We flew into Santiago from Quito on an overnight flight arriving the day after Christmas and caught a local bus to the city center where we booked our next long haul bus south. The airport and bus stations were surprisingly busy for Christmas and we were a little anxious to get south before the New Years crowds arrived on holiday.
We arrived in Valdivia, Chile late afternoon on an overcast day and searched out a hostel to catch up on rest after our long days of travel. Unfortunately, the rains had arrived with us and nixed our camping aspirations. It is rainy season in Chile but the full day long showers we were receiving are not the norm and our afternoon highs were 10 degrees below average! We dug out our rain jackets and long sleeves and opted for a few more days in a cozy hostel in the hopes of dryer and warmer days to come.
Historically Valdivia acted as the seat of German immigration to the region in the 1850s and 60s. Large droves of immigrants arrived during this time and their influence remains very evident today . The architecture of the homes as we entered the district were in stark contrast to what we had seen elsewhere in South America, resembling something out of a northern European countryside picture book. Valdivia today is an active riverside university town with German style taverns and beer halls perched on street corners next to chocolate shops and fondue restaurants. We were able to get in our daily runs along the water and balanced that with a couple of beers from local taverns and the comforts of a westernized supermarket before heading west to the border with Argentina.
No issues at the boarder crossing besides a slow bus driver who must have been getting paid by the hour. Argentina actually recently joined Brazil, Bolivia and Chile in charging Americans a $135 reciprocal fee for entering their country but luckily they are only charging at
airports and we skirted this by taking a land crossing. As we crossed the political border we also got our first up close experience with the physical border between the two countries, the stunning Andes Mountains. The road wound up through steep valleys and crossed raging mountain rivers before dumping us out on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi and the tourism hot spot of Bariloche. Bariloche is best known as a premier winter ski destination but also lures mass crowds during the summer months (now!), families looking for a week at the lake and rugged outdoorsmen looking to scale the many surrounding peaks. The rains followed us to Bariloche but luckily cleared on our second day and we found our way to a campground a few kilometers from town away from crowds. We set up camp and headed out on a hike up the shores of the lake. Lucky for us, Bariloche has much of the same German influence as Valdivia and we encountered three microbreweries along the 
shores of our 12 kilometer hike! The following day we broke camp and headed into town for NYE. The town was now completely packed with people but we had prebooked a private room in a hostel instead of doing our usual wandering. We headed out for an evening drink but we were surprised to find that at 8PM nowhere was open. Either the bars don’t celebrate NYE or they all open up late at night. After nearly an hour of searching we found an open pub (not surprising, it was owned by a guy from Chicago) where we were able to get a pint. From there we retired to our hostel with a bottle of champagne and celebrated everything we had experienced in the past year and welcomed in 2010.The scenery kept getting better the further south we headed so we pushed on to the town of El Bolson, at the Northern tip of the famed Patagonia region. El Bolson is a town of 20,000 inhabitants that actually feels much smaller. The locals pride themselves on their open-minded ‘alternative’ lifestyle and have deemed the town an ‘ecological municipality‘ an
d a ‘nuclear free zone‘ (not sure what exactly qualifies it as either). The town is situated along a river at the base of jagged mountains tops and spires, the type that have made the scenery in this part of the world so famous. Forest surrounds much of the village while fields producing fresh produce and hops for beer also abound. We searched out a campground on the edge of town and checked in for 4 nights. Our camping neighbors were quite the motley crew. To the left we had a climber and guide from the Yukon Territory and to the right we had a long hair fully bearded climber from the Bavarian Alps. These guys were serious with their gear; expedition tents, ice axes, crampons, basically all that really cool gear you see at the sports store and would like to buy but know you would never legitimately use. They made great company during our stay as we swapped stories and cooked over campfires.As with many South American towns, one of the main attractions of El Bolson is their weekly outdoor market. El Bolson’s actually occurs three times weekly and starts a little later in the morning (the laid back lifestyle allows for sleeping in). This market
is actually quite different from any other we have seen; it is light on livestock and produce but heavy on crafts. Woodcarvers, welders, sculptors, and knitters all sell their goods as well as musicians, chefs and craft brewers. The market is massive, there must have been well over 100 vendors lined up around the lake in the city park. We wandered the aisles, eventually settling on a wood carved cheese board for $3, some craft beer for $2.50 a pint and some gourmet pizza for $1 a slice. The following day we headed out on a hike up the valley rim to an overlook of town and the next day we hired bikes and road out through the hop fields outside of town to a high mountain lake about 15 miles away.After 4 nights of camping (and two broken tent poles we were luckily able to repair with a trip to the local gas piping store) we shifted to a hostel with wifi to watch the Iowa Bowl game. Accommodations were extremely crowded so we had to sleep in a 6-person dorm but we convinced the staff to let us stay in the lobby until after hours (the game ended at 2AM here!) as we cheered on the Hawkeyes and enjoyed a little slice of back home to compliment our great experiences the days before.
Side Note: If anyone ever makes it to Valdivia, be sure to check out the abnormally large seals on the rivers edge. They must be some sort of freak of nature (actually I think the fisherman at the market feed them too many scraps) because they make the seals at Pier 39 in SF look like Chihuahuas.
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