Puerto Varas and snow-capped volcanos

This winter day couldn’t have been any better on the morning we arrived in Puerto Varas after an all night bus ride from Santiago. The clear and crisp glow of the blue sky gave us a dramatic view of the snow-capped volcanoes across the sparkling lake as we walked downhill to the town center. Immediately we noticed how clean and fresh the air felt compared to polluted Santiago. Day 1 in Northern Patagonia was quite welcoming.

Puerto Varas is very much a tourist town, but cute, clean and not very crowded in the winter. I hear it’s much more popular with summer visitors and can imagine it to be a place to both party and enjoy the outdoors. We were just using it as a two-day stopover before heading further South, but we still enjoyed our time here.

Volcan Osorno from across Llanquihue Lake. 

Volcan Calbuco in the background.

Stephanie is much more photogenic than me...

Although we stayed in a crappy old hostel for $12 USD / night, we did manage to enjoy a bit of luxury as well. Stephanie and I were drawn to the prettiest of the hotels in town; one located atop a bluff overlooking the water with very distinct architecture. We walked throughout the building, spent some time warming at a great fireplace and were given a tour of the gym and spa by a lady who worked there.

Hotel lady: “Are you staying here at the hotel?”

Us: “Yes, of course. We would like to come back later and use the pool.”

Hotel lady: “Very good, I’ll be waiting for your return!”

Inside thought: Score!

I think the only time we were really warm in Puerto Varas was at the Hotel Cumbres. We got in a good workout in their small gym, dipped in the heated pool and warmed up in the sauna before heading out for dinner. This place was so nice (and warm!) that we stopped by the next day to have coffee after lunch (and warm our toes and fingers). The next time you visit Puerto Varas, check out Hotel Cumbres.

An encounter with the devil at Concha y Toro winery

I’m sure you’ve seen Casillera del Diablo wine at your local grocery store. It’s sold everywhere here as well—and for only 2.000 pesos (= $4). Central Chile is certainly a big wine growing and exporting region, but I had no idea that Concha y Toro winery exports 33% of this country’s wine. Just as interesting, you can take the Santiago Metro to the winery! Well… almost. Still, it’s just a 5 minute taxi ride from the last Metro stop on Line 4. (If only BART were extended from San Francisco to Sonoma or Napa…)

On this cold weekend day, there were very few tourists at the winery and only 8 of us on an English-speaking tour. The gardens and grounds were quite nice, situated in Chile’s central valley with views of coastal mountain ranges in the distance. I’m guessing the property is much more beautiful during the summer growing season.  

There is a fun story related to the origination of the biggest export brand, Casillera del Diablo (translated: Cellar of the Devil). Apparently locals were stealing wine from the cellars during the 1890s, so the owner of the winery began to spread a rumor that the devil lived in his wine cellar. Because the locals were very superstitious, the rumor took hold, and today the winery plays on this bit of history.

Original cellar at Concha y Toro with the name Casillera del Diablo. Can you see him?

No hay diablo leso – translation 1: There is no dumb devil

No hay diablo, leso – translation 2: There is no devil, dummy

All that devil talk made me thirsty. It had been at least 30 minutes since our last tasting and I was ready for more at this point.

After being served the good stuff, a $105 USD bottle of 2006 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon, Stephanie felt like la reina de la Casillera del Diablo (queen of the devil’s cellar).

Obligatory tourist group-shot of our crew. Thiago from Sao Paolo, Stephanie from Vancouver and me.

I think I heard the devil speaking to me from behind those barrels. Seriously.

A scary place; an empty wine glass.

I almost forgot to show you—they really do grow grapes here.

After telling us about this beautiful old18-room vineyard house, explaining the long history and talking about its famous former inhabitants, we reach an anticlimactic moment when… our tour guide admits the house is a call center today! Strange.

Hasta luego, Concha y Toro. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around at the supermarket sometime soon…

The mountain road to and from Portillo - muchas curvas!

Traveling to Portillo was quite easy, as I bought a ticket with TurBus (described here), but once I arrived at the resort I was stuck. The official transportation costs $160 if scheduled from the resort’s front desk. I was hoping to find a more economical way to get back to Santiago and preferred not to hitchhike (I met a Canadian who did this successfully). Thankfully I met two extremely friendly Australians who were scheduling a departure with a ski outfitting company in Santiago. We split the cost of the $140 shuttle back to Santiago.

To say the mountain road up to Portillo is curvy is quite an understatement. One can only imagine how treacherous it must be to ascend this route in a snowstorm. The mountain pass to and from Mendoza Argentina is such a steep climb that the road is cut into dramatic traverses. The route is well traveled by large semi-trucks, but I saw very few passenger cars. This is certainly not like the San Francisco-to-Tahoe weekend commute.

What’s worse, the few cars and passenger buses are not at all afraid of passing the slower moving commercial trucks. This can be terrifying! But the driver of our shuttle bus claimed he had been transporting people on this route for many years, so I felt at ease when he sped around a tractor-trailer and maneuvered around a tight curve (blindly) to beat any oncoming traffic. He told me he did not even know how to ski, but before our departure from Portillo I jokingly suggested he might be good at skiing down snowy mountain roads in his van. He agreed.

Apparently not everyone is in the hands of a good driver like ours. I have no idea how long this rusty relic of a truck had been here, but it was a stark reminder of how brutal this road might be in more treacherous weather.

One of the ski lifts crosses the path of the road over several traverses.

More curves from the ski lift…

There were more than 30 curves up/down the pass.

Let’s not forget the amazing view of the mountains from the road.

Did I forget to tell you about the hot tub at Portillo?

No joke, this is one of the top 3 best things at Hotel Portillo. Perhaps one-half of the resort’s patrons seem to end up here after a day on the slopes. There is a large heated pool and 2 different hot tubs. The temperature is way hot (in a good way) and the jets are extremely powerful. It’s a great way to meet new people and relax while the sun sets over the Andes.

I didn’t snap any photos of the pool at night when the lights are best because I was in my swim suit, but just imagine the shadow falling over the mountains here as the sky dims and the stars come into focus. It’s so nice you’ll end up spending 2 hours in here and come out with prune-like toes and fingers.

It’s more amazing in person after a day on the mountain.

Notice the sign on the right. Aspen Snowmass? Hmm… I have no idea…

You want me to put that bar where?

I remember my parents talking about tow-bars when they skied years ago but I’ve never had the pleasure of riding up a hill on such a rickety contraption. I can’t name a ski resort in California that still uses them. If someone uses the phrase “world class” to describe a ski resort, I imagine the place having a gondola or something; for example, Aspen, Whistler, or Squaw.

The best terrain at Portillo is accessed by tow bar. La Barra! Caray!

Of course I wanted to access the best terrain, so I made my attempt up the Roca Jac tow bar after studying a few people maneuver themselves onto this contraption. They were all skiers. A very nice woman tried to explain how a snowboarder should position himself for the ascent. She suggested I only clip on the front bindings. Stick the bar between your legs, position your snowboard straight uphill, curve the bar at an angle over your left leg and under your right leg. The lift takes off slowly then speeds up—very quickly. About a third of the way up, my board flew to the left side from underneath my body, and my arms still grasping the bar dragged me uphill for a few feet before I let go. Unfortunately, I also knocked off the nice skier woman and her husband. After apologizing profusely, I told them I would let them go ahead and do my second attempt with a different group of skiers who didn’t know about my unsuccessful first attempt.

Second attempt: I try to clip both my boots into the bindings, which helps. I make it halfway up this time and only knock off only one skier! I’m feeling like this is decent progress. By now, every skier on the Roca Jac knows my plot. Rather than make a third attempt which might possibly get me two-thirds up the hill while knocking off only one ski of some unfortunate skier, I call it an afternoon and head in for lunch.

The good news: later in the afternoon, I try again and make it up successfully two times in a row. And the better news, on the next day I taught another snowboarder how to ride this funky contraption while at the same time terrifying him so much that I thought he was going to stop breathing.

Dear California snowboarders – if you ever want to learn how to put a tow-bar between your legs, I’m here to help.

I found this YouTube video showing two snowboarders ascending the Roca Jac lift. The steepness and high speed is not represented in the video because the whole background is white and doesn’t really provide much depth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmItTR7PZlk

Looking up the tow-bar route up Roca Jac.

Ski Patrol is standing by, waiting for someone like me to roll down the mountain after falling off the bar. The photo does not truly represent the steepness of this run or how icey the conditions were during the week of this photo. 

Welcome to Portillo

I probably wouldn’t have noticed that the world-class ski resort of Portillo was such a shit-hole if the snow was decent. On the day of my arrival, there had not been any significant amount of new snow in over a month.  Prior to the trip, the image of Portillo that had been stuck in my mind was based on photos taken last year by a group of guys I met at Squaw. Apparently the weather in 2009 was immensely different than in 2010.

This place offers amazing views of the mountains, perched between two giant ridges overlooking a lake and situated just 1.5 km from the border with Argentina. I can only imagine what it’s like to experience a powder-filled season up here. However, this year was not my year.

There are only three main chair lifts worth utilizing (excluding the beginner slope), and the rest of the runs are accessed by tow-ropes that ascend narrow pistes. Scary on a snowboard! Worse, the snow was so hard packed that it was like a sheet of scuffed ice. To catch an edge, you had to wait until after 10am until the sun softened the “snow”. 

Sure, it’s great to be able to get your snowboard legs back in the middle of a North American summer. But really, I was looking for some POWDER!

While I whine about the crap snow in Portillo, which is the most important thing I consider on a snowboarding trip, I’ll also pass a note about the accommodations here. Since the resort is about 3 hours from Santiago, you basically need to use their lodging facilities. You will read that it’s a top-notch resort, but my impression is that it’s a Chilean resort at North American prices. Seriously, you can get more bang for your buck down south in Pucón or Térmas de Chillán (from what I’ve read). Yes, while I stayed at the crappy little Inca Lodge, which is basically a bunker of closets filled with bunk beds for USD $100 / night, guests have access to the entire facilities of the main hotel as well. It seemed that everything here was broken in some way: windows didn’t close all the way, doors didn’t latch properly, the cleaning ladies sprayed strange slippery oils on floor-boards that were separating at the seams. As I said, if the snow was amazing, I wouldn’t have noticed or cared about the imperfections of the resort—but it wasn’t.

What was good about Portillo? The views were pretty spectacular. The parties were a lot of fun. (But I live in San Francisco—where the views are spectacular and the parties are amazing).

View of Inca Lake from one of the ski runs at Portillo. There are a few runs down to the lake not accessible by lifts. I watched a few skiers skate across the lake after descending some off-piste runs. I wouldn’t dare try it on a snowboard.

The common area of the hotel is a very social place filled with couches and places to hang out and drink coffee or tea. It offers this great view of the mountains in the background.

View of the lake from atop a chair lift.

From a chair lift looking at the resort properties.

The dry side of the mountain pass looking South.

Skiers crossing the lake after descending runs not accessible by lifts.

Looking South-Southwest from the East side of the resort. 

Santiago to Portillo bus ride

What is Sprim? At first glance I was confused. Sprim Nectar. Hmm... at least it has some vitamix A+B+E

This curious little bag of apricot nectar was provided on the ride by the TurBus company that transported me from Santiago up to the mountains, along with the little bar of puffy chocolate milk balls compressed into a bar, and a normal looking/tasting oatmeal cookie. Yes, I know it's just a snack and not a real meal, but the Chilean diet often times exhibits a lack of balance. Starch, sugar, starch, sugar, starch. That's if it doesn't include meat and cheese. 

The real story here is a tip for those of you who might try to visit Portillo someday: Rather than buy a van ride to the resort from their office for $160 USD, you can catch the TurBus route from Santiago to Mendoza for $26 USD and tell the bus driver that you want to get off at Portillo. They will stop the bus to let you out right in the middle of a two-lane mountain road, just 1km before the Argentina border crossing. 

More on the return journey in a later update...