Road Trip from Volcano to Temblor

Update:  12-19-15

Richard loves shopping at the Mercado Municipal Presidente Ibanez.  Here's our haul from Saturday.  $14 US: 

Above the eggs, a bag of Christmas cookies.  Below the parsley a bag of Haba beans.  The little twist of pate in the center was a gift from the butcher who sold us a beef roast.  And that chunk of squash is for the "pumpkin" pie we'll make as a contribution to Christmas dinner at Tere's house. 

I took this next pic a couple weeks ago while walking up the steep hill from Centro to the Jumbo grocery store.  It's a pretty good image of Chile, I think: Flowering gardens, nicely trimmed, with walls of graffiti in the back ground.  On this particular day, I walked past a team of seven men in orange vests hunkered in the shade a hundred meters below this garden.  They had probably just finished trimming this garden patch. Two of them had weed-eaters lying on the grass, still idling, while the men smoked cigs and rested in the shade. 

 

Road Trip, continued: 

Sunday, December 6th, well-rested from the Chiloe leg of the trip, we headed north to Villarica.  By noonish, I was driving, with Larry in the front seat, when we came round a beautifully wooded bend and caught the first glimpse of Volcan Villarica commanding more than half the sky. 

Photo from internet, thank you!

Our goal:  to check in to our cheap hotel in the town of Villarica, go for lunch in Pucón, and prepare for a trip tomorrow to the hot springs just below the volcano's snow line. 

We found the Hotel Valentino, where we were buzzed in - to climb a very steep and narrow stairway to reception.  But the five-year-old boy who had buzzed us in was unable to get us registered, or give us room keys, or produce an adult of any gender, although he had a lot to say on several other topics, and finally set himself up at the desktop computer and asked us for our contraseñas.  We decided to go get some lunch and try again later. 

Villarica is on Lago Villarica, with spectacular views of the volcano and some tourist traffic, but
Pucón, a half-hour drive further along the lake shore, is the real tourist center of this area.  Richard had told Larry about eating wild boar at a restaurant here some ten years ago when we made our first trip to Chile.  With Larry enthusiastic about this dish, we searched for that restaurant.  But the town has grown ferociously in those ten years, and tho we recognized a few places, the wild boar place did not jump out at us. 
Thirsty and boggled (or should I say:  Any excuse for a Pisco Sour?) we sat down in a colorful, shady bar advertising Peruvian Piscos, which they made deliciously.  After sharing a plate of empanaditas, some stuffed with shrimp and some with cheese, we dared to ask the waitress if she knew a place that served jabalí, which you better pronounce correctly if you expect to be understood.  It wasn't till Larry showed the waitress the word on his IPhone that she got what we were trying to say.  Gotta get that kkhh-hawking sound to the j ... and don't let the b slip into a v sound, which is the way it's usually written.  The waitress did not know the restaurant herself, but she came back in two minutes with directions from the chef, and wished us well as we paid our cuenta and moved on around the block to the next street over.  Ana  Maria  Restaurant. It might be the same place as ten years ago, re-made somewhat.  Can't be sure. 
The guys were very happy with their jabalí.  I think I had the ensalada mixta con palta.  Later, we called ahead to the hotel to make sure someone could check us in.  Papa Claudio, obviously proud of young Sebastian, put us in the view rooms at the back of the hotel where we had a porch ... at the cost of another flight of even narrower, steeper stairs, very few of which were the same size.  We had two nights in that place, and I'm very grateful that nobody made a wrong step on those stairs. 

Monday, December 7: Ten years ago Richard and I booked a tour from Pucón up to the hot springs at Geometrica.  We got a hell of a deal on what turned out to be a three-hour ride (six, round trip) in a diesel-powered stinky mini-van over some hellacious mountain roads to the ultimate paradise of those seventeen pools artistically built into a cascading river under a canopy of trees, ferns and flowers with the hot spring water plumbed into each pool.  We paid 40 mil CLP (about $80 US back then) for the two of us that full day, and had the Termas practically all to ourselves. 

This time, we drove our rented car, and paid 20 mil CLP each (about $28 US - at current exchange rate) to enter the termas.  The last 45 minutes of that road, definitely improved, is still gravel and dirt, climbing thru goat pastures past farm shacks and sheep pens, with the occasional bus stop shed along the way.  But now, up in the higher reaches anyway, there are two or three quinchos advertising lunch available, and there are other termas developed for tourist use.  Termas Vergara, for instance, is new Vergara website and appears to have cabanas available, so you could stay overnight and bathe for days if you wanted to.  We drove on to our destination, Termas Geometricas.  Visit their beautiful website:   Geometricas   and immerse yourself in the stone-lined pools.  We arrived just before 11 a.m. and had to wait for the staff to get there in a yellow school bus.  Another couple with a youngster waited with us, but by the time the staff had opened the place, there were four other cars.  And when we left, around 2 pm. the parking lot was filled to overflowing with cars, trucks and buses!  The popularity of this place has grown immensely, no doubt in symbiotic relationship with the improvements to the road to get here.  (photos from internet)

Entrance to Paradise. the grass-topped sheds are changing rooms with lockers.



Hot water runs in a wooden channel beneath the walkways to help keep the walkways dry in winter snows. 

The air is cool at the top, where the waterfall marks the top of this canyon.

 

Every pool was filled with people, old and young, couples and singles, teens and toddlers, by the time we had cooked ourselves to the wet noodle stage and were ready to leave.  It wasn't until the next day, Tuesday the 8th of December, when we noticed how many restaurants and stores were closed, that we realized this was a 4-day holiday weekend.  December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a national holiday in this country. 

 

Tuesday, 12-8:  We drove out of Villarica, headed northwest to Ruta Cinco and then north thru Temuco to the town of Victoria where we got off the Panamericana to drive west thru the wheat fields to Capitan Pastene, our all-time favorite place in Chile.  Founded by Italian colonists in 1904, this village has decided in the last 15 years or so to earn a place in the hearts of Chileans and tourists alike.  Prosciuto and pasta, both made the old-fashioned way, are their claim to fame.  And who could ask for anything more?     

 

Don Primo's prosciutto factory warehouse was our first destination, to show Larry the hanging hams.  In past visits, Richard and I have meandered into this dark but open building to marvel at the rows and rows of moldy-looking meat suspended from the ceiling ... but this time, an elegant Señora, dressed in colorful silks, joined us inside to offer guidance.  She was also guiding a couple from Santiago, and somehow, we did not get her real name ... but let's call her Sra. Primo, as she told us she did everything here, from salting the hams and hanging them to serving at the restaurant across the street.  She showed us the kitchen at the back of the building, which Richard and I had not seen before.  We did recognize the newly constructed back wing of this building, as we'd seen it under construction when we were here a year ago.  Don Primo's is expanding.

Our guide took us upstairs to the special area where the prosciutto hang in mesh bags that keep the insects away.  This upper area has the humidity the prosciutto need to cure properly.  At least, that is my interpretation of the Spanish with which Sra Primo regaled us! 

 

Maybe I was thinking we would take Larry to lunch at one of the other fabulous Capitan Pastene restaurants, but the silk-garbed Señora was so compelling, we simply followed her across the street to her restaurant.  http://www.donprimo.cl/

Our cabaña at L'Emiliano   http://pastenegourmet.com/Lemiliano/   was ready for us, but due to the holiday, the restaurant there was NOT serving dinner.  What a shock.  Let me just admit right here that there is practically nothing else to do in Capitan Pastene except eat and drink, and I had decided that L'Emiliano had the best pasta. 
We walked to the plaza and read the monuments about the original man, Capitan Pastene, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Bautista_Pastene who served the Spanish in the 1500's.  We would have taken Larry to visit the flour mill and the old-fashioned carbon-arc movie theater ... but neither were open due to the holiday.  So, due to the holiday, we ate at a couple other places ... St Peter's Hotel for dinner, and Anita Covili's for lunch the next day.  Both very special treats.  Especially the plum and pork ravioli at Anita Covili.  Are you hungry yet?  Somehow we ate at Montecorone, too, where the proprietress, Mabel, is Richard's favorite Italian in all of Chile.  Was that two lunches in one day?  Good thing we only get there once a year. 


Wednesday, 12-9:  Thoroughly stuffed, we left for Concepcion, driving the first 25 km on potholed, eroded roads beaten by logging trucks.  Through Angol, Renaico and Nacimiento the traveling was smoother, and the last half hour or so we followed the Biobio River into San Pedro de la Paz and over the new bridge into Concepcion.  The old bridge was destroyed by that 8.8 earthquake Feb 27, 2010.   Do you remember?  When Richard got shaken out of bed at 3 am in his 14th floor apartment in the Centro Mayor Building in downtown Concepcion?  Yes.  Here we were, back at the scene.  We checked into the Hotel Araucana, where they've replaced all the windows that broke in the earthquake.  We walked Larry out to the site of the Centro Mayor, which has been razed and not yet rebuilt.  Then we went to a restaurant we knew from the past, Fina Estampa, and while we sat there drinking our pisco sours and talking about the earthquake time, didn't the whole building take to shaking for about 8 seconds?  Ai yi yi.  A woman a few tables away from us covered her eyes and cried.  Larry said a few of the kitchen staff ran downstairs.  But no dishes fell, no piscos were knocked over, and when the shaking stopped we asked the waiter, "How often does this happen here?"  Twice a month, he said with an uncertain grin. 

Onward!  Into the Valley of Uncertainty, as my brother Mark used to say.  More in the next post.  May your Holidaze be filled with warmth and loving kindness, and que les vayan super bien.