Cono Sur

February 28, 2004

Dear family and friends,

Owww! I stubbed my toe in the dark, nearly taking off the nail of my little toe trying to answer the wake up knock on my door at 6:00AM. My last missive ended with me about to leave Ushuaia and head northward for a visit of Chile. My bus was to leave at 7:30AM, so I limped off to the depot, just making it on time. As my toe bled and throbbed, the bus wound its way through the grand Martial Mountains and out onto the Pampas of Tierra del Fuego, flat, treeless, with lots of sheep and cattle, but with few signs of inhabitants, quite beautiful nonetheless. It was not long before we crossed the frontier into Chile and a short while later a ferry took us across the Straits of Magellan and back onto the continent itself. I spent two days in Chile's southernmost city, Punta Arenas noted for its many stately and extravagant homes dating from the heydays of the Estancias and reflecting the incredible wealth made during that era. Then I was on to Puerto Natales another eight-hour bus ride away through pretty countryside, light greens and gold colours predominant on the rolling hills, and the snow topped Andes rising off in the distance.

Puerto Natales, home to 5,000 people, is a bit gritty, weather beaten and faded, but on the other hand, many houses are painted the most vibrant colours imaginable, plum, purple, puce, violet, fuchsia, a full range of blues and greens, some are painted rose or red, and others, earth tones of sienna and brown. The whole effect is quite striking. These houses are sided with clapboard or tin, and many are vacant, which is surprising, as Puerto Natales is the jumping off spot for visits to the crown jewel of the extensive Chilean National Park system, Torres del Paines (as well as the southern terminus for the ferry servicing the Chilean southern coast).

The first known tourist to visit this area was an English woman, Florence Dickson, who came in 1879, and today thousands flock here for some of the most stunning views of rugged mountains anywhere in the world. Torres del Paines backs against Parque Nationale Los Glaciares in Argentina, which features Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torres, and of which I wrote earlier. And the mountains here are just as spectacular. The group consisting of Cerro Nido de Condor, Torre Norte, Torre Centrale, Torre Sur, and Cerro Forta Lazu, (all not climbed until the 1950's) the first spires that one sees on entering the park, are shear rock cliffs spiking into the sky so steeply snow barely settles on them. (To appreciate these mountains it is helpful to know of the plate tectonics underlying their creation. When Pangea broke up 200 million years ago, the South American Plate drifted westward where it bumped into the Nazca Plate, which consisting of heavier materials was forced down, and the South American Plate was forced up with the Andes being formed from material scraped off the Nazca Plate. This continental drift continues today with the South American Plate advancing about 3" on average per year, and, thus, the Andes are still rising. In 1960 a huge grunt at the fault line caused one of the world's most powerful earthquakes off the coast of southern Chile. The quake registered 9.5 on the Richter Scale and it is estimated that a shift of some 60 feet occurred. More than 1,000 were killed in Chile, and a resultant Tsunami killed 61 people in Hawaii and 199 in Japan.)

Torres del Paine National Park has many trails in and around these spectacular mountains and glaciers. Most of the tourists who come here set out on hikes of four days to one week duration, others, like me (remember I have a sore toe) tour the park in a bus in one day. Unforgettable, nonetheless.

This might be the right time to mention some flora and fauna. The southern part of South America, called Cono Sur (Southern Cone), is great for bird and animal watching and the most notable are well represented in Torres del Paines. Guanacos, cousins of the llama, vicuna, and alpaca, are related to camels and have a bit of the camel's goofy look about them, but without the hump. They are over six feet tall, the female slightly taller than the male, and they appear to be completely unafraid, it is common to see them up very close. A dominant male will have a harem of up to twenty females and he keeps them pregnant at all times. The gestation period for the female is eleven months and a female guanaco will mate within one week of giving birth.

I have seen countless bird species, including many birds of prey, but I have seen even more waterfowl, particularly, black necked swans and upland geese (which are just as ubiquitous as our Canada goose and shit just as much). Also like our goose, the upland goose mates for life. If the female dies, I am told the male will die within two weeks. If the male dies, the female immediately finds a new mate.

But the two birds that stand out are the Andean condor and the nandu. The condor, with a wingspan up to 12 feet, almost never needs to flap a wing to keep aloft, instead it soars on the thermals off the cliffs of the Andes, and they reportedly can be seen at elevations above 30,000 feet. Condors live between 25 and 40 years and only produce one egg every two years. They are beautiful, graceful, and majestic when seen soaring overhead, but related to buzzards rather than eagles, they are gumboot ugly when seen up close. The nandu is a lesser rhea, thus related to the ostrich. At almost six feet tall, the nandu is readily seen in large harem groups; it is the male that incubates the eggs, up to 20 at one time. With their googly eyes and loopy beak, nandu look like the Road Runner from Loony Tunes.

There are two very interesting trees native to this area, the alerce, a species of larch, and similar to the North American sequoia, grows to massive heights and girth, and can live 3,000 years (I have to admit I did not see any huge ones). The araucaria, or as we know them at home, the monkey puzzle tree (I always wondered where those funny trees came from), grows to a height of 150 meters, but reaches reproductive maturity only after 250 years. The araucaria seed is an edible nut and was the principal source of food for the original Mapuche people. The seeds are still sold in the markets today. Early over-exploitation has depleted the forests of these trees and now both are declared protected national monuments.

I have been intrigued with the idea of sailing up the Chilean coast since I first started thinking about going to South America a number of months ago, sailing up through the fjords and channels of southern Chile sounded great. Navimag Ferry plies the coast of Chile from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. I boarded the M/N Magallanes at 9:00PM and settled into my new digs. After nearly six weeks of steady travel, it was great to look forward to sleeping in the same bed for four nights even if it was in a semi-dorm arrangement. (In actual fact, I was sharing a two bed cubicle with a Swiss man, but I only saw him three times on the four day, three night trip, and then only briefly.) The M/N Magallanes is not a cruise ship by any means. It is mainly a ferry for transporting trucks up and down the coast but with passenger accommodation added on. If there was ever any doubt as to what the ship really was, a walk on the back deck quickly settles the matter. The smell of cow shit rising up from the cargo deck below fully reminds you this is not the Love Boat.

We departed Puerto Natales at 4:00AM and awoke to find an overcast sky with clouds hanging right down to the water. It was not an entirely unpleasant day though, as the ship slipped through slate gray water, granite hills rising steeply on each side and disappearing into the mists and clouds.

The second morning dawned with a beautiful, bright sunny day; we cleared through Ultima Esperanzas's Seno (Last Hope Sound), and tied up at Puerto Eden, the only stop on the trip. Puerto Eden is a tiny hamlet on Wellington Island and home to the last 230 Kawesqar people, the nomadic natives who once inhabited this area. Today the Kawesqar subsist on fishing and the few tourists who come through on Navimag. I spent two very enjoyable hours wandering around the narrow boardwalks that serve as streets in Puerto Eden, soaking up the sun and scenery. During the entire first two days, the only sign of life that we saw was at Puerto Eden. The rest of that time not even so much as a skiff passed us. The scenery is very dramatic, forested hills and mountains in the foreground, the Andes off in the distance; really, it is not unlike our B.C. coast. We do see many dolphins, penguins, cormorants, seals and southern right whales (easily identified by their distinct 'V' shaped spume).

At about 7:00PM on the second evening the ship left the flat calm protected waters we had been in and entered the open waters of Penas Gulf. Although it did not get too rough, it was not long before a number of railbirds were hanging on the rail, feeding the gulls. Our third day was another beautiful day, with more of the same scenery and the next morning we docked in Puerto Montt, the end of a most enjoyable trip.

Immediately after disembarking from M/N Magallanes I caught a bus to The Isla Grande de Chiloe which sits off the coast of Chile some 800 miles south of Santiago, and, at 110 miles long and 30 miles wide, is one of the largest Chilean islands. Isolated from mainland Chile, Chiloe and the surrounding small islands developed a unique culture reflected in its speech, style of food, tools, and architecture which even today distinguishes it from the rest of the country. Often shrouded in fog and mists, it is rich in folkloric history of myths and magic but the day I arrived was beautiful and sunny with the sea a sparkling deep blue. The countryside is rolling hills, small farms with open green fields, and picturesque bays. Many residents live in 'palafitos', modest shingled and metal clad homes, often painted in bright colours, perched on rickety stilts over the water. The shingles themselves are often a feature, usually with scalloped or a fluted bottom edge, some have been left to weather, others are brightly painted.

Chiloe is very famous for the hundreds of small churches dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries which dot the island, triangular in shape, apparently modeled after a Bavarian, neoclassic style; they are made entirely of wood without nails and sided with shingles. I visited a few of these churches and they are remarkably appealing, both outside for the weathered look, and inside for the beautifully painted ceilings and altars. Some 14 of them out of a total of 300 were recently designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Monuments.

Said to be one of the poorest areas of Chile, the locals known as Chilotes, a mestizo blend of the original Huilliche Indians and Spanish, are regarded as country bumpkins by the sophisticates of Santiago and many are being forced to leave to escape the poverty. Those remaining, who in appearance reflect their mixed Spanish/Indian ancestry, are certainly lovely, courteous, self-reliant, and gracious, still subsisting as farmers and fishermen. Smoked fish and smoked meats are very common and the smell can be quite tantalizing when you walk past an 'affumicado' shop.

Chiloe is also a flashback to the sixties. The streets and central plaza in the small city of Castro where I stayed for a few days is filled each evening with backpackers right out of Haight-Ashbury, long hair, guitars, beads, dreadlocks, bongo drums, even some dressed in Hara Krishna robes, and all looking every bit as scruffy as was fashionable then. There are many people begging in the streets, but again, they all seem to be the backpackers. I have also seen more blind people here than I can ever remember seeing elsewhere I have been. I do not know why this should be so, but it is.

Tourists come to Chiloe for a couple of day's visit but they are often charmed into staying a week or more. Late last summer Lorraine and I were in Stanley Park wandering around Painter's Corner. We ended up chatting with one of the artists there, a woman originally from Argentina. She told us that the southern coast of Chile was considered the most beautiful place in the world. I am now sure she was referring to Chiloe.

Okay. Let me see. Have I used the requisite number of adjectives? Grand, check. Stately, extravagant, check and check. Beautiful, check, several times. Vibrant, stunning, spectacular, unforgettable, four more checks. Oh, mustn't forget gritty, faded, double check. Throbbed? No, that's a verb. But, yup, pretty much seems I have used enough, so here I will stop. I do hope you are all well.

Merv.