Temuco

By morning I felt that I had solved all the problems of the world. It was simple, everyone should take 2 months holiday every year. That would mellow everyone and reduce aggression. In fact I was so mellow that I was bored. I took my clothes to the laundry and while waiting took another portrait of Villarrica volcano and wrote in the diary. (The sky wasn't really that dark, it's due to the polarising filter I used.)

It was 2 hours by bus to Temuco. It was a dusty and hot day. I had several false starts looking for the train office. Next I looked for the residencial I had in mind. Neither it nor the city looked interesting; the city is just a large regional centre; so I decided to not stay but skip the city and take the overnight sleeper to Santiago. At the time Temuco was the southern terminus of the service. I deposited my backpack at the station and went sightseeing.

At the mercado municipal I had a delicious lunch of corvina a la plancha (grilled on a hotplate). I didn't know what fish this was but I now know that corvina is croaker. Chileans market sellers were very persuasive. I was cajoled to buy fruits, shoes, even a shoulder bag. More Spanish words I picked up: plantino = plantian (cooking bananas), palomitas (de maiz) = popcorn. Palomitas literally means little doves. It's just one of a horde of Spanish terms for popcorn.

I found a dessert of gelato near the centre, on Bulnes, and rested at the central plaza. There were lots of young people in the city. Chileans doted on kids and I sometimes winked at the cute little kids. I didn't wink at the cute "big kids" though, they can get upset if you do that, hahaha.

In the evening, I found myself waiting for the train with an artistic looking Italian couple. We ended up in the same carriage. They had been to the north and south of Chile and were returning to Milan the next day. The sky was streaked with red at sunset. By and by a railway employee came along to pull down the beds. The carriage was ancient, with dark wood paneling. Only the toilet looked modern. (It seems that at the time of writing that this sleeper service is in limbo.)

Valdivia-Villarrica

The lodgings were a bit run down but the bed was comfy and I slept very well. Fortunately there was hot water for the shower in the morning though the taps were fiddly. The landlady was Germanic, and served Kuchen for breakfast.

I walked to the river to wander through the feria fluvial (riverside market). The woman in the picture was selling bundles of dried kelp called cochayuyo. I knew they were a kind of seaweed but didn't know what variety and what it was used for until I looked it up for this blog. It is reconstituted with water and used as a vegetable in salads and soups.

Colourful fruits and flowers.

Pelicans hanging out for scraps from the fishmonger.

The day had started off overcast but brightened up as it wore on.

I decided not to bother with Isla Teja, a fluvial island, but to press on to Villarrica. The bus stopped everywhere, but I was in no hurry. We passed fields of yellow hops. It was All Saints' Day and people were in the cemeteries tidying the graves. The food vendors were there too doing business.

At Villarrica, I had a lunch of lomo a lo pobre (poor man's steak) in Café Chito. It is similar to Portuguese steak. If this is poverty cuisine, then I'll be happy to be poor. Not your meal if you need to avoid cholesterol but tasty and filling.

I took a room at the Hotel Fuente. It was in the attic, rather basic with a low ceiling. In retrospect I should have proceeded to Pucón, but I was less spontaneous in those days.

Villarrica is on the shore of the eponymous lake and the shore comprises brown sand and pebbles. A Chilean was talking to some USAns in English as he pulled his boat out of the water. Luckily for him it was fresh water. Turned out he had lived in Miami.

Villarrica was a tourist resort with a couple of streets and not much else. It seemed that Café-Bar 2001 was the place to hang out. Not much was happening because it was still out of season, though I heard some disco music in the vicinity that night.

Rio 2

The day started off hazy and got worse. So I had to abandon plans to visit Corcovado and Cristo Redentor later in the day. With mist there would be nothing worth seeing. There was talk about the "Pope Effect" bringing rain to Brazil.


I went to the Hippie Market in Ipanema. Wood, stone and other artisan products were sold there. I came away with a memento of a tiny parrot made from coloured stones. I also tried acarajé and cocada (coconut candy). The latter was very sweet.

In one of the few (there aren't many because the coastal strip between the ocean and the lagoon is narrow) back streets of Ipanema parallel to the beach, I found the Garôta de Ipanema (Girl from Ipanema) bar. The 17 year old Heloísa Pinheiro walked past the bar (then named Veloso) everyday, attracting admiration for her slim beauty. Jobim and de Moraes were inspired to pen the melody and lyrics and the song went on to become a perennial bossa nova standard. For a few years the identity of the girl was unknown, even to the subject, until the authors revealed their inspiration. Helô subsequently married her fiancee and settled down to the life of a housewife. She might have gone into obscurity, but when her husband lost his job, she availed herself of her fame to support her family through modelling and a boutique business. Today she is a successful businesswoman and still a great looker (as is her daughter, who also became a model), as the photos at her site attest. In an interview she said that the song had changed her life because of the confidence it gave her. As a teenager she thought that she was physically awkward. The first few bars of the song are displayed on the building. I had a chopp (draft beer) at the bar and it was priced normally.

I walked partway around the Lagoa, then took a Minas Gerais lunch. I was no wiser about what the characteristics of Minas cuisine were after the lunch. (I see today that pão de queijo is from Minas.) In the afternoon I rented a bike to be able to move around Ipanema quicker to take more photos. You can see the Portuguese influence in the design of the promenade here.


That evening I had dinner at a por quilo (by kilo, i.e. pay by weight) buffet restaurant, finished with a chopp. These restaurants were lifesavers in Brazil. There would always be some dish to your taste (perhaps too many) and the prices were reasonable. I browsed at an elegant bookshop for a while, then went to the Piano Bar Vinicius. I nursed a caipirinha while they played funk and straight ahead jazz standards such Phase Dance by Pat Metheny, Affirmation by José Feliciano, popularised by George Benson, and Wave by Jobim. At some point, a guest vocalist and a guest guitarist came on stage. It was around midnight when I caught a taxi back to the hotel. It was walking distance, but walking was not recommended in the streets of Rio at late hours.