Chile Day 11 - Glaciers and the Israeli Army

It's a small world down here. Travellers meander southward, stopping for different amounts of time and moving at different rates. Today's hike at PN Queulat was a reunion of sorts, as I kept running into folks I had met since Puerto Montt. I walked a while with the group of French girls from yesterday's bus and talked some more, this time unencumbered by the bumpy roads. I told them about how the unreliability and complexity of things here has made my life difficult. They just laughed, since they just came from francophone Africa. Compared to Niger, this place is run like Switzerland. Point made. (One of them, asian and therefore a novelty, even had a Taureg nomad offer to buy her for 3 cows.)

The hike itself was short, but rewarding. It wandered through rainforest and ended at a lookout about 1km away from a "hanging" glacier. It hulks high above a sheer dropoff and a sea-foam-green lake, sending down waterfalls and periodic chunks of ice. I could hear it calving (dropping chunks) like thunder from the other end of the valley. The ice glowed with the same unnatural broken blue styrofoam look as the glacier in Norway. The walk upwards traversed a lively rainforest which reminded me of a book I read as a kid called "Anno's Animals". It showed dense forest scenes with animals hidden in the shapes of the trees. I kept looking for an elephant, but didn't see one.

Of course, getting there wasn't easy. It involved coordinating a german peace corps volunteer and a trio of girls recently retired from compulsory service in the israeli army. We found a random guy in town to give us a ride in his pickup truck, which he fancied a mean racing machine with a big muffler and even a Speed Racer decal. He cheated us by trying to get us to pay more (unsuccessful) and dropping us off a few km from our agreed-upon destination (successful, but I'm not sure what he really gained). But we got there in the end.

Getting back was harder, though that was not unexpected. With no way to arrange transport from the park, I started walking north with plans to hitch. Fortunately, the third vehicle to pass picked me up and took me all the way to Puyhuapi. Unfortunately, traffic is pretty sparse on the northbound carretera austral and you're lucky to get one car per hour. I had already covered half of the 22km to town by the time Gabriel and Rafael (really - my angels!) rolled up in their big orange public works truck.

I ran into lots of Israelis today. One of the army graduates said that they like running into Americans since their neighbors hate their existence and they perceive a casual anti-semitism from many Europeans. They find it comforting to be in the presence of someone even more hated around the world than themselves.

Remember what I said about omnipresent internet access? Not in Puyuhuapi. I'm cut off, at least until Futalefu.

I'm eating dinner in Cafe Rosenbach, not for the quality of the food (blah) but because the owner is a german-speaking descendant of the original settlers. I really just wanted to be in an environment where I could communicate with someone. It is becoming wearying to wade through a swamp of high-speed spanish just to order a salad.

There are certain factors which tell a lot about a country, but travel guides never seem to include. For the education of all, here's the relevant info: * Gushing hot showers: not at 5kilopesos per night, they're not. (Money conversion is really easy. 1000 pesos == $2. You just have to get over seeing "20 min, $300" at the internet cafe.) * Smoking: present and allowed in most places, though not common. I think it's because the country is poor and cigarettes are expensive. Things may be different in Santiago. * Tap water: not served in restaurants, but apparently safe. Which is good, because bottled water costs more than US-prices. * Street right-of-way: goes to the one with the most chutzpa. Ped x-ing signals widely ignored. Not a big deal since traffic density is usually low.

Good night, all.