After spending an extra day in Valdivia and drinking some great Kunstmann dark beer and ale, we jumped on a bus to Puerto Montt. Just to note, this is the official start of the famous Carretera Austral that runs south from Puerto Montt and finishes in Villa O’higgins which is located very close to the Argentine border and Chalten. We didn’t plan on doing the first part of the Carretera Austral, but we will be joining it about 2/3 down when we arrive in Coyhaique.
We arranged a couch while we were in Valdivia with Michael, Nathalie, Lena, Maya. A very interesting family that normally lives on a sailing boat. However, the boat was currently in dry dock for maintenance and repairs, so the family was staying in a rented house on an island opposite the yacht club. The Müller/Wnuk family was originally from Germany which was great for Victoria as she could practice her German again. I know how much she was looking forward to that!
When we arrived in Puerto Montt we spoke with Nathalie on the phone and she directed us to where we had to go. We jumped on the bus and 10 mins along the road heading west out of Puerto Montt, we arrived at the yacht club “Nautico Reloncavi”. We found their boat, the “Iron Lady” straight away as it was right next to the entrance to the club. We shouted up and Michael with Nathalie greeted us and told us to come up onto the boat. We talked in English initially, but then switched to German for a while after them finding out that we could speak it. Lena and Maya who were five and seven, respectively, also came out of the lower deck to say hello. They were both a bit shy at first, but that didn’t last long.
We sat and talked with Michael and Nathalie who kindly offered us a beer while we were exchanging our stories. Typical for the German culture I suppose, because in England you would most probably be offered a cup of tea! In Germany, it’s beer, but I like it either way :) We found out that the Müller/Wnuk family had admirably, already been once round the world on a seven year trip with their boat and that they also received publicity from a well known sailing magazine in Germany called yacht.de while also updating their own blog at ironlady.de and publishing a book called “Meer als ein Traum“. We were so privileged to be hosted by such amazing hosts, it’s not often you get to stay with and listen to unique stories from such an interesting skipper family.
After finishing our beers we all went over to where the small ferry departs for the island. The ferry was a wooden boat with a single stroke engine and capacity for approximately eight people. Once on the island, we walked a couple of minutes to where the house was. It was a lovely, blue and white wooden bungalow with a nice terrace and green grass in the front and rear gardens.
Michael and Nathalie had a barbecue in mind for dinner, which we tremendously welcomed after staying with vegetarians in Valdivia and while camping in the Parque National Reserva Costanera, eating only tuna, pasta, rice and veggies. While Michael was preparing the grill and sipping on a well deserved, top quality Chilean wine, Victoria and I drank beer and helped out with preparations in the kitchen with Nathalie, while she was also sipping on a well deserved wine after a hard days work on the boat. When the food was ready we sat around the kitchen table and enjoyed a fabulous meal with succulent beef, lamb, salad and the skippers themselves. While eating, Victoria and I switched beverages to the excellent Chilean wine that Michael and Nathalie kindly provided. After dinner we stayed up taking and drinking till late in the evening in front of a nice wood fire in the living room. What a perfect way to end the day.
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The next day we had a tasty portion of scrambled eggs for breakfast and then started to head over to the mainland with Nathalie, Lena, Maya and a bunch of recently cleaned seats that were destined for the boat. On the way across the water we saw some seals chilling out on a buoy. Michael had woken up early to start working on the boat, as a potential buyer for the Iron Lady would be arriving in the next few days. While Nathalie also had things to do on the boat, Victoria, Lena, Maya and I went to the fabulous local market to fulfill our shopping list and grab some tasty ice cream, so we jumped on the bus and off we went!
We found an astonishing array of fresh fish and other local goodies like chocolates, fresh fruit and veg that we picked up. We also took with us some very nice smoked salmon that we tried in the market and some great honey. We had a fun time with Lena and Maya and once we did our tour of the stalls and played around a bit, it was time for ice cream! A highlight of the trip for the little monsters! Once we charged up on even more sugar it was time to release some more energy so we went down to the waterfront for a walk. Funnily enough, Lena had to go further in the water than her wellies permitted and one of them quickly filled up with water :)
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Once we were finished getting the water out of Lena’s boot and changing her into Victoria’s handy spare pair of socks, we gave Nathalie a call to come and pick us up to go to the rodeo event that just happened to be on about a couple of kilometers away. We had never been to a rodeo before so it was a first for Victoria and I. We weren’t too sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a very authentic and interesting event, not many tourists whatsoever. A lot of people were dressed Gaucho (Cowboy) style, while Gauchos on horses where performing what seemed to be various maneuvers inside the ring to gain points from judges. The maneuvers became quite monotonous after a while, but the atmosphere was great. We spent an hour there an then went back to the house to prepare the four kilos of mussels that we bought earlier. Yum Yum!
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While the food was cooking and the sun was setting after a beautiful day, Lena and Maya were in the front garden playing with playmobil while appropriately setting up a pen with with horses inside. It must have been an influence from the rodeo earlier that day. We all had dinner together and enjoyed the marvelous mussels from the market and a fabulous bottle or more of white. Gourmet cooking is the word and happy stomachs and people was the result. The evening ended with an open fire, blog updating, talking and a few more glasses :)
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In the morning we were given the task of babysitting Lena and Maya. It was fun and at times it reminded me of the things we used to do when we were younger! So much time to do things, time went slowly and zero worries. Everything was provided. What a life! One can only look back and admire how easy life was back then. These days, time just gets faster and faster or we are just getting slower and slower according to Einsteins law of relativity. Time is constant, so we must be getting slower if time seems to us to be going faster! Oh well, those days are numbered, but life goes on :)
In the afternoon I wanted to go into town to start looking for a camera to replace our sea-salt frozen Canon S100. After getting fairly frustrated with Victoria for taking so long, we all jumped on the ferry to the mainland. We looked at various shops and we were pleasantly surprised by the steep prices. Most tech goods are double the price of Europe if not more in some cases! We decided that paying such a price for a camera would be silly, so we delayed purchasing any camera until we find a good price for the camera we want or get one sent from Germany somehow. More on this in following blogs.
In the evening, Victoria and I prepared a Russian salad with a twist! The normal recipe includes crab sticks, but the fresh crab that we found at the market for the portions we required were just too expensive. So we opted for some world class, locally caught, southern Chilean salmon! It was a bit of a risk as we had never attempted it before, but it worked. Delicious! This one we will have to replicate for sure. Accompanied by some excellent white wine and a happy family, it was a meal to remember :)
The first picture below was taken from Puerto Montt with a view over the bay of volcanoes Petrohue and Osorno in the background and the second is a long exposure of the beautiful sunset taken from right outside of the house.
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We stayed an extra day with the family as it was so nice, but in the morning it was time to leave to our next destination, Castro on the Island of Chiloe. After watching Maya climb an impressive distance up the flag pole and monster trying to eat Lena’s ducky duck, we went to catch the ferry.
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Following saying goodbye to the newly painted Iron Lady and thanking the Müller/Wnuk family for a lovely, fun yet relaxing stay with them, we managed to get a ride with Nathalie to the bus station.
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We were quite early for the bus, but we still needed to get tickets for the ferry from Chiloe to Puerto Chacabuco near Coyhaique in the south of Chile, as this was the only ticket office between here and the port as far as we knew. So I quickly walked over to Navimag ferries to get the tickets, however, silly of me I forgot the passports! So I had to swiftly go back to the terminal where Victoria was waiting and grab them. Time was ticking as the bus was departing in less than 30 mins, so I ran to the ferry office and grabbed the tickets and ran back again with steaming temperatures. All good in the hood! 5 mins to spare and time for a smoke.
We jumped on the bus and off we went to Castro not knowing exactly where we were going to stay, as earlier that morning we received a message from our next couchsurfing host saying “I’m sorry but I don’t know you and the couch has already been taken”! What!? Of course we didn’t know him! That’s what couchsurfing is all about! Anyway, I think there was a bit of a language misinterpretation going on, so we quickly had to find somewhere else to stay. I had an idea; I called Nelson (The Zeitgeist Movement coordinator for Chile who we stayed with in Santiago) and asked him if he knew anyone in Chiloe who we might be able to stay with. He didn’t know anyone, but he did post a message on the Chilean Zeitgeist Movement Facebook page asking if anyone could host us.
Meanwhile, just after the ferry crossing to the island, he sent me a text saying that a guy called Alfonso responded from a small town called Dalcahue, approximately 20 km north-east of Castro. Perfect and simultaneously amazing! Within two hours we had spontaneously found a new host. Incredible as we were not too fond of staying in a boring hostel! More to follow on that note…
To follow the Müller/Wnuk family adventure further and find out where they currently are with their lovely new 18.26m “Marlin”, check out their blog at sy-marlin.de
