Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Traveling to Central Chile - Puerto Montt and Ossorno



We are met at the airport in Puerto Montt by Gerardo, who will be our guide for the remainder of our stay here.  Of German descent, he bears classic nordic features - glacier blue eyes beneath a gray mat of parted hair that trails away into a pony tail.  His face has become somewhat jowly with age but his energy is boundless. We are three hours late in arriving and he is eager to get to Puerto Varas, where we will stay the night. 

The main thoroughfare of the city snuggles the shores of Lake Llanquihue. Our hotel looks as if it elbowed its way into a prime spot on the waterfront. On the beach across the street, the crumpled remains of what appears to have been a tramp steamer litter the shore. These rusty bones are a timeless reminder that the lady of the lake must sometimes be appeased like any other jealous goddess. 

Northeast of us looms the Ossorno Volcano. Tomorrow we will trek over her broad flanks on our way north to Petrohue and Lago Todos Los Santos. 

Tonight we have dinner overlooking the water. Gerardo shares the history of the region, which is dominated by German settlers brought here to farm the land. The German presence remains to this day. In the village square an evening concert features accordion music and German folk tunes. Dinner is excellent and the Pisco flows with Oktoberfest abandon. 

 We are joined at dinner by Ernesto, who will take us safely over the volcano tomorrow. Ernesto is a descendant of the native Mapuche, a fierce warrior clan that was able to keep northern invaders off their land until the 19th century. Their plight is the same as that of indigenous peoples around the globe who couldn’t compete with the implements of modern warfare or disease. Of 500,000 original Mapuche, only a fraction survive. Many of those have emigrated north to Santiago in search of work. The farms where they once lived are now replanted with timber destined for the warehouses of home improvement centers around the globe. 

In the morning we set out for Ossorno, which is enveloped in the mist that has accompanied us since our arrival in Chile. The long steep trail runs up through dense forest thriving in the fertile volcanic soil. 

  We pass over a field of boulders left over from an ancient pyroclastic eruption. I imagine a seething maelstrom of ash, rock and superheated gases rushing down the mountain at more than 60 miles per hour. 

I am reminded of the experience of a friend who was stationed in the Philippines when Pinatubo erupted. He remembered an ash cloud so thick that vehicles traveling down the main street created horizontal lightning from the electrostatic friction. I am continually amazed at how lucky we are that the Earth is not a more violent place. 

At lunch Ernesto downplays the widespread belief that the Mapuche practiced Capacocha, the sacrifice of children to appease the gods. He alleges the Catholic Church invented the rumors to help impose their religion on his people. But there is controversy on this issue. There are grisly allegations from an incident linked to the aftermath of a devastating tsunami in 1960. Investigators claimed that a five-year-old child was dismembered on a beach and left as offering at the order of a Mapuche “Machi” or priestess.  I am unsure who to believe. The story seems unlikely and yet this place has a history as violent as the land that surrounds it. I choose not to judge what I don’t understand.

We have now reached the downward slope of the mountain. The terrain here is steep and covered with scree. My thighs are screaming by the time we get to the lakeshore below.  I can only imagine what Gary is suffering. 

We pass through gullies where flash floods have washed enormous gashes in the volcanic soil. We hike due east to reach the shores of Lago Todos Los Santos. We hike for another three or four kilometers along the beach before reaching the Petrohue Lodge. Gerardo is waiting for us, beaming. This is a popular place among Chilean vacationers and it is alive with activity. Outside the hotel bushes of vivid red flowers host a hive of Picaflor, or Chilean Hummingbirds. These tiny birds are fiercely territorial and brave to the point of recklessness... 



No comments:

Post a Comment