Chile Chico

Arriving to the Argentine border town of Los Antiguos on the 9th January, we were excited to see some of the annual cherry festival that was being held. Many people were packed in to hostels and camping sites, sharing food and drinks. We had travelled from a small town called Perito Moreno, an hour or so away, and were on the verge of leaving Argentina to Chile’s Northern Patagonia region where we would be heading North. We were worried about buses in this region, as it is not very well connected to the rest of the planet – and rightly so. There were several people waiting for the minibus that picks people up and takes people to Chile Chico, the border town the other side of the frontier.

Rather than waiting, we teamed up with a French couple who were going the same direction, and we all took a taxi (use your elbows and push to the front of the queue is the rules of this region). One taxi to the Argentine border (easy), then change taxis and another to Chile’s border (we smuggle in some peach jam), and then on to Chile Chico.

We had asked about ATMs in Chile Chico, as we badly needed Chilean pesos – and were assured the town had a bank which we could use. No-one down here has all the information of course, and we quickly realized once we had crossed the border, that the ATMs only use MasterCard, not VISA. VISA has been switched off so as to dissuade Argentine’s from border hopping and ransacking the pesos and bringing them back to Argentina, even though the machine clearly has a VISA sticker on it, and so we waited for over an hour for them whilst maintenance was being carried out! An annoying start.

After some clever maneuvering we managed to get some cash to pay for our hostel from the supermarket, and organized a tour with our VISA card. We were back in business, and we had also arranged to leave Chile Chico by ferry, which meant we could even pay for that by card.

The town itself is tiny, with only about six thousand residents, located on the Southern shore of Lago General Carrera, the biggest lake in Chile. The glacial waters are an azure blue in color, but they are also perilous. Although in a rain shadow, which provides a unusually dry climate, the region is subjected to exceedingly strong wind which comes from the Antarctic, and Pacific Ocean, and dumps snow on the Northern Patagonian Ice Field before making its way, at high speed, down the mountains of the Andes. In fact, whilst we were there, the ferry across the lake, which runs once a day, had to be turned back because of high waves caused by the wind. And this was a big ferry, so we were already worried we would be stuck there with no cash! Buses onwards to Puerto Rio Tranquilo on the lake’s Western edge are irregular and schedules change all of the time. With no real bus station, you have to find out where the buses go from and kind of stand by the side of the road and wait for one.

As Third World as it is, Chile Chico has a certain charm – it looks extremely pretty, especially with the sunny days we were having. We did encounter some small town bigotry, but we brushed this off and decided to have fun our tour.

Picked up in the morning by Andres from Patagonia Xpress which is located in the gallery of shops next to the Tourist Information office. We were due to go to Puerto Rio Tranquilo in a group of four people to see some marble caves which were located in the area there. A trip that would take about four hours by 4x4 to get to Tranquilo over dangerous winding roads, subjected to rockslides (there were many rocks in the road), strong winds and sheer cliffs that fell away to the lake below, often with no guardrail.

We were lucky though, as the other two people (from Santiago) had dropped out of the tour, and, as we had already paid, Andres was obliged to take just us. His use of English was very good, even though it seemed like he would have lacked confidence in front of other people. It was a good thing we were just three people then, as he explained the region and its stories to us, as we picked our way West along the gravel route.

The lake is up to 586 meters deep – called Lago Buenos Aires in Argentina to the East, and drains into the Pacific via Rio Baker to the West. It now contains many trout, as do a lot of other Patagonian rivers – an import to encourage tourism. It was first settled on the Argentine side in the 1920’s, but did not really become a tourist destination in Chile until the building of the first road that connected Chilean Patagonia with the rest of Chile – the Carretera Austral.

Chile’s ruta 7, the Carretera Austral, or Southern Road, was built by Pinochet in the 1970’s and 1980’s. With many of the army’s Engineering Corps having lost their lives, it was the biggest and most dangerous infrastructure projects ever executed in Chile. We joined a gravel section of this road at the South West corner of the large lake and made our way North to Tranquilo along it. We passed several speeding truck drivers who were driving way too fast for the road conditions – a mistake which has led to fatal consequences along this road at an alarming rate.

Once Pinochet got his road, Chile could start exploiting the Aysén region (one of Chile’s 15 administrative districts). We passed numerous slogans ‘Patagonia sin represas!’, Patagonia without dams! This is the slogan of the environmental lobby group who are opposed to the huge megaproject Chile has in place to build five hydroelectric dams in the region, which so far has been successful in stopping them. However it looks like a dead cert to go ahead, which is on course to irreversibly and negatively affect the environments of “six national parks, eleven national reserves, twenty-six conservation priority sites, sixteen wetland areas and thirty-two privately owned protected conservation areas” including forcing the movement of six Mapuche native communities.

We passed two gold mines on the way along the lake’s coast, one of which had totally changed the color of the lake it was next to, and the other which had actually dried up the lakes around it. The companies  involved deny any wrongdoing – but as this is the least populated district in Chile, they can pretty much get away with anything down there with no-one watching them.

As with anywhere in Patagonia, sheep and cattle were ever present, and constitute a huge percentage of the district’s economy. These were adversely affected in 1991 when Volcan Hudson blew its stack – a volcanic eruption so big it melted the glacier on the volcanoes mountainside sending ash all across the continent and as far as the Falkland Islands. The volcano is still highly active even today.

Andres then produced some Chile Chico cherries for us to enjoy – and they were delicious! Just like plums, they put the cherries we get in the West to shame. They were nice and big and juicy – no wonder the neighboring frontiers town holds a cherry festival. We had seen lots of apple trees in town too, and the fruit in the region is really popular maybe due to the strange micro-climates created by the mountains.

We stopped a few times on the way to get some awesome views from the various bridges that have been built on the road between Chile Chico and Puerto Rio Tranquilo. Bridges that span huge chasms of rock, with thundering icy glacial rivers below. Glacial waterfalls were also the norm, and it was nice to stop at the bigger ones and get some nice pictures.

Pretty soon, the Patagonian dry steppe gave way to scenic and verdant rainforest, as we entered the wet region where the Pacific dumps its water as rain, North of the ice cap. With huge forests of lenga beech trees mixed with ferns and broad-leaved Chilean rhubarb, this area was complete mix of Valdivian temperate rainforest and Magellanic sub-polar forests.

We even saw rosa mosqueta which we recognized as being the tea we had in Neuquén when we stayed with Margarita our couchsurfing host. Beautiful pink flowers lined the road like a beautiful natural avenue.

We finally arrived in Tranquilo after over four hours of driving. A small hamlet between Cochrane to the South, and Coihaique to the North, Tranquilo is the destination for people heading off to trek to the ice cap, tour to San Rafael National Park, or, where we were headed, the marble caves.

Andres sorted out an English translator for us – a local lady called Bianca – and we were boarded onto a small motorboat. We headed out over the pretty calm waters (we were really lucky with the weather – the previous night was very windy – a storm in which one Israeli backpacker had lost her life in Cerro Castillo National Reserve, after breaking an ankle and then getting hyperthermia at over 2000 feet).

After about 40 minutes in the boat we saw the first of a series of marble caves along the shore of the Lago General Carrera. Grey, yellow and blue streaked stone formed caves at the water’s edge, where over 6000 years of weathering by the wind and water had eroded the metamorphic rock away to the point where you could park your boat in them. And we did!

Some of the shapes were awesome – they looked liked natural temples in the water. Smooth rock gave way to dimpled depressions, with some of the edges looking really sharp. The water was very calm still as we explored the caves and took pictures. It would easily have been possible to swim through the caves, or to stand on the rock with the water at ankle height, but it was freezing cold glacial water so we gave it a miss!

The marble actually formed the whole of the coast here including the cliffs on the land. Some of the marble looked like layers had peeled off. Our guide told us this was due to petrified wood being embedded in the marble, but this almost certainly nonsense – it is probably from the wind and rain, and the topography of that particular section.

Around the next cove and we found las capillas, the chapels. A smooth section of the marble that formed pillar-like formations, with swirling patterns on the face of the marble, caused by mineral impurities within the rock. The water was so green-blue that it really gave the place a serene and beautiful feel. There was even some pink marble here.

Across from the chapels, was the postcard photo view of the centerpiece of the marble caves – La Catedral de Mármol. This was an island of marble, with beautiful swirling patterned caves at its base, and greenery growing all over it. Some of the caves went straight through the island so you could see through to the other side.

We spent about half an hour at the caves before heading back to shore. The wind had picked up a little bit, and the guy driving the boat was not concentrating at all, so when we hit a hug wave badly, the guy from another couple that were on the boat with us flew up out of his seat and crashed down on the boat on his back. He was not pleased.

After dropping Bianca off at her house, we headed to a lunch spot with Andres. It was a restaurant but it was hard to tell even though there was a small sign outside. Inside it looked like someone’s living room –and it probably was. A Chilean tour group of eight people arrived and we all settled down to a three course lunch of typical Chilean food, which was included in the price of our tour.

First up was a Chilean stew called Carbonada, which had green beans, carrots, potatoes and squash. Rice and beef gave it the substance whilst cumin and oregano gave it flavor. It was delicious and just the thing to warm us up after the windy boat ride.

We next had a beef steak with mash and salad, and for dessert we had a red wine semolina pudding. This together with some Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon made for excellent eating, and left us feeling sleepy and satisfied.

On the way back in the truck, we stopped at a different waterfall than the one’s we had already seen. Climbing through a fence we picked our way along a river bank and came across a very loud and very angry kingfisher. It was very upset we were there, possibly because it had a nest in the area, so we left it alone and walked a short distance to the waterfall where a huge tree had fallen in.

We got back to Chile Chico after about four hours of driving – we had seen rabbits in the road, and gauchos on horseback driving their sheep this way and that.

That night we got a pizza on the main road on the credit card (still no cash), and went to bed. We decided we really needed to get to the district capital, Coihaique (which had the only ATM) and that was across the lake. I bought the tickets for the ferry on the card, but the bus tickets that you also have to buy for the other side did not take card – arrghh! I convinced the ferry people to give me some money after swiping through a transaction, and paid with that, horrible visions of being stuck here going through my min.

We made it up to the windy viewpoint which is on the Western edge of town. It has 210 numbered steps, but is an easy climb. It is located next to where all of the hitchhikers stand, trying to get around the lake.

No-one picks up hitchhikers in this part of the world, though. We saw people on bikes dangerously cycling around the road, and people even walking! Numerous hitchhikers would stand in the middle of the road pleading for us to stop, but there were so many of them, and we had paid for our tour, so we didn’t. It is easy to get stuck down here, it seems.

The viewpoint had some nice views of the lake, mountains and town. It seemed to also carry a slur against the prevalent Israeli tourists that come here in huge groups too – signs to all of the different countries in the world, including Palestine, not Israel. That might explain some of the unfriendly attitudes we had felt before – we think they thought we were Israeli. The groups come here after their stint in the army, and cause all sorts of commotion with their well-known brash and aggressive bad manners.

We finally got on the ferry (it runs at different times each day, confusingly), along with several vehicles and other people. We preyed the wind would stay calm, which it did, so the ferry did not turn back, and we made it across the emerald waters in about two hours to Puerto Ibáñez. This small port on the North shore was where we connected with our bus and continued on with our journey. We were lucky not to get stuck as it seems a lot of people do. This side of the Andes may be a bit more challenging than the other side.

The Cave of Hands

Our overnight bus ride on the 6th January from El Calafate was one of the worst we experienced during our travels so far. The Cal Tur bus we took was not designed to be an overnight bus as the seats didn’t recline and there was no food or drink provided, or an attendant as on other buses in Argentina. But the real problem came when the second bus going to Perito Moreno alongside ours broke down about an hour into the 13 hour journey. We waited around for a while, then an entire full bus (25+ people) worth of passengers got on our bus and stood in the aisles next to our seats. As the hours went on the aisle dozens of passengers started melting down onto the floor, laying on top of each other (and us) unable to stand anymore. No one was able to get any sleep that evening. We were grateful we had seats and were not at all surprised when no one from either bus got any explanation or apology from the drivers or companies. We had heard about the horror stories of Patagonian buses, Cal Tur seems to be a company which lives up to the nightmares. It seemed as if the whole thing had been planned, to save two buses having to make the journey…

After the insane bus ride to Perito Moreno in Santa Cruz Province (again, the city not the glacier!) Colin and I were in dire need of some simple touring and housing. We wanted everything to go decently smoothly and kept simple since our sleep had been very minimal (less than 2 hours for Colin and not much for me either) that past night. Thankfully the morning of January 7th we got lucky and the two of us (plus a guy from Japan) paid $350 Argentine pesos each (yes, expensive) for a day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Cuevos de los Manos aka the Cave of Hands. Our driver for the day took us from the bus station to his hostel to drop off our things, stopping at the bakery on the way for some provisions of chocolate chip muffins and pastries. After a quick tea and some munching on food in the hostel dining room the four of us set off for the very long yet fascinating drive – pretty much out into the middle of nowhere. 

The longer we drove the more I felt the remoteness of the site. Everything around was flat Patagonian steppe or desert (the 7th largest desert in the world!) for ages until our car reached some canyons. Eventually, at the bottom of these canyons was a place that must have looked like pure paradise for the ancient indigenous people of the region who do not have a name but likely were ancestors of the Tehuelche people. 88 meters below the Cave of Hands at the bottom of the valley, were tons of trees and the Pinturas River running through with fresh water, feeding them. While we only saw the guanaco roaming further away, this would undoubtedly be a favorite spot (at least part of the year) for the animals and thus for the hunters following them as well.

We arrived at the welcome center and explored a museum while we waited for our English-speaking tour to begin. Once it began our guide led us around the site. We were curious and later asked our tour guide about her education and she informed us that she hadn’t been to school or formerly trained in archeology – everything she knew she had learned from the archeologists working on the site. She did say that she would be participating in more archeological digs and taking classes soon, therefore moving away from the site.

The area the caves are located in was covered in rocks that were volcanic 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period. Some of these rocks in the area faulted, meaning one side of the rock wall becoming misaligned with the other side. The fault ended up becoming a pathway for water, which eroded the rock and eventually created the valleys (on large scale) and the caves (on smaller scale) we see today. While is one large ‘cave of hands,’ you unfortunately can’t go inside anymore. Over the recent years numerous uneducated Argentines used the cave as a place for BBQs (asados) and left their names in graffiti over the walls, so much of the art in the cave itself has disappeared. Thankfully there is still art on the outside of the cave along its walls, where the overhanging rock has protected it from the sun and rain and some protective barriers have now been set up in front of the art. It is quite amazing for the art to have survived because it is very old, dating from 13,000 to 9,000 years ago in multiple ‘waves’ of ancient indigenous artists. Our guide explained the different ‘waves’ or trends in the art could be seen as we walked through the site.

Inside the cave archeologists have found tons of artifacts, including arrowheads, stone tools, animal feathers and bones. The best finds were numerous bone-made pipes. These hollow bone pipes had evidence inside them of paint, and this paint helped archeologists date the artwork. The majority of the hands on the cave walls were created using the bone pipes in ‘negative’ style, that is, an indigenous native put paint inside the bone pipe and then put their left hand (90% of the hands are left) on the cave wall while holding the pipe in their right hand (as most people are right handed, this makes sense.) They would then blow on the pipe, throwing the paint over their right hand to create a stencil or silhouette of their hand. Sometimes they would paint the cave wall beforehand with one color, then stencil with another color – the results are very creative, and of course, colorful.

The colors used for painting the walls were made of different minerals found by the natives in sediments. The natives mixed these sediments with a binding substance (likely fat or blood but we do not know) and painted with it, using plaster to help the paint adhere to the cave walls. The color of red and purple were created from mixing iron oxide, the color white from kaolin, the color yellow from natrojarosite, and the color black from manganese oxide.

The artwork is divided into three main stylistic groups. Stylistic Group A is the oldest at 9,300 years before present. It includes scenes with guanaco, (which the natives got almost all their supplies from such as meat, fur, fat, bones for tools, and tendons for ropes) and other animals such as rhea and puma. There were many human figures shown hunting these animals, with the hunters drawn very small in size compared to the animals – likely a subtle indication of how important animals were to human survival.

Stylistic Group B is the second group of art around 7,000 years before present until 3,300 years before present. It is this group that created the hands stencils the cave is known for (including one 6 fingered hand, strangely, similar to a 6 fingered hand art image we saw in Brazil at Sete Cidades) along with stencils of rhea feet and puma paws. Some of the later art included zoomorphic and anthropomorphic drawings as well.   

Stylistic Group C is the youngest group of art which began around 1,300 years before present. It was dubbed by our guide as ‘modern art’ because of its style which included bright colors, geometric shapes, and repetitive patterns – dots, zigzags, and squiggles. A lot of these (especially the dot calendar) were similar to paintings we saw previously in Sete Cidades in Brazil, just like the 6 fingered hand! Strange…

In one section we pointed out a group of large red dots on the ceiling of the cave and asked her what they were. These images are possibly stars- which could have been made by artists throwing a hunting weapon called a boleadora at the ceiling, since the boleadora has circular stones on it.
 

Throughout the caves many of the artwork overlapped, and we could clearly see evidence of different ‘waves of art’ drawing around each other and sometimes over each other. It also looked like all members of the family participated in creating the art as some hands were much smaller than others and could only belong to children. An amazing piece of our human history!  

Since our Japanese friend had to catch his bus to Bariloche that evening at 6:00 pm, we had to book it back to Perito Moreno as soon as our tour was finished to ensure he didn’t miss it. Since Colin and I had decided to stay the night in Perito Moreno, we planned to get the 9:00 am bus to the border Los Antiguos, and cross into the Chilean one-horse town of Chile Chico, in the early afternoon. On to Chile!

Francesca