South Central Chile

We are working a lot of seminars this month, so our area of travel will be here for a few weeks, allowing us to stay near normal sized airports.  It's not a bad area to be "stuck" in!  The Lake District is an impossibly pretty region of the bluest waters, perfect cone volcanoes, waterfalls, and ancient forests.  The next 2 weeks, we will be able to really explore the region between Pucón and Puerto Montt, to the East of Rt. 5 (basically the I-5 of Chile.)

Some interesting Chile facts:

• Long and narrow, Chile stretches 2880 mi (4630 km) from   North to South but its widest point is only 265 mi (430 km). 
• The Andes mountain range extends the entire length of Eastern Chile. 
• The second highest point in South America, Ojos del Salado is found here, in the Northern region of Chile.

Chile has three main natural regions:

• the arid North with the Atacama Desert. (This will be the end of our Chilean trip - likely in late December/early January.)
• the fertile Central area, which is the population and economic heart of the nation - around Santiago.
• the cold and humid South, with a landscape of lakes, roaring waterfalls, and fuming volcanoes capped with snow. (This is where we have recently entered and will be through November.)

Around Cape Horn, the Southern-most tip of South America, lie many thousands of islands and a labyrinth of fjords and glaciers.  (We hope to be here in early December.)

 
 


Closest I have ever been to standing up on a surf board!  And a quintessential image of coastal Chile - horses and beaches.

Markets where we try to buy our fruits and vegetables. These are in every town and city. Much easier than buying in the supermarkets, where we have been challenged by all the rules we are slowly figuring out the hard way - by getting in trouble at the cash register! Apparently you have to get your fruits and vegetables weighed by a person in that section of the store, get a ticket on each bag, and THEN you can bring it to the cash register. Those people are not always clearly available, but the cashier still does NOT like it if you try to bring her produce without the proper stickers! The farmers markets are much easier!

Every night's sleeping environment is different.  Tucked away behind trees on a hill in the farmlands, behind gas stations, in an orchard, camp grounds in little mountain towns, and maybe a little poaching along a river...

Volcán Villarrica - Snow capped Villarrica looms majestically over Pucón at 2,840 meters (9318 feet) above sea level. It is one of Chile's most active volcanoes.  We could see steam rising from its crater.  Our hope is to climb it in the next couple of weeks if the weather clears up a bit. (These pics were taken the day we had to fly to Santiago, of course!)

2 Santiago Level 1 seminars down, in a week's time!  Thanks to Ernesto and CrossFit 1810 for being such a great host and big thanks to Pablo, Fernando, Nuno and Adriana for being such a great team!

This "little" discovery set us back on our heels a bit.  We started hearing a terrible creaking one morning as we entered Pucón.  The sounds were echoing off the curbs, where we could hear them.  Mike parked and looked around and noticed the back bumper with the spare and our bike rack was missing a main bolt and we thought that was likely the cause.  He found a replacement and we got back on our way.  The creaking started again shortly after.  Looking around more and rolling under the van, he then nearly lost his lunch when he noticed the spare gas tank was about to fall off the frame.  I don't know if the bolts on our auxiliary gas tank were not installed well or if it's the vibration of the rough roads we have to travel, but the photo above shows that the nut on one bolt was gone and the 2nd nut was close to the end and the tank is separated from the frame already.  Once it went, the front of a gas tank holding 80L of fuel would have fallen and broken.  The front meaning the van would have driven forward over the top of it, likely flipping us and who knows what else.  Sheesh.  That was close. A little exciting. We now check over the entire van at camp every night.  All in a day's work in South America!

Pomaire, Chile - a little Chilean village outside Santiago, surrounded by hills composed of the clay the locals use to create a thriving pottery industry in the community.

South Central Chile from CrossFit Flagstaff on Vimeo.