Plenty of PPPPP
Before I launch into my time spent in a few Master P towns in Chile, I have a few South American observations I´d like to share...
In many towns/cities in South America, it is common to find certain types of shops all grouped together on the same street or in the same neighborhood. I first noticed this while exploring the streets of Cuenca in Ecuador and saw that all the shops which sell party favors such as piñatas were on the same bloody street! Another example of this was when I was walking around Punta Arenas, Chile, and spotted all the major car rental companies within the space of one block from each other. On the one hand, this is super convenient for discerning customers who may wish to compare costs before making their final selection. However, I would also think that this might make it more difficult for the shops to turn a profit since they might have to lower their prices in order to differentiate themselves from one another. I´m no economist (plainly) but I really don´t get it from a shopowner´s point of view. Anyone care to enlighten me who´s taken ECON 101 and actually paid attention?
Another thing I´ve noticed throughout South America is that music medleys seem to rule the airwaves! Many times when traveling by bus, the driver has switched on the radio or thrown a mix tape in the tapedeck and within minutes a medley has come on, especially ones which favor 10-20 second snippets from (so bad they´re good) 80´s pop songs. I´m not particularly complaining about this musical phenomonen, no sirree Bob, BUT I have found myself feeling frustrated when a really good/bad song has started up in the mix but then has abruptly cut off after only 15 seconds to move on to the next song snippet. It´s the musical equivalent of a cocktease! I think there should be a button one can press that will allow a listener to hear the song play out fully. Enough is enough I say. Let´s go all the musical way!
Okay, so where was I....oh yes...plentiful "P" towns. I spent a few days in the TOTALLY touristic town of Pucón. It is located in the Lake District of Chile and has its very own ACTIVE volcano (albeit its last major eruption was back in 1971). Mind you, I didn´t realise that the Volcan Villarrica was active until my final day there when I noticed a few faint puffs of smoke trailing out of the top of the volcano in an otherwise completely clear blue sky. IF I had known earlier on why so many people choose to spend/waste(?) $80 to climb Villarrica, a relatively short mountain at 2847m, I might have booked my own climbing excursion in order to satisfy the thrill-seeking daredevil within. Alas...
So Pucón, in addition to the somewhat ominous presence of an active volcano, has a national park nearby, Huerquehue (say what??), in which I had the pleasure to spend an afternoon hiking as well as sweating and swatting at horseflies. But the main event going down in Pucón, at least while I was there, was the IronMan competition, which has been annually held in town since 1988. Once I´d perused the list of names of those registered to compete without finding my friend/colleague Kevin West´s name there, I lost most of my interest in following the competition. But then later on I found out that ALL the major streets road leading in/out of town would be closed during the day in order to accommodate the runners/bikers, and I grew understandably aggravated by my ill-timed visit to the town. I had hoped to do some additional hiking in the area but was essentially STUCK in town for the duration of the sporting event. Ppppphooey!
Another "P" town I chose to visit due to the fact that it was close to the Petrohué River and Waterfall was Puerto Varas. I´d actually visited Petrohué back in 2003 and remember thinking it was absolutely beautiful, but making Puerto Varas my base, rather than the pretty much unimpressive Puerto Montt nearby, was an inspired choice if I do say so myself (and just did). Puerto Varas is a sleepy little town located on the shore of Llanquihue Lake, and is reknowned for its Germanic traditions due to the number of German colonists who settled there in the 19th century. I stayed in a private room at a hostal there for only 10,000 pesos a night, which is a price pretty much unheard of for a private room in Chile! So, so sweeeeet to sleep without someone snoring in my ear!
To reach Petrohué Falls from Puerto Varas, one must take a local bus for the princely one-way sum of 2000 pesos. However, I opted to hop off the bus before reaching the waterfall so that I could do a wee bit of hiking. There´s a trail nearby called the El Solitario, which I had been inadvertently misled to believe would finish up at the falls but in truth leads in the opposite direction. The hike winds its way through a thoroughly unremarkable forest and I actually think that it was the most boring hike I´ve ever done. The only memorable thing about it was the ubiquitious presence of aggressive Patagonian horseflies. And thesefuckers suckers bite!!! It was not unusual to have about 10 of these HUGE flies buzzing around your body while you walked and pretty much every person I encountered in Petrohué was periodically waving their arms around trying to swat these flies away. It kind of resembled a dance move in fact - the "Petrohué Sashay"! It´s weird because I have absolutely NO RECOLLECTION of being hounded by these flying buggers during my first visit to Petrohué even though both visits took place during the summer. So why now brown cow fly?!!? The only upside was that I managed to avoid being bitten by one of them.
So there you have it...ppppretty ppppleasant for the most part, but it´s time to move on to the ultimate Party Palace of....PATAGONIA!!!
In many towns/cities in South America, it is common to find certain types of shops all grouped together on the same street or in the same neighborhood. I first noticed this while exploring the streets of Cuenca in Ecuador and saw that all the shops which sell party favors such as piñatas were on the same bloody street! Another example of this was when I was walking around Punta Arenas, Chile, and spotted all the major car rental companies within the space of one block from each other. On the one hand, this is super convenient for discerning customers who may wish to compare costs before making their final selection. However, I would also think that this might make it more difficult for the shops to turn a profit since they might have to lower their prices in order to differentiate themselves from one another. I´m no economist (plainly) but I really don´t get it from a shopowner´s point of view. Anyone care to enlighten me who´s taken ECON 101 and actually paid attention?
Another thing I´ve noticed throughout South America is that music medleys seem to rule the airwaves! Many times when traveling by bus, the driver has switched on the radio or thrown a mix tape in the tapedeck and within minutes a medley has come on, especially ones which favor 10-20 second snippets from (so bad they´re good) 80´s pop songs. I´m not particularly complaining about this musical phenomonen, no sirree Bob, BUT I have found myself feeling frustrated when a really good/bad song has started up in the mix but then has abruptly cut off after only 15 seconds to move on to the next song snippet. It´s the musical equivalent of a cocktease! I think there should be a button one can press that will allow a listener to hear the song play out fully. Enough is enough I say. Let´s go all the musical way!
Okay, so where was I....oh yes...plentiful "P" towns. I spent a few days in the TOTALLY touristic town of Pucón. It is located in the Lake District of Chile and has its very own ACTIVE volcano (albeit its last major eruption was back in 1971). Mind you, I didn´t realise that the Volcan Villarrica was active until my final day there when I noticed a few faint puffs of smoke trailing out of the top of the volcano in an otherwise completely clear blue sky. IF I had known earlier on why so many people choose to spend/waste(?) $80 to climb Villarrica, a relatively short mountain at 2847m, I might have booked my own climbing excursion in order to satisfy the thrill-seeking daredevil within. Alas...
So Pucón, in addition to the somewhat ominous presence of an active volcano, has a national park nearby, Huerquehue (say what??), in which I had the pleasure to spend an afternoon hiking as well as sweating and swatting at horseflies. But the main event going down in Pucón, at least while I was there, was the IronMan competition, which has been annually held in town since 1988. Once I´d perused the list of names of those registered to compete without finding my friend/colleague Kevin West´s name there, I lost most of my interest in following the competition. But then later on I found out that ALL the major streets road leading in/out of town would be closed during the day in order to accommodate the runners/bikers, and I grew understandably aggravated by my ill-timed visit to the town. I had hoped to do some additional hiking in the area but was essentially STUCK in town for the duration of the sporting event. Ppppphooey!
Another "P" town I chose to visit due to the fact that it was close to the Petrohué River and Waterfall was Puerto Varas. I´d actually visited Petrohué back in 2003 and remember thinking it was absolutely beautiful, but making Puerto Varas my base, rather than the pretty much unimpressive Puerto Montt nearby, was an inspired choice if I do say so myself (and just did). Puerto Varas is a sleepy little town located on the shore of Llanquihue Lake, and is reknowned for its Germanic traditions due to the number of German colonists who settled there in the 19th century. I stayed in a private room at a hostal there for only 10,000 pesos a night, which is a price pretty much unheard of for a private room in Chile! So, so sweeeeet to sleep without someone snoring in my ear!
To reach Petrohué Falls from Puerto Varas, one must take a local bus for the princely one-way sum of 2000 pesos. However, I opted to hop off the bus before reaching the waterfall so that I could do a wee bit of hiking. There´s a trail nearby called the El Solitario, which I had been inadvertently misled to believe would finish up at the falls but in truth leads in the opposite direction. The hike winds its way through a thoroughly unremarkable forest and I actually think that it was the most boring hike I´ve ever done. The only memorable thing about it was the ubiquitious presence of aggressive Patagonian horseflies. And these
So there you have it...ppppretty ppppleasant for the most part, but it´s time to move on to the ultimate Party Palace of....PATAGONIA!!!
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