually.  Wikipedia: Torres del Paine   


By the time he returned to Puerto Montt late at night on December 2, Richard and I had planned the Grand Tour that would eventually get Larry close to Santiago for his departure on December 14.  We started with Angelmo, right here in Pto Montt.  Shop-hopping from the woolen goods and alpaca products to the wooden wares and silver jewelry, we stopped in the caballero store to see silver spurs and wide-brimmed
huaso hats.  Giggling Chilena merchants demonstrated a wooden toy that pops an over-sized penis out at you when you pull on a clownish head. Yikes!

Our friend, Tere, took the afternoon off from her work at the Corte de Apelacion, to join us for lunch at the restaurant Pa' Mar Adentro, where they really know how to cook fish.  Pa' Mar Adentro


Friday, December 4, in our rented car, we drove south on Ruta 5- the Pan-American Highway - to Pargua, where the ferry carried us across Canal Chacao to the Island of Chiloe and the town of Ancud. 

Maybe this bridge will be built someday, and put the ferries out of business.  We saw some evidence that the pile-drivers had begun their work. 

Richard and I had never been to the Pacific side of the island of Chiloe, so we wandered on beautiful country roads to Pañihuil where the Magellan penguins hang out.  I drove that portion, and when the road ended abruptly on a wet beach with a wide stream of water running across to the sea, I didn't know what to do.  Pretty soon a man with a radio phone at his ear came over to wave me on across the stream.  If I was going to board one of the pongas for a half-hour cruise around the penguin islands, he was my reservation expert.  We opted to dine at one of the seaside restaurants, so he directed me to drive over the sand to the orange cones that marked the parking area. 

The penguins are on those small islets.  Restaurants, to the left, let you wonder, while you're eating, how fast the tide is coming in.  The pongas take people out around the islets every half hour or so. 

Back on the road, we drove to Castro, checked in to The Hotel Alerce Nativo, built long ago by the Jesuits, I believe.  While wandering the streets beyond the fish and vegetable market, Larry spotted a colorful restaurant on the waterside, with abundant rose and lily gardens on its street side.  "Travesia" ... gets great reviews on Trip Advisor, and we can highly recommend the ceviche mixta ... which included salmon, abalone, and merluza ... so fresh, we wondered if the limey-lemoney ceviche bath had just been applied to the fish when we put in our order!  The pisco sours here are really special, too.  No fluffy burden of egg white ... no diluting freight of shaved ice.  Just the beautiful marriage of chilled pisco and sugared limone in a pottery cup. 

Saturday, we drove south from Castro, still on Ruta Cinco.  There was a terrible moment when a stone from a passing truck whacked our windshield, leaving a thousand pointed star by the rearview mirror, and a crack that travelled all the way to the dashboard.  Richard and Larry both seemed secure that the windshield would hold, so we drove on.  R wanted to stop at the marina in Quinched, where we left flyers announcing our boat for sale.  You Tube re: Chiloe & Marina Quinched As you can see from the video, this is a place we might have to return to after the boat sells.  There's a lodge to stay in, a charter boat to take us out on the water, and a boatyard where Richard could probably get work with his corking mallet. 

Map shows the official southern terminus of Ruta Cinco, in Quellon.  The views of the volcanos and icefields of the mainland are spectacular from here. 

On the way back north, just before we boarded the ferry, we found the enchanting Parque Ecologico Mitological de Chiloe ... a place Richard and I had visited 10 years ago on our first trip to Chile.  La Señora who greeted us, screened us carefully.  It was important, she told us, that we enter the path thru the park with the hearts and eyes of children, and she needed our assurance that each of us could do so.  Otherwise, there was a prison cell made of tree branches standing at the ready.  She was very skeptical of Larry until he removed his dark glasses to show her his honest face.  Then we could proceed. 

The following text is from The Rough Guide's description of Chilote Mythology, special to this island.  Many of these mythological characters are portrayed in artistic depictions created by the old man who led us thru the Parque after La Señora had taken us past the displays of native vegetation.  The Basilisco, for instance, is a curvy tree branch painted with snakeskin, with its knobby "head" painted to resemble a rooster.  Beside him is a small house in which crude dolls represent the dead people in various stages of decay.  On a sign board nearby, the story of this creature is hand-printed in Spanish, which the old man reads to us out loud.  He guides us onward from one station to another to meet the mythological creatures.  In between stations there are treacherous bridges over crocodile-filled marshes, while spiders and other scary things swing from the closest bushes. 

We drove on back to Puerto Montt for the night, before continuing our journey the next day.  More in the next post.  Meanwhile, I'll leave you to read about these monsters.  What a good idea it is to project all the foul and wicked aspects of humanity into these characters, don't you think?  That way we can enjoy our families and friends with peace and humor and child-like pleasure.

Basilisco A snake with the head of a cockerel, the Basilisco turns people to stone with its gaze. At night, the Basilisco enters houses and sucks the breath from sleeping inhabitants, so that they waste away into shrivelled skeletons. The only way to be rid of it is to burn the house down.

Brujo This is the general term for a witch; in Chiloé, there are only male witches and their legendary cave is rumoured to be near the village of Quicaví. To become a witch, an individual must wash away baptism in a waterfall for forty days, assassinate a loved one, make a purse out of their skin in which to carry their book of spells and sign a pact with the devil in their own blood, stating when the evil one can claim their soul. Witches are capable of great mischief and can cause illness and death, even from afar.

Caleuche This ghostly ship glows in the fog, travels at great speeds both above and below the water, emitting beautiful music, carrying the witches to their next stop. Journeying through the archipelago, it’s crewed by shipwrecked sailors and fishermen who have perished at sea.

Fiura An ugly, squat woman with halitosis, she lives in the woods, clothed in moss. The coquettish Fiura bathes in waterfalls, where she seduces young men before driving them insane.

Invunche Stolen at birth by witches, and raised on the flesh of the dead and cats’ milk, the Invunche was transformed into a deformed monster with one leg crooked behind his back. He feeds on goats’ flesh and stands guard at the entrance to the legendary witches’ cave, the Cueva de Quicaví, grunting or emitting bloodcurdling screams. If you’re unlucky enough to spot him, you’ll be frozen to that spot forever.

Pincoya A fertility goddess of extraordinary beauty, Pincoya personifies the spirit of the ocean and is responsible for the abundance or scarcity of fish in the sea. She dances half-naked, draped in kelp, on the beaches or tops of waves. If she’s spotted facing the sea, the village will enjoy an ample supply of seafood. If she’s looking towards the land, there will be a shortage.

Trauco A deformed and ugly troll who dwells in the forest, Trauco dresses in ragged clothes and a conical cap and carries a stone axe or wooden club, a pahueldœn. His breath makes him irresistible to women, and he is blamed for all unexplained pregnancies on the island.

Voladora The witches’ messenger, the Voladora is a woman who transforms into a black bird by vomiting up her internal organs. The Voladora travels under the cover of night and can only be detected by her terrible cries, which bring bad luck. If the Voladora is unable to recover her innards at the end of the night, she is stuck in bird shape forever.

Read more: http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/south-america/chile/chiloe/chilote-mythology/#ixzz3ubWaRVN0