Chile - Patagonia
01 May 2016
Perhaps this is a sign of a not-very-inquisitive brain, but it had never occurred to me to question whether the terms Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are tethered to the months with which we associate them in the northern hemisphere or instead reflect characteristics of weather similar in each hemisphere but occurring in very different months.
The latter, I had to travel to Chile to think to question, is the case.
So, arriving in Chile during early April I was seeing the last of “Indian Summer” and the first of real fall. In Santiago, this meant very comfortable 70ish degree temperatures and fairly dry conditions. By the time I arrived in Puerta Varas (at around 40deg latitude south) the weather was decidedly cooler and much, much wetter. And, the trees in the higher elevations were rapidly changing color. This made the choice to go no further south an easy one. However, it is clear that, in making that decision, I left much of the most magnificent terrain of Patagonia unseen and unexplored. There will, perhaps, be another opportunity on a future trip.
To digress for a minute – another confusing factor for me in my time here has been the fact that for the first time in my life the Sun is found in the northern sky – not the southern. This has been the case since we passed it on our passage south at around 8deg south as the sun was on its own annual passage towards the north.
It was never clear to me how often the perceived fact that “the Sun is always to the south somewhere” has been a quick and dirty crutch to determining which direction is which. I have spent much of the last 3-4 weeks with almost no idea of direction. And unlike Denver’s “the mountains are always in the west”, here the volcanoes and ex-volcanoes are pretty much in all directions - very disorienting.
Unlike my first pseudo-hostel in Santiago, throughout the remainder of my travels first to Puerta Varas, then to Pucon, Valdivia and arriving a few days ago here in Valparaiso I have stayed at true ‘backpacker” hostels. There are certainly no 81y/o’s staying in these places. And, it is pretty clear that even at a young(ish) 62, I was easily double the age of all but a very few of my fellow travelers.
I have done similar traveling before (in Guatemala) and recognize that with that age difference connections are not quite as simple as they are in my cruising life. After 10 years of cruising, I am only now reaching the average age of most of the other cruisers out and about.
Surrounded by kids (relatively speaking) I tend to gravitate towards those 25-30 somethings who are perhaps taking a break between schooling and starting a career or are taking a career break and enjoying a bit of travel. We have more in common.
And yet, many pleasant, interesting and fun connections can and do occur. As with my cruising life, such connections are one of the key “holy grails” of travel. Similar to the cruising life, starting conversations is always easy: “Where have you been? Where are you going? Where are you from? Etc etc.”
On the day that this picture was taken, I had decided to take the bus to Huerquehue National Park to hike the Three Lakes trail. There is only one bus – at 8;30 in the morning – and it was loaded with backpackers. One was a 30-ish lady from the San Jose area (on a career break) who was staying at the same hostel as I was. We had connected in the lounge the previous night and, both planning to do the same hike, had agreed to do so together. We started off from the trailhead around the same time as two couples. While there was never a conscious decision made for the six of us to hike together, with “ooh and aah” and picture taking breaks we just fell into step together. There was an American guy travelling with a Japanese girl (they had been travelling together for 4 years) and an English guy with a German girl (we weren’t really sure if they were a couple or not – nor, as it turned out, were they). This was a very interesting, and very international, group.
Other than Mary, the lady from my hostel, I do not know any of their names. We never did the name thing. However, we enjoyed together the beautiful (and all too rare) warm and sunny weather, the lush and, as we gained elevation, increasingly colorful trees and the spectacular mountain and volcano views. And we teased and joked and bantered endlessly. Much of the humor was culturally self-deprecating as each nationality represented poked fun at its own country’s stereotypes.
My favorite line – I was teasing the narcissistic younger generation about its love of selfies and asked the Japanese lady where her selfie-stick was. Her perfect response “I Japanese. Our cameras too big!” got a huge laugh. I also found it interesting that when she slipped on a wet and slimy log - falling into a muddy pool of cold water, she swore in English! A Japanese lady, in a Spanish speaking country but doing her swearing in English – how international is that?
While I did happen to run into the English guy while wandering around Valpo yesterday, the fact is that at the end of that lovely day of hiking and camaraderie, I didn’t need to know their names, had no expectation of re-connecting in the future and certainly had no desire to “friend” anyone. But we did enjoy our daylong “moment” together very much.
Such is travel.