Elvis, Switzerland & living on the (dirt) road
So here it is, after having had quite a few (well justified) complaints about the lack of my updates - the Van Intro. And believe me the van is the very reason why I haven’t had the cance to write anything (yes some might say why not over christmas, but I was far too busy stuffing myself with food, sleeping in a real bed and using the shower like twice a day, making up for the many days without any.) But I am getting ahead of myself.
So... after seeing a little bit of Santiago (to be fair, mainly a really fancy mall + the garage of Wicked), and knowing that we will have time to explore more when returning our car, we went to pick up our “home” for the next 72 days.
When we arrived at Wicked early in the morning, a huge Elvis painting greeted us frome the sides of our future Van! Even though M says a car needs a female name, the prominent faces of the King on both sides made all other name choices redundant. It is almost ironic, that of all the graffitis on the Wicked Vans we got this one - with us falling in Love in Las Vegas just a few years back. But I guess, my old friend Karma just had a good day.
So off we went - life on the road here we come: With our 1993 Mistsubishi L300 (a big tinbox, no isolation, and no AC). But hey - its an adventure! We will be camping wild, by riverbeds and in forests - its going to be so awesome!
The charms of wildcamping
After driving hours down to the wine region of Chile, we were ready to look for our first place for the night. Now, where were those riverbeds, deserted fields, beaches, and so on? And WHY is everything that looks somewhat nice, fenced and private property? On the panamericana is obviously not a choice (and camping at the gas stop was not sth we wanted to commit to just yet) - so we kept on looking, and looking and looking, Until it almost got dark - so what does one do? We finally found a street in the city of San Javier where on one side there was a football field (Nature!) and an acre (more nature!). So we decided to park there and just ignore all the residential houses behind us.
Our “neighbours” got really excited and were so nice, by coming up to us offering their bathroom and even showers, while we were cooking dinner on our gas cooker then and there on their street. Well, that was probably not the most idyllic setting but it was a start for the 71 more nights to come. I assure you we got better over time (even though the second night we ended up sleeping next to a deserted holiday cabin in a village, where was absolutley no camping to find after a 2 hour detour from the main route). The wine itself in the region was fantastic (we tasted some at the winery Balduzzi and then realised we had to wait hours, for the alcohol to leave our system, due to the 0 promille policy in Chile). Totally worth it.
Luckily we had contacted a Swiss-Chilean Hosteria right in the Cordillera, who had camping facilities on their grounds and let us stay there for around 8 EUR p.p. per night, with a hot shower on their nice hotel below the Andes. Ah yes the Andes, good memories... but also COLD memories. Who was I to think that living in the van would be all cozy and relaxed. Yes it was chilled (but more in the literary sense of it) - no actually it was absolutely freezing. Seeing my breath INSIDE my “bedroom” was not sth I expected to see again after Bolivia. It was supposed to be spring down here after all (just that the mountains have a different kind of spring - of course). Well, the minus degrees at night gave us one more reason to indulge into hot chocolate (its a swiss place - what else?), Apple Strudel (!!!) and even just to treat ourselves a tiny bit - Cheese Fondue. You can see the trend: eat up against the cold! (NOT good for the beach seson hopefully yet to come). But hey yolo (or rather YouOnlyLiveInAFreezingColdCampervanOnce).
Kaffee & Kuchen around the 7 Lakes
On our way further south we came to the 7 lakes district of Chile, and felt like we are driving through Swissgerman landscapes even more. After a very rainy excursion to Anticura and the Waterfalls there (so much rain, that brushing teeth IN the van and climbing over to the front seat to leave was involved) we arrived in Puerto Octay - an old German settlement which now mainly consists of Places that sell sausages and cheese from Nueva Braunau (we googled and were glad that there was NO dodgy connection to you know what). Not very charming but the camping space itself was a beautiful rose garden with our own jetty to the lake and a true place to relax! Camping around the lake district included more picnics at the “beaches” and wonderful lakeviews in the evening. When we got to the little village of Frutillar - we were greated by a huge volcanoe on the other side of the water (Osorno) but most importantly by huge signs saying (in german) Kaffee & Kuchen - and that all over the entire village. You could say - I died and went to Kaffeekränzchen-Heaven. Being reminded of sunday afternoons with grandpa and grandma back home (the city does have the charm of an elderly livingroom) we enjoyed some streuselkuchen and kaffee - and for 2 hours almost felt home again. Then we made our way down to the (once again) “german” village of Puerto Varas - where we stayed at the amazing Hostel Vermont (or rather sleeping in their garden). We argued about going to the German Club (seriously...) for dinner - but in the end the urge for Rotkohl & Eisbein overcame my personal hesitation to go to a restaurant (or actual club) where a huge old german eagle is printed on the building and everything looks like a german post office from 50 years ago - not to mention the humpa humpa music. Again we googled and the founders came over in 1895 (or sth close to that). The experience itself was more pleasent than I thought (no music, a renovated room + lecker essen).
With some german food (not to forget the Mettbroetchen we found!) and cake en masse we headed down to Chiloe...
