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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 30, 2013 - 08:29pm PT
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Day 10: Rest day. Explored the adjacent stony beach and jagged shoreline below the Donini cabin at the lake, with Fritz and Jerry fishing. I know we have more photos, but I do like these of me bouldering & fly-fishing. Fishing sucked. It has been a very hot & dry summer in Patagonia, and the supposedly abundant & willing large trout were absent.
We enjoyed our last sunset over the lake.
Day 11: We all once again thanked Angela for being "the hostess with the mostest" and headed back north to Coyhaique, with a stop for a boat trip to the "must see" marble caves along the northern lake shore ("a two-hour tour"). Angela gave us directions to find a steep road down to the lake shore, and the friendly resident boatman & guide, who gave all of us a great tour for $80.00 total.
We had better weather driving back to Coyhaique, than when driving down, and we saw much more scenery, since the peaks were not covered in rain-clouds. The regional park at Cerro Castillo features truly impressive basalt spires & the Rio Ibanez does not look like a pleasant spot for a swim.
A few thousand curves later, and we back in Coyhaique at Patagonia House.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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Mar 30, 2013 - 08:34pm PT
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Wow, those marble caves are gorgeous! I mean, it's all gorgeous but those are so interesting.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 30, 2013 - 10:39pm PT
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phylp! Thanks for your positive comments. Anyone else enjoying the photos & story?
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John M
climber
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Mar 30, 2013 - 10:47pm PT
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Loving it.. Thanks Fritz.
More please! What a beautiful place!
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Mar 31, 2013 - 01:23am PT
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lovin' those marble caves...
and the whole lot, really.
thanks fritz
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Mar 31, 2013 - 04:08am PT
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Excellent TR. It's a Patagonian world of wonder.
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jopay
climber
so.il
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Mar 31, 2013 - 07:33am PT
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Jim Donini, I like your style.
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Mar 31, 2013 - 10:34am PT
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Place looks amazing
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Mar 31, 2013 - 11:02am PT
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Chile. It,s the other Idaho.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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Mar 31, 2013 - 12:36pm PT
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Fritz, I'm sure there are lot of folks enjoying the photos and story but it's always the same thing with TRs: people feel shy about being repetitive or saying a simple TFPU so they stay silent. I've wanted a supertopo only like button (not a link to facebook like button that already exists) for ages.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 31, 2013 - 01:09pm PT
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Much thanks to those that take time to encourage my posting with comments (or stories & photos).
We arrived in Coyhaique late afternoon and enjoyed a memorable dinner & great rooms, plus Ruth’s hospitality, at Patagonia House.
We did enjoy a quick visit to "down-town" Coyhaique & its shopping area late afternoon.
There are two large super-mercados, and many other smaller stores, including some outdoor shops-------and some "interesting" clothing stores.
Next day, after a morning at leisure, we drove south to the airport at Balmaceda, then flew Lan Airways direct to Chile's capital, Santiago. Ruth had arranged for a driver with a van to take us to our hotel in the very modern Providencia district of Santiago.
We met for a little celebration that evening on our hotel's rooftop and then had dinner at Ruth's recommend for a restaurant, which of course was excellent.
Restaurant Menus were in Chilean Spanish and the waiter did not speak English. Most of us got what we thought we were ordering, but Jerry's steak came in a bowl of broth----no problems, it was all good.
The next day was an "explore the big city day." We walked west about 4 miles from our hotel to the Central Square, the 16th century Plaza De Armas, which is surrounded by historic buildings. We had planned on a tour of the Pre-Columbian art museum, which was closed for renovation, then we checked out the local open air markets which sell produce & other cheap goods.
It was a slightly-hot late-summer day, but a series of very-nice parks along the Rio Mapocho gave us some shade. The walk was great and we saw a good section of this great modern city.
Inside Santa Lucia, a beautiful park on a small hill near the city center.
The 18th century cathedral on Plaza De Armas.
An intellectual cat at a street market.
We slept in the next morning since our 10 hour flight to Atlanta would take off at 10:10 PM. Late morning we took a hotel van east about 4 miles to Los Dominicos and visited the Artisan village. It is located at an old farm village and has about 150 shops with a variety of leather goods, woven alpaca goods, food, pottery, antiques, wood sculpture, gems, rocks, and minerals, & has exhibits with caged birds, un-caged birds, and old farm village items------and cats to eat the rats.
Yin & Yang cats in an antique bucket.
Some of the Artisan Mall. Cool and pleasant on a hot summer day.
To sum up our trip: we all had a great time in Chile. Santiago is expensive, we are glad we went there, but we likely won't spend time there if we go back. The areas around Coyhaique all look great for future visits, and we certainly appreciate why the Doninis have a cabin on Lago General Carrera.
The best advice I can give anyone going to Chile is: work on your Spanish language skills. Heidi & I did refresher work on our limited Spanish before our trip, which certainly helped, but we still had a tough time understanding the locals.
Chilean Spanish has changed significantly from Spanish Spanish and is spoken very rapidly. You can assume any taxi driver, store clerk, gas station attendant, or policeman will not speak English. Not all hotel & restaurant staff speak English, even in larger cities.
A Big note! South of Coyhaique on our visit: ALL payment was in Chilean Pesos. Do not expect to find any business that takes credit cards or American dollars! In larger cities credit cards are commonly accepted, but not U.S. dollars.
Have fun if you go! It is a wonderful country and the people are very friendly.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Mar 31, 2013 - 02:48pm PT
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Herr Fritzi, awesome TR! I find Argentine Spanish tougher than Chilean. Ironically,
the easiest person I spoke with in Argentina was a cabbie in Ushuaia. That
in itself would be strange enough but it was even stranger in that this
particular cabbie was one of those cute little Bowler hat-wearing Indian women
from way up north! Even more hilarious was that she was undoubtedly the
best cab driver we experienced in the whole country! And I don't just mean
that she drove the most sanely and considerately. She also was, by far, the
most cognizant of how to properly drive a stick shift! I think her name was
'Suave'. ;-)
Also of note is that in Argentina businesses will often give you a discount
if you pay in dollars rather than pesos. We stayed at a B&B in Iguazua that
only accepted dollars. I didn't blame him given their 30% inflation rate.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 31, 2013 - 05:25pm PT
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drljefe! Thanks for posting the video link.
Yep! The video was shot at the marble-caves we visited (Las Cavernas de Marmol).
Climbing there did not occur to me, but some locals were doing moderate cliff-diving.
Reilly: I think I did better with my Spanglish with the Argentines than with the Chileans. However, by the last day of our trip, I was able to understand our hotel van driver when he asked my if we would need a van to the airport that evening, and not confuse him with my reply that a friend of a friend (the Ruth connection) was going to take us.
I talked with an ex-LDS missionary last week, who told me he needed 3 months of practice in Chile, before he could fully comprehend Chilean-Spanish.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
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Mar 31, 2013 - 06:35pm PT
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Ex-LDS? Postcultist?
There IS hope.
BTW, If you climb on Marble, Yer gonna die fer sure. Slick choss, that.
Groovin', RRR.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 1, 2013 - 10:29am PT
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Working class Chile bump, for those that read ST at the breakfast table, or at work.
First Light on Mt. San Valentin, 13,350' from Lago General Carrera at 718'.
Heidi making friends at La Tienda.
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Thanks for the fine T.R.
My daughter is somewhere down there right now, heading North from El Chalten.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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It looks like Heaven. I'm curious as to other places along the Chilean coast, given my ocean plans, which are basically to take off in my new boat.
The southern archipelago looks pretty wild from Google Earth. Donini's place is also incredible. How big is that lake? I think that it straddle's the border, correcto?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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The lake is 95 miles long, 2 to 15 miles wide and encompasses 588 sq. miles. It is one of the deeper lakes in the World at 2,500 ft....interesting since the surface is only 680 ft. above sea level. It extends into the Patagonian Desert in Argentina where it reaches it's greatest width. There is just enough glacial silt to give it that beautiful aquamarine color. Researchers from Stanford tested the water and were amazed at how pure it was.
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