Thursday March 12th- Saturday, March 14th: Flash Floods, Teatime dinners, and Osorno Volcano!
On Wednesday, I started my day with my first run in over a month. I ran along Lake Llanquihue and through the rolling hills of Frutillar, a quaint and very farmy town.
Atypical of Airbnb (I think the company should cut off the nb and rename it AirB since they never provide breakfasts), this place actually did include a breakfast!
I sat down to this lovely setup including freshly made bread baked by Luis’s wife, while chatting with Luis in Spanglish.
I checked out, and then headed to Puerto Varas and had lunch at La Tuca, a Peruvian sandwich joint. I ordered this mouthwatering pollo crocante sandwich and washed it down with a refreshing strawberry smoothie.
I picked up some groceries at Lider (Chile’s Walmart counterpart), then checked into our Alpine-style cabin.
I then headed to Puerto Montt to straighten out my cell phone issue. The English-speaking associate explained to me that my service had been suddenly suspended because of some new rule that cell phones in Chile had to be registered after being in the country for 30 days. Applying for registration was an arduous process that included sending several pictures of my passport, return flight ticket, and other things. I’ll tell you, getting working cell phone service has been my second biggest headache on this trip, after my lack of Spanish.
This was all during a freak flash flood. I ended up parking illegally during a monsoon to run into the store and then sloshing out after to a solid foot of water.
I headed to the airport through terrible traffic, still serviceless and worried about how I would get in touch with my mother who was landing soon.
I trudged into the airport with my waterlogged shoes. I saw a harried looking blonde par-oozing in a daze through the airport convenience store. I collected my mother, and we headed back to the cabin.
We took advantage of having our own private hot tub, which would fit perfectly in a ski resort. The steaming water was such a relief after a stressful past few days.
And then we enjoyed a roaring fire in this old-fashioned stove!
My mom came to Chile armed with about a dozen pairs of disposable gloves, face masks, and bottles of hand sanitizer. She started to tell me about how bad COVID-19 was getting in the USA. My head still buried deep in the sand, I was convinced that South America would stay untouched.
The next day, we did a whole lot of nothing. My mom was exhausted from her 25 hour journey here and I didn’t mind having a rare low-key day. This black cat was desperate to sneak into the cabin.
For dinner, we tried out a highly rated place nearby called Onces Bellavista. We were hungry for something substantial like steak, so when the waitress brought out this tray of lavish tea foods, all we could reply with was a politely surprised but disappointed “Oh!” Turns out that we had accidentally picked a restaurant that only served tea foods. Still, I had some of the best cakes of my life there.
The next day, we decided to visit the majestic, snow-capped Osorno volcano. We drove up to the base camp.
Then we took two chairlifts up to near the summit of the 8700 foot tall Volcano.
It was freezing up there!
After a while, we headed back down. On our way down, we rode through the clouds!
Back at the base camp, I found this sullen boi guarding the volcano.
Once we got back to the cabin, we treated ourselves to some wine with a gorgeous view of Osorno.
For dinner, we grabbed burgers at a nearby place.
We chatted with some of the patrons about an increasing conversation topic, Coronavirus.
Tomorrow, we planned to head to Chiloe, an island known for its wooden churches and mysticism!
